I have been thinking a lot lately about why I am so determined to start my own business and make my own money, doing everything under my own control and through my own devises. I haven’t always been this way, but when I started thinking about the advantages to starting my own businesses and hopefully going on to make money, I started liking the idea more and more. I think if you went around the streets and asked people if they would like to run their own businesses most would say yes… but then most would go on about why they never would, or why they don’t feel they could.

In today’s post, I would like to look at some advantages, well 5 to be exact, to why you should start your own business.

You’re Your Own Boss

There is nothing more to say on this one really… Your run your own business, meaning you make the decisions, you are the one who can be in charge and do everything (nearly) that you want.

Being your own boss is what everyone wants. The whole of the developed world complains about their bosses and most people feel that they could be a much better boss. This is the opportunity to prove that, starting your own business means that you can employ and work with the people you want to and it also means you can prove the stereotype wrong, by being a nice boss. Or on the other hand…

Choose How Much You Get Paid

When you are working for others, your pay is always decided by them. When you work for yourself, you can decide the money you take home each year. By leading your business properly and building up a good business, you can make sure that you earn what you want to and in turn have the life you have always wanted to have.

You Can Finally Make That Difference…

People always complain. Its part of out human nature. By owning and running your own business, you can stop the complaining and actually try and make a difference. Run your business the way you want, so protect the environment, and put some of the profits you make into charities. It’s your choice, because if you make a good business’s you will have enough force to make a difference in the world, even if it’s only small.

Your Can Do What You Actually Want To Do

This carries on with the complaining factor mentioned above. There is always that one job at work that you hate doing, one thing that makes you not want to go back. By being your own boss, you can make sure that you never have to do any of these tasks again, taking away those painful aspects of your working life.

You Can Achieve Your Dreams

Finally, the most important one, you can achieve your dreams. Whatever your dream is, it will most likely involve some sort of involvement with money. Whether you want to have the money sitting in your bank account, or want to go on an amazing holiday somewhere, you need money to actually do so, and one of the best ways to earn money, is to make sure you are at the top of the chain. A dream can complete your life, you will have the whole package and you can achieve this by starting up a business!

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have been banging on about brand image and brand reputation a lot in the last few posts, as I have wanted to make people think about how important your businesses brand is and why you need to invest a lot in it. In this post I would like to go over why a businesses brand image is so important, and why you need to keep an eye on it.

Why Is Brand Image So Important?

Brand Image matters so much in business, and this is because it is the way people will look at your company, it is what affects who shops at your store, who buys your products and who uses your services. When first starting up your business, you need to have a clear idea at who you are marketing your business at. If you want to be green, so you get all of the environmental people on your side, then you have to make your brand green. If you are selling to people who are willing to pay a premium price, you have to have quality in your brand.

Without a brand image which in some way reflects what you want to achieve, you won’t be able to meet your objectives, as you will get the wrong customers, or in the extreme case, no customers and this will lead to you making no money and therefore no profits. You have to set out with a clear target and the easier way for people to get the message of what you want to do, is through your brand image. Everything leads back to brand image, the promotion you do, the prices you sell your products at, even your staffs attitude.

This is why brand image and brand reputation is so important! It defines your business.

A short and sweet post today, as all I wanted to do was round up lasts weeks posts:

• 3 Ways to Improve the Brand Image of Your Business
• 3 Reasons Why a Business Should Consider Environmental Issues
• Was Google Moving Out of China an Ethical Decision?

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today I would like to carry on the topic of brand image, which I have been discussing in the last couple of posts. These have included 3 ways to improve your businesses brand image and also 3 reasons that you should look at environmental issues which affect your business. I would like to carry on discussing brand image, because it is one of the most important aspects of business. I will be explaining this in more detail in a post next week, so stay tuned.

For this post though, I would like to take a different approach and actually look at a business and see if they took a decision because of ethics and also discuss the other reason why this business took the decision. The topic of debate, as such, is Google moving out of China because of the censorship they had to obey by and whether this reason was made purely because of ethics, or because they have alternative motives.

The History of Google’s Brand Image

Where I would like to start, is by making a small background image of Google and what they started out to achieve, in the sense of their brand image. When Google first came to light, it was when Microsoft dominated the market, and was seen as the evil ones in the world of business, mainly because they were making so much money and dominating the market. This is when Google made its stance, they wanted to be seen as the good guys and to do so when they became a public limited company, they had their mission statement as ‘Do No Evil’. This shows that they wanted their brand image to stand out against the competitors in the market and they wanted to be seen as the friendly guys, the business that people could talk to and get along with.

Since then however, Google has become a massive force in the world of computers and technology and this means that it has gained the image of being the evil empire. It seems this is just what happens when people become jealous of others success!

What Did Google Not Like About China

In the rest of the world, Google is the market leader, it holds staggering percentages against its rivals and this means that it is in the money and making substantial profits every year. However, this wasn’t the case in China, where the company was behind the market leader ‘Baidu’, who have about 56% of the market, when Google only have 20%. They were also generating $275 million of revenue from China a year, but it is thought that none of this was turned into profit.
As well as the market share and profits problems, Google was not happy with the way the Chinese government censors information on the internet. When searching for certain things on the internet, Google had to make the results page blank, or it wouldn’t be allowed to operate in China. This went against Google’s image and therefore looked bad for the company.
This is where the problems for us arise. Did Google pull out because they wanted to keep their ‘Do No Evil’ brand image? Or did they pull out because they weren’t the market leader and they weren’t making any profit from the operations? Below I have compiled a list of why they did it for ethical reasons and why they didn’t:

Google Pulled Out Because of Ethical Reasons

• They wanted to return their brand back to when they started, with the ‘Do No Evil’ mission statement
• Improve brand image in America and Europe, where many people think the Chinese government go a bit far with their censorship. This would help them gain more sales of their Adword business and also bring back faith, which may have been lost over the years.
• Even though China is the biggest internet user and also the biggest growing market in the world, they still pulled out, which in business terms, is death, showing that they did it because of their own problems with the censorship, not the money problems.

Google Pulled our Because of Business Reasons

• They were making no profits from the venture, showing it was lost cause and they should focus on expanding in Europe and America.
• Microsoft was staying in China and they may have wanted to do the opposite to try and remain distant from them, like they set out to do when they first started.

All in all, we will never know why Google pulled out of China, and this is the point I have wanted to make. If you run a business, or help in decisions, or even just interested, then from this you can learn that people will always think there is an alternative reason why you did something, people will always suspect, but you need to make the right decision which you think the majority of people will believe. I’m not saying lie, but if you can do something for two reasons, why not?

Image – Google Gives China the Finger – CainAndToddBenson

With the current aviation problems going on around Europe, it’s made my think about pollution and issues such as this. I know it doesn’t really connect with the Volcano disaster, as this is natural, but with all these problems it has made me look into why businesses consider ethical issues and what they can do to impact a company and the way it operates.

In this article I would like to present to you why businesses should take into account environmental issues. I will be looking at the business side of the story, instead of the reason why you should actually maintain the world.

Opportunities Gained By the Environment

It’s not a secret that businesses use matters which affect a lot of people to gain customers. When a disaster does strike, every business in the world will try and get on board and say they are helping the victims out and giving what they can. Some businesses will do this because they actually want to help, but most will do it because they know they can build up their brand image by doing so, and hopefully this will get them some more customers. Below are some opportunities which have been created by environmental responsibility.

Marketing – As I discussed in the previous article, brand image is everything in the business world and in most cases a bit of good marketing can make all the difference to your brand image. This is where the environment can help. If you have a good stance on trying to help the environment, or trying to keep your business from damaging it, then that type of marketing could gain you a few customers. As well as this, from doing this type of marketing, you can’t exactly lose any customers, because no one has a problem with trying to make the world a nicer place, well it’s a tiny, tiny percentage. Another great reason is that because people are becoming more and more environmentally aware, the new marketing will help to make people see your product or service is completely above board and doesn’t affect anything which they may believe in. All in all, it’s a win – win situation.

Finance – As well as showing customers that you are a friendly company, you will also show potential investors and banks. This could mean that getting finance could be a lot easier, because they see you as a safer bet to invest in. You may also get more for your money, because other businesses will want to be seen investing in you, because they will then get a better brand image. This is shown by the Co-operative Bank, who will now only invest in businesses they see aren’t damaging the environment.

Employees – Another set of people you will impress with taking environmental issues on board is your employee base. This is because they will see the business as one they want to work for. Having your employees on side will make them work harder, as they are more motivated, which will lead to higher efficiency, more products being made, or better quality products, which in turn will lead to more sales and therefore higher profits. Which after all, for most of us, is that aim of the game. As well as this it could give employees more self-belief, because they will feel they are doing their part for the world, again helping motivation. Having a happy workforce can work wonders for a business.

I’ve decided to keep this article quiet short, because I wanted to just point out some small reasons to why doing your bit for the environment will help your business. The above three points all work towards the same thing, which I have talked about before this week; brand image. By making the right kind of brand image for yourself, you can achieve much greater profits. You just need to think about what kind of business you want to create…

I do love my weird and wonderful ideas, and today is no different. Last night when I was falling asleep, I was thinking of marketing and promotions solutions, which types could work, but didn’t really change the current formula. Why was I doing this? I like thinking of things which are a bit different when I fall asleep. Also, it randomly pooped into my head and I just had to write it down to make sure I could produce a post about it.

You Have to Stand Out

One of the most important aspects of promoting a business is standing out. There are so many companies which do the same thing these days and this means that it is increasingly harder to get into a market and actually get something out of it. This means that promotion and marketing is becoming more and more important, as you can see by walking around the nearest city. Another important factor is making your business memorable. You want people to see your advert and remember it. Talk about it to their friends. Spread the word.

This is how ‘Compare the Market’ have done so well, they made that meerkat advert and everyone remembered it and loved it, meaning that they spoke to their friends and spread the word, creating a massive buzz, which has helped the company massively. Now it’s very hard to get an advert which is so memorable, it doesn’t happen often in the same way as it happened to ‘Compare the Market’. But, does it have to? You just need something simple to make people think about your advert, keep it in their head so that they think about it.

Simple, But Slightly Weird

This is where I came up with a simple idea which could make people remember your advert. At the moment I am mainly talking about a television advert, but it could also be for a poster or billboard somewhere. What I thought of was simply flipping the advert every other showing. It may sound stupid, but let me explain why I think this could be a good way of keeping your advert in people’s heads. They will see the advert one way round and then the next time they will see it the other way round. (When I say flip it, I do mean only the images, bit text, they still need to be able to read that). This will make them think about whether it was that way round in the first place, in turn causing them to want to see the advert again, they will then look at the advert more closely to see if they were correct in thinking the advert has changed sides. This could mean they get more interested in your product. As well as this, it could lead them to talking about it with other people, due to them asking which was round the advert was for others. It will create a confusion, but one which will lead to people watching out for your advert and wanting to see it, which can’t be a bad thing.

Does it Really Work?

I haven’t got a clue. But what it does do is make you think about how to market to try and get the viewer more involved with the advert, it makes you think about trying something different to try and get people to buy your product through advertising and promotion. Try it and bring me back some results!