Clarify Your Message Using Clean Design Elements -- (c)2002 By Linda Elizabeth Alexander

Increasingly, business people rely on desktop publishing. Gone are days when a male manager would dictate words to a female typist and expect her to turn them into an eye- pleasing document. Also, once complicated documents like brochures and flyers are now easy to create in programs such as Microsoft Publisher, and even MS Word.

But most business people have NOT been trained in graphic design. While such high skills take years to develop, business people still need a basic sense of good design. A good design doesn't just look pretty; it also supports and even enhances your message. So use following tips to make your message clear and easy for your readers to grasp.

1. Use plenty of white space.

You don't want your manager to skip over your progress report because she doesn't want to wade through dense text to find important information. Leave lots of white space for easy reading.

Balance between amount of text and white space around it is important. Do print enough content to be credible, however. Leaving too much white space, particularly in combination with a large font, can make your document look childish and makes you look amateur.

2. Remember Z-pattern.

USP

According to economic theories we live in world of monopoly competition. That term shouldn't confuse you, as meaning behind implies competition between many small or middle-size "monopolies", that are not monopolies in their direct meaning, as they don't control some particular sector of economy, rather then they are prime sources of their unique propositions of services or products. That fact makes them to be a so-called monopolies of their own services or products, despite fact that a lot of other companies offering very close, in terms of features and benefits, services or products to market.

That is why it is obvious that more unique benefits and features your proposition can offer to market, more "open-minded" market will be towards that proposition of yours.

Since we are usually involved in activity, which is not related to raw resources and materials, where uniqueness is very difficult to reach, due to nature of product like wheat, we are capable to offer a product and/or service that brings new "way of thinking". While it sounds too expressive, core idea behind is to be new, at least, in something.

Now let us speak more minutely about online e-business strategies you may and should apply online.

1. PRODUCT.

The product/service your will offer is 100% responsible for your long-term success. While it's possible to get some profit from useless goods, owing to professionalism of marketing experts, it won't last long. The "word of mouth" marketing is most reliable long-term marketing tool ever existed. That is why it's better to make a product you will be proud of, and even having mediocre marketing abilities, due to lack of funds, experts etc. your product would still have a profitable future, of course if, as we stated, it perfectly solves some problems, brings joy and so forth.

How to do it

Research, analyze and develop it. That is your e-business foundation. The best idea that I can give you about what product/service to create is that it should be one you will be most happy to use or utilize by yourself, in other words, product that e-market lacks and you feel a great need in. Make it more beneficial by having substantially lower price or substantially more benefits, features, new way of solving old problems, new service in order to make it faster, cheaper, easier, deliver more pleasure to deal with. Do you see point?

2. THIRD PARTY PRODUCT. License techniques.

Nowadays, we all hear about resell, reprint or master resell rights.

In short, by acquiring resell rights you are able to resell product you bought for specified price. So you pay license fee and then buy a desired number of products at a massive discount (more then wholesale).

Reprint & redistribution rights are same as above with only difference - your business entity may solely reprint and redistribute product in specified quantities, without any necessity to buy them from licenser. The one who bought license (licensee) is also have a right to customize or brand that product before retails, if other is not stipulated in license agreement. Sometimes you receive a right to become a licenser and offer resell rights to you clients, whereas you keep all generated profits.

Master resell rights entitles you to enjoy all benefits mentioned above plus right to resell reprint and redistribute rights and sometimes master resell rights themselves. That is truly fantastic opportunity as you actually acquire a complete business of licenser. The only priority licenser has is that he may change and develop his product further, where your power is limited by customization only, i. e. you are not allowed to change "nature" of product or service, if other is not stipulated in license agreement.