Logo Design Blog

Is your business a fan of creativity? A recent survey shows that majority of US workers suffer from lack of creative stimulation. This is a very fatal blow for many small businesses since creativity is the core of our existence.

In a study of 674 full- and part-time workers, 88 percent said they consider themselves creative, but only 63 percent said they are putting their creative abilities to use on the job, according to an Ipsos Public Affairs survey commissioned by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Moreover, 39 percent of respondents said they do not think of their company as a creative entity. Nevertheless, the survey found that 75 percent of workers believe their employers value their creativity.

To help you boost your creativity, I have gathered several resources for you to read:

Jpb.com offers numerous creativity tips such as 10 Steps for Boosting Creativity, 10 Creative Myths, and Creative Idea Implementation Plan.

Brain Reactions has gathered 31 tips for improving your creativity and I personally like the idea of spending time with kindergartens and trying new experiences to widen one’s perspectives.

Download this pdf file from Laughterremedy.com to learn how you can use humor to enhance your creativity.

Compass Life Designs guides you on how to unlock your creativity by exercising, brainstorming, and using affirmations.

Ettiengt at Flixya will help you boost your creativity using your 5 senses.

Despite the growing popularity of online advertising, some entrepreneurs still rely heavily on print ads given the nature of their business or target market. Whether you’re advertising on newspapers or magazines, here are some tips you should consider when doing your print ads in general:

1. Ask the publications for a media kit. This contains important info such as rates, sizes, readership, and profile of readers to validate if this is the right medium for you.
2. Use captivating headline. Similar with the Internet, magazines and newspapers are both cluttered with ads from different companies. Use the 10 surefire headlines formula that work as your reference.
3. Highlight you key benefits over competition and prove it. Cite some useful testimonials from your customers or statistics to back up your claims.
4. Motivate readers to take action. Give them a reason to act now such as discounts, bonus, freebies, or limited offers.
5. A pretty face can turn your readers away. GrokDotCom has a very interesting heatmap research about using pretty models in your ads. Although it used an online ad for the test, the lesson is still relevant for print ads.

In this game called business, information is power. The more we know, the better our chance of surviving this competitive venture. We should exert extra effort to know what our competitors are doing. At the same time, we should learn to protect our startup idea.

A good way to handle information is to go on stealth mode or under the radar. This is a popular strategy commonly used many internet developers because of some proprietary technology involved. Still, this is also effective across business sectors as proven in the recent price cut by Wal-Mart. Stealth mode is appropriate for the following situations:

1. If you want to surprise your competitors with a new product or service
2. When you’re first in the market for a particular product or service
3. When you need time to develop a new system or technology to make your product or service work
4. If you want to create a mystery or buzz around your product.

Keeping quiet is just the starting point of stealth mode. You should impose utmost secrecy all the time. Here are the common tactics used by many software developers:

1. Limit media access to employees, particularly those involved in your stealth project.
2. Ask employees, suppliers, customers, and even some VCs to sign a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to hold them liable in case they share any information to the public or media.
3. Keep all information and materials in a very secure place with only a few people having authorized access.

Having trouble managing your startup capital? You might be spending more than your budget to carry on with your daily operations. If you’re in this situation, you should start using the age-old system called bartering.

In a nutshell, bartering is the exchange of goods or services without using any money. If you’re looking for a clever example of bartering system, just look at our special offer at the top of our site:

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In the end, it’s a win-win solution for both sides without incurring additional expenses. Interested bloggers will finally have their dream logos while we get free promotion for our excellent services. Here are some additional advantages of bartering:

1. Minimize Inventory. For companies selling seasonal products, they can barter their items during off seasons. This will help move excess or aging inventory quickly.
2. Conserve cash. Instead of spending your cash for new products or services, you can divert it to your daily operations or buy more important things like office furniture and fixture.
3. Get new customers. If the other party is delighted with your services, you can expect free word-of-mouth advertising that might lead to new customers or bigger projects.

Barter is just one of the ways to bootstrap your business.

Some of the best business ideas started from gut feel and luck. In this very competitive period, however, we should go one step further to validate if there’s really a profitable market for our ideas. It’s time to do your market research.

Some of you may be a bit apprehensive about market research because it is commonly perceived as an expensive method. Don’t worry for there are economical ways to collect info without sacrificing quality. Check out the tips below:

1. Use Phonebooks and Online Directories. If you want to know how many businesses are competing in your chosen field, you can easily check phonebooks in your library and surf online directories like YellowPages.com.
2. Get in touch with local associations. These groups offer a great deal of information such as market trends, size of the market, unmet needs, best practices, and industry events. Although some require membership fees, you should not hesitate to invest in this group. This will also be a big help in different stages of your business from finding reliable suppliers to grabbing bigger opportunities.
3. Partner with a business research center in your area. If you have extra money but strongly feel you’re not qualified enough to do the research yourself, there are many facilities, usually connected with libraries, offering comprehensive yet inexpensive research services. Go to your nearest library and borrow this book Internet-Plus Directory of Express Library Services: Research and Document Delivery for Hire to find the nearest center.