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Brand Evaluation: Would
You Invest in You?
Performed objectively , this exercise
might rattle your assumptions about your brand's health and prospects. It will
certainly help focus your efforts
In
business, a brand is like a baby: Yours is never ugly. No matter what shape
your brand is in, you put your blood, sweat, and tears into building it and,
despite whatever shortcomings it may have, you're proud of it. As you should
be.
Still,
it can be helpful to take a step back and try to evaluate the results of your
branding efforts from an objective standpoint. There are a number of ways to do
it, but I've found one in particular that can be very revealing. I need to warn
you in advance, though—it may sting a bit. It requires you to set aside your
biases and evaluate your brand through the cold, hard lens of an independent
investment analyst.
It's
true that the financial sector has received a lot of criticism of late, in many
ways deserved. Think about it—it's an analyst's job to pass judgment on which
corporations' stock investors should buy, sell, or hold, yet no analyst can
ever know more about individual companies than those who are immersed in their
operations day after day and year after year. No one knows more about my
company and its prospects, for example, than I do, yet even I can't predict
where we'll be in six months or two years.
That said, analysts
do tend to concentrate on broad industry sectors, providing them a unique perch
from which to view the goings-on therein, and their training and experience
enable them to recognize patterns within companies and across industries that
highly focused management teams may miss. Plus, they don't have a dog in the
hunt; all they're trying to do is pick the winners and losers based on the
available information.
Click HERE for entire article
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*Do You Want More Business?
*Do You Want More
Customers?
*Do You Want FREE
Advertising?
*Do You Want FREE
Promotion? ______________
The Rise of the
'Homepreneur'
New research shows the economic importance of
home-based businesses: They account for more than half of all U.S. businesses
and employ more people than venture-backed companies
More than half of all
U.S. businesses are based at home. These companies often are dismissed as
quaint hobbyist ventures, but new research suggests that's a mistake. An
estimated 6.6 million home-based enterprises provide at least half of their
owners' household income. Together these "homepreneurs" employ
one in 10 private-sector workers, and by many measures they're just as competitive
as their counterparts in commercial spaces.
Ask Stephen Labuda,
the 35-year-old president of Agency3,
a Web development firm he runs from his home in Cambridge, Mass. A former
programmer at Deutsche Bank (DB), Labuda started building Web sites as a side
job in 2003 and took the venture full time three years later. Agency3's revenue
is in the millions, and Labuda is about to hire his fifth employee, who will
work remotely, like the rest of the staff and the slew of contractors he taps.
"I'm not intending to go rent office space," he says.
Click HERE for entire article
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Dear Subscriber,
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This Memorial Day in the U.S. — like
every Memorial Day — we commemorate and remember those who’ve given their lives
for our freedoms and our nation. “Given their lives” is really not accurate,
though, as Andy Rooney noted — these soldiers died, plain and simple. They died
so that in the future, our country might be safer or democracy might be
nurtured in an otherwise hostile environment. They died so that great evils
could be done away with in WWII (and WWI). They died so that politicians could
wage endless, unwinnable wars for political ideals (Vietnam, Korea, and now
Iraq). They died, quite simply, so that we could enjoy the freedoms we so often
take for granted in our country.
For every veteran and every active
duty soldier and individual in military uniform — thank you. Thank you for the
sacrifice you continue to make every day on our behalf. And for every family
who’s lost a soldier due to service to their country — thank you. Thank you for
your family member who’s made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. No words
can ever express the debt we owe these brave men and women.
By John M
Grohol PsyD
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Meet Our Leadership
President - Bend, OR
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| Michelle Anderson
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Michelle
Anderson likes to consider herself a facilitator. Her main desire in life is to
help others live their best life by connecting them with the necessary
resources to accomplish their goals and dreams. Michelle’s main focus over the
years has been Real Estate. “There’s nothing better than helping people
accomplish the goal of homeownership. It provides a sense of safety and
accomplishment that nothing else can”.
Michelle
decided to start MainStreetChamber - Bend Chapter because she felt it offered the
very best vehicle to make a positive difference in the local business
community. The local economy took a big hit when the housing market crashed and
this is her way of helping the community get back on its feet…..quickly.
Michelle
says “My goal for the Bend Chapter is to
create an atmosphere where local business’s find the resources they need to
create a stable environment for themselves and the community and to take their
business to the next level of success. Cha-Ching! Here’s to your
success!”
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Thank You to Our Newest VIP Discount Providers:
Maya
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framing
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rebate 5%
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Art Affair Gallery
A
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Billboard
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Dan,
Dan the Carpet Man!
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Print Our Member Certificate
and customize it with Your Company Name
Download & Print the Badge of Credibility needed in today's Business World
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