₦airaland Forum

stewie: Awesomely insightful read. More of this, please...

Thanks Stewie. More will come with time. But there are actually a few on www.yoxstudios.com/wp presently.

Lilimax: Very educating. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. You're welcome

everyday: Thanks for teaching me all about branding.

You're welcome. But there is still a lot more to branding. Visit www.yoxstudios.com/home.php to download a free chapter of 'Brandiculous: the ridiculously simple way to build a profitable business'. You'll see a lot more you can learn on branding there.

spywareczar: yes Boss, keep up d gud work

Thanks brother

Dewze: Good one bro.

Thanks a lot

If you missed part 1 and 2, please click https://www.nairaland.com/1267540/brand-branding-part-1-what and https://www.nairaland.com/1274426/brand-branding-part-2-what to view it.

What Makes a Great Brand?

Four simple factors are involved
Relevance, Differentiation, Credibility and Consistency

Relevance:
The service or product you offer must be able to meet the need of a particular set of people. It has to be useful for it to be desired. It has to be desired for it to be paid for.

Let us once again make reference to Yox Farms. Assuming those residing around Kokiri market are all vegetarians, no matter how palatable they make their cows to look, nobody will buy them. As such, their business is of no relevance to that community.

Before you start a business, do a proper research. Find out if there is a demand for what you are about to offer in the environment you intend offering it. Not all great ideas are good for business.

We are currently on a mission to save our environment from further degradation and because of this, the electric car has been invented. Apart from saving the environment, this wonderful invention will also save our pockets from leaking excess cash on purchase of fuel. This is a great idea and in developed countries, that is good business. Now imagine the cars in a developing country where constant electricity is a challenge.

Differentiation:
No one will dump a service or product they are comfortable with for another one that offers exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to create a different experience that is attractive to your target market.

If you start offering healthy fat cows, no one will leave the cows of our trusted Yox Farms and buy yours except if your prices are cheaper, your design and messages make ‘beef eating’ more attractive, you deliver the beef to their houses, etcetera. Differentiation doesn’t necessarily mean you have to create one miraculous element that can teleport people to Jupiter and back. A simple thing such as the manner your company answers phone calls or reply mails can make all the difference.

As I always say, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is a spy. Assuming this book has given you one business eye, the easiest way to differentiate your business is to study your competitors’ shortcomings and improve on it.

Consistency:
Once you have decided how to be relevant and how to differentiate your business, in all your communications and actions, announce it and be consistent with it.

Assuming the price of cow food increases tomorrow, feeding the cow less and reducing their weight is bad business for Yox Farms. It is better they keep the cows robust and healthy as always and increase the price of the cows instead. They should also explain to their customers why they have to do so. They stand a better chance of keeping their customers that way. In any case, their competition has only three options 1: increase the prices of their cows, 2: reduce the sizes of their cows by feeding them less or 3: run the business to death by making loses. All options still favour our dear Yox Farms in the end.

Credibility:
Simply put, kept promises. Do not do a ‘buy one get one free’ campaign only for people to get to your store and hear that they must buy one for their father, one for their mother and one for their great grand uncle who is in heaven before they get one for free-after all, it’s still only one they’re buying. Such a thing will deal a great blow on your credibility.

Let me tell you a true story. I once ordered for a ring from an online store (the lovely ring I used to propose to my sweetheart by the way). The invoice stated 30% payment upfront and 70% on delivery. 3 weeks later they called me to make final payment so they can mail my ring. I said “but your invoice says pay on delivery.” They said I should know that the delivery meant ‘delivery to them.’ Are you kidding me? Delivery to them as in…? Seriously? You tell me, did I read their invoice wrong or they tried to play smart and I have every excuse not to patronize them anymore?

Whatever you say you will do is what should be done. That automatically means people can count on your words and that makes you credible.

Taken from pages of the eBook: ’BRANDICULOUS: the ridiculously simple way to build a profitable business’. www.yoxstudios.com/home.php

If you missed part 1 and 2, please click https://www.nairaland.com/1267540/brand-branding-part-1-what and https://www.nairaland.com/1274426/brand-branding-part-2-what to view it.

What Makes a Great Brand?

Four simple factors are involved
Relevance, Differentiation, Credibility and Consistency

Relevance:
The service or product you offer must be able to meet the need of a particular set of people. It has to be useful for it to be desired. It has to be desired for it to be paid for.

Let us once again make reference to Yox Farms. Assuming those residing around Kokiri market are all vegetarians, no matter how palatable they make their cows to look, nobody will buy them. As such, their business is of no relevance to that community.

Before you start a business, do a proper research. Find out if there is a demand for what you are about to offer in the environment you intend offering it. Not all great ideas are good for business.

We are currently on a mission to save our environment from further degradation and because of this, the electric car has been invented. Apart from saving the environment, this wonderful invention will also save our pockets from leaking excess cash on purchase of fuel. This is a great idea and in developed countries, that is good business. Now imagine the cars in a developing country where constant electricity is a challenge.

Differentiation:
No one will dump a service or product they are comfortable with for another one that offers exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to create a different experience that is attractive to your target market.

If you start offering healthy fat cows, no one will leave the cows of our trusted Yox Farms and buy yours except if your prices are cheaper, your design and messages make ‘beef eating’ more attractive, you deliver the beef to their houses, etcetera. Differentiation doesn’t necessarily mean you have to create one miraculous element that can teleport people to Jupiter and back. A simple thing such as the manner your company answers phone calls or reply mails can make all the difference.

As I always say, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is a spy. Assuming this book has given you one business eye, the easiest way to differentiate your business is to study your competitors’ shortcomings and improve on it.

Consistency:
Once you have decided how to be relevant and how to differentiate your business, in all your communications and actions, announce it and be consistent with it.

Assuming the price of cow food increases tomorrow, feeding the cow less and reducing their weight is bad business for Yox Farms. It is better they keep the cows robust and healthy as always and increase the price of the cows instead. They should also explain to their customers why they have to do so. They stand a better chance of keeping their customers that way. In any case, their competition has only three options 1: increase the prices of their cows, 2: reduce the sizes of their cows by feeding them less or 3: run the business to death by making loses. All options still favour our dear Yox Farms in the end.

Credibility:
Simply put, kept promises. Do not do a ‘buy one get one free’ campaign only for people to get to your store and hear that they must buy one for their father, one for their mother and one for their great grand uncle who is in heaven before they get one for free-after all, it’s still only one they’re buying. Such a thing will deal a great blow on your credibility.

Let me tell you a true story. I once ordered for a ring from an online store (the lovely ring I used to propose to my sweetheart by the way). The invoice stated 30% payment upfront and 70% on delivery. 3 weeks later they called me to make final payment so they can mail my ring. I said “but your invoice says pay on delivery.” They said I should know that the delivery meant ‘delivery to them.’ Are you kidding me? Delivery to them as in…? Seriously? You tell me, did I read their invoice wrong or they tried to play smart and I have every excuse not to patronize them anymore?

Whatever you say you will do is what should be done. That automatically means people can count on your words and that makes you credible.

Taken from pages of the eBook: ’BRANDICULOUS: the ridiculously simple way to build a profitable business’. www.yoxstudios.com/home.php

If you missed part 1 and 2, please click https://www.nairaland.com/1267540/brand-branding-part-1-what and https://www.nairaland.com/1274426/brand-branding-part-2-what to view it.

What Makes a Great Brand?

Four simple factors are involved
Relevance, Differentiation, Credibility and Consistency

Relevance:
The service or product you offer must be able to meet the need of a particular set of people. It has to be useful for it to be desired. It has to be desired for it to be paid for.

Let us once again make reference to Yox Farms. Assuming those residing around Kokiri market are all vegetarians, no matter how palatable they make their cows to look, nobody will buy them. As such, their business is of no relevance to that community.

Before you start a business, do a proper research. Find out if there is a demand for what you are about to offer in the environment you intend offering it. Not all great ideas are good for business.

We are currently on a mission to save our environment from further degradation and because of this, the electric car has been invented. Apart from saving the environment, this wonderful invention will also save our pockets from leaking excess cash on purchase of fuel. This is a great idea and in developed countries, that is good business. Now imagine the cars in a developing country where constant electricity is a challenge.

Differentiation:
No one will dump a service or product they are comfortable with for another one that offers exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to create a different experience that is attractive to your target market.

If you start offering healthy fat cows, no one will leave the cows of our trusted Yox Farms and buy yours except if your prices are cheaper, your design and messages make ‘beef eating’ more attractive, you deliver the beef to their houses, etcetera. Differentiation doesn’t necessarily mean you have to create one miraculous element that can teleport people to Jupiter and back. A simple thing such as the manner your company answers phone calls or reply mails can make all the difference.

As I always say, in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is a spy. Assuming this book has given you one business eye, the easiest way to differentiate your business is to study your competitors’ shortcomings and improve on it.

Consistency:
Once you have decided how to be relevant and how to differentiate your business, in all your communications and actions, announce it and be consistent with it.

Assuming the price of cow food increases tomorrow, feeding the cow less and reducing their weight is bad business for Yox Farms. It is better they keep the cows robust and healthy as always and increase the price of the cows instead. They should also explain to their customers why they have to do so. They stand a better chance of keeping their customers that way. In any case, their competition has only three options 1: increase the prices of their cows, 2: reduce the sizes of their cows by feeding them less or 3: run the business to death by making loses. All options still favour our dear Yox Farms in the end.

Credibility:
Simply put, kept promises. Do not do a ‘buy one get one free’ campaign only for people to get to your store and hear that they must buy one for their father, one for their mother and one for their great grand uncle who is in heaven before they get one for free-after all, it’s still only one they’re buying. Such a thing will deal a great blow on your credibility.

Let me tell you a true story. I once ordered for a ring from an online store (the lovely ring I used to propose to my sweetheart by the way). The invoice stated 30% payment upfront and 70% on delivery. 3 weeks later they called me to make final payment so they can mail my ring. I said “but your invoice says pay on delivery.” They said I should know that the delivery meant ‘delivery to them.’ Are you kidding me? Delivery to them as in…? Seriously? You tell me, did I read their invoice wrong or they tried to play smart and I have every excuse not to patronize them anymore?

Whatever you say you will do is what should be done. That automatically means people can count on your words and that makes you credible.

Taken from pages of the eBook: ’BRANDICULOUS: the ridiculously simple way to build a profitable business’. www.yoxstudios.com/home.php

Before we speed dive into the lessons, it’s only right I first tell you the proposal story right? Right. So here it goes. Story story…

Once upon a lovely Sunday afternoon, 27th January, 2013 to be precise, I went to hang out with my darling. In my pocket was a pack of 13 cards neatly tucked into a glass case (and the beautiful ring of course). I had designed, printed and trimmed them myself the day before.

On one side of the first card was written ’12 reasons I’d stay forever…’ The other side had ‘…with my darling Iris. (She’s my radiant and tender flower so I call her Iris). On each of the 12 other cards, I had one reason on one side and a picture of ours that related to the reason on the other side.

As we drove around and visited various places including the amusement park, I gave her one card at a time. As night fell, I gave her the card with the 10th reason and suggested that we visit the cake and ice cream place where we had our first date. Our first date was on the 27th of August. I knew we we’re in January but it was also 27th so I thought it won’t be a bad time to relive the first time.

On our way to the place, I gave her the card with the 11th reason. So we got there, made our orders and sat down to enjoy the evening. Then I gave her the last card.

It read ‘You teach me to have faith; because (prayerfully) your answer to the question formed by the words in blue in my previous reasons will always be positive.’

So she arranged all the cards together and looked for the words in blue starting from the first card. The sentence formed by the words in blue was, will you marry me?

Did she say yes? Let’s first address the reason why we’re here then I’ll return to answer that. So, what lessons can you possibly learn from all the romance?

1. Offer only what you are good at
Too many people jump into a business they know little or nothing about. Their only reason for entering into it is because they know or heard of someone else who is very successful at it.

I could have chosen the popular ‘ring in the desert after a fancy dinner’ style or ‘marry me on a large screen at the cinema’ approach but I’m not an outgoing person so asking her to dress up for a fancy dinner would definitely leave her smelling a fish all evening and I’m a very shy person so for the loud cinema approach, I would have spent the evening fighting my nervousness rather than making it a memorable one for her. However, I’m good with design and poetry so I stuck to what I can do right even in my sleep.

For something you have little or no skill/expertise, it will be very difficult to exhibit professionalism and it’s really not that hard for your target market to see that you really have no idea what you’re doing.

2. Know who you are offering it to
Skill or expertise is not enough for business. There has to be a demand for what you offer. For there to be demand, what you offer has to be beneficial to someone.

Yes I’m good with design and poetry but it wouldn’t have made sense to just design and write anything that made no meaning to my sweetheart. Iris lovessssss pictures (the beautiful lady can take hundreds in a day) so it just made sense that the design must involve pictures. Again I could have googled fallacious reasons and put them in (which she would immediately have found out) but I chose to tie the reasons to real events that had happened between us.

You need to research the market to find out if there are people who want your product/service and what it is that they are looking to benefit from it. Those benefits that your product/services offer is what you must constantly communicate in your marketing materials in order to be able to attract and emotionally connect with your target market.

3. Be different with your offerings
No one is going to leave one business to patronize another if they offer exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to offer a unique experience either by way of a new product/service or a difference in an already existing one.

I’m not the first to design with pictures; maybe I’m not the first to write just 12 reasons; it’s probable I’m not the first to stuff cards in a glass box; I’m definitely not the first to propose at the venue of a first date. But when you add in the relevance of the design and message, the suspense created by giving the cards out one at a time over hours, the puzzle that had to be solved on the last card and secretly having it all photographed and on video, I’ve differentiated from what others have done before.

It’s called unique selling proposition (USP) but that’s unnecessary big English. All it means is, offer something no one else is offering the way you do. There’s almost nothing new under the sun anymore but you can still take the available and make it different. The fastest way about this is to find out what your competitors aren’t doing well enough and improve on it.

4. Offer an after service
Yes you’ve done your job and collected your money but it shouldn’t end there. You should provide complimentary after sales service for your clients. It could be free installation, free help with trouble shooting, 1 month free maintenance, etcetera.

Some weeks after the proposal, Iris returned the cards to me and asked if I could frame them in glass so she can hang them in her husband’s house when she’s married. I should have said the proposal service was over or I should have asked for what I get for doing this little extra stuff right? Wrong. I’m getting it done in expectation of nothing.

A complimentary after sale service might not bring instant cash but it fuels your bragging rights. The interesting thing is that you don’t even have to do any of the bragging; the client will be doing all of it. That will definitely get you more clients.

So, back to the question of ‘did she say yes?’ Tell me what you think.


This entry was posted in Business and tagged business, Customer service, love, Proposal on April 6, 2013 at http://yoxstudios.com/wp/4-business-lessons-from-how-i-proposed-to-my-sweetheart/

If you missed part 1, please click https://www.nairaland.com/1267540/brand-branding-part-1-what to view it.

What is branding?

I like to define this as the act of creating your desired impression in the mind of people. Yox Farms decides their brand (people’s impression of them) should be provider of robust and healthy cows. Everything done to create and instill that impression in people’s mind is what is referred to as branding. This includes naming themselves Yox Farm, designing for themselves a star as a logo, choosing their (fat & sexy) choice/tone of words, packaging all of it together and consistently communicating it through the medium of a town crier.

www.businessdirectory.com defines branding as the process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers’ mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme.

Taken from pages of the eBook: ’BRANDICULOUS: the ridiculously simple way to build a profitable business’. www.yoxstudios.com/home.php

Krucifax: Ironically some of this was the subject of my MBA thesis. It is also a very important business concept. Let me assist you clarify a few things you mentioned above.

What is a brand?= There are many definitions! B2C or B2B communication and perception vehicle. Mostly intangible!
What is branding?= A brand = a concept, branding = a continuous process
Is it a new phenomena? = No! Goes back to Roman times!
Is a brand a product? = No!
Is branding easy?= No! Requires understanding of market. Requires "segmentation".
Is a brand a logo? = No! A logo is contained within the branding process.
Is branding important? = Very!

Keys to understanding brands and branding

Brand Equity= A measure of a brands effectiveness and success in the market
Brand Equity measures = Share price,sales figures,market share,profits,etc etc
Brand Equity contents = Brand Identity, Brand Awareness, Brand Loyalty, Brand Association, Perceived Quality.

A brand is an intangible business asset. Many times when a company is bought,over 50% of the purchase price is attributable to the brand equity of the business. In many instances only about 20%-50% of the price is actually towards the physical assets like machinery.. etc.

Advertising,logo creation, sales campaigns are all part of the process of securing a brand and making it strong.

Lastly people often ask what is the difference between sales and marketing?

Answer= Marketing starts before and after you actually have a product to sell.

Sales starts after you have a product and is a by-process of marketing.

You see everything you've written here, that is the exact reason why I wrote the book. The common man does not understand all this unnecessary grammar and I call them unnecessary because all of it can be said in simple terms that they can understand.

For example what is market segmentation? Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that involves dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers who have common needs, and then be designed and implemented to target these specific customer segments, addressing needs or desires. So why not tell a small business owner to specialize or meet a specific need rather than use professional gargons like segmentation or niche?

Yes I agree it's broader than that but if they don't understand a thing we're saying in the name of professionalism, then how can we get them to be interested in our services let alone pay us for it?

The first chapter of the book is available for download on www.yoxstudios.com/home.php. Please find time to download it. I'll love to get your opinion. Thanks.

Except you are the only one offering a particular product or service that people must either use or die, you must build a brand to be successful.

Brand, brand, brand… What exactly is this new rave of a phenomenon called brand.

There are two things that it is clearly not
1: it is not rocket science. It is easy to understand and implement
2: it does not work like magic: yes, it will improve your fortune if rightly done but it will not happen overnight.

So what exactly is a brand? What is branding? What makes a great brand? What are the benefits of branding?

The answers to these relevant questions will I be providing you in the coming weeks. Today we shall be looking at what a brand really means.



What is a brand?

A brand is PEOPLE’S IMPRESSION of something. It could be of a person, product, service, business, etcetera.

It is created by kept or broken promises communicated through visual and verbal identity.
Big English? Let’s break it down. Shall we first take a walk down memory lane?

By way of the fact I studied agricultural science back in high school, I got to hear of the word branding very early in life. My teacher explained it as the act of creating a symbol with metal, heating it up in fire and stamping it on the bodies of his livestock (example, cow) to differentiate his animals from that of other farmers in the open market.

My friend, many years later, I discovered that is how brands and branding actually began.

Back to our definition. Let’s imagine a real business for ourselves and let us name it Yox Farms. Yox Farms claim you can count on them for robust and healthy cows (that is their promise) and then they create a metal star (that is their visual identity), stamp it on all their cows and send the town crier to go round all the villages shouting “Yox Cows! Yox Cows!! Fat, sexy Yox Cows graced with the mark of the star are now available at the Kokiri farmers market (that is their verbal identity).

By way of this, people will go to the market with the IMPRESSION that Yox Farms is the number 1 company to provide them with well fed, healthy looking cows. When they get to the market, they will look for the cows with the mark of a star (Yox Farms logo), they will see fat, healthy cows, they will happily buy, they will go home and they will tell others that if they want robust and healthy cows, they should buy the cows with the mark of a star. Yox Farms have made a promise, they have communicated their promise and they have kept their promise. By that, they have created an impression in people’s mind and they have sustained the impression. Simply so, they have created a brand.

However, assuming on getting to the market, people find lean cows or they buy fat cows, take it home, eat it and then they suffer from mad cow disease, no matter how loud the town crier shouts FAT AND SEXY COWS, people will not buy because Yox Farms have successfully re-positioned their brand as ‘incompetent liars’. That is the impression people will now have about Yox Farms, their star and their cows.



Taken from pages of the eBook: ’BRANDICULOUS: the ridiculously simple way to build a profitable business’ http://yoxstudios.com/home.php

Except you are the only one offering a particular product or service that people must either use or die, you must build a brand to be successful.

Brand, brand, brand… What exactly is this new rave of a phenomenon called brand.

There are two things that it is clearly not
1: it is not rocket science. It is easy to understand and implement
2: it does not work like magic: yes, it will improve your fortune if rightly done but it will not happen overnight.

So what exactly is a brand? What is branding? What makes a great brand? What are the benefits of branding?

The answers to these relevant questions will I be providing you in the coming weeks. Today we shall be looking at what a brand really means.



What is a brand?

A brand is PEOPLE’S IMPRESSION of something. It could be of a person, product, service, business, etcetera.

It is created by kept or broken promises communicated through visual and verbal identity.
Big English? Let’s break it down. Shall we first take a walk down memory lane?

By way of the fact I studied agricultural science back in high school, I got to hear of the word branding very early in life. My teacher explained it as the act of creating a symbol with metal, heating it up in fire and stamping it on the bodies of his livestock (example, cow) to differentiate his animals from that of other farmers in the open market.

My friend, many years later, I discovered that is how brands and branding actually began.

Back to our definition. Let’s imagine a real business for ourselves and let us name it Yox Farms. Yox Farms claim you can count on them for robust and healthy cows (that is their promise) and then they create a metal star (that is their visual identity), stamp it on all their cows and send the town crier to go round all the villages shouting “Yox Cows! Yox Cows!! Fat, sexy Yox Cows graced with the mark of the star are now available at the Kokiri farmers market (that is their verbal identity).

By way of this, people will go to the market with the IMPRESSION that Yox Farms is the number 1 company to provide them with well fed, healthy looking cows. When they get to the market, they will look for the cows with the mark of a star (Yox Farms logo), they will see fat, healthy cows, they will happily buy, they will go home and they will tell others that if they want robust and healthy cows, they should buy the cows with the mark of a star. Yox Farms have made a promise, they have communicated their promise and they have kept their promise. By that, they have created an impression in people’s mind and they have sustained the impression. Simply so, they have created a brand.

However, assuming on getting to the market, people find lean cows or they buy fat cows, take it home, eat it and then they suffer from mad cow disease, no matter how loud the town crier shouts FAT AND SEXY COWS, people will not buy because Yox Farms have successfully re-positioned their brand as ‘incompetent liars’. That is the impression people will now have about Yox Farms, their star and their cows.



Taken from pages of the eBook: ’BRANDICULOUS: the ridiculously simple way to build a profitable business’ http://yoxstudios.com/home.php

spywareczar: nice one man

Thanks bruv

In less than two years, I have successfully built Yoxstudios Facebook business page to over 1200 fans without advertisement but the story of how I did that is one for another day. What you need is sales and the same technique that has brought me paying clients is what I’ll be telling you.

If you don’t have a personal Facebook account (for some miraculous reasons I will never understand), visit www.facebook.com and open one NOW! It’s free (and it’s not only for kids). Upload a good picture of you and thoroughly fill out your bio. This makes it easier for people to relate with you. Your profession and link to your Facebook business page, website and/or other online addresses that gives detailed information about your business are very essential.

Raid Facebook for every human being you think might need your product/services and send them a friend request. In my own case, I added every CEO and MD I could find. (Every business that wants to be successful needs branding and it’s those who call the shots at these businesses that are my target market). Many will accept your request, and many will ignore but it’s nothing to be bothered about. Online rejection won’t kill a fly so send some more request. An easy way is to search Facebook for groups related to your business and add people from there.

Share regularly on your timeline, experiences with your product/service. I said share not advertise or sell. Nobody goes to Facebook to buy anything; they go there to socialize so you cannot go about shouting “buy my stuff” like you’re in dugbe market. That will drive people away. Your posts should sound more like “I just sold 20 boxes of cup cakes and all the buyers’ looooooveedd the sweet taste. Off to grab a cup of milk shake in celebration.” Do not try any repulsive hard sale approach such as “Buy cup cakes for bla bla dollars. Call us now on 0800 bla bla bla.”

Other times when you are not talking about your product/service (and by other times I mean 70% of the time), post interesting things related to your business. Visit Google and search for things like interesting facts about dry cleaning, how to clean your glasses, popular quotes about fashion, etcetera. It must be something related to your business. When you find these things, just copy the link and paste on your timeline (you can also tag your friends in your posts to ensure that they see it). This encourages people to visit your Facebook account regularly and it also encourages them to make comments and share your post. By so doing, their friends hear about you and more people get to visit your page and see how happy you are doing what you do.

The same approach works for a Facebook business page too so you can open one and do the exact same thing. Just put your company logo for your profile picture, fill in your business details in your bio and use ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ for your communications.

Be consistent with this and trust me, people will contact you for your services soon enough.



This entry was posted in www.yoxstudios.com/wp on April 15, 2013.

In less than two years, I have successfully built Yoxstudios Facebook business page to over 1200 fans without advertisement but the story of how I did that is one for another day. What you need is sales and the same technique that has brought me paying clients is what I’ll be telling you.

If you don’t have a personal Facebook account (for some miraculous reasons I will never understand), visit www.facebook.com and open one NOW! It’s free (and it’s not only for kids). Upload a good picture of you and thoroughly fill out your bio. This makes it easier for people to relate with you. Your profession and link to your Facebook business page, website and/or other online addresses that gives detailed information about your business are very essential.

Raid Facebook for every human being you think might need your product/services and send them a friend request. In my own case, I added every CEO and MD I could find. (Every business that wants to be successful needs branding and it’s those who call the shots at these businesses that are my target market). Many will accept your request, and many will ignore but it’s nothing to be bothered about. Online rejection won’t kill a fly so send some more request. An easy way is to search Facebook for groups related to your business and add people from there.

Share regularly on your timeline, experiences with your product/service. I said share not advertise or sell. Nobody goes to Facebook to buy anything; they go there to socialize so you cannot go about shouting “buy my stuff” like you’re in dugbe market. That will drive people away. Your posts should sound more like “I just sold 20 boxes of cup cakes and all the buyers’ looooooveedd the sweet taste. Off to grab a cup of milk shake in celebration.” Do not try any repulsive hard sale approach such as “Buy cup cakes for bla bla dollars. Call us now on 0800 bla bla bla.”

Other times when you are not talking about your product/service (and by other times I mean 70% of the time), post interesting things related to your business. Visit Google and search for things like interesting facts about dry cleaning, how to clean your glasses, popular quotes about fashion, etcetera. It must be something related to your business. When you find these things, just copy the link and paste on your timeline (you can also tag your friends in your posts to ensure that they see it). This encourages people to visit your Facebook account regularly and it also encourages them to make comments and share your post. By so doing, their friends hear about you and more people get to visit your page and see how happy you are doing what you do.

The same approach works for a Facebook business page too so you can open one and do the exact same thing. Just put your company logo for your profile picture, fill in your business details in your bio and use ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ for your communications.

Be consistent with this and trust me, people will contact you for your services soon enough.



This entry was posted in www.yoxstudios.com/wp on April 15, 2013.

spywareczar: @Yox Ђδω advisable ɪ̣̝̇§ for somone 2 use Process(CYMK) Black in coreldraw?, coz most printers here re havin issues with Process Black ãήϑ I luv usin it in my designs

Well most printers run away from it and it is very difficult to find printers willing to print what they usually refer to as '4 colour black.' For images and backgrounds, that is what I always use cause it comes out brighter but for text, don't ever use it. It's almost impossible to have clean text with 4 colours because it's difficult to have all 4 colours fall on the exact same tiny place.

turl: wow..guy that is slightly misinforming. you really don't have to go through all that to print CMYK.
First off, there is nothing wrong with printers printing in CMYK. That is the standard format everywhere in the world. Some printers that will print in RGB will only do so in small runs and not large batches like industrial scale.

Secondly, to save yourself all the headache, start working in CMYK from the beginning of the the job. (yes photoshop has CMYK [image > mode > CMYK/RGB/lab - whatever floats your boat]. ) not trying to rain on your parade though just saving people the stress.

So in conclusion, the ideal thing to do will be to open a new photoshop document and in the dialogue box that pops up, you set the colour mode to CMYK and print resolution to 300 dpi (this tells ps to concentrate more pixels per inch - if not your work will most likely come out blurry or worse, pixelated). Also set the dimensions to mm (millimeters) and make set at least 3 mm bleeds for the edges.

Gotta run now, bottom line is, you dont have to sacrifice your sweet ps effects by converting to vector. photoshop all day baby. hit me up if you have any questions and ill be more than happy to help.

sorry for the typos, no time to proofread.

I need you to do 2 things.

1.Take your time to read my post from the beginning to the end then review your comment. Some of your statements makes it really obvious you didn't take time to read through. No one ever said it is wrong for printers to prink in cmyk. In fact I categorically said that's the only way printing machines can print.

2. Click on the link at the bottom of my post to see where I further stated that there are many ways to get things done but this is what works for me. Simply because this isn't your style doesn't make this misleading. Because you prefer apple does that make windows misinforming?

Please give me a link to your website so I can see some of your works so I can decide if I'll truly need your help. I currently have 14 years experience in the printing business but I know I can always learn something new from someone else. You can see my own jobs on www.yoxstudios.com

magnificio: nice post@op. enlightening

Thanks

Preshie: Some weeks after the proposal, Iris returned
the cards to me and asked if I could frame
them in glass so she can hang them in her
husband’s house when she’s married.
She did not accept your proposal.

Lol! You wouldn't be reading this if she didn't.

moreeni: Wow, groovy!

Groovy!? I hope that's a good thing. Lol.

jacobscros: great stuff romantic

Thanks

lightheart: A great read!
Bookmarked!!
Thanks, prof.

Thanks. You're welcome

Before we speed dive into the lessons, it’s only right I first tell you the proposal story right? Right. So here it goes. Story story…

Once upon a lovely Sunday afternoon, 27th January, 2013 to be precise, I went to hang out with my darling. In my pocket was a pack of 13 cards neatly tucked into a glass case (and the beautiful ring of course). I had designed, printed and trimmed them myself the day before.

On one side of the first card was written ’12 reasons I’d stay forever…’ The other side had ‘…with my darling Iris. (She’s my radiant and tender flower so I call her Iris). On each of the 12 other cards, I had one reason on one side and a picture of ours that related to the reason on the other side.

As we drove around and visited various places including the amusement park, I gave her one card at a time. As night fell, I gave her the card with the 10th reason and suggested that we visit the cake and ice cream place where we had our first date. Our first date was on the 27th of August. I knew we we’re in January but it was also 27th so I thought it won’t be a bad time to relive the first time.

On our way to the place, I gave her the card with the 11th reason. So we got there, made our orders and sat down to enjoy the evening. Then I gave her the last card.

It read ‘You teach me to have faith; because (prayerfully) your answer to the question formed by the words in blue in my previous reasons will always be positive.’

So she arranged all the cards together and looked for the words in blue starting from the first card. The sentence formed by the words in blue was, will you marry me?

Did she say yes? Let’s first address the reason why we’re here then I’ll return to answer that. So, what lessons can you possibly learn from all the romance?

1. Offer only what you are good at
Too many people jump into a business they know little or nothing about. Their only reason for entering into it is because they know or heard of someone else who is very successful at it.

I could have chosen the popular ‘ring in the desert after a fancy dinner’ style or ‘marry me on a large screen at the cinema’ approach but I’m not an outgoing person so asking her to dress up for a fancy dinner would definitely leave her smelling a fish all evening and I’m a very shy person so for the loud cinema approach, I would have spent the evening fighting my nervousness rather than making it a memorable one for her. However, I’m good with design and poetry so I stuck to what I can do right even in my sleep.

For something you have little or no skill/expertise, it will be very difficult to exhibit professionalism and it’s really not that hard for your target market to see that you really have no idea what you’re doing.

2. Know who you are offering it to
Skill or expertise is not enough for business. There has to be a demand for what you offer. For there to be demand, what you offer has to be beneficial to someone.

Yes I’m good with design and poetry but it wouldn’t have made sense to just design and write anything that made no meaning to my sweetheart. Iris lovessssss pictures (the beautiful lady can take hundreds in a day) so it just made sense that the design must involve pictures. Again I could have googled fallacious reasons and put them in (which she would immediately have found out) but I chose to tie the reasons to real events that had happened between us.

You need to research the market to find out if there are people who want your product/service and what it is that they are looking to benefit from it. Those benefits that your product/services offer is what you must constantly communicate in your marketing materials in order to be able to attract and emotionally connect with your target market.

3. Be different with your offerings
No one is going to leave one business to patronize another if they offer exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to offer a unique experience either by way of a new product/service or a difference in an already existing one.

I’m not the first to design with pictures; maybe I’m not the first to write just 12 reasons; it’s probable I’m not the first to stuff cards in a glass box; I’m definitely not the first to propose at the venue of a first date. But when you add in the relevance of the design and message, the suspense created by giving the cards out one at a time over hours, the puzzle that had to be solved on the last card and secretly having it all photographed and on video, I’ve differentiated from what others have done before.

It’s called unique selling proposition (USP) but that’s unnecessary big English. All it means is, offer something no one else is offering the way you do. There’s almost nothing new under the sun anymore but you can still take the available and make it different. The fastest way about this is to find out what your competitors aren’t doing well enough and improve on it.

4. Offer an after service
Yes you’ve done your job and collected your money but it shouldn’t end there. You should provide complimentary after sales service for your clients. It could be free installation, free help with trouble shooting, 1 month free maintenance, etcetera.

Some weeks after the proposal, Iris returned the cards to me and asked if I could frame them in glass so she can hang them in her husband’s house when she’s married. I should have said the proposal service was over or I should have asked for what I get for doing this little extra stuff right? Wrong. I’m getting it done in expectation of nothing.

A complimentary after sale service might not bring instant cash but it fuels your bragging rights. The interesting thing is that you don’t even have to do any of the bragging; the client will be doing all of it. That will definitely get you more clients.

So, back to the question of ‘did she say yes?’ Tell me what you think.


This entry was posted in Business and tagged business, Customer service, love, Proposal on April 6, 2013 at http://yoxstudios.com/wp/4-business-lessons-from-how-i-proposed-to-my-sweetheart/

Before we speed dive into the lessons, it’s only right I first tell you the proposal story right? Right. So here it goes. Story story…

Once upon a lovely Sunday afternoon, 27th January, 2013 to be precise, I went to hang out with my darling. In my pocket was a pack of 13 cards neatly tucked into a glass case (and the beautiful ring of course). I had designed, printed and trimmed them myself the day before.

On one side of the first card was written ’12 reasons I’d stay forever…’ The other side had ‘…with my darling Iris. (She’s my radiant and tender flower so I call her Iris). On each of the 12 other cards, I had one reason on one side and a picture of ours that related to the reason on the other side.

As we drove around and visited various places including the amusement park, I gave her one card at a time. As night fell, I gave her the card with the 10th reason and suggested that we visit the cake and ice cream place where we had our first date. Our first date was on the 27th of August. I knew we we’re in January but it was also 27th so I thought it won’t be a bad time to relive the first time.

On our way to the place, I gave her the card with the 11th reason. So we got there, made our orders and sat down to enjoy the evening. Then I gave her the last card.

It read ‘You teach me to have faith; because (prayerfully) your answer to the question formed by the words in blue in my previous reasons will always be positive.’

So she arranged all the cards together and looked for the words in blue starting from the first card. The sentence formed by the words in blue was, will you marry me?

Did she say yes? Let’s first address the reason why we’re here then I’ll return to answer that. So, what lessons can you possibly learn from all the romance?

1. Offer only what you are good at
Too many people jump into a business they know little or nothing about. Their only reason for entering into it is because they know or heard of someone else who is very successful at it.

I could have chosen the popular ‘ring in the desert after a fancy dinner’ style or ‘marry me on a large screen at the cinema’ approach but I’m not an outgoing person so asking her to dress up for a fancy dinner would definitely leave her smelling a fish all evening and I’m a very shy person so for the loud cinema approach, I would have spent the evening fighting my nervousness rather than making it a memorable one for her. However, I’m good with design and poetry so I stuck to what I can do right even in my sleep.

For something you have little or no skill/expertise, it will be very difficult to exhibit professionalism and it’s really not that hard for your target market to see that you really have no idea what you’re doing.

2. Know who you are offering it to
Skill or expertise is not enough for business. There has to be a demand for what you offer. For there to be demand, what you offer has to be beneficial to someone.

Yes I’m good with design and poetry but it wouldn’t have made sense to just design and write anything that made no meaning to my sweetheart. Iris lovessssss pictures (the beautiful lady can take hundreds in a day) so it just made sense that the design must involve pictures. Again I could have googled fallacious reasons and put them in (which she would immediately have found out) but I chose to tie the reasons to real events that had happened between us.

You need to research the market to find out if there are people who want your product/service and what it is that they are looking to benefit from it. Those benefits that your product/services offer is what you must constantly communicate in your marketing materials in order to be able to attract and emotionally connect with your target market.

3. Be different with your offerings
No one is going to leave one business to patronize another if they offer exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to offer a unique experience either by way of a new product/service or a difference in an already existing one.

I’m not the first to design with pictures; maybe I’m not the first to write just 12 reasons; it’s probable I’m not the first to stuff cards in a glass box; I’m definitely not the first to propose at the venue of a first date. But when you add in the relevance of the design and message, the suspense created by giving the cards out one at a time over hours, the puzzle that had to be solved on the last card and secretly having it all photographed and on video, I’ve differentiated from what others have done before.

It’s called unique selling proposition (USP) but that’s unnecessary big English. All it means is, offer something no one else is offering the way you do. There’s almost nothing new under the sun anymore but you can still take the available and make it different. The fastest way about this is to find out what your competitors aren’t doing well enough and improve on it.

4. Offer an after service
Yes you’ve done your job and collected your money but it shouldn’t end there. You should provide complimentary after sales service for your clients. It could be free installation, free help with trouble shooting, 1 month free maintenance, etcetera.

Some weeks after the proposal, Iris returned the cards to me and asked if I could frame them in glass so she can hang them in her husband’s house when she’s married. I should have said the proposal service was over or I should have asked for what I get for doing this little extra stuff right? Wrong. I’m getting it done in expectation of nothing.

A complimentary after sale service might not bring instant cash but it fuels your bragging rights. The interesting thing is that you don’t even have to do any of the bragging; the client will be doing all of it. That will definitely get you more clients.

So, back to the question of ‘did she say yes?’ Tell me what you think.


This entry was posted in Business and tagged business, Customer service, love, Proposal on April 6, 2013 at http://yoxstudios.com/wp/4-business-lessons-from-how-i-proposed-to-my-sweetheart/

Before we speed dive into the lessons, it’s only right I first tell you the proposal story right? Right. So here it goes. Story story…

Once upon a lovely Sunday afternoon, 27th January, 2013 to be precise, I went to hang out with my darling. In my pocket was a pack of 13 cards neatly tucked into a glass case (and the beautiful ring of course). I had designed, printed and trimmed them myself the day before.

On one side of the first card was written ’12 reasons I’d stay forever…’ The other side had ‘…with my darling Iris. (She’s my radiant and tender flower so I call her Iris). On each of the 12 other cards, I had one reason on one side and a picture of ours that related to the reason on the other side.

As we drove around and visited various places including the amusement park, I gave her one card at a time. As night fell, I gave her the card with the 10th reason and suggested that we visit the cake and ice cream place where we had our first date. Our first date was on the 27th of August. I knew we we’re in January but it was also 27th so I thought it won’t be a bad time to relive the first time.

On our way to the place, I gave her the card with the 11th reason. So we got there, made our orders and sat down to enjoy the evening. Then I gave her the last card.

It read ‘You teach me to have faith; because (prayerfully) your answer to the question formed by the words in blue in my previous reasons will always be positive.’

So she arranged all the cards together and looked for the words in blue starting from the first card. The sentence formed by the words in blue was, will you marry me?

Did she say yes? Let’s first address the reason why we’re here then I’ll return to answer that. So, what lessons can you possibly learn from all the romance?

1. Offer only what you are good at
Too many people jump into a business they know little or nothing about. Their only reason for entering into it is because they know or heard of someone else who is very successful at it.

I could have chosen the popular ‘ring in the desert after a fancy dinner’ style or ‘marry me on a large screen at the cinema’ approach but I’m not an outgoing person so asking her to dress up for a fancy dinner would definitely leave her smelling a fish all evening and I’m a very shy person so for the loud cinema approach, I would have spent the evening fighting my nervousness rather than making it a memorable one for her. However, I’m good with design and poetry so I stuck to what I can do right even in my sleep.

For something you have little or no skill/expertise, it will be very difficult to exhibit professionalism and it’s really not that hard for your target market to see that you really have no idea what you’re doing.

2. Know who you are offering it to
Skill or expertise is not enough for business. There has to be a demand for what you offer. For there to be demand, what you offer has to be beneficial to someone.

Yes I’m good with design and poetry but it wouldn’t have made sense to just design and write anything that made no meaning to my sweetheart. Iris lovessssss pictures (the beautiful lady can take hundreds in a day) so it just made sense that the design must involve pictures. Again I could have googled fallacious reasons and put them in (which she would immediately have found out) but I chose to tie the reasons to real events that had happened between us.

You need to research the market to find out if there are people who want your product/service and what it is that they are looking to benefit from it. Those benefits that your product/services offer is what you must constantly communicate in your marketing materials in order to be able to attract and emotionally connect with your target market.

3. Be different with your offerings
No one is going to leave one business to patronize another if they offer exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to offer a unique experience either by way of a new product/service or a difference in an already existing one.

I’m not the first to design with pictures; maybe I’m not the first to write just 12 reasons; it’s probable I’m not the first to stuff cards in a glass box; I’m definitely not the first to propose at the venue of a first date. But when you add in the relevance of the design and message, the suspense created by giving the cards out one at a time over hours, the puzzle that had to be solved on the last card and secretly having it all photographed and on video, I’ve differentiated from what others have done before.

It’s called unique selling proposition (USP) but that’s unnecessary big English. All it means is, offer something no one else is offering the way you do. There’s almost nothing new under the sun anymore but you can still take the available and make it different. The fastest way about this is to find out what your competitors aren’t doing well enough and improve on it.

4. Offer an after service
Yes you’ve done your job and collected your money but it shouldn’t end there. You should provide complimentary after sales service for your clients. It could be free installation, free help with trouble shooting, 1 month free maintenance, etcetera.

Some weeks after the proposal, Iris returned the cards to me and asked if I could frame them in glass so she can hang them in her husband’s house when she’s married. I should have said the proposal service was over or I should have asked for what I get for doing this little extra stuff right? Wrong. I’m getting it done in expectation of nothing.

A complimentary after sale service might not bring instant cash but it fuels your bragging rights. The interesting thing is that you don’t even have to do any of the bragging; the client will be doing all of it. That will definitely get you more clients.

So, back to the question of ‘did she say yes?’ Tell me what you think.


This entry was posted in Business and tagged business, Customer service, love, Proposal on April 6, 2013 at http://yoxstudios.com/wp/4-business-lessons-from-how-i-proposed-to-my-sweetheart/

Before we speed dive into the lessons, it’s only right I first tell you the proposal story right? Right. So here it goes. Story story…

Once upon a lovely Sunday afternoon, 27th January, 2013 to be precise, I went to hang out with my darling. In my pocket was a pack of 13 cards neatly tucked into a glass case (and the beautiful ring of course). I had designed, printed and trimmed them myself the day before.

On one side of the first card was written ’12 reasons I’d stay forever…’ The other side had ‘…with my darling Iris. (She’s my radiant and tender flower so I call her Iris). On each of the 12 other cards, I had one reason on one side and a picture of ours that related to the reason on the other side.

As we drove around and visited various places including the amusement park, I gave her one card at a time. As night fell, I gave her the card with the 10th reason and suggested that we visit the cake and ice cream place where we had our first date. Our first date was on the 27th of August. I knew we we’re in January but it was also 27th so I thought it won’t be a bad time to relive the first time.

On our way to the place, I gave her the card with the 11th reason. So we got there, made our orders and sat down to enjoy the evening. Then I gave her the last card.

It read ‘You teach me to have faith; because (prayerfully) your answer to the question formed by the words in blue in my previous reasons will always be positive.’

So she arranged all the cards together and looked for the words in blue starting from the first card. The sentence formed by the words in blue was, will you marry me?

Did she say yes? Let’s first address the reason why we’re here then I’ll return to answer that. So, what lessons can you possibly learn from all the romance?

1. Offer only what you are good at
Too many people jump into a business they know little or nothing about. Their only reason for entering into it is because they know or heard of someone else who is very successful at it.

I could have chosen the popular ‘ring in the desert after a fancy dinner’ style or ‘marry me on a large screen at the cinema’ approach but I’m not an outgoing person so asking her to dress up for a fancy dinner would definitely leave her smelling a fish all evening and I’m a very shy person so for the loud cinema approach, I would have spent the evening fighting my nervousness rather than making it a memorable one for her. However, I’m good with design and poetry so I stuck to what I can do right even in my sleep.

For something you have little or no skill/expertise, it will be very difficult to exhibit professionalism and it’s really not that hard for your target market to see that you really have no idea what you’re doing.

2. Know who you are offering it to
Skill or expertise is not enough for business. There has to be a demand for what you offer. For there to be demand, what you offer has to be beneficial to someone.

Yes I’m good with design and poetry but it wouldn’t have made sense to just design and write anything that made no meaning to my sweetheart. Iris lovessssss pictures (the beautiful lady can take hundreds in a day) so it just made sense that the design must involve pictures. Again I could have googled fallacious reasons and put them in (which she would immediately have found out) but I chose to tie the reasons to real events that had happened between us.

You need to research the market to find out if there are people who want your product/service and what it is that they are looking to benefit from it. Those benefits that your product/services offer is what you must constantly communicate in your marketing materials in order to be able to attract and emotionally connect with your target market.

3. Be different with your offerings
No one is going to leave one business to patronize another if they offer exactly the same thing the exact same way. You have to offer a unique experience either by way of a new product/service or a difference in an already existing one.

I’m not the first to design with pictures; maybe I’m not the first to write just 12 reasons; it’s probable I’m not the first to stuff cards in a glass box; I’m definitely not the first to propose at the venue of a first date. But when you add in the relevance of the design and message, the suspense created by giving the cards out one at a time over hours, the puzzle that had to be solved on the last card and secretly having it all photographed and on video, I’ve differentiated from what others have done before.

It’s called unique selling proposition (USP) but that’s unnecessary big English. All it means is, offer something no one else is offering the way you do. There’s almost nothing new under the sun anymore but you can still take the available and make it different. The fastest way about this is to find out what your competitors aren’t doing well enough and improve on it.

4. Offer an after service
Yes you’ve done your job and collected your money but it shouldn’t end there. You should provide complimentary after sales service for your clients. It could be free installation, free help with trouble shooting, 1 month free maintenance, etcetera.

Some weeks after the proposal, Iris returned the cards to me and asked if I could frame them in glass so she can hang them in her husband’s house when she’s married. I should have said the proposal service was over or I should have asked for what I get for doing this little extra stuff right? Wrong. I’m getting it done in expectation of nothing.

A complimentary after sale service might not bring instant cash but it fuels your bragging rights. The interesting thing is that you don’t even have to do any of the bragging; the client will be doing all of it. That will definitely get you more clients.

So, back to the question of ‘did she say yes?’ Tell me what you think.


This entry was posted in Business and tagged business, Customer service, love, Proposal on April 6, 2013 at http://yoxstudios.com/wp/4-business-lessons-from-how-i-proposed-to-my-sweetheart/

Sellorbuyphones: God bless u for this post.

Amen

spywareczar: Tanx Bro,

You're welcome bruv

famous2013: Gud 1 I must say thanks

Thank you.

spywareczar: thanks, realy appreciate, i actually have problem with importing some vectors i downloaded online in coreldraw, they are in .EPS format, some wil import successfully and some will just hang d coreldraw, it wudnt respond, wil hve to restart coreldraw, pls wat do u tink is d solution??

The solution to this is to install adobe illustrator. The coreldraw crashes most times because it cannot handle the file size so what I always do is, open the file in illustrator, delete everything i don't need in it and then save as .eps again. It usually opens this time.

You really don't have to learn how to use illustrator all over. Just use it to delete what you don't need.