If times are getting tough, what should you do? Well certainly the answer isn’t to just give up and go home. It’s all about making careful and informed decisions based on sound knowledge and research. There is plenty out there in terms of advice, but a lot of it is crazy and unjustified. You need to look at the evidence to make a careful decision and this will dramatically reduce the risk in any decisions you make. Here are 3 tried and tested ways to help your business through 2012:

Invest in marketing

It is an often thought that when times are tough you should cut your marketing. This is an easy cost to slash and a great way to save money on the short run. This, however, is a really bad move. If you cut your marketing you are reducing your promotion and brand awareness meaning you’ll experience even fewer sales.

Marketing is an investment in your brand and key to long term success. When a recession comes, lots of companies reduce their marketing spend and if you actually increase it, you’ll be the brand that people remember. When it comes to a growing economy, your brand will be at people’s forefront and you’ll see a big uptake in brand loyalty as a result of this. This work was empirically carried out by Ehrenberg who is one of the greatest living marketers. The evidence he presented over a number of companies over several decades all supports the theory, but you need guts to put it into practice.

Take out insurance

Insurance will minimise your risk as the last thing you want is to pick up the pieces from an unfortunate event. Whether this is injury caused to the public, a break-in or theft from a store, it could easily bankrupt you if you’re not protected.

You can get Business Insurance to cover almost anything these days, from a takeaway or restaurant to a shop or hairdresser. There is also standalone cover for public liability available too if you don’t have this. Avoid any hefty outgoings by getting covered. Shop around online for the best quote and think about the risk minimising involved that could do wonders on the long term.

Take advice from Michael Porter

Porter is one of the leading business strategy minds of our time and resides at Harvard Business School. He is the godfather of theoretical business strategy models and has two claims to fame. Students around the world are taught about Porter’s Five Forces which demonstrates the push pull effect of competition, suppliers and buyers on a market place.

One you should really look at though in terms of your business plan, is Porter’s 3 Generic Strategies. He says you must fall into one of 3 distinct groups if you are to succeed. If you fall between groups or not in one, then you will struggle to turn a profit and survive in hard financial times.

The first place to be is cost leading. This means you must offer extreme value at a great price. This will help you sell in higher volumes at lower profit margins and during a recession where money is scarce, these businesses tend to thrive and gain a lot of new customers. The second approach is differentiation which involves taking a premium stance in the market, offering a better product that you can charge more for. This means focusing on things you are good at going the extra mile. The last approach is a focus niche approach meaning you must specifically cater to a niche market and provide high quality bespoke products to their exacting needs. This ability to be flexible is key here.

If you read up on Porter then you will understand his background and theories to a better level and your business will flourish. If you apply what he says to your business, you will be able to see things you are doing wrong based on research and theory from over the last 20 or 30 years. A sound strategy will help you through the tough times ahead. It is worth having a contingency plan and budget too in case things do go awry.

Steve works in a high pressure company who are using these tips to battle the recession. Public liability insurance was on the top of the list of priorities for the year ahead.

Setting the water level in your toilet is a great way to decrease the amount of water that is used for each flush. There are simple blocks that hang inside your tank that will decrease the amount of water that is needed to fill your tank and shut the water flow off.

Change your trading plans with your goals. If your personal goals change, and no longer match up with the strategy you are using in the market, it may be time to change it up a bit. When your financial situation changes, reevaluating your goals and methods will help you manage your trades more effectively.

Take advantage of your flexible spending account. If you incur medical costs, or have a child that you pay a daycare bill, a flexible spending account can save you money. These accounts allow you to put a certain amount aside in pre-tax dollars to pay for such expenses. There are conditions involved though, so speak to a tax professional.

If you rent your home, make sure you get renters insurance to cover you in case of a loss, such as fire, wind damage and theft. Renters insurance is extremely inexpensive. If there is a natural disaster, the owner of your home is covered for their loss of property but you are not covered unless you have your own policy.

There are millions of deals out on the market; you just have to find them. Peruse the Internet and newspapers for deals that will save you money on all kinds of things that you need. This will help you to reduce your overall spending and will make you feel good about yourself too.

If you have a parent or other relative with good credit, consider repairing your credit score by asking them to add you an authorized user on their card. This will immediately bump up your score, as it will show up on your report as an account in good standing. You don’t even actually have to use the card to gain a benefit from it.

Banks offer two different types of loans: fixed and variable interest rate loans. Try to avoid variable interest rate loans at any cost as they can turn into a disaster. Fixed rate loans will have the same interest rate throughout the loan’s life. The interest rate of the variable rate loans and their monthly payments change either by following the fluctuations of the market or the contract between the bank and the borrower. The monthly payment can easily reach a level the borrower can’t afford.

Check and see if you are getting the best cell phone plan for your needs. If you’ve been on the same plan for the past few years, you probably could be saving some money. Most companies will do a free review of your plan and let you know if something else would work better for you, based on your usage patterns.

Accurate information is key to developing and implementing any good strategy. Given the above advice you should be a bit more prepared to go after your personal finance goals and attain some peace of mind. Having control over your personal finances takes some training and discipline but in the long run you will find it very rewarding, in more ways than you can imagine!

This is where comparison websites are at their best and one of the primary reasons why they have grown in popularity across many different sectors, encompassing not only financial services, but mobile phones and energy suppliers.

Comparison sites do much of the legwork, saving the typical consumer hours of painstaking research ploughing through pages of products from different companies.

Within financial services, the typical comparison website highlights not only the interest rates on offer, but any other features of interest, as well as key information that may be useful to an applicant. For example, those with bad credit would prefer not to risk worsening their record by multiple applications which are turned down by lenders with tough criteria. Knowing which firms are more likely to consider an applicant with a less than perfect credit history can be a big bonus – and many comparison websites offer this kind of insight as standard.

With all the key details listed in one place, a comparison website allows the consumer to browse through and identify the features which are important and compare the products which seem to fit the bill.

The big bonus is this can be done whilst in your pyjamas in the comfort of your own home – with no pushy sales patter to try and hurry you along or push you in a certain direction. A comparison website is essentially a silent version of an independent financial advisor who presents you with all the facts for you to make your choice – only less irritating.

The savings that the websites can offer can be substantial – industry averages estimate that around £270 can typically be shaved off a premium for car insurance simply by comparing companies that are listed on comparison websites.

Of course, like everything else, there are good comparison sites and ones which aren`t so useful. For a comparison site, unfortunately size matters. To be sure of getting the best deal the website needs to have comprehensive access to a large percentage of the companies across whichever industry you are searching to be effective. Using small companies which only compare a small section of the market can be helpful to provide an indicator but additional research should be carried out to see if the deal can be bettered.

It is also important to ensure that the company keeps their website up to date – it is incredibly disheartening to think you have found the deal of the century only to find it expired last month.

Within financial services, things can change very rapidly and rates on products such as mortgages and loans can move up or down depending on various factors. Using a comparison site helps to ensure that you are being quoted with the current rates available in the market.

Many businesses, particularly new start ups and small businesses begin the logo design journey looking for the best logo design software. These software packages are ok to a point but in order to achieve the success your business needs there is no substitute for a custom design tailor made for your business. Why?

Before we delve into why using the best logo design packages it is worth considering first the important of the design process for your business logo and the longer term effects of how your company brand is perceived.

The Importance of Good Quality Company Logos

Whether your budget is large or small is doesn’t matter. The quality of your business logo will be what is presented to clients, the market you are operating, as well as competitors. There is no getting away from the fact that your company logo is the window of your business to clients whom have never heard of your company or the products or services it provides. In a recent study by leading business think tanks it was suggested that approximately 85% of a business’s success in the given market was a result of the way customers viewed the brand of their companies. If leading business considers the brand image to be the most importance contributing factor to the success of a business then you should also.

A useful site to illustrate this point is the respected Brand Directory website which lists the leading brand values and financial reports.

Business Logo Designs

There are many aspects to brand design and how this impacts your business both in the short and long term but the overriding factor is to ensure that it is clear, memorable and offers something different to the competition (also referred to as a USP – unique selling proposition). Whatever your business you can be assured there is a high level of competition and you therefore need to ensure your business stands out from the crowd.

Custom Business Logo Design

We now know the crucial significance of a unique and appealing brand image for your company but just how do you achieve this? Making use of specialist graphic designers you could be forgiven for thinking is cost prohibitive. Thankfully in this climate of cost consciousness there are services provided which are competitively priced and can be used by businesses both large and small.

One of the leading Logo Design companies offering custom a logo design process is the thelogocomapny.net. Having used their services on a number of occasions now I am more than confident in vouching for the quality of their services. In order to get a better understanding of how the process works and what to expect I have detailed below the process I went through during one of my logo design projects.

Logo Design Process

• Contact details

Recommended Logo Design Company

The first thing to do is sign up upon the website and provide all the relevant contact details in order for the designers to be able to discuss with you your logo design.

• Pay for your Logo Design

Make payment (starts from just $149) and you are ready to get the process underway

• Conceptual Designs

The logo design process begins with you providing the company with a rough idea as to what you would like to new logo to represent. This can be a wealth of information or just a few lines. This initial communication is via email after which you will be provided with a personal email address of the lead designer as well as telephone contact details.

• Graphic Designer Review

Once your submission has been received it then is assessed and reviewed by the lead graphic designer. Your designs will then be referred to a minimum of three industry specific designers whom each will create a unique customer logo design. In my case, the designs were related to a car showroom.

• Receive your first draft of your Business Logo

Within a minimum of 3 days your first draft logo designs will be sent to you via email for review. I immediately liked two of the 4 designs which were sent to me and therefore choose two designs and emailed them back with my instructions.

• Receive and review 2^nd Draft

I wanted some small alterations to way in which some of the imagery was located within the logo and advised the designer of such. Within four hours the design had been changed and emailed back to me for review. I had arrived at my first professionally designed company logo and it looked amazing.

Logo Design Example

The finished logo was provided in a variety of file formats which can be utilised in a number of different platforms. They also kept an archive copy of the images ensuring that should I ever loose mine (computer crash for instance) I can retrieve a copy.

All in all the service provided by the logocompany.net was exceptional. The designers were friendly and accommodating and most importantly my logo design was just what I was looking for, unique, professional and appealing for consumers both now and into the future.

I would recommend that you take a look at some of their logo design portfolio examples to get an idea as to the excellent quality of graphic logos which are produced for their clients on a daily basis. Remeber if your trying to take the route of looking for the best logo design software in order to create a brand for your business you will be well advised to travel the custom route rather than an unprofessional image created from an automated software package.