Bring your brand to life

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” James Cash Penney

Your brand is who you are and, more importantly, who customers think you are. It is not just a logo or a tag line. Brand equity describes the value of having a well-known brand name. It is the commercial value that comes from consumer perception of the brand name of a particular product or service. Brand equity is made up of four key influencing factors: brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand association and perceived quality. Read More

Love0

Fifty empowering and inspirational quotes

By Caroline SiassiosMotivation

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation. Benjamin Disraeli

Why do we like quotes? Quotes that you relate to are not generally new information. They are well formed phrases that neatly express what we know or believe. They are bite size snippets of what people have learnt over their life and can act as reminders for values and behaviours that can get lost or forgotten in the whirlwind of life. They can also empower and inspire you to be the person you want to be. Here are just a few motivating words from variety of sources: Read More

Love0

Adding a touch of style

By Caroline SiassiosDesign, Fonts

Styling text is a way to help a reader distinguish one bit of text from another. The right choice and use of type can give design impact. There are a number of variables you can alter when styling text for web. These properties can be added to a style sheet or used as an inline style. Font-family is one styling property; Helvetica looks very different from Times New Roman. A word’s colour is another part of its style; red text is easily distinguished from green text. Whether designing web pages or a blog article, bookmark this article for easy access to make styling your next web text easy. Read More

Love0

Creating, storing and protecting online passwords

By Caroline SiassiosBusiness

Open Sesame! Key tips and facts on passwords to your life online

Passwords are designed to keep data secret. We have passwords to let us in to our online accounts for so many things including banking, social media, online tools and emails. Like the lock on your front door, they protect your digital security. If your password is captured, guessed or stolen, someone could impersonate you online, steal money from your online bank account, send emails in your name or change files on your computer – to name just a few of the possible outcomes. Read More

Love0

Be the Boss of Your Time

By Caroline SiassiosPlanning

Four Steps to a More Productive Day

Time management is an important life skill that we can all constantly reflect and improve on. Practicing strategies and techniques to manage time enables you to embark on new challenges with confidence. Time management is mainly about controlling your environment, rather than allowing your environment to control you. If you tolerate and allow the interruptions and demands of others then you effectively encourage these time management pressures to continue. Although everybody works differently, the following four steps are a framework to enable you be the boss of your time. Read More

Love0

How to install new fonts

By Caroline SiassiosFonts

Download and add new fonts to your computer by following these few steps

You can easily find and install new fonts on your computer with just a few clicks. There are many free typestyles available online on sites such as Font Squirrel, DaFont, 1001 Free Fonts and FFonts. You can also browse the range of hundreds of Open Source fonts at Google fonts that are free for use for print and web designs. However, don’t get too carried away with your use of fonts. Remember your reader will get frustrated if they can’t read your words. Also read the license carefully. Many free fonts are licensed for personal use only and don’t include commercial use.

If you have never downloaded a font file before, here are the basic steps.

What problems do you solve?

By Caroline SiassiosPlanning

Have you asked yourself “What problems do I solve?” This question is the essence of providing a service or products that people need. It is the question that unlocks the direction you want to move towards. It what your customer wants to know. “Can you solve my problem?” Educate prospective customers that you understand their problems, you can solve their problems and you are the best one for them to turn to for the solution they need. Read More

Love0

Organising a successful blog

By Caroline SiassiosBusiness, Marketing

Blogging is a powerful strategy for your business that can help establish your reputation, build authority in your industry and connect with your customers. Successful blogging takes work. Make sure you establish goals, clarify your audience and create a plan before you start publishing so your time is not wasted. Read More

Love0

How to pick the right format for your images

By Caroline SiassiosDesign

There are many different types of image files. Are you overwhelmed when selecting the right one for a job or do you just disregard the file extension (.jpg, .gif, .bmp etc) and hope for the best? What is the different and when is each one appropriate. Understanding different types of image is especially useful when it comes to your logo files. Whether you are working with a designer sending artwork to print or uploading a picture to a blog post, keep our list of definitions handy so you can be confident when discussing, requesting or selecting your images. Read More

Love0

How do you market your business?

By Caroline SiassiosBusiness, Marketing

When you make the choice to run your own business over paid employment, work doesn’t come in nice 9 to 5 chunks. There are days when you might be run off your feet and you have plenty to do. There are also days when you seem to be twiddling your thumbs and you wonder if the phone will ring, bringing you new business. These quiet moments are the perfect opportunity to work on your business. One job on the list is to review your marketing plan and consider what you can do to get that phone ringing more. If you are a bit stuck, here is a list of ideas for how you could be marketing yourself: Read More

Love0