Golf Tip
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To Swag or Not to Swag: Tip to Brand Your Tchotchkes on a Shoestring
   
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Dont Weight--You Can Be Active At Any Size!
Very large people face special challenges in trying to be
active. You may not be able to move or bend in the same way that
other people can. It may .....
Very large people face special challenges in trying to be
active. You may not be able to move or bend in the same way that
other people can. It may .....
It's interesting to see how resourceful people become when
starting their own business. Especially when budget is tight,
creative juices go into high gear. I recall my days in corporate
marketing when every event, whether it be a sales conference,
partner summit or tradeshow had to have tchotchkes. (Tchotchke
is Yiddish for those corporate giveaways you see at tradeshows,
usually small trinkets branded with the company's logo. If the
tchotchkes are really cool, some people even call them swag or
schwag.)
It is not uncommon for marketing managers to spend upwards of
$20,000 per event for straight swag. For some of the higher-end
swag, it could cost up to $30 per product when you're dealing
with custom branded USB drives, mini-mice and golf gear. All in
the name of brand awareness an unquantifiable, zero-ROI
marketing expense. So why do they do it? Because they can.
But where there's a will, there's a way, and small business
owners excel at finding the best resources under desperate
measures. Ever since I've started my own company, I've become
more skilled and more disciplined at making my marketing dollars
stretch. When I wanted to create my own branded tchotchkes,
someone had introduced me a vendor that could set up a store
front for my branded products, manage the inventory,
fulfillment, returns/exchanges, payment and customer support all
with no upfront costs. The best part was that there was no
minimum when I had been used to buying into minimum quantity
requirements of 500 units. The vendor is Cafepress
(www.cafepress.com) a 6 year old start-up in Foster City that
is backed by Sequoia Ventures. You can brand various items with
your artwork to use as tchotchkes or set up an online store and
sell your branded products. I didn't see any mini-mice or USB
drives, but you can get started with your basic apparel, mugs
and office accessories, to name a few. If you decide to sell
your products, Cafepress mails you a monthly check with your
earnings.
As I come across these types of resources and tools, I will
continue to publish them to my small and medium business (SMB)
community, SMBxchange, Inc. To share best practices, get your
business featured on the site, and learn about new technologies,
products and resources, join www.smbxchange.com
Play Better Longer - Peak Performance For Golf!
The golf swing is a dynamic movement that demands precise coordination of muscle contraction and relaxation, postural stability, strength, balance and .....
About the author:The golf swing is a dynamic movement that demands precise coordination of muscle contraction and relaxation, postural stability, strength, balance and .....
Betty Liang, spent most of her professional career in various
marketing management positions with companies such as Ricoh,
Cisco, and Oracle. She is now focused on her own small business
helping other small and medium businesses advance their
technology capabilities through exchange opportunities.