Stickerbeat Blog: Tips, Ideas & Inspiration for Stickers and More
New Year's Resolutions For Entrepreneurs
We all know it’s a good idea to make New Year’s Resolutions for entrepreneurs. While it’s important to resolve to make certain improvements, it is even more important to follow through on them. We can do that by setting goals we can stick to and by breaking those goals down into smaller measurable chunks. Resolutions such as, I will eat healthier, exercise more, read more etc., are often abandoned quickly because they’re really just wishful thinking. In order to be achievable, goals need to have a tangible and measurable outcome and you need a plan to get there. An example of a measurable goal is I will lose 10 pounds. Giving up deserts or working out five times a week are examples of a plan to get there. New Year’s Resolutions For Entrepreneurs 1. Set Realistic Goals And Milestones Make a resolution to set realistic goals and break them down into achievable milestones. This is important because every milestone reached becomes a small victory and this will motivate you to keep moving toward your major goal. 2. Measure And Keep Track Of Your Successes It’s easy for an entrepreneur to feel too busy to build proper feedback loops into the business. But without ways to measure your success, you’re just hoping for the best. Resolve to follow the lean startup methodology of build, measure and learn. 3. Delegate More Do more of what you do best and support and encourage your staff to do what they do best. Then, stay out of their way while they’re doing it. People are happier and more productive when they feel like they’re making a meaningful contribution. The difference between surviving and success can be as simple as knowing how to manage your time by focusing on what you do best. 4. Improve Your SEO Whether you’re an established retailer or you’ve just started a business, you need to constantly improve your search engine optimization (SEO) and local SEO. You’re never done with SEO. Your competitors are constantly working on it and so should you. 5. Find Healthy Ways To Manage Stress It’s easy to use stress and a busy schedule as an excuse for unhealthy habits. Eating clean and working out will lead to increased performance but fast food meals and skipping out on physical activity will deliver the opposite result. Making poor choices comes with a price and it’s not a good deal for you. 6. Get Inspired Read the biography of a successful person. It's a way to learn something new and get inspired to do more at the same time. One of the easiest ways to achieve success is to model successful people. 7. Keep Up With Industry News Staying current is a must for entrepreneurs. You need to know what’s going on in the world to make smart, forward-thinking decisions for your business and to grow your social network effectively. 8. Pay More Attention To Customer Feedback Entrepreneurs often forget to ask for and listen to customer feedback. This could be costing you a lot of money in lost sales. Make it a priority to engage with your customers and ask them how your business could serve them better. Conduct surveys, use focus groups or reach out to people on social media. Implement whichever suggestions make the most sense. 9. Expand Your Knowledge Applied knowledge is power. Make time to read a few good business books or listen to a podcast while you’re driving - you'll be making an investment in yourself. Resolve to learn more and become a better entrepreneur in 2017. Conclusion New Year’s resolutions are a long-standing tradition. January gets its name from Janus, a two-faced god who looked backward into the old year and forward into the New Year. This tradition can be a starting point for real improvement in your business if you follow the advice in this article. Make a list of your resolutions for 2017 (and milestones) and keep it posted where you can see it every day. Wishing you much success and a Happy New Year!
Learn more10 Winter Holiday Activities
While a trip to a tropical resort makes for a nice winter holiday, it’s not in the cards for all of us this year. However, there are many ways to have fun with the entire family even if you happen to be staying at home. Here’s a list of 10 winter holiday activities to help keep your spirits up and fight cabin fever over the winter holiday. 10 winter holiday activities 1- Snowshoeing or Cross-country skiing According to Harvard Health Publications cross-country skiing and snowshoeing activity burn calories at the same rate. A 185-pound person will burn about 355 calories in 30 minutes. You can rent or buy the equipment and hit the local parks or a sky hill. Both are low-cost hobbies and lots of fun year after year. 2- Bowling Bowling used to be driven by bowling leagues. While there are fewer bowlers today, there has been a shift from a blue color to a white color clientele. You might want to give it a try. 3- Swimming Swimming is another healthy activity regardless of your level of proficiency. You will burn as many calories doing a breaststroke as you would if swimming fast freestyle. Get your summer swim trunks out and it will seem like you are in Hawaii or some other warm locale while you’re in a warm indoor pool. You’ll feel like you’re on vacation without any of the stress from traveling. 4- Tobogganing Because you have to climb back up the hill, you will burn a lot of calories here too. Tobogganing is a low-cost activity and it is a lot of fun for the entire family. You don’t have to go to an expensive facility for this one either. Practically any hill will do. Remember to make safety a priority during any of these activities. 5- Winter bike ride This isn’t for everyone, but some people ride their bikes all year long. They usually make a few equipment changes, like adding mudguards, cheap/old wheels and wider tires to make the bicycles function better in winter conditions. 6- Check out a climbing gym If there’s a climbing gym in the area, you might want to climb the walls there instead of climbing the walls in your own home. It’s a terrific way to fight cabin fever and it’s great for skill development. Climbing gyms have come a long way - some companies spend millions of dollars on carefully designed facilities that cater to climbers of all levels. 7- Take the kids on a five senses walk Here’s a fun way to get the entire family outdoors and help build an appreciation for nature. Pick one of the five senses for each outing. You could even keep score and offer a prize to the winner. Here are a few ideas for a five senses walk: Hearing: Listen for sounds and call out what you hear. You could mimic the sounds and identify the source for added fun. Touch: Describe anything you can touch - trees, moss, rocks etc. Sight: Pick an object and play a game like bug where the person who sees a Volkswagen beetle first, yells bug. The person with the most sightings wins the game. Taste: This one could be a bit of a challenge while you’re out in the field, but you could save it for later you get back home. Smell: What do you smell while on your walk? You could turn this into a game as well by having whoever detects a new odor first call out the name and then try to identify the source for extra points. Indoor winter holiday activities Because you can’t be outdoors all the time, we've come up with a few fun things for you to do indoors too. Most of these are low-cost as well: 8- Go to the library for books, tapes, and movies. 9- Take a trip to the museum. 10- Play indoor games like card games, scrabble, puzzles, board games, or organize a treasure hunt if you have younger children. You don't have to spend a lot of money to have a memorable winter holiday. Spend some quality time with friends and family and make sure you get outside and enjoy the great outdoors. Sending you our best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season from Stickerbeat.
Learn more5 Tips To Help Boost Your Sales
The most important skill to master in direct sales is the art of schmoozing. Many people have never learned how to feel comfortable around strangers. And, if you can’t be comfortable around strangers, you will have a difficult time making them feel comfortable around you. These 5 tips to help boost your sales will also help you break the ice when speaking with people you don't know. The easiest way to make someone comfortable is to show a genuine interest in them. Ask a few questions to find out what problem they want to solve and then help them make a good decision. We like to keep it short and sweet here at Stickerbeat, so here are 5 tips to help boost your sales. 5 Tips To Help Boost Your Sales Know Your Product. Experienced one-on-one sales people will tell you that a big part of being successful in sales is product knowledge. You have to know your product and you have to know your competitor’s product. Lead with Your Biggest Benefit. What is the biggest benefit your product delivers. That’s your strongest selling point, so use it to drive interest in your product. Qualify Your Prospect. Find out what problem your prospect is trying to solve and show him how your product or service will fix it. Your product or service has many good features but your prospect is mostly interested in how it will solve his problem. Don’t talk yourself out of a sale. Be Emotional About Your Product. Customers often buy on impulse, not logic. Be excited about your product or service. Enthusiasm is contagious. Get them excited about using your product or service and you will increase sales. Ask For The Sale. Once you think the prospect is genuinely interested, ask for the sale. If they are not quite ready yet they will tell you why and you can then deal with that objection. The Art Of Schmoozing The best schmoozers are able to gain your trust almost immediately. These people have the ability to make you feel as if you’ve known them for a long time, even though you just met. You can train yourself to get better at this by following the five simple steps presented in this article. Make a point to really listen to your prospects when they talk and give them appropriate feedback at the right time. Don’t get into technical details unless the client appears to be interested in them. Too much information will only confuse the prospect and they will want more time before they come to a decision to buy. Some people are born with the gift, but most of us have to work at it. The good news is, even if you’re not a natural at this, you can learn these skills and with practice, you will develop the ability to win people over quickly and build lasting relationships with them. This skill will transform and advance your career or business very quickly. There you have it. You only have five things to remember. Start working on this right away and you will see a dramatic increase in the sales you close vs the ones you quote.
Learn moreWelcome To Stickerbeat
It all began in 1986 when two elementary school buddies saved up enough money to buy a t-shirt printer and a computer sign-maker. There were no cell phones and the internet had a long way to go before it would serve a useful function for the public. In fact, we had a rotary phone on the order desk! But times changed and so did we. With Stickerbeat, we take one part of our business completely online. We started the business in the basement of a house. The two original partners are still together and we now use four different high-speed, state-of-the-art digital presses to produce our work. Today, our children are part of the team and we’ve launched this website to take this part of the business completely online. Get Stickers That Rock From Stickerbeat On Stickerbeat, you can create and order stickers, decals, and magnets right from your own computer. This reduces costs and we’re passing the savings on to you by shipping it to your door for free. That’s right. There are no shipping charges on Stickerbeat! Besides offering a great product at a great price, we are also sharing informative content to help you make a success of your business. If you’re thinking about starting a business, you might be interested in reading this post, advice for entrepreneurs. If you’ve already started a business but you’re not quite sure how to go about carving out a niche for yourself, you should read this article about branding your small business. We’ve also posted some great marketing tips for the Christmas holiday season here. And since we’re all about stickers and decals, we’ve looked into the history of using stickers for marketing. You can read all about it in this post titled custom stickers. We hope you enjoy browsing our site as much as we enjoy creating it. Keep checking back, because we are continuously posting new content. And remember, we’re here for you if you need help with custom work. Just fill out this form and one of our designers will get right back to you.
Learn moreTwelve Marketing Tips For Christmas
It’s almost December and fifty-five percent of shoppers have already started shopping for Christmas. The Christmas season is the peak of retail sales in most countries. While some shoppers know exactly what they want, many do not – and that spells opportunity. Here are twelve tips to help spice up your Christmas marketing campaign. Twelve Marketing Tips For Christmas 1- Have a Christmas countdown. It helps get people in the mood and it reminds them how much time they have left to shop. Use your social media accounts to spread the cheer and send subtle reminders that time is running out. 2- Starting on December 12th, promote 12 last-minute gift ideas, one on each day. You could coordinate this with the countdown mentioned in the previous suggestion. Promote a great gift at a discount on each of the last twelve days. It could be extra inventory or special purchase items. Run this along with an advertising campaign to generate lots of excitement. 3- Think outside the box and expand your marketing to incorporate other aspects of the holiday season. It’s not just about presents. There’s food, decorating, celebrating and the spreading of holiday cheer. People are also very interested in seasonal purchases for their own use. 4- While most of the shopping is related to the Christmas season, your regular shoppers still need to shop for their day to day needs. And who knows, even Scrooge might buy himself something special, though out-of-season, despite himself. 5- Take advantage of the difference in when men and women shop. Women are more likely to shop early while men notoriously wait till the last minute. Tailor your specials to coincide with their shopping habits. 6- There’s a big shopping rush on the last few days by the shoppers who put off their buying until the last minute. Target these late-comers with limited-time offers of short duration to encourage them to buy certain products. Late shoppers often have no idea what it is they want to buy – it’s a great opportunity to help them out. 7- Have an in-store lottery. Raffle-off several valuable gifts to the few lucky shoppers with winning receipt numbers. If you’re competitive in other regards, it could tip the scale in your favor. People love to win prizes. 8- Much of the gift-buying is for kids and they have considerable influence over what it is their parents buy for them. Take advantage of this by offering deep discounts for the kinds of things kids like. You’ll be doing them a favor and your bottom line will like it too. 9- Use custom die cut stickers in targeted areas of your business to build on the buzz created by your sales flyers. This works especially well in high traffic areas. 10- Rather than offering a discount on repeat purchase items, reward your customers with endowed progress cards. It works like this: if a customer is given a Buy 10, get 1 free card and two of the stamps are already marked, they’re very likely to make the required purchases to receive the freebie. It’s a sure-fire way to increase sales and customer loyalty. 11- Give small gifts with a personal touch. Have you ever received a handmade gift? It felt pretty special, didn’t it? You can show your customers you truly appreciate them by giving them a small gift. Even a magnetic grocery list that sticks on the fridge comes across as a personal gift if it doesn’t have the name of a business on it. They will always remember where they got it. 12- Always Have Gift Cards Available. Most of us have at least one person that is difficult to shop for, or sometimes the gift we want to buy is sold out. It’s important to have gift cards so you don’t miss out on these sales. Twelve Marketing Tips For Christmas Wrap-up The holiday season is an exciting time for marketers due to the enormous sales opportunities. Most of the ideas listed above can be adapted to work for different types of businesses and for different marketing channels. Here’s wishing you much success with these twelve marketing tips for Christmas.
Learn moreStickers
Welcome to Stickerbeat. Over the past 30 years, we’ve printed a wide variety of stickers for individuals and small businesses. We've also made custom stickers for well-known companies like Nike, Home Depot, Walmart, Best Buy and many others. Heavy Duty Stickers Our stickers will hold up to the harshest weather conditions. We make them out of the same material that we use to wrap vehicles, like the one in you see in the featured image of this post. That means they’ll hold up to any use you’re likely to put them to. Our custom stickers are much more than just dishwasher safe – you’ve seen them rolling down the road on the sides of trucks and buses at highway speeds. They hold up despite heavy storms and hundreds of trips to the carwash. History of Modern Day Stickers Stickers have evolved to meet the changing times. The earliest stickers date back to ancient Egypt. Egyptians made glue by boiling a combination of animal hides, hooves and connective tissue and used it to plaster product and pricing stickers to the walls of ancient cities. Postage stamps are stickers too, and the first one was called the penny black. It went on sale May 1, 1840 in the UK. Stanton Avery is credited with developing the modern day sticker. He designed a machine that put self-adhesive labels onto a paper backing treated with silicone. This allowed the mass production of sticker sheets that could be peeled off and reapplied elsewhere. Bumper Stickers Czechoslovakian automaker N. Wagenbau-Fabriksgesellschaft was the first to put bumpers on cars in 1897. Unfortunately, the early bumpers were not designed well and they often fell off before they offered any protection to the vehicle’s owners. A few years later, British engineer Frederick Simms was granted a patent for his new impact-absorbing bumper. Credit for inventing the bumper sticker goes to Forest P. Gill. He attached advertisements to car bumpers with wire in the early 1930s and later used pressure-sensitive stock. By 1984, the Gill-line company had produced more than 1 billion bumper stickers when it celebrated its 50th anniversary. You can order bumper stickers here. Stickers Go Viral People have advertised with stickers for a long time, but their popularity really boomed in the early 1980’s when John Keaton invented a peel and stick product for rock band posters. He developed durable stickers to resist vandalism in tough neighborhoods. Mirrors, guitar cases and windows have never been the same since John’s invention. Custom Stickers That Rock Stickers have evolved significantly over the years and people are now using them for personal expression as well as for mass advertising. Whether you want stickers for your personal use or for your business, you deserve the best. Don’t take a chance with an inferior product - order stickers that rock from Stickerbeat.
Learn moreMarketing Ideas For Holidays For Small Business
Many businesses are planning a marketing campaign for the Thanksgiving holiday using only traditional media like postcards and flyers. That’s a mistake because stickers aren’t just for kids anymore. Good marketing ideas for holidays will drive sales up and boost your brand image. A quality sticker is usually viewed as a gift. That makes it harder to throw away than other promotional items like brochures and flyers. In addition, they are more engaging than a business card. Because stickers are powerful sales and identity building tools, they should be a part of your marketing program. Here are a few ways you can use stickers to boost your Thanksgiving holiday profits. Marketing Ideas For Holidays 1. Think outside the box and put attention-getting stickers in unexpected places. They grab your customer’s attention and they will stick in your customer’s minds. Here’s where imagination and ingenuity can beat out a bigger budget – think guerilla marketing. Vehicles, trash cans, public restrooms, walls, floors and ceilings – all are perfect places for this type of marketing. 2. Use cues and clues to drive sales. Use footprint stickers to help customers find deals or arrows that direct customers to areas where you have special discounts. 3. Use stickers to drive sales of related products that go together. Place color-coded discount stickers on components that go together to increase overall sales for example. 4. Use attention-getting stickers directly on products. Create stickers that show a features and benefits list, a call to action, or some other device. This will encourage customers to buy your product now. 5. Use stickers to build on existing sales. You could use an in-the-box sticker to entice customers to make another purchase. Some examples would be an extended warranty or a discount on the purchase of a related product. 6. Stickers are easy to share. If you create a campaign that is easy to share, you maximize the odds that your campaign will go viral . Remember, the large majority of consumers rely on word of mouth as the biggest influence in their purchasing decisions. Use Marketing Ideas That Work Politicians and savvy business people have been marketing with stickers for over half a century. Promotional stickers come in all shapes and sizes and can be applied to all sorts of things. They can be placed on bottles, equipment, vehicles, signs, phones, windows, people… almost anywhere. Most of all, stickers are long-lasting and have a low cost per impression. Take advantage of this powerful, low-cost marketing medium and order Stickers That Rock.
Learn morePersonalize Your Wedding And Make It A Special Day
There seems to be a million things to think of when you start to plan your big day. Just remember it’s easy to personalize your wedding day by making it more your own. From picking a date to sending out invitations, it’s important to add your personal touch to all aspects of the event. At Stickerbeat, we’d love to help and be part of your big day, so we’ve come up with a few ways to make sure you put your stamp on every piece of the event! How To Personalize Your Wedding 1. Save-the-Date Magnets Shake up the traditional save-the-date invitation and give your guests something different. Save-the-date magnets are practical and they’re guaranteed to remind your guests of when your special day is. Don’t like magnets - print off some personalized calendar stickers for your save-the-dates. 2. Create a Unique #hashtag Don’t forget about your social media addicted friends. Remind them of your special day with your own personal hashtag. It’s a guaranteed buzz-builder. 3. Add Personalized Labels to Guest Favors Give your guests something that will remind them of your wedding! Add personalized labels to your favors for that extra special touch. You can make labels for candy, gift bags, boxes, or any kind of personalized wedding gift. Need an idea? Try ‘Mint to Be’ mint cases or homemade jam! 4. Make a Custom CD of Your Favorite Songs Nothing is more personal than a soundtrack of your favorite songs. Order custom labels along with your stickers to create another long-term reminder of your special day. 5. Personalized Tumblers Whether you are planning a local wedding or a destination wedding, personalized tumblers are the perfect gift for your wedding party. Not only are they practical but they look great in pictures (and prevent spills). 6. Car Decals Here’s a twist on the traditional. Personalize your getaway car with temporary custom window decals. You will love them every time you look back on your pictures and videos of the event. 7. Custom Wine Labels Jazz up your tables by adding custom labels to your table wine. Not only will guests love them - they make wonderful keepsakes. Personalize Your Wedding To Make It Special When you do something to add your personal touch, always remember to tie it back to the overall wedding vision for consistency. Make sure some of the elements are consistent in all your items. Colors, fonts, the format of the date - all of these should have some consistent elements that tie it all together. Your wedding is a once in a lifetime event. By adding your personal touch to various parts of the event, you will make sure it will be a day you and your guests will never forget! Brides, remember you save 20% off all wedding related orders by using promo code BRIDE.
Learn moreBranding For Small Business
Branding for small business is important - it tells people what they can expect from you and it differentiates you from your competitors. Your brand is what people think of when they hear your brand name. Are you just starting out or are you experienced and reliable? Do you provide exotic, high-cost products or do you deliver top quality at a reasonable price? You can't market yourself as both and it’s important that people know what they can expect from you. Branding For Small Business Here are a few questions to help you define your brand: Who are you and what do you do? What problem are you solving and how are you different from the competition? What’s in it for the client and why should they want to deal with you? Positioning Your Brand Unless you have a unique product that no one else has, you need to think about positioning. It is the place you want to own in your prospect’s minds – what you want them to think of when they think of your brand. Here are a few examples of positioning: Position based on benefit - Volvo: Safety Position based on the consumer -Pepsi: Pepsi Generation Position based on proposition -Burger King: Have it your way Position based on the competition -Seven-Up: The Un-cola Getting The Word Out Once you've defined your brand, you need to get the word out? Here are a few time-tested tips: Get a great logo and display it everywhere. Develop a good tagline. Write a short and meaningful statement that captures the essence of your brand. Choose something catchy so it’s easy to remember. Integrate your message. Be consistent in every aspect of your business. Your brand needs to carry through in everything you do. Advertise. They won’t come if they don’t know you exist. How Custom Stickers Help Build Your Brand Stickers deliver a high-impact and memorable message in a short period of time. That’s effective marketing and it delivers a big bang for the buck. Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing your stickers: Use templates for your marketing materials. Templates guarantee a consistent look and feel and they speed up the work process. You want to have a consistent look and feel to your business cards, your website and your social media pages. This is how you broadcast and repeat your message. Be genuine. You won’t get repeat business or customer referrals if you don't deliver on your brand promise. Be consistent. This is one of the most important things you can do. Your customers need to know what to expect or your attempts at establishing a brand will fail. Build Your Brand With Stickers That Rock! Why use stickers? Branding for small business is meant to increase the effectiveness of advertising and boost profits. Stickers are a brand marketer’s best friend. Stickerbeat stickers last for three to five years in outdoor use; they deliver a high-impact and memorable message in a short period of time. And, they’re cheap to make and fun to hand out. That’s effective marketing which means you’re getting a big bang for your advertising dollars. Stickers Are a Brand Marketer’s Best Friend Avoid Sticker Shock Use our templates to create your stickers and reduce the cost of creating your promotional materials. It’s quick and it’s easy. Build a buzz for your brand - order stickers that rock now!
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