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As IT specialists, a big way to differentiate yourself is to make sure that you’re branding your company. Focus on selling your company name with its new industry twist. In this article, you’ll learn why branding your company is so important for IT specialists.

Don’t go in flashing the certifications and vendor logos because that reduces you to a commodity. Sure, they can be part of your background information and something you can talk about, but don’t lead with that-you are IT specialists. Concentrate on marketing and selling YOUR brand and the unique industry-specific value that your firm brings to the table.

Filling Unfulfilled Needs

Another great way to differentiate yourself is to find an underserved local niche and dominate it. How do you find these local niches and dominate them? It’s a matter of just asking around.

Where to Find Your Industry Twist

When you’re out at chamber meetings or the Rotary, talking to prospects, or going to B2B expos, look around for a big problem that’s going unfulfilled. All of a sudden, a light bulb will go off one day and you say wow, I can’t believe no one thought of that first! So if you can think of a solution and there are enough people in the area who need it, it’s a really easy way to differentiate yourself as IT specialists.

IT Specialists: You and Your Clients May Not Agree on Problems

Be sure, however, that you’re not selling solutions to problems that people don’t think they have. Do you really want to talk someone into data security if they don’t understand why data security is important? That is not to say that you shouldn’t spend some time educating your prospects and your future clients about IT security.

But if you’re there for a half hour and they just don’t seem to get it, or they’re really stubborn, or they’re just throwing up all these kinds of barriers, don’t you think that there’s someone down the street, or someone else that you ought to be talking to who does get it? Don’t try to sell solutions to problems that people don’t think they have.

IT Specialists: Know Your Competition

Make sure you also know your local competition reasonably well. Look around; study the four or five big competitors of yours. It’s as simple as looking at their Web sites and brochures to see what other competitors are doing. Figure out if they all look the same, then you have a pretty good idea of what you need to do differently as an IT specialist.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Joshua Feinberg helps computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training.

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As a young entrepreneur I was always looking for ways to brand my small companies. I didn’t want to hire a firm and I was always open to learning. These are some things I’ve learned along the way that you might find helpful.

My top 5 ways of building a brand for your small business - without paying a dime.

Build a Website A website is something that almost any small business owner can build and maintain on his/her own without too much difficulty. There are a dozen or more free services out there that will not only give you free hosting but help you build a website as well.

Market Your Website Using free directories and forums, begin to grow your web presence so that you start bringing visitors to your website. Also be sure to tell all of your friends, family, and clients about your new website.

Create a Positioning Statement Take an hour or so to sit down and brainstorm. Decide what type of business you have, who you are marketing to, and why you are different from your competition. Take this information and formulate it into a 30 second long statement that you can easily memorize. Now, whenever someone asks what you do, you can project a clear and consistent image of your company. These statements will also assist you in maintaining a consistent image in other areas of your company.

Call or Visit Potential Clients No matter what type of business you are in it can be very valuable to call or visit potential clients or customers. Even though cold calling is usually unsuccessful in getting a customer on the spot - it can be very good at placing your company in their mind. This is what branding is all about. Using your positioning statement above can compound results from this - projecting a consistent image of your company into whatever circle you are in.

Offer Knowledge to the Community Offer to speak out at a local gathering. If you are an expert in your field you should offer at least some of that knowledge to the community in order to further your image. It is relatively easy to find people looking for free speakers - use the opportunity to brand yourself to a room full of people. Another way to do this is to write free articles for magazines or newspapers or the internet. Getting your name out as an expert in your field will increase the public awareness of your brand. For free.

With a little bit of effort and some learning along the way, it is easy for small business owners to profit from even free branding. Try some of these ideas and see for yourself. Branding is not a joke, even for small businesses it is a neccessity

Mason hipp is a life long entrepreneur that is using his experience to help bring other people into success by helping them with Small Business Branding and Identity. His experience in this field has led to the creation of a unique company that offers clear and profitable Corporate Identity Services for Small Business

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Branding is a very important thing for very large corporations, but there is another kind of branding that is not often talked about. The branding of people. Politicians, movie stars and professional athletes are wise to spend time thinking about branding and hiring professional public relations specialists and image consultants. With the millions of dollars of endorsements available to professional athletes and movie stars it makes sense to have strong brand identity.

But how do you brand a Beach Babe as a sex symbol? The branding of society sex symbols is a tricky subject and if it is done wrong you can ruin a person’s career and they will be fed to the paparazzi, like a raw flesh to barracuda. The branding of the successful beach babe sex symbols can be seen in magazines like Sports Illustrated. Even Playboy Magazine has done an excellent job, without going too far over the top, although they do push it to the limit too often.

Once a young starlet is branded as a Beach Babe sex symbol her career will really take off both in the movies and in print modeling work. But she must be careful not to allow anyone to stereotype her in a way, which puts her in a bad light with her fan clubs or movie viewers. It is not difficult in Hollywood to be branded as a sex symbol, but once you are it is difficult to maintain the top tier level, as new sex symbols enter the realm. Please consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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