Small businesses are the economic engine that drives the U.S. economy.  The more than 27 million small firms provide 60 to 80 percent of the net new jobs in our country and more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business.  Yet because of the economic downturn the past several years, this important market segment has struggled significantly.  It’s fitting to have a special week to say thanks to America’s entrepreneurs.

Who will be recognized?

As part of the annual celebration, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) selects a small businessperson of the year from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam. This year’s state winners can be found on the National Small Business Week website.  The state winners compete to be named the National Small Business Person of the Year.

That’s how I originally got involved.  My husband was the Missouri Small Business Person of the Year in 1987. We traveled to Washington, D.C. for the national event, and I enjoyed being part of the festivities honoring our country’s entrepreneurs.  Subsequently, I returned to St. Louis and founded Small Business Week of Eastern Missouri, a non-profit organization that continues to produce local activities during small business week in the St. Louis area.

In addition to the business person of the year awards, the SBA also recognizes a host of other small businesses and advocates, including: Small Business Exporter of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Entrepreneurial Success, Family-owned Small Business, Veteran Small Business Champion, Financial Services Champion, Women in Business Champion, Minority Small Business Champion, and Home-Based Business Champion.

Events across the nation

Historically, the National Small Business Week festivities have been held in Washington, D.C.; this year, in celebration of the 50th anniversary, events are being held around the country and will culminate in Washington on June 20 – 21. Other cities hosting events include: Seattle, June 17; Dallas, June 18; St. Louis, June 19; and Pittsburgh, June 20.  If you can’t personally attend any of the events, the programs are being streamed live via the National Small Business Week site.

Matchmaking is good for business

Three days of business matchmaking is part of the year’s agenda, too.  Matchmaking allows small businesses the opportunity to have face-to-face meetings with prime contractors and federal agencies to learn about specific contracting and subcontracting opportunities. The first matchmaking event will take place at the Arlington Convention Center in Dallas on June 18 from 12:00 – 3:00 p.m.  Two more sessions are taking place at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. on June 20 and 21 from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Many local groups, such as the one I launched, host their own activities during small business week.  To find programs in your area, check with your local chamber or media outlets. Also, the national website lists many local and regional events.

How will you participate in this year’s National Small Business Week?

Small Business Week Events Near You:

• Seattle, June 17
• Dallas, June 18
• St. Louis, June 19
• Pittsburgh, June 20
• Washington, D.C., June 20-21

Matchmaking Events:

• Dallas, June 18, 12-3 p.m., Arlington Convention Center
• Washington, D.C., June 20 & 21, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Renaissance Hotel

Virtual Participation:

National Small Business Week events will also be streamed live via the National Small Business Week site.

Will you attend a local event or tune into a webcast? Be sure to take a moment to recognize the success of small businesses and the important role they play in our nation’s economy.

Susan Wilson Solovic is an award-winning entrepreneur and journalist, author of three best-selling books, multi-media personality and contributor to ABC News and other outlets, public speaker and attorney. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

Mobile communications at work and at play

In our personal lives, our mobile devices offer a cornucopia of communication delights, from sharing a moment of fun at the beach with friends to something as personally significant as a baby’s first steps.  As video usage becomes more commonplace, we begin to expect the same communication capabilities in our work environment as we do in our personal lives. Fortunately, the ability to facilitate video collaboration through mobile conferencing is becoming seamless and readily accessible as a mobile office extension.  Organizations are increasingly seeking a unified communications solution (UC) for integrating audio, web, and video collaboration capabilities, as well as presence and instant messaging, with a single user interface application accessible across a selection of mobile devices.

As mobile apps and devices proliferate in the workplace, organizations need to consider:

1. The network carrier’s capabilities for mobility and the selection of mobile devices to accommodate the diverse needs of employees

2. The integration strategy for a scalable, reliable, integrated unified communications solution

Meeting the demand for video

To meet customer expectations for rich, seamless, on-demand mobile experiences, carriers are deploying faster technologies for delivering a quicker, seamless video experience for workers around the office, around the block, and around the world.  Delivering video across a network quickly, reliably, and globally demands an increase in capacity that is growing exponentially.  Major telecom providers offer 4G LTE technology today and are moving in the direction of deploying newer, faster, HSPA+ technology.

With mobility as a key component of a unified communications solution, workers can seamlessly scale from a phone call to a web video conference call from a single interface on a mobile device.   Unified communications consultants can assist organizations in preparing for a phased approach in deploying a UC solution.  This phased approach will assist customers in deploying new IP technology gradually, with the ability to integrate with existing technology infrastructure, offering new capabilities while reducing costs.

Remove communication barriers

Economic pressures make business productivity and return on investment (ROI) more important than ever. To get the most out of your telecommunications investment, you need to harness technology to support business now, while creating a path for growth.  UC solutions can accelerate your business processes with clients, vendors, and strategic partners across your organizational ecosystem.  By removing communication blocks, you can increase worker productivity and help improve all functions, including sales support, problem resolution, and access to experts.

For example, let’s say you’re a loan officer at a bank, and you’re seeking a branch manager’s approval for a new loan.  The branch manager is out of the office at a customer appointment. The paperwork is ready, except for her approval. The client is anxious to receive the approved paperwork.  The loan officer uses Single-Number Reach (SNR), one phone number to call the branch manager on her mobile device, desk phone, and PC.   She answers the call on her smartphone as she returns to the office.   She escalates the call to a web video conference from the UC application on her smart phone, and begins the loan paperwork review with the loan officer within seconds.

Better collaboration and communication

Here’s another example.  Do you have widely dispersed product development teams that will innovate better and faster through ongoing collaboration? The project manager can host a web conference with video to introduce the team members and help build relationships around the globe.  Internal and external colleagues can join the conference seamlessly from mobile devices, as well PC and Mac devices, to discuss the latest development activities, real-time.  Participants will be able to see each other, see who’s talking, share data and visuals, and use the white board feature to diagram suggestions.   Emoticon features allow participants to signal an opinion, raise a hand to indicate a desire to speak, indicate they have “stepped out” momentarily, or give the presenter a “thumbs up.”  Team members can also exchange private and public notes, and answer polls.

As you build your unified communications strategy, consider your mobility integration plans as an integral component, one that will serve as a foundational platform for deploying future capabilities for communication and collaboration.

Is your mobile UC strategy future-ready? How do you see mobile communication and collaboration impacting your business and your communications strategy?

For years, I’ve been using one RSS reader in particular, Google Reader. It has helped me keep up with the various blogs, authors, and websites I read not only to stay in the loop on the latest happenings in the tech world, but also to get the news first, as it happens. When I need to pitch HLN, CNN or the TODAY Show on a new segment idea, my Google Reader account is literally full of hundreds of ideas just waiting for me to sift through. When I need to know what’s happening on the web and across the blogs I respect, I turn to Google reader for information and inspiration. But this expands far beyond tech—no matter what industry you’re in, once you’ve done the work finding the best blogs and websites out there, and have subscribed to their RSS feeds, you’re able to stay on the cutting edge of new trends and be the first to know when major news impacts your business.

Two ways around the Google Reader shut down

In the 8 years Google has been running their extremely popular reader service they have virtually taken over the entire RSS industry. But the service, while the industry standard, apparently doesn’t do anything to help Google’s business model and the search giant announced recently that they’ll be shutting down the service on July 1^st. Now, this doesn’t mean that Google Reader-style RSS readers are necessarily dead in the water, as countless other services have been working over the past few months to create strong platforms for Google Reader users to switch to. But it does mean that you no longer have to rely on RSS itself to serve as the glue behind how you read the news. In fact, this may be the right time to pick an alternative. Here’s what I think your best two options are:

1. Switch to a news RSS Reader

The most obvious move for a lot of RSS fans is to simply switch from Google Reader to a new app. With Google Reader’s announcement that they’re closing shop, huge opportunities suddenly opened up for app developers to create compelling alternate RSS readers. At the forefront of the this is feedly, which boasts having captured more than 3 million Google Reader switchers. With apps for your smartphone, tablet and web browser, feedly is designed to serve as a drop-in replacement for Google’s Reader product, although they’ve managed to add a modern design that Google never had.

 2. Get rid of RSS altogether

One app I love that skips over RSS entirely is Flipboard, which builds a customized news feed based on not only the blogs and sites you read, but also what people are sharing on your social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and even YouTube. One feature I really love is their new magazine feature. Basically anyone can curate their own magazine inside Flipboard by “flipping” hot new articles they see and like into one of their magazines. I’ve created a few, like my 0101Music1010 magazine. Each of these magazines focuses on a niche news area and features all the hottest news for a given space, like family or digital lifestyle. So with Flipboard, not only can you have all your news inside one app, you can even seek out industry thought leaders and subscribe to their magazines to get great, curated content delivered every day.

Whether you decide to stick with RSS or switch to an entirely new platform, the important thing is that you continue to commit to staying on top of the news. Whether it’s to gain a competitive advantage in your business by being ahead of the latest trends, or simply to keep an eye on your competition, news aggregating apps will keep you a step ahead of the competition.

Have any questions about the best ways to stay on top of your feeds or about any of the apps I’ve mentioned? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll be sure to get back to you!

That’s the learning from a poll our agency just conducted for AT&T, where we surveyed more than 600 principals at small businesses around the country and in four large cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles.* When analyzing the results, we found many owners realize that the limited tools they used to start their businesses just don’t cut it as they grow.

Here are some key highlights:

Better productivity.

Almost two-thirds (63%) of larger small businesses—those with 11 to 20 employees—plan to upgrade their broadband technology this year to increase productivity compared to 46% of small businesses overall. Priority tasks for these larger small businesses include increasing Internet speed (39% vs. 26% of all small businesses) and providing more wireless tools and services (39% vs. 20%).

Online outreach.

Fast-growing small businesses are focusing heavily on improving their websites and marketing through social media. Fifty-seven percent of those that expect double-digit revenue growth will enhance their websites vs. 45% overall. Sixty percent of fast-growth companies will focus on social media marketing compared to 47% overall.

Rapid response.

Larger small businesses know customers expect fast responses on the Web. Twenty-eight percent will invest in improving response time this year vs. 21% of all small businesses.

Key results for urban areas include:

Atlanta.

Small businesses in Atlanta are adopting new technology especially quickly. Fifty-four percent will upgrade their technology to improve productivity this year vs. 46% nationally. They also expect fast growth: 44% forecast double-digit revenue increases vs. 35% nationwide.

Chicago.

Small companies in Chicago are embracing wireless and focusing on their websites. Twenty-seven percent will implement wireless technology to increase productivity compared to 20% of their national peers. More than half (55%) will enhance their websites vs. 45% nationwide.

Dallas.

Small businesses in Dallas are investing in technology to reach customers more effectively. Fifty-four percent plan to upgrade their technology this year vs. 46% nationally. Twenty-seven percent expect to make their websites more accessible to mobile users vs. 22% nationally.

Los Angeles.

Small businesses are going wireless quickly in L.A. Twenty-eight percent plan to provide more wireless tools and services to employees this year compared to 20% nationwide. Forty-seven percent expect to improve the look and feel of their websites vs. 36% nationwide.

From helping increase productivity to improving response time on the Internet, the right technology is no longer a “nice to have” option. In today’s business world, it’s a necessity to keep up with continual change. What are you doing to accelerate your growth? I’d love to hear what you’re doing.

Alice Bredin is America’s foremost small business expert, with more than 15 years of experience in the small business market. She has provided highly practical, actionable advice to millions of business owners through her books, syndicated newspaper column, radio commentary, and small business forums.

*The AT&T Accelerate Your Business Broadband Poll was conducted among a representative sample of 616 principals of companies in the United States with 1 to 20 employees by Bredin Inc. in April-May 2013. The poll had a margin of error of +/-5 percentage points at the 90% level of confidence.

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I thought it was unique and clever way to market to customers.  I did a little research to see what was happening with this new marketing trend.  Some early adopter businesses (both small and large) are realizing that using a symbol that relates to their subject can positively affect that particular email open rate.

Messages with symbols get attention

The great thing is that if you use the standard font types, then symbols can be read by most devices, including mobile.  A study done by Experian  states that when symbols are in the subject lines, they have a higher unique open rate in 56% of brands they analyzed.  They also shared a couple of results from their study, which were not surprising, but were confirming what I would have expected as a marketing manager:

• The black heart (♥) is the most popular symbol, but provided only a modest open rate lift.

• The greatest unique open rate lifts were in subject lines including umbrellas (☂) and airplanes (✈).

The report also provided the most popular symbols based on their analysis.  Check it out, as it can be most helpful for someone who needs a little guidance to begin using this unique marketing tool.

Five ★winning★ tips

Here are five tips to remember if you are going to use symbols in your subject lines:

1. Include a symbol when it supports your message, not just as a decoration.
2. Use symbols sparingly to retain not only their uniqueness, but also your email uniqueness.
3. Experiment with the popular symbols first, so you will ensure the symbols are readable by as many devices as possible.
4. Test placement of your chosen symbol.  Does placing it in the beginning, middle, or end of your subject line have an impact on the open rate?
5. Test and test again.  Depending upon the size of your email list, you can test 2 versions of your email message by either changing the placement or the symbol to determine if one performs better than the other.

Whether you use an email marketing product or send basic formatted emails to your customer, if you have notice a drop in your open rates, you may want to try to use an appropriate symbol in your subject line to see if you get a lift in your open rate.   I’ve also included a quick reference  list of symbols to review from Wikipedia. Adding an appropriate symbol to your email subject line, when used intermittently, can make your email pop.  It may also help your future emails open rate if customers associated your symbol with your business.

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Have you tried using symbols in your subject lines? What has worked? Please ✍ and let us know!

As smartphone usage continues to grow, so will the number of ways to engage mobile customers and help capture sales. I’ve been a fan of mobile marketing for some time now. New tactics are emerging that I believe will help small businesses compete even more effectively with their larger counterparts.

Here are three I’m watching:

1. Mobile passes: deliver rewards.

Big brands like Starbucks and Walgreens have rolled out apps in recent years that let users receive mobile coupons and store digital versions of their rewards cards on their smartphones. I was excited to read about services that let small businesses get in the game, too.

These services (such as this one from Passdock) offer user-friendly templates to create mobile “passes” that customers can download and store in digital wallets, primarily Apple’s Passbook. For example, a hair salon might create a discount card that customers can use on their next visit, or a bookstore could create a mobile rewards card so customers can track their purchases. I think these services have enormous potential—I for one would be happy to not have to dig through my pocketbook to find the right rewards card or coupons.

2. Location-based platforms: offer meaningful experiences.

When you think of location-based services, you probably think of an app like Foursquare that helps people find deals at businesses around them. Now, apps are springing up that help customers find specific products while they walk through a store or suggest others they might be interested in. Sound creepy? Maybe. But if done properly, these apps could be a boon both to consumers and to businesses.

Here are two examples of what they can do:

• Get products in front of customers. Shoppers can use an app to enter their shopping lists on their smartphones and find items more easily at the store. As they move through the store, retailers can deliver customized product suggestions and offers. (Here’s an example of how this works.) Retailers can also gain insights that help them position products more effectively and learn which types of offers work best. These insights can also help marketing and consulting firms design more compelling programs and campaigns.
• Lead customers to your products. Businesses with or without a physical store can take advantage of platforms to direct consumers to places where their items are sold. These companies can create interactive ads that integrate real-time product availability data to point consumers toward local retailers      nearby. Big brands like Best Buy are using these platforms now, but I suspect we’ll see smaller players using them very soon. For example, an independent toy manufacturer could direct people to stores carrying its products.

3. Mobile payments: capture sales quickly.

While these are not exactly new, I’m seeing more types of businesses use apps that let them accept credit cards through their smartphones. These apps are obviously a boon for mobile businesses like delivery services and food trucks, but they’re also helping brick-and-mortar establishments serve customers better and bring in revenue. For example, employees at a café in my neighborhood take orders and payments using their cellphones, so they can handle lunchtime rushes faster than they could from behind a counter.

Bank on mobile for big returns

Along with exploring new mobile trends, I’m still a firm believer in the basics, like building a mobile-friendly website and developing a text messaging program. Mobile is here to stay. Those who invest time in the technology now can expect big returns in the months and years to come.

What mobile tactics are you using this year? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Alice Bredin is America’s foremost small business expert, with more than 15 years of experience in the small business market. She has provided highly practical, actionable advice to millions of business owners through her books, syndicated newspaper column, radio commentary, and small business forums.

This is all commercial gold, but the real brilliance in the clip is in the way it calls attention to a very real question that businesses of all sizes are asking. With the end of the school year upon us, and many eager young adults looking for summer jobs and internships, many businesses are probably wondering whether bringing a social media intern into the fold is a good idea.

Why should my brand get an intern?

Many businesses benefit tremendously from internship programs.  For small businesses especially, interns can offer an affordable piece in the social media puzzle. Brand management really is a lot of work, after all, but many businesses are already spread pretty thin.  They need help with their social platform, but they’re still growing and can’t break the bank bringing that help in.

A social media internship can be a good fit for a young adult looking to gain exposure in the business world.  As digital natives, these would-be interns already have a natural, some might even say preternatural, ability to connect and engage in the social sphere.

The right intern will already have a very good idea of what their job entails and how to go about doing it.  Just look at the Jack in the Box intern, who knew the product her brand was focused on, what was trending, what hashtags to use (#FaveFlave), and how to use additional media such as candid photos to bolster social presence—all this while carrying on a conversation with the CEO of the company!

Maintaining message control

The natural concern many brands have when entrusting an intern to something as visible as social media is message control.  Your intern may know how to make things happen online, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to automatically know what your brand is about.

This means that you as a manager have a very short time to show your intern the ropes of your brand.  Your intern is going to be acting as your brand ambassador for the summer, and it’s up to you to make sure they buy in to your brand message if you want to drive authentic engagement.

Defining the role of your intern

It’s easy to laugh at the intern’s lack of practical knowledge about common office equipment in the commercial’s final punch line.  However, Jack is demonstrating his own lack of knowledge here in the way he interacts with his intern, ignoring the importance of her role and giving her a task clearly outside of her job description.

Whether interacting with an employee or an intern, defining and honoring roles is important.  It’s clearly not unreasonable to ask your intern to make copies.  Even if their primary task is social media, interns should expect to perform other tasks.  They need exposure to what office work entails after all, and this is a great way of showing them the ropes.  Just make sure that they understand these other duties, and that you’ve shown them how to be successful in their performance.

Passing the baton

Remember, internships are temporary, like rentals.  Once the summer is over and your intern has gone back to school, someone else is going to have to pick up their duties.  Otherwise, it won’t look good for your brand if you’re active on social media for a summer and then suddenly your presence plummets.

Many businesses have their interns write up a description of their day-to-day processes before they depart, making it easier for someone else to step into the role once it’s vacated.  I might suggest taking this a step further and building a system of reverse mentoring into the process.

In reverse mentoring, the intern trains the manager in their job—in this case, social media best practices.  This brings value both to the intern by allowing them exposure to the higher ranks of a business and to management by providing them with essential knowledge of what going social truly entails.  With such knowledge and processes in place, the transitions resulting from the coming and going of interns will largely be mitigated.

Does your business have an internship program?  Are you considering one?  Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!

Cheryl Burgess (@ckburgess) is a digital and social brand consultant, blogger, and speaker. Her knowledge of business strategy, passion for creative expression, and marketing technology helps businesses achieve the remarkable. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.

This is just one of the ways I see tablets revolutionizing business, and not just the restaurant business. For too long, tablets occupied that uncertain middle ground between smartphones and laptops, with business owners unsure what to do with them. Tablets are just now coming into their own.

Putting the tablet to work

Data from the 2013 AT&T Small Business Technology Poll supports the growing tablet trend. Nearly seven in 10 business owners now use tablets, and 39 percent consider them to be very important—a significant jump from 25 percent in last year’s survey. Yet most still use their tablets to check email, browse the Internet, and perform other simple tasks—which aren’t really taking advantage of tablets’ best features.

I would urge more business owners to put their tablets to work to grow their companies. Here are some uses I see:

• Create sales presentations

How great would it be for you and your sales staff to pitch potential customers one-on-one using an iPad, rather than setting up a projector or having everyone crowd around a laptop for a slide presentation? Tablets can help showcase your offerings in a way that’s personal and engaging.

• Replace paper forms

I recently read an article about how strongly the medical profession has embraced tablets. I’ve personally seen this at my children’s pediatric office. Tablets are used to capture patient information in waiting rooms (saving staff time from figuring out messy handwriting) and to let doctors enter notes more quickly during exams. Many types of businesses with mobile employees could take advantage of tablets to capture and submit information more quickly than with paper forms.

• Highlight work samples

Tablets can also make fantastic portfolios for designers, photographers, architects, and other professionals with highly visual work. The devices’ rich colors and crisp displays can help users present projects and samples in the best light.

• Take payments

Along with restaurants, many retailers are using tablets to process payments from anywhere in the store. Many kinds of mobile businesses are also using tablets to accept payment. Having this option can boost revenue significantly, compared with taking only cash or checks—I know that I rarely have cash on me when I’m out and about.

• Track workforce and inventory

GPS-based apps can help fleet managers locate workers, track mileage, and dispatch new job assignments. Tablets are also popping up in warehouses, making it easier for staff to capture product data and update inventory records.

• Track billable time

Employees that work in the field can use tablets to log hours worked and tasks completed, rather than filling out time cards to take back to a central office. This can simplify bookkeeping tasks, since there’s less of a chance of payments falling through the cracks.

By this time next year, I expect that we’ll see more and more businesses using tablets as more business apps are developed that small companies can use.

How do you use tablets? How does this compare with your use of smartphones? Please share your experiences below.

The results of the recent 2013 AT&T Small Business Technology Poll were very revealing in the area. They confirmed that staying competitive is a key motivator behind using social media platforms and online tools. They also showed how businesses are using these tools and how this has evolved over time.

Here’s where the social networks ranked with the small businesses polled:

1. Facebook

No surprise here. Facebook is still the top platform among the business owners polled, despite a small drop in users (from 44% last year to 41% this year). The overwhelming majority use it to share news and communicate with customers.

2. LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s popularity among small business owners has received its share of media attention recently. This poll appears to support this, showing its use grew from 31% last year to 36% this year. Business owners use LinkedIn mostly to network with peers. With this increase, perhaps LinkedIn is becoming important as a way to customers for some small businesses.

3. Twitter

Only 17% of the business owners polled have a Twitter feed. While that number has changed little over the past couple of years, small businesses are becoming more savvy in the way they use Twitter, making it a tool for generating sales an important way to generate (19% this year vs. 13% last year).

4. Foursquare

Though just 6% of businesses use location-based services like foursquare, 29% of those who do see them as an important way to generate sales—a higher percentage than any other platform. Business owners can set up an account for free and begin posting specials to attract customers nearby—for example, a discount on a cup of coffee or a free dessert with a meal purchase.

This year’s poll also asked about relative newcomers Pinterest and Instagram. While the results indicate that just a small percent of small businesses use these sites now (5% and 3%, respectively), I think it shows promise in how they can generate sales and promote new products and services.

Email still delivers

Another key finding from the poll is that email—though virtually an ancient tool in the online world—is still the most common one that small businesses turn to for reaching out to their customers and prospects. A whopping 97% of those polled use it, and 53% of those who do say it’s the best way to communicate with customers. (Facebook and a business website came in at just 14% each.) Chalk up one for the little engine that still can!

While email’s dominance might seem surprising, it actually dovetails with an earlier blog post of mine, which shows consumers also still prefer email.

One finding that especially stood out to me, was that video conferencing services ranked as the second-best way to communicate with customers. The business owners polled indicated that they rely heavily on these tools to help improve customer service. With all that’s been written today about using social media for customer service, it’s refreshing to see businesses choosing to resolve issues face-to-face.

Ultimately, you should choose the marketing tools that are the best fit for your business, and not necessarily what your competitors are using. It’s important to monitor your progress through sales, customer response, website visits, or other metrics that are meaningful to you.

Which online tactics do you find most effective? Let us know in comments below.

Like me, you probably use the Internet to search for practically everything. Whether you’re looking for information or to purchase something, you’ve been to lots of business websites seeking an answer to your current question.  You have probably seen many business websites that have professionally-created logo designs.  Have you seen businesses that use a stock image to represent their products or services?   Some businesses use a picture of the person as their logo (mainly those sites where the person’s first and last name is the website name.) While all of these logo variations are truly acceptable, a professionally-designed logo speaks volumes about your passion for your business success and what your business represents.

Combining your logo with a tagline

Your logo is a commitment to both you and your customers. You can build on your tagline foundation by adding another layer to enhance your brand image:  your unique business logo.

Together, your tagline and logo make an awesome duo:

• They help you stay focused and consistent with what your brand represents.
• They can improve your marketing assets and provide your business with a professional image.
• They are two essentials to include on your website, letterhead, business cards, etc.

They can be key tools to help explain what your business is all about.

Bring your logo to life

Below are some points to help bring your logo to life.  To get started, think about what your brand stands for, your business identity and incorporate the following components:

1.Values

What are your core business values?  Write down and describe three unique values. For example: customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, quality services, creative products, etc.

2. Voice

What is the message/voice that would define your business style?  Create a list of three to five unique adjectives.  For example, is your tone of voice professional, friendly, motivational, trendy, silly, simple, or elegant?  What other words describe your business?

3. Placement

Where do you want to use your logo? For example, is it going on all of your marketing materials?  Consider business cards, brochures, and your website, posters, t-shirts or coffee mugs. Write down where you would want to use your logo; planning ahead will help the designer in creating the size and shape of the logo.

4. Purpose

Does your business have a mission statement? It could be derived from your tagline or it can complement your tagline. Having a single sentence purpose/statement is very important because it provides you and the designer a clear focus of where you want the direction of your brand to go.  If you are a florist, your mission statement can be:  I want to bring a smile into every home for major holidays with my creative flower arrangements sold at reasonable prices.

If you choose to invest in a professionally-designed logo, you’ll be building brand equity for your business. A logo provides an established and successful look that shows your customers and prospects that you plan to stay in business.  When used with your tagline, you create a solid foundation for creating your distinctive business brand image.

Do you have a logo for your business? Has it helped you to establish your brand image?