The Captain’s Blog : Archive for February, 2008

It’s that time again. Time to get ready for the Big Business and Technology Expo. We’ve a booth in the past and we wanted to do one again this year. But, like anything else where businesses come together it can be difficult to standout from the crowd and be memorable. We brainstormed quite a bit, and we came up with some pretty crazy ideas for our new booth; a human aquarium, attractive girls walking around with our logo branded on their foreheads, an airport terminal, hanging up laundry, even carrying potential clients around on our shoulders. Finally, we decided that we should create a beautiful booth that exemplifies the principles of great design. By doing so it would show us doing what we do.

When putting together a trade-show booth, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of gimmicks, we did. Don’t let gimmicks cloud your vision. Get off the gimmick bandwagon and remember that any business can best promote itself by being real and genuine. Find a way to let the very layout of your booth show what you do and who you are. People will find it refreshing, and you’ll attract the type of clients you want.

Brandon Jeppson

You know that phrase “some things are worse than death”? Well, for many people that means things like; reviews, one-on-ones, progress reports or evaluations. Many of us fear having our weaknesses and failures laid out before us like a bleak prognosis of our chance for success. However, I’ve noticed that when people ask how they can improve, it builds trust, strengthens the relationship and improves success. We’ve stretched this concept beyond internal evaluations and have asked our clients how we are doing at serving them and what we can do to improve. Independent of what the feedback is, this process always serves to strengthen our relationship with them, which means happy clients. When we have happy clients, that is success. No doubt the same holds true for any brand, product or service. So, when there’s a chance to have a review or an evaluation jump at the chance, it’s sure to be good medicine for your success.

Brandon Jeppson