Logotypes...Establishing Your Brand Image

What image do you present to your community? Is it one that sticks in their mind? Something that is easily recognizable, that can be identified and associated with your business? An image that conjures an emotional response in their minds, whether they've been to your practice or not?

Here's a quiz. See if you can recognize these logos and associate them with their company. It's not hard, but I also want you to think about what emotion this draws out of you...











I bet you even recognize a color as a logo, one that certainly stirs strong emotion...










Your logo is a big piece of your business identity...it helps establish who you are.

Here's some standard hints on what to do to pick a logo that will work:

1. Horizontal is the rule - ideal sizes are 2.25 units horizontal and 1 unit vertical. Why? Your potential customers are seeing it out of their eyes, which are mounted in your head on the horizontal plane. It should be the same shape as a windshield. Vertical logotypes are too difficult to read.
   
2. Must have a legible typeface - if words are what communicate the power of the brand, the typeface used enhances or hinders that power.
3. Who are you trying to attract? - use fonts appropriately. Sans serif typefaces are modern, serif typefaces are old-fashioned, bold connotes masculinity, and light typefaces look feminine.
4. Hire someone to design it for you - you are a master at adjusting and communicating, not in design (most likely!). Meet with a branding strategist to establish your brand properly. They will go through a detailed interview with you to ascertain your vision and then magically will identify several images to create it for you.

Maybe it's time you updated your logo. Is the one you're using now outdated? Is it aligned with the vision you have established?

If so, use these strategies to help your company be more identifiable.

Enjoy!!

Checking Your Commitment...

There are two levels of commitment:

• doing what you know
• doing whatever it takes

What level are you at?

What strategies, projects and tactics do you need to take action on to get the the next one?

Happy trails!

How Much Are You Willing to Gamble?

Read a neat little article in USA Today this morning about Domino's Pizza and the recent changes they've made.

It was a bold move...changing their entire recipe. Promoting it with a huge ad campaign most of you have probably seen. In a sense, the article was right...Domino's bet the farm on this massive change to their company. They took a risk, knowing that their former product was still generating sales for them with costs kept very low, allowing them to operate very efficiently.

But they did the right thing. It's been awhile since I've had Domino's, and I distinctly remember why...it was bad. Really bad.

The change proved successful for them. Quarterly sales up over 14% (especially when the industry fell 3%). When you're dealing with billions in sales, that's incredible. Stockholders were also quite pleased, with stock prices rising over 70%.

The point is that Domino's saw something they could do better, even though they were already doing well (#2 in the industry at $3B in sales in 2009). They created an opportunity to take their business to the next level, and even though there were risks aplenty, doing the right thing prevailed...and paid off. Big difference between doing things right (which they already were), and doing the right thing.

I'm not asking you to bet the farm with your business, I am asking you to create changes that will take your business to the next level.

Stagnation kills many businesses, innovation lifts them to new levels.

What innovation have you implemented in your business lately?

Get going!!

Wasting Time....It Costs You Dearly

Here's a typical office procedure too many get trapped in:

After you finish adjusting your patient, the patient gets off the table, puts their wallet, change, knife, gets their purse,(all their stuff!), etc, back into their pockets, looks in the mirror, checks their hair to make sure hair and face look presentable, gather themselves and leave the room with you accompanying them up to the front desk so that you can tell them and your CA when you want to see them again. You then call for the next patient, waiting for them to put down the magazine (probably not Chiropractic or vitalistic in its scope), gather their belongings they've set down (again the purse, cellphone, etc), wait for them to meet you and you walk them down the hall into the adjusting room, where they again empty their pockets....all over again and again, multiple times per day.

If you estimate the time that process takes between patients to be a VERY conservative two minutes (which it NEVER is!), imagine the amount of wasted time and money it costs you to do that.

Let's say you see 10 patient visits per hour at $50 per visit. $500 per hour you are making, a very nice living. Let's say now that a typical day has you seeing patients like this for 6 hours...a $3,000 day.

Wait a sec though....what could it be??

Remember, you're conservatively spending two minutes between every patient walking them up and down the hall, where really nothing goes on for any specific intent or purpose. That equals 2 hours of wasted time per day. Extrapolate that to money terms and you are missing out on potential revenues of $1000 per day. Further extended, let's say you're working 250 days per year. That equals $250,000 per year of lost revenue. Even more, extend it over the course of your typical 40 year practice career and you just lost $10,000,000.

Doing something as inefficient as walking up and down the hallway.

Time to check your systems for efficiencies...or lack thereof.

Getting rid of low-hanging fruit like this can make a huge difference for your practice and can mean the difference between a retirement of your dreams...or not.