Best Business Mastery LLC (www.bestbusinessmastery.com), the best provider of do-it-yourself small business marketing strategies, is now offering 25% off all its products and services from BLACK FRIDAY November 27, 2009 thru CYBER MONDAY November 30, 2009. Take advantage of this 2009 one time special offer for small business owners at bestbusinessmastery.com. Get your business “BACK IN THE BLACK” with strategies the pros use.

According to the Small Business Success Index (SBSI):
Small businesses have also been hit with some negative effects of the recession:
•30% of small business owners believe their access to capital is not sufficient
•41% of small business owners have had to accept a lower standard of living
•30% of small business owners report the recession has hurt employee morale
•19% of small business owners say they have had to reduce valuable staff

Now is the time to get your business BACK IN THE BLACK so you can compete, retain customers, hire the best people and grow your business in 2010.

USE Promotion Code “FRIDAYCYBER09” at BESTBUSINESSMASTERY.com for a 25 % OFF Discount on Audio System Orders from 11.27.09-11.30.09

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Tony Alessandra, PhD tells it like it is- great story teller with fabulous lessons in business & customer service that everyone should follow! Thanks Tony!

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Shakira and I talk every day. Mostly about marketing, branding, web, public relations and topics revolving around them. We noticed that there was a pattern developing with many of the new and small businesses we encountered. That is, while they may be GREAT at their chosen profession, they did not know much about the topics we felt passionate about- marketing, public relations, the web, SEO, design, and we noticed that they tended to make the same marketing and branding errors over and over again.

During one conversion where we observed yet excited new entrepreneur making a ‘classic’ email blast error, we wished out loud that we could tell everyone we met about the basics of email blasts. Or marketing. Or branding. Or public relations. So we decided right then and there to create an audio product that new business owners can purchase and listen to over and over again on their mp3 players. There were outlines to be created, a little bit of additional research, music, voice overs, recordings to do, along with the creation of a sister e-commerce site! Whoa! Yes, we’ve been busy!

To that end, we are proud to announce the launch of our sister site: Best Business Mastery! It’s an e-commerce site where you can download and listen to informational audios instantly! Save time from reading and just add the mp3 files to your listening device and learn while you are at the gym or in your car commuting. We have also added an easy way to purchase limited quantities of consulting services from us, either via email or a simple telephone conversation. Perfect for the sole business owner, who needs someone to ‘bounce’ ideas off of and no one to turn to. We hope you enjoy these marketing tools, and find them useful for your business. To that end, we are offering a FREE audio download, “The 7 Notorious Deadly Sins of Small Businesses.” The audio system we’ve developed will change the way you do business today. Your Best Business Now (Vol. 1) highlights important strategies for successfully promoting your small business, including: Nearly three hours of three easy to understand programs with info on how to market your small business and compete in any economy. Learn the latest methods including email marketing, public relations, advertising, branding, web development and do-it-yourself technology that top U.S. companies use every day. Find out how-to attract and retain customers and clients.

We are already planning our next products for the site, and we look forward to hearing from you after you try our new products!

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Hopefully the title has said it all. Today I received an email blast from a well known female business magazine located in New Jersey. Wanting to know more, I clicked through to their website, which was nice, informative and seemed to have some useful information targeted towards a female audience. I was curious how much they charged for banner advertising and what their traffic stats looked like, so I emailed them via the form on their site. The automatic response page included the following:

“Thank you, expect a responce within 2 working days.”

Uh, first of all…TWO WORKING DAYS? In this economy? I later reviewed and in small print, it said if I was interested in advertising, I might expect a response in one day…’might.’ This left me with the feeling that advertising wasn’t that important to them. Secondly, and if you haven’t guessed, but the word ‘response’ is spelled with an ’s’ not a ‘c.’ Which lead me to think that maybe they aren’t a ‘professional’ woman’s publication after all. I don’t have much more to say here, except to remind everyone to SPELLCHECK and proof your web sites. PLEASE. I’d write more, but I have to proof this now…

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As a business owner, your brand is your reputation. Easily hurt so guard it with great care. This means, honoring your commitments, providing the services you promised, and paying your bills promptly. During this challenging economic climate, it can be difficult to pay your bills. We all know that, we are all in the same economic mess out there. But an effort should be made to pay them none the less. If you are having trouble, seek out the person or company you are indebted to, tell them that you intend to make good on your debt, and even if it takes you longer to pay, you’ve protected your reputation in the meantime. You did the honorable thing. You owed up to you debt, acknowledged it, and promised again to pay. Far worse is the company or business owner who ignores his or her debt, or makes excuses why they are not paying. If you are indebted to someone in your local area and behave like this, surely the word will soon be out on the street that you don’t pay your bills. What does that say about you and your business? You cannot be trusted. Vendors will be apprehensive to work with you, as they feel they won’t get paid. Even if you have a sterling reputation to start with, failure to live up to your obligations can take you down swiftly and hurt your business for a long time. Why chance it? Guard your reputation, your brand carefully. It’s a delicate thing.

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I called a merchant services vendor that negotiated a marketing deal with the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce thinking I was going to get special help because I was going through the Chamber.

I called the dedicated 1800 number and I was put into a voicemail box. The voicemail mentioned the vendor I was calling and the Chamber. It said to leave my name, phone, company and someone would get back to me in two business days.

Huh?

Why bother with partnering with a treasure trove of business like a chamber of commerce if you do not have a live person to answer chamber inquiries during normal business hours?
The chamber offers a potential built in customer base and to jeopardize that with poor customer service is mind boggling to say the least.

If you are associated with a large business organization for marketing purposes, make sure the customer service you offer to members of the organization is top notch. Don’t lose out on prized referrals due to poor customer service.

About Branding4Newbies
Branding4newbies (http://branding4newbies.com) is a full service consulting firm providing marketing, communications, branding and web strategy services to small and emerging businesses. Branding4newbies.com is an award-winning marketing and advice blog for entrepreneurs. Our team of professionals provide quality services at competitive prices to help support the advancement of small businesses. Our services include, but are not limited to: web strategy & development, graphic design, public relations, marketing, collateral material development, advertising, content development, search engine optimization, reputation management and business strategy.

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