Now I’m not just talking about the iconic brands that we’re so familiar with, I’m thinking about every product and service we brush up against daily. Our choices of these are impacted by our perception of the brand.

But when it comes to brands, because we all have opinions, we all think ourselves “sort-of” experts. We tinker, we cut and paste, we Google, we use all the wizardry that our computers offer to get our brands just so. Or maybe our brands have been around for a zillion years and we don’t want to lose all the goodwill and reputation we’ve built up for our brands over the years?

Your brand is the first connection your customers and potential customers have of you and your business. Humor me for a moment, find your letterhead, a business card, or take a good look at your website. Now step back and look again.

Is your brand creating the impression you want? Honestly. And if you have even the tiniest smidge of hesitation, or you think there might be just an ever-so-slight opportunity to improve or update it, then it might be time to bring in the brand Top Guns. It might be time to invest a little effort and resource to make those brands relevant to how you want your customers to see your business.

As Steve Jobs once said of one of the worlds most recognizable brands, Apple; “great brands stand out and stand FOR something. They don’t tow the line and do what’s expected, they dare to be different and they take a strong stand for what they believe in…. they know who their audience is and they focus their message on them.”

If you can stand with your hand on your heart and think that sums up your brand beautifully, then my job is done.  If it doesn’t, then get in touch with us at Virtual Elves. We’re lucky enough to work closely with brand gurus, Marketing Angels, and together, with just the right mix of belief, effort and passion, you can make your brand stand out brightly and loudly.

Don’t settle for mediocrity or complacency. Dare your brand to be AWESOME!

Let me take a guess, you’ve got glossy, bulging, clearly articulated and prepared business plans.  And you refer to them regularly – they are your direction, your guiding light for your business.  You continually revise, rework, reread, remind….

But I’m just going to put this out there, and I really hope I’m wrong …have you put your heart and soul into your business plan, and what little puff you had left, you’ve put together a marketing plan that is a shadow of it’s bigger, more prominent big brother.  Your marketing plan, may be an after-thought, perhaps quickly put together without the passion and investment you put into your business plan?

Your products and services are not something you should ever hide –you want to present your business to the most appropriate market through the most effective medium for having the most impact with the most number of prospective customers.  You won’t ever be the “most” unless you put your business out there…the most.

You want to sing from the rooftops and you want the right customers and clients to hear you singing.  A carefully prepared, strategic marketing plan will be your recipe for success; it’s your song sheet.

As Dr Seuss once wisely said “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

And he almost got it right.

You can steer yourself; you are the “guy” who’ll decide where to go.  But you don’t need to do it alone.  At Virtual Elves we have aligned ourselves with the top outsourced marketing businesses in Sydney.  The best of the best.  And we can connect you with them.  And before you can say “Green eggs and ham”, you can be the proud owner of a marketing plan, ready for you to implement.

…You’re off and away.

We are an elite group, we need to congratulate ourselves, because we are doing something many can’t – we are making a successful business on our own, without the noise, chaos and happy madness of an office environment.  Look around – have you created a productive space, a focused haven, a little bit of you in your work area?  The beauty is, you can because it’s yours.

I could wax lyrical about all the advantages of working on your own.  In fact I could do this for hours because there are many.

But one difference we need to acknowledge is there is a missing link in our environment. We have no office kitchen, no photocopy room, no water cooler, to stand around, just chatting with work mates about nothing in particular.  Our missing link is a little companionship.

But just because we haven’t got it, doesn’t mean we can’t have it.  We just need to work a little harder at finding it.

I’ve talked to you before about the benefits of networking, and for hunting out ways you can connect with others in your industry.  You’re reading my blog now and that’s just like listening to me right?  Use this wonderful online community wisely and discover forums, blogs, and websites that are relevant to you, or that you simply connect with and that resonate with you and your business.  Work hard at this, invest the time, read and chat with others, comment on blog posts, meet like-minded friends and business colleagues for coffee.

And remember this isn’t meant to be a chore and this is actually a productive use of time. We’re simply trying to create our own virtual water cooler.

You see just because we work alone, doesn’t mean we need to be alone.