Northwest Gold Coast

Although I make a living helping businesses attract new customers and sales through online media, I don’t quickly jump on every new social medium platform.

This is because I’ve learned from experience that:

• some are huge time wasters that provide very little meaningful communication,
• others don’t last long enough to be proven as effective social networking or marketing systems, and
• others change format so often that no one wants to keep up with the latest version of the system (over engineering-itis).

Therefore, I read reviews of new systems, question staff, friends and associates about their experiences with the new systems, test some for personal use and wait until there is sufficient evidence that it is worth spending time and energy to fully learn and implement another system.

As a result of this process I have chosen to set up LinkedIn.com and Plaxo.com accounts to keep connected with business associates. I also have  set up a Twitter.com profile to follow a business associate’s tweets and found that other business associates were looking for me on Twitter. Then I began to set up Facebook.com pages – one for personal use and others for client businesses.

So has this helped business?

Yes and no. It has:

• increased the number of incoming links and visitors to websites that I manage,
• helped me keep updated on who’s doing what where, and
• helped renew and strengthen business relationships.

However, it has not brought significant volumes of new clients or sales yet.

So today when a prospective client asks me whether he/she should invest in social media, I say, “Only if your website, blog and email communications are already optimized and producing new customers and more sales. Websites, blogs and email marketing are still very effective strategies and the new social communication systems do not replace them, they simply augment them.”

As for which order to implement traditional web and newer web marketing strategies, it does depend somewhat on the market niche and the business’ marketing budget.   However, the typical succession is

1. website with on page and  in site  natural search optimization strategies implemented (website may or may not include a blog),
2. off page optimization of the website (i.e. keyword rich links from other well-optimized, geographically or topically on target  websites  including local map search sites, online directories and other industry-related web pages),
3. pay per click marketing,
4. email marketing,
5. article marketing,
6. social marketing (selection of specific strategies such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, MySpace, etc. depends upon market niche and ideal customer demographics).

To help businesses  develop a prioritized outline of possible marketing mediums, I offer a one hour complimentary consultation.   To schedule your complimentary consultation, please phone me at 206.244.9092 or email info@4cesi.com.

Tags: Business Advice by Elizabeth Paulsen
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I enjoy mentoring new businesses.   One of the most common questions I hear from new business owners is “How should I set my price?”   Here is what I tell them.

Know the price your competitors are charging.   Gather as much information as you can regarding what your competitors are charging and why.   Make certain that for each price you know the specific products, options and services that are included.

Know your lowest possible price.   For each service/product list all your costs including supplies, staffing, shipping overhead and follow on services.   Then for each service/product add your minimum margin (the money your business needs to make above the costs for that item to be viable).

Compare your competitors’ prices to your lowest possible prices.   It helps to build a table of each service and product and list your prices in one column and the prices of competitors in other columns.   Then study the options below and select the option that works best for your business.

Lowest Price Option

Consider being the lowest price competitor when:

1. You know you can sustain the price for a long time.
2. You know that your competition can’t come near that price because their overhead and other costs are higher and they don’t have the funding and can’t get the funding to offer your price or lower.
3. You know that another competitor can’t enter the market and offer a lower price.

Don’t aim to be the lowest price competitor when:

1. There already is or is likely to be a competitor who has the funding to drop below your lowest possible price. A competitor who has adequate funding can drop their price just long enough to get your customers to switch and make you raise your price or force you out of business. It is important to note that customers who shop for lowest price are fickle. As soon as your price is no longer the lowest, they’ll feel fully justified in moving on. Don’t count on their loving your services/products so much that they will stay even when you’re no longer the lowest price.
2. Prospects who are shopping for your services/products may think yours are substandard in quality because price is associated with quality in your industry.

Highest Price Option

Consider being the highest price competitor when:

1. You have at least one story of success that you can share. If you have done the same work or made the same product for someone else and can  tell  prospects that you significantly contributed to that success, you can command a high price.
2. You know that you and your services/products are worth it. Prospects can smell confidence. They’ll believe you’re the best if you believe it.
3. There are sufficient prospects for your services/products for you to sustain your business.
4. You can achieve and sustain the level of service and quality that your price promises. Some businesses can and do pay a lot of attention to the total customer experience so that they sustain the  service quality  through every aspect of the relationship.

Don’t aim to be the highest price competitor when:

1. There are too few prospects to buy your services/products. You could become too dependent on only those few so that those customers and not you would control your business. In addition, you could wind up alienating other prospects by being perceived as being too “high falutin” for anybody’s good.
2. You’re not confident that you are better than the rest and you have no story to tell of past success.
3. You don’t know how to sustain being the best quite yet.

Middle Price Option

Consider being a middle priced competitor when:

1. You want the greatest flexibility in pricing.
2. You don’t have a great story of success to tell right from the get go.
3. You have no desire to make huge waves amongst your competitors right from the get go as either lowest or highest price may do.

Don’t aim to be middle priced when your business model is really better suited to either lowest or highest price.

Pricing to the Level of Responsibility

There is a phenomenon that I call “pricing to the level of responsibility” that occurs when a business charges higher-end prices. This phenomenon is desirable. The phenomenon looks like this:

1. A business charges a high price;
2. Prospects believe that the business is the best because it charges a high price. The logic is this… “After all, who would have the ‘chutzpah’ to charge the highest price if they didn’t really deserve it?”
3. This logic can carry on into the contract. “If we’re paying this business this much money we must use its services/products and listen to its representatives so that we can fully implement their recommendations in a timely manner. After all we don’t want to waste all that money we’re spending.”

This phenomenon should never be leveraged simply to secure a high price because the customer will see through this and be greatly offended.

However, this phenomenon can be very helpful in situations in which the customers’ commitment to the project needs to be high. It causes both the customer and the vendor to work together as a team and can truly support a successful result.

Finally, when a business defines its pricing, it can confidently communicate this to prospects and customers.   Clarity around pricing helps set a positive tone for the business/customer relationship.   The earlier a new business can set its pricing, the more quickly it can move towards success.

For more information contact Elizabeth Paulsen at 206.244.9092 or info@4cesi.com.

Tags: Business Advice by Elizabeth Paulsen
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Dustin Keane joined Cascade e-Commerce Solutions Inc. (CeSI) as an intern on the 12th of May. He is currently a sophomore attending Highline Big Picture High School. Dustin and his family reside in SeaTac, Washington.

Dustin’s interests include learning how computers are used in business and learning how to code websites.

Highline Big Picture High School is located at the old Glacier site. At Highline Big Picture students attend school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and go to internships on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To obtain an internship the student requests  informational interviews  with businesses in their areas of   interest.  Each interview lasts about 20-30 minutes. Then if the student likes   a business or business person, the student requests a job shadow. Next if the student is still interested in that business, the student requests an internship set-up meeting with the student’s advisor (teacher) and the business.   During that meeting the participants discuss whether the work at that business is relevant to the student’s interests and a good learning experience for the student.

Highline Big Picture students are not graded in a traditional way (i.e. A, A+, B, B- etc) instead, throughout the year, they present their work at 2-4 exhibitions. Each exhibition contains detailed documentation and proof of work performed, skills learned, and relationships developed.

If you are interested in learning more about Highline Big Picture High School, visit http://hsd401.org/ourschools/highschools/bigpicture/

Tags: Services by admin
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Vitamin D, also known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’, has  a  number of health related benefits that may surprise you.   Many of us have often associated this vitamin with strong bone health and growth, but numerous studies have shown that diets high in vitamin D can contribute to so much more than just that.

As we age, less vitamin D is converted to it’s active form and bone density decreases.   In assisting the body in absorbing calcium, this vitamin can lessen the affects of arthritis and joint pain, as well as greatly decrease your chances of osteoporosis.  Research has shown that vitamin D has several effects on your immune system function and may decrease the risk of several auto-immune diseases, decreasing your risk of high blood pressure and hypertension, as well as helping to fight off diabetes, gum disease, cancer and multiple sclerosis.     Studies have shown that individuals with the highest blood levels of vitamin D have decreased their chances of colon cancer by nearly half.

Since vitamin D is naturally present in very few foods, and added to others, a supplement may be the best way to get your daily dose.   It has been recommended that adults should have 1000 IU of vitamin D daily, but newer studies are suggesting 2000 IU a day in many adults, or higher for individuals living in sunlight deprived regions, such as our beautiful Pacific Northwest.   Other ways to get your D could be as little as 20 minutes a day of direct sunlight, dairy products, fish that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, and Cod liver oil supplements.

To get your daily dose we recommend you grab some sunshine while you can this spring and summer.

Tags: Health by Michelle Leonard
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