The Value in Connections

This isn't specifically design related, or even marketing related, but it is business related.

"I know this guy who knows this girl who knows this guy and he does exactly what you're talking about. You have to meet him." How many business relationships start this way? I read the other day in some business piece about how acquaintances [much] more frequently turn into successful working relationships than good friendships do. So, there is value in just saying hello and making idle chit chat while in traffic.

Opportunities work that way.

And being open to communication from strangers is your conduit for such activity. So, unless you're having a really bad day, take out your earbuds, get off your cell phone and take in your surroundings -- and give your surroundings a chance to take you in as well. Say hello.

Planning: Worth Money

Lets get right to the point here. Smart planning has always saved money in business. In this day and age, it starts with your business plan. Plan what you are going to do, how you're going to do it, and when.

It's like anything else. Going to Staples without a list of what you need will certainly yield you a good solid hour of looking at black leather dayplanners (if you're a guy) or color coded paper products (if you're a girl) and maybe you'll leave with a red stapler, wondering what just happened. When you get back to the office you will come to the startling realization that you went to get ink for the printer, and you'll have to spend the time to go back, get what you really needed in the first place, and come back.

So then, lets say it takes you two hours instead of an hour to get an ink cartridge. If we are to measure the value of ones time in ink cartridges, an hour of ones time would be worth half an ink cartridge at this point. I know, that sounds bad. It is.

You haven't just wasted time; you have effectively cut the value of your time in half.

Lets apply this to a business process of a marketing campaign; lets say it is a poster job for your new music store. You see two or three draft designs to start off. You sign off on the direction of one of them. But you haven't done your business plan yet and you don't know what genres you will be specializing in. You see a beautiful final version of a poster with awesome colors, your logo looks fabulous, and there is some young good looking person on it listening to music on their iPod. The approved poster goes to print; ten thousand copies, appearing all over the city in brilliant full-bleed color. A week later, you have nailed down that you are specializing in Country music, and you fill your boots with the first order form with your music suppliers. Cowboy up! Posters go up, the store opens, and everyone is excited that you have the new Eminem since they saw him on the poster for your music store. What? Who? Uh!

In the few seconds that it took you to say "yes that looks great," a significant portion of your marketing budget, if not all of it, has been decimated by sheer and utter lack of planning.

You may think this is an unrealistic scenario. It is not. Once the wheels are set in motion in business, they can only be reversed with money. Be wise with yours. Plan ahead.

Gently Shifting Blog Content

Hello all, my name is Davin Greenwell and I am the Production Lead and Junior Art Director at YellowDawg. Here, I do everything from file management to photoshoots, content gathering to design, corporate identity to marketing strategy as well.

In the past I have worked in web management at the provincial government level, done public relations for crown corporations, spent 5 years in community and commercial radio, and also run a music label on the side. All of this combined will give you an idea of where my perspective comes from -- it's that of a marketer, getting one message to the masses with utter success. If you've made it here, I can assume that you want to do the same. So over the next while, I'm going to share some secrets, some stories, and some tips on how to make the most of your marketing efforts from the start.

New blog author party time!

Also Jordan, our Creative Director here at YellowDawg, will be joining me in this here lil blog. He will also bring a wealth of business, design and marketing experience -- so stay tuned.

The Year of The Dawg!

The entire team here is excited to share with you the new face of YellowDawg: End-to-End E-Commerce Everything.

We've grown tremendously over recent months to round out a comprehensive service offering, encompassing business-winning design, industry-standard custom web programming, and best-of-breed search engine optimization and marketing.

Why the Dawg? We've always identified with our mascot's values of approachability, friendliness, loyalty and reliability. We invite you to explore the new site and contact us with feedback and any questions about how we can work together to energize your business.