I was going up a packed escalator on the tube last week surrounded by my fellow Londoners – wonderful!  As the ads for musicals, make up and Majorca flashed past I was wondering what impact they were having on my fellow travellers.  Did they get the message in that fleeting moment?  Would it generate any action?  Adverts for shows like Chicago with strong imagery and few words were pretty clear and might well have reminded those who had heard of but not seen the show to book.  Others were far more cluttered with small print and even smaller telephone numbers and web addresses.  The worst offenders were the many technical colleges who typically for academics had to get everything onto the page.  Why not promote a university degree course like a show - radical but perfectly possible.  How clear are your messages?  Would they pass the tube test?

Popularity: 9%

It is sad but true that every business screws up at one time or another and has to give credit.  The work is done, the costs have been incurred and no revenue has resulted.   I was discussing just such a situation with a client the other day.  The project was £5k which had simply been credited.  ‘Don’t just credit the project’ I said.  ‘Only do that if they agree to give you more business.  Why not offer them a discount worth £5k on their next project, assuming there is one?’ ‘How does that work?’ she asked’.  I explained that if you offered a discount worth £5k on the next project of let’s say £20k then you would have done a total of £25k of work for £20k – a discount of 20%.’  In other words they have to give you more business to get the discount of £5k and the more business they give you, the less impact the credit will have.  OK this does assume there is a repeat business opportunity but if there is don’t be in too much of a rush just to credit invoices next time this situation happens to you.

Popularity: 13%