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There are over 2,200 fonts in my digital font library at the moment. They include all-time classics, well-done newbies and outstanding specialities. In this blog article I want to introduce you to six of the fonts that I currently like most: 1. NOYH Noyh is quite a new font which was developed by the Thai Chatnarong Jingsuphatada and published by Typesketchbook . It has a huge bandwidth of different styles (72 to be precise!) and combines a geometric, cool look with subtle round edges. This gives Noyh a nice and modern touch. Currently, Noyh is my absolute favourite in my font library. By the way, a new, more rustic alternative has joined the family quite recently: Noyh A . Combined with Noto Serif Bold (set in majuscules), Noyh looks wonderful, see an example here in one of my latest client projects: 2. NOYH SLIM Staying with Noyh - this time in a condensed style called Noyh Slim. It’s perfect in combination with Noyh Regular for T&Cs or Terms of Use for example. 3. NOTO SERIF I mentioned Noto Serif in point 1. But also on its own, Noto Serif is lovely. A classic elegance, dominant and strong though thanks to quite a high x-height. This makes Noto Serif perfect for reading especially in small sizes and on screens. (PS: Noto Serif was designed by Google Inc.) 4. ANIUK The Viennese typography studio Typejockeys describes their font Aniuk as "quite a cool font family", which it definitely is. Aniuk was designed by Thomas Gabriel and I like the very well executed mix of strength of character, round shapes with a serious touch. When looking at it, you might discover that a lot is bent upwards, making the font kinda smiling at you. And this puts a smile on my face as well. 5. AKKO Akko was created by Akira Kobayashi back in 2011, 2015 it underwent a facelift. I used Akko in the course of a magazine redesign in summer 2017. I bought the font on Fontshop and instantly fell in love with Akko (in my blog post of 19 June 2017 you can find out why). The technical understatement combined with a distinctive look makes this font an all time favourite for me. 6. HENRIETTE Another great piece of work by Typejockeys is Henriette , the reinterpretation of a classic. Something for retro lovers and geeks! How do you like my currently 6 favourite fonts? I’m looking forward to your comments on Facebook and Twitter! #typography #fonts

If you want to start your own business and thrive for fulfilling your dream becoming your own boss, you might face the fact that you have no or only little budget for a logo, business card and a website in the start-up phase. This is why you maybe put it together yourself somehow. Your little brother, your cousin and your aunty might add their design opinions too. In the end, it’s the business idea that counts, right? That business idea, however, must convince possible clients. The best idea is worth nothing if others don’t understand it or - even worse - are not even interested in taking a look at it thoroughly enough (in case the company looks too unprofessional for instance). This is what happens over and over again in real business life, unfortunately - a big part plays a poor branding. If you are in the position to invest some money into your logo etc. in order to make your business look serious and professional, you will look for an advertising agency or a designer. But there are probably hundreds of thousands of designers out there. Here you can find out what you really have to look at when you are looking for a designer. WHAT DOES A LOGO COST? Sometimes a low price is the winning criteria for a certain designer or agency. But how much does the corporate design from a "cheap designer" cost? Prices vary from 1000 to 2500 Euros net, I would say. But what adds up afterwards, shows a real life example of a real estate agency. This real estate agent hired an advertising agency to create a logo, business card and website for 2500 Euros net. So far, so good. A few weeks after going live, the client received a letter from a lawyer. Copyright infringement! The real estate agent’s logo looked way too similar to another existing real estate agent’s logo. In order to turn away a possible copyright lawsuit threatening the real estate agent’s existence, the lawyer asked for a payment of 800 Euros. Getting a new logo was recommended, too. WHEN THE CLIENT IS THE F*CKED ONE IN THE END Of course, you can now argue about the lawyer’s integrity if a payment of only 800 Euros is sufficient compared to a much higher copyright lawsuit. However, the core of the problem lies in the copying of existing logos or using existing logo snippets, which are then sold on as a "new logo" even though it’s not a new logo. This means betraying the client just in order to offer low prices. The real estate agency’s CEO was very angry, understandably, and asked the advertising agency to pay the 800 Euro fine, as it was the advertising agency’s mistake. They refused to pay the fine. I would not be surprised if there were cooperations between dumping price designers and lawyers like this out there in order to earn easy cash. Similar scenarios are known from other business areas. This is poison for the design industry, bad for its image and most of all terrible for the clients that are the f*cked ones in the end. However, everybody hiring a designer or an advertising agency should think about why some designers are "so cheap" whilst others are "so expensive". As you can see in the example above, low price designers can cost more than expected in the end. #copyright #logo

For me, travelling to different countries is a wonderful source of inspiration and creativity. And everybody who knows me, knows how much I love going abroad to see different countries and cultures. In May/June this year, I went to Colombia - for a three week round trip. Transportation via bus, plane and horse were normal. It was absolutely amazing! Here, I would like to share some lovely holiday moments with you - with a special focus on fonts on Colombian road signs. Looking at it, you might think it's a Starbucks outlet. But it is just a copy... Seen in Medellín/Colombia. Street art in Medellín, Colombia Street art in Comune 13, Medellín, Colombia I love this logo! Great use of negative space. I love the way Colombians write "del" ... D and E are nicely melted together. #typography #font #holiday

As a passionate editorial designer for print and digital, I could collect important experiences in terms of advertisements in digital app magazines in the last years. If you want your advertisements, that you pay a lot of money for, to achieve higher conversion rates, read on. ADAPTIONS FOR MOBILE DEVICES Generally speaking, I recommend to take print advertisements out of your app altogether, unless your advertising clients pay extra for them. Otherwise, your advertising clients won’t have a feeling for the value of your app and will, most likely, never develop one. If you do place digital advertisements, please adapt them in terms of size, mobile device and make them interactive! Don’t hesitate to actively approach your advertising clients and offer them different options and pricing models. This is how a classic print advert looks like on the iPhone - not adapted in size and not interactive (apart from the web link). You can hardly read it and visiting the website doesn’t look very appealing: The advert in the next example was adapted for the sizes of different mobile devices, the text was improved for app readers, it can be perfectly read and there is a clear call to action telling the reader to tap on the red button which automatically opens up the device’s email program. This advert was placed in issue 5/2018 of "Blickpunkt LKW & BUS" and reached a 24 % higher reading rate than all other "static" print adverts in the same issue. You can see more amazing examples for interactions and animations in app advertisements in this video: ARTICLE-BASED APPROACH I’ve already written about the article-based approach in my blog article "The Future of Digital Magazines" . In article-based magazine apps, advertising banners on the starting page are a great thing - you can imagine this to look similar to a blog on a website. Of course, the banner should not look like a classic promo banner, but rather smoothly integrate into the entire page, designed in card design style. This makes the advertisement look more like a piece of actual content. (You can read up more on card design here , by the way.) LARGE OR SMALL ADVERTISEMENT? It’s worth contemplating to skip the classic print advertisement format altogether (1 advertisement = 1 full page between 2 articles). It can definitely make sense to cut down paid content into smaller, more appealing bits of paid content and include them in relevant articles here and there (i.e. with a banner or animated/interactive image). This makes the reader less "blind" for the advertisement. Twixl Media’s Laurent Gerniers from Belgium wrote an excellent article about this interesting topic. CAREFUL WITH "PDF APPS" For the sake of completeness, I have to say that those "fancy" digital adverts are not executable very well in "PDF apps" - due to technical and layout reasons alike. In order to make your adverts really stand out and convert, you definitely need a native, professionally made app magazine. In all those years of creating app magazines, I have seen many examples of unhappy readers of PDF apps which puts a negative light on the magazine and the publishing house. PDF apps cost important download and reading numbers and this is sad to see, as the initial intention was creating additional value for the reader and keeping up with digitization. Poor execution and saving money in the wrong place, makes publishers often pay a high price for it in the end. You can read more about this in my blog article "5 Mistakes that Publishers Stumble Upon with Their App Magazines" . Reader rating of a "PDF app" in the App Store: Reader rating of a native magazine app I created for one of my clients: CONCLUSION Placing advertisements costs a lot of money (in print more than on digital platforms). As the reading flow in print is completely different than on digital, the print layout must be adapted to a digital layout (incl. interactions and subtle animations driving sales). I’m not talking about a website link, but about an advert that actually converts on a digital device. Creating digital adverts is quite cheap, especially when the print design already exists. When spending money for advertisements, don’t save in the wrong place and save the little extra money in creating a stunning digital advert. You don’t buy a Lomborghini and drive around with cheap, adulterated fuel because you don’t have the money for good fuel, right? #app #magazine #advertisement

Every year entrepreneurs ask themselves what kind of Christmas card they shall send their business partners and clients. So do I. Well, working in the creative industry, I have to admit that I really care about outstanding Christmas cards for my contacts. Tasty goodies alongside the cards have proven to be very well received in the past. A few years ago, I designed a Christmas card with an infographic style cookie recipe and self-baked cookies inside. People simply loved it. This year, I wanted to work with an infographic element again and bring some attention to my new online shop which was launched earlier this year. (As per mid December 2018, the online shop is only available in German language. However, in 2019 the shop will also be made available in English language.) The idea was to split down my working hours into different categories and to visualise them in an easy-to-understand way. (The data source for this graphic was an excel spreadsheet I use every day to track my working hours per client project.) You can see the result here: The design was inspired by „Infografik light“ no. 3 in my online shop. A Lindt chocolate heart can be found inside the card, similar to a piece of Christmas tree decoration. You would like to receive an amazing Christmas card too next year? Let’s talk about your next project and drop me a message . ;-) I’m looking forward to you! #infographic #xmas

Austrians have a big problem: they too often lack self-confidence. THE DILEMMA In the German-speaking area, innovation is sometimes not appreciated unless success is following a long time after the innovation happened. Looking back then, the "typical" Austrian is proud of successful people taking risks. Woe, the innovation does not lead to success (which is the risk you take of course) - then Austrians quickly say "we knew it, what a lot of shit." Too often, Austrians don’t appreciate an Austrian export until it’s appreciated abroad. EXAMPLES FROM REAL LIFE Do you remember Conchita Wurst ? No matter how much you like (or don’t like) the artist Conchita. It is a fact that most Austrians sneered at her before winning the Eurovision Song Contest . Austrians needed the title "ESC winner" to realise that Conchita is a great export made in Austria. Many Austrians completely changed their opinion about Conchita from the moment of winning the ESC. Another example is a colleague and friend who works as a coach and speaker. She told me that she would be hired more in Germany than in her home country Austria. "A prophet has no honor in his own country, it’s really funny." (O-tone over a lunch in spring 2017). DOUBLE STANDARD IN THE MEDIA The Tyrolean business magazine "econova" published an issue titled "Progress needs innovation - pleading for more courage" in November 2017. Such a cover is good for the image and gets more readers. However, practice looks a bit different. A completely new and innovative product (Tirol Box), that was praised by local businesses, national and international clients , Austria Marketing and politicians , got quite an odd quarter page in an "econova" in 2016 with a slightly negative comment at the end á la "Let’s see, if that even works." True to the motto "progress needs innovation - but we still don’t really like that". Part of "econova"’s editorial team is friends with people close to Tirol Werbung, an advertising company which is often faced with negative criticism among Tyrolean businesses for good reason. In Novmeber 2016, Tirol Werbung almost copied a press release by Tirol Box published a month before. Another evidence for the double standard of local media when speaking about innovation. It’s sad to see how people and media claim themselves to be innovative and future-orientated whilst lacking the courage and strength to act this way themselves. HOW SELF-CONFIDENCE MAKES PEOPLE SUCCESSFUL Another example from my business shows how important it is to set the course for one’s future early enough: Many years ago, I started to thoroughly deal with the topics "app magazines" and "infographics". Back then, I was one of the very few graphic designers in the German-speaking area even caring about that. There was no real education for these topics then. So I had to invest many weeks to teach myself a lot, asked many detailed questions and investigated in many areas, until my perfectionism told me "yep, now it’s time to go into live mode with app magazines and infographics." Initially, people around me used to say "why are you investing time here, don’t do that". But I staid confident that all the effort will pay off one day. I didn’t allow others to destroy my vision. Now, many years later, I know how important it was to invest so much time and effort and that it was the right decision. Nowadays, app magazines and infographics make up for about 30 % of my annual income. Another example is my former side-job/hobby that I did for about 7 years: until approx. 2010/2011 I used to DJ because I simply loved being creative with music. Back then, a female DJ was an exception and a bit "strange". In my first years as a DJ, I was touring in Austria, in the last years of my DJ career I toured internationally (Brazil, India, Vietnam, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy etc.). Ever since I got appreciated on a more global scale, people in Austria took me more serious and changed their opinion about me as a female DJ from "what does she want here" to "wow, her music is really great, respect". The music genre didn’t change, my style didn’t change, only the audience changed from local to global - and all of a sudden I was "hip" in Austria too. WHY IS THAT? It seems that Austrians need mental confirmation from outside (also by Germans by the way) for us to follow and be brave enough to like something that actually comes from our own country. Maybe this lack of self-confidence has something to do with envy too, as we live in quite an envious society in Germany and Austria. Could it even be that envy is based on a lack of self-confidence? CONCLUSION After many trips abroad (for business and private reasons) and getting to know many people from different countries, I have to say that us Austrians really have a big problem with ourselves. Where is the self-confidence? I don’t miss the self-confidence among innovators, they are confident enough to try something new in an environment with many negative people that often diss you when you don’t follow set paths. I miss the self-confidence among the mainstream. The mainstream of people that should value and praise good business people trying out new things. Without courage and innovation we would still live in caves. In this scenario us Austrians would moan and say "Damn, it’s so f*cking uncomfortable in this cave! It’s time for somebody to invent something more cosy." This blog article does not only portray my own opinion and experiences, by the way. When I speak with people - may it be in a business or private aspect - I often hear the same things and I realise that many Austrians are annoyed by the lacking self-confidence among us. In addition to that, our tax and social insurance politics are sometimes too short-sighted, which makes some good people want to move abroad. Understandably. This is a shame. For the self-confidence of our nation. And it is sad. For the economic output resulting from that. We need a new entrepreneurial culture. Absolutely. #entrepreneurship

Multi-issue apps contain several catalogues or magazine issues within one app. In such apps, it’s possible to feature an issue by displaying it in a larger size at the top of the app. For two of my clients, it looks like this: The last example shows a login bar at the top of the screen. For this client, I included a login function for existing subscribers of the print magazine. When purchasing a print subscription, the reader is allocated a user name and password which he can use to log in the app to get access to the app magazines - without paying extra for them. Besides that, it’s also possible to buy separate magazine issues from within the app without having to purchase a subscription. As the app developer, I send push notifications (like a whatsapp or SMS) to all mobile devices in the name of my client (the publisher in most cases). This way, I can additionally promote every issue. This works of course for Android, iOS, tablets and phones. The reader swipes once and opens up the equivalent magazine issue. You can find more information on my app magazine service by clicking here . #app #magazine

Have you seen that dark yellow status bar in your Google+ profile? Saying that your Google+ page and other Google+ pages managed by you will be deleted on 2 April 2019? Do you even have a Google+ profile? No? I admit, you have not really missed something. However, if you do have a Google+ profile, then, well … you will for sure not miss it. Your life and online reputation (for some people the same, unfortunately) will not be dismantled - your Google ranking won’t be neither. The official statement reads like this . Google+ will be discontinued from 2 April 2019. My first reaction was: Yessss, one platform less I have to care about. And how do you feel about this information? Experience has shown that a social media tiredness is spreading. I’m not talking about myself alone, but in general. When I talk about social networks with other agencies, entrepreneurs or other people from my private background, I have been hearing more or less the same thing: "It’s okay, but it takes a lot of time which I prefer to invest in other, more useful things." Even young people ("twens") prefer to be on platforms like Snapchat or Instagram, where everything is more fast-paced, picture-heavy and less "rigid" compared to let’s say Facebook for instance. I always found Google+ a bit complicated, thinking about the different circles and groups. I decided to ignore that quite quickly - for time reasons (I’m honest here). The +1’s were nice, but nothing different than a "Like" on Facebook. THE GOOGLE+ PERFORMANCE COMPARED TO FACEBOOK & CO. The thing with social networks is this: It only works well if "everybody" is engaging with it regularly. And if "everybody" is engaging in "every" social platform, you might end up in some kind of social media burnout. "Social media detoxing" is becoming a trend (yes, it is - google it! ). All the likes, shares and so on are becoming more and more inflationary and thus lose value. One question comes up considering the amount of social media platforms: Where do I focus on as a user? On something that offers me additional value. For most businesses it is a big time killer that can indeed pay off in the B2C sector; but in the B2B sector, the extra income does not pay for the extra resources needed. Reason being: a Like or +1 (or however you want to call it) is nice, but does not directly bring you profit. If (!) done well, it can for sure contribute to increase revenue in the middle and long run as the brand and the image are supported. But Google+ hardly played a role in this respect. Every beginning is difficult, sure. But - after several years - not being in the digital homo sapiens’ subjective awareness like where Facebook is (or used to be), might be hard to take for the internet giant Google. WAS GOOGLE+ OF ADVANTAGE TO ME? I’m quite active on social networks - mostly to spread my content , keep my followers and network posted about latest projects and news and to share interesting articles from other people and companies. This works quite well - for my image, my reach and thus for my own brand reputation in the middle and long run. However, after several years of experience, I can say: Google+ has only contributed to a tiny fraction of all of my interactions on my social profiles; with the same amount of effort and postings. Google+ was stagnating from the start and never experienced a positive trend upwards in all those years. Was Google+ of advantage to me? Not really. So I won’t miss Google+ at all. WHICH SOCIAL PLATFORM WORKS BEST FOR ME What works best for me, is Youtube . Every year, it costs me a four-figure amount of money for professional video productions, a lot of time and energy. But it massively contributes to transforming leads into fans. Can Youtube be considered a social network? Rather yes than no, as you can comment, subscribe to channels, click on "thumb up" or "thumb down". The additional value is clear: streaming video material independently from place and time. And you must not forget about another - very important - fact: Youtube belongs to Google and is the second largest search engine on the internet, right after Google. #google #socialmedia

Do you lack time? Do you want to be informed about latest news that you are really interested in? In real time? Then I can recommend Feedly . With Feedly, you are the editor-in-chief and can manually pick topics that you really want to read - all in one place. You basically subscribe to your desired topics and media/publishers and get the latest articles delivered right into your feed in real time. You can determine the look of your feed yourself (more or less compact, text-only mode, magazine style or card design). Interesting: You see when articles were published - i.e. 1 day ago (1d), 4 hours ago (4h) or 2 hours ago (2h). You can read the article/s you want to read - some articles are shorter, some longer. By tapping the check mark you can mark articles in your feed as read which removes them from your feed. The screen gets fed with new material. What I also like a lot is a message like "that’s it for today", as soon as you’ve marked all latest articles in your feed as read. This gives me a good feeling - what a lovely user experience! I’m happy with the free version as it has a lot to offer already. Wherever I am, on the crosstrainer in the gym, waiting in an airport hall, my iPad with Feedly is my loyal companion. "Feedly, I love you!" PS: Thanks to Oliver Feldkircher from digiPULS who introduced me to Feedly! PPS: This is no paid advertisement. I don’t get paid for this blog article. I purely wrote this article because I find Feedly simply fantastic. 0% advertisement, but 100% enthusiasm. #timemanagement

… exhausting, time-consuming and costy. Let’s face it. All your social media profiles, your own blog, your website, your podcast or wherever you may surf on the world wide web: marketing gurus keep telling us to regularly generate and spread high-quality content. "High-quality" means content that can’t be found anywhere else and providing additional value for the content’s consumers - either as text, picture, audio or video. I regularly produce new content providing additional value, which cannot (or can hardly) be found anywhere else. I’ve been doing that for seven years. And yes: it is exhausting, time-consuming and costy. Every time I read "content generation" in my calender, I’m swearing. Honestly. But after all these years I can say: it is paying off in the long run. You "only" have to have stamina and creativity! OUTSOURCING OR DOING IT YOURSELF? Here and there, ghostwriters send me a request to write for me. Of course, you can outsource content generation. However, I personally don’t like that idea, to be very honest. My business is called HCG corporate designs, whereas HCG are my initials (Helene Clara Gamper). I believe, people visiting my website want to read content created by me in person. Also, my content is very specific and requires specific knowledge. Me explaining my skills to a ghostwriter would probably be as time-consuming as generating the content myself. Also, I would feel like a scammer pretending an article is from me, but it’s not. Authenticity is important. HOW TO PUT THIS PLAN INTO ACTION Every year, I produce approx. five new topics: as text for my website (hello to Google crawling!), as text in a PDF download on my website (handy for people who prefer to consume my content offline), as video (for Youtube and embedded in my website; handy for people who prefer to watch a video rather than reading a text), some topics as podcast (for podcast subscribers and embedded on my website; handy for people who let’s say sit in the car a lot listening to podcasts or audio books); every topic twice: in German and English language. If you know my tip section , you can maybe imagine how much work sticks behind all that. Again: I produce all of this content myself. As a single entrepreneur with mostly a full schedule, it’s not so easy to regularly create new, unique content. I’m sure you would like to know how I do this - without stressing out ;-) MY STRATEGY Here we go: Every time a good content topic idea comes to my mind, I write it down. Every year (yes, really every year!) I block two full weeks for content generation (7 days per week x approx. 8 hours per day). In my case, this is 25 December to 6 January. Around this time, people are in Christmas mode, I don’t get calls and emails, nobody disturbs me and I can fully concentrate on two weeks of non-stop working. Yes, I skip my Christmas holidays, but I have to be willing to bite this bullet. No pain, no gain! These two weeks of the year are solely reserved for my own content generation for the upcoming twelve months. Just the video productions I have to coordinate with the filming company. We normally shoot these approx. ten videos (5 topics x 2 languages each) within one day in January, which costs me a four-figure amount of money. The new content I then put on my website and I upload the videos on Youtube, so that I can then spread it on social media throughout the year. You see, Christmas - NYE - Twelfth Day holiday, this is my "hot phase" for content. ;-) This is the only way it works for me as I don’t have time for it during the year. Many businesses don’t have the resources for content creation because they are busy with their normal, "paid" work. This is normal. But: When you block content generation once or twice a year, you can do it! This is the key to sustainable and successful content generation, in my opinion. WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THIS CONTENT? The content is created - yipiiee! The biggest chunk of work is done. But one thing is still missing: You need some sort of editorial plan or concept to plan what to do with all this content. I always print a day calender for the upcoming twelve months (3 months on 1 sheet) and write down, which piece of content I post on which day. Also the topics should go well together. Let me give you an example: I post 3 x a week - on Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing and Facebook (I uploaded all of my new videos to Youtube already in January). Analysis tools help me to find out which days and times work best for my postings (most interactions, most of my followers online). I note down the best three times (i.e. Twitter: Mondays at 15:00, Wednesdays at 16:50, Thursdays at 17:00; Facebook: Thursdays at 16:15, Fridays at 18:00, Sundays at 21:00; etc.). I save these times as a reminder in my calendar. In addition to that, I pre-create postings on Facebook and schedule them to be automatically posted at certain times. This gives me some freedom and let’s me enjoy a weekend off. There are also automation tools in which you inject your postings upfront and those tools automatically do the social media postings for you. This is handy. I currently prefer to post manually, though, in most cases to force myself to check my social media profiles regularly and answer to comments for example. Otherwise, I would probably skip social media altogether and wouldn't bother any more. So I need to trick out myself here and there a little bit. Besides that, I block topics. This means, I post like this: infographic video 1, infographic client project A, infographic video 2, infographic client project B, link to my "infographic light" shop on my website etc. . A logical order of postings is important. WHAT CAN BE USED AS CONTENT? Besides regular, new articles and videos, I also work with a blog and post once a month (like this blog article that you are reading right now). Also here, I often pre-write articles three to four months in advance, if possible. That takes out the stress and allows me to post a blog article also when I would not have time for creating content. I admit, I have one big advantage: In my business, there are not many daily news. And if there is something that is time-sensitive, I can share it on my blog or write a short post on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Seven years of content creation means I have a lot of material I can still use today. Here and there, I update a blog article. Alongside with new client projects presented in my portfolio , this makes a fantastic content marketing mix: articles from my blog archive, new blog articles, client projects from my portfolio (old and new ones), quotes (as plain picture postings), videos, whitepapers, shop links, press articles and very important: great content from other people and entrepreneurs that I love sharing! MY - SO FAR - MOST SUCCESSFUL CONTENT About five years ago, I produced a video entitled "How I create an infographic" . Until now, it has reached about 43,000 views. Important to mention here: These are 100 % organic clicks! This video never ran through a paid marketing campaign. The video was shared and embedded on other websites, what I didn’t realise in the beginning. The only thing I remember recognising is the number of views going up rapidly. Much later I found out how many times the video had been shared. Then I received a few emails from design students from all over the world (mainly from India), sending me their infographic drafts and asking me for my opinion. One day, I even received an email from an Indian professor teaching design at a university who thanked me for the video and told me that my video was being used in his class to educate his students. I also got some job applications from designers who wanted to work for me. This still puts a smile on my face today. AND NOW IT’S YOUR TURN I hope, I could show you a method to regularly and sustainably generate content without stress and you can incorporate this in your business routine. I wish you a lot of success with it! If you need design help with it, please don’t hesitate to get in touch . I’ll be happy to help you. #marketing #timemanagement #content #onlinemarketing #online

Have you ever heard of BNI? BNI stands for "Business Network International" and is the world’s biggest network for entrepreneurs. Once a week, the same group of entrepreneurs meets up for a breakfast at 7 am (networking starts at 6:30 am). Yes, in the morning! Every group - so-called "chapter" - meets up on the same weekday which generates continuity. Always followed by a pre-defined agenda, the event is over at 8:30 am. And yes, besides networking, people are having a delicious breakfast. ;-) This might sound a bit odd at first glance as networking events usually take place in the evening, without a strict agenda. But BNI is different. I was member of a BNI chapter for almost two years in which I also built up a group with my colleagues. In this blog article, I want to share my experiences and talk about the pros and cons of BNI as they are usually questions coming up when people are invited to a BNI breakfast. WHAT MAKES BNI SPECIAL 1. REGULARITY The weekly breakfast’s regularity generates trust among each other and allows for really getting to know each other well in the group, so that members can be recommended more easily. This is what BNI is all about - generating business recommendations. Every BNI member knows other people in private and business life who need something. May it be a new bath in the parents’ home, an independent insurance check for the husband/wife, a printing company offering special papers for me as a graphic designer or an experienced divorce lawyer in case my best friend wants to get rid of her husband. 2. CONCRETE BUSINESS RECOMMENDATIONS INSTEAD OF "BLA BLA" Recommendations are mostly generated when there is a concrete request from somebody. My best friend wants to file for divorce - I know a lawyer who is specialised on divorces and I'm certain he knows his business well as I meet up with him every week for a business breakfast. 3. 100 % FREE OF COMMISSION It’s important to mention that all business recommendations are 100 % free of commission. (In case you might ask yourself now how the hell BNI finance themselves, you will find the answer further down in this article.) All profits generated by members are documented in writing (of course without looking into the members’ bookkeeping). Recommendations and 1-2-1 meetings are documented in writing too. (1-2-1 meetings are meetings of two BNI members to better get to know each others' businesses.) 4. STRUCTURE Everything within BNI is very structured and a lot gets documented as this is the best way to make successes visible. "My" chapter reached nearly 1 million Euros of commission-free turnover for the members within the first year. A great success! However, it has to be noted that there are entrepreneurs who had been working together before BNI. These turnovers would have also been generated without BNI, but they are still included in the BNI statistics. This is why BNI turnover statistics, that are forwarded to the press of course, have to be taken with a pinch of salt. 5. EXCLUSIVITY Another major aspect of BNI’s philosophy is that only one (!) member per industry is allowed. Hence: there is only 1 lawyer, 1 roofer, 1 physiotherapist, 1 graphic designer etc. This eliminates competition - in theory. The practice can look a bit different depending on the members. Read more about it further down in this article. MY BIGGEST BENEFIT FROM BNI My biggest benefit from BNI was the fact that I really learned how to present myself in front of others - face to face and short and snappy within 60 seconds (keyword "elevator pitch"). I had dealt with the elevator pitch before BNI, however, the weekly BNI breakfast forced me to present myself again and again. This "positive pressure" was really helpful. As an entrepreneur it’s really important to present yourself properly, BNI gives you the perfect training here. Another fantastic aspect of BNI is getting to know so many different entrepreneurs with so many different business backgrounds. Still now, I’m in contact with some BNI members - in private and business life. This is really nice. LET’S TALK ABOUT BUSINESS LOOKING AT THE NUMBERS How much did I benefit from the business network BNI in an economic way? When I calculate my hours spent for breakfasts, 1-2-1 meetings and booked jobs (recommendations to me that were converted into actual jobs) against the money earned, and then deduct my member fee (nearly 1,000 Euros per year) as well as the breakfast money (breakfast has to be paid separately every week), I have a positive balance bottom line. However, the hourly rate is only 23 Euro net. My regular hourly rate is 90 Euro net. You can certainly not compare this 1 to 1, but it’s still the most significant key figure and the comparison is fair after nearly two years of BNI membership. So from an economic/financial point of view, BNI was only little profitable for me. Speaking with other BNI members, I know that BNI is profitable for some and for some not. Precise questions like "what’s your financial benefit from BNI" were often followed by pondering silence and an answer like "well, you shouldn’t only see the money side of it, it’s also about the community". POWER TEAMS A BNI power team consists of BNI members within the same chapter that work in similar industries or have the same clients. A plumber, electrician and constructor would be a power team for instance. Or a graphic designer, online marketer, copywriter and PR consultant would be another great power team. Positive syngeries and a good collaboration is an ideal win-win situation for all. This is the theory. The practice unfortunately looks a little different sometimes. Like in every relationship, a win-win situation can only happen when everybody involved wants it. As soon as envy, jealousy or other negativities of the human character come into play, a power team is nipped in the bud. This then leads to valuable BNI members leaving the chapter, according to experienced BNI members. Understandable. For me, this was the decisive motivation to leave BNI. Several industries similar to my business and - thus - great for a power team were blocked by 1 person, false statements - disprovable with facts - being made by that 1 person, targeted manipulation of specific people by that 1 person, and several BNI members complaining about that 1 person had a negative influence on my positive attitude towards BNI. Investing energy and time in a dead end does neither reflect my entrepreneurial thinking nor my style. Enough is enough. WHO BNI IS BEST SUITED FOR BUSINESSES WITH A STRONG REGIONAL FOCUS It’s obvious that BNI members profit a lot from regionality. If you can offer your products or services mainly in your region only, BNI is perfect for you. To give you an example: A massage parlour based in Dublin targets people living in Dublin. A BNI chapter in Dublin is ideal here. A producer for digital fair stand solutions, whose clients are spread across the globe, might find hardly any new clients via his/her BNI chapter. Not only BNI members themselves are prospective clients, but also their contacts and their network. The possibility that a Dublin based massage parlour boss knows the marketing manager of a New York based real estate agency planning for a huge appearance on an international fair, is very limited (to stay with the example mentioned above). I’m not only talking about my own experiences here. I invited entrepreneurs who I’m friends with or who I’m well connected with, to BNI breakfasts and received feedbacks that were very similar. "Too little fish", "too much international focus", "too much time investment for too little business opportunities" were the responses I often got from entrepreneurs acting less regionally (CEO of a Europe-wide charter airline, international marketing agency with domestic offices and abroad etc.). START-UPS For start-ups, BNI might be the best place beneath the sun in order to build up a wide network of contacts > nothing superficial, but with substance due to the timely constant of a weekly breakfast. GROWTH VS. QUALITY Naturally, a BNI chapter aims to grow and acquire new members in order to fulfill industry gaps within the chapter. Every member pays an annual member fee, this is how BNI is financed. However, chapter growth also massively contributes to the chapter’s success. The more members, the more turnover. On the other hand, there is the quality of the chapter. Is it primarily about the amount of members? Or is it primarily about the quality of members, how much they contribute to the group and how professionally they work in their industry? This is for sure a balance act that is solved well in most cases, in my opinion. Every now and then I (and other members) recommended bad quality without knowing. This falls back on the person who recommended, of course. But in general, chapter growth vs. chapter quality works quite well, I think. CONCLUSION BNI is intense. I’m not talking about the money you have to invest, I’m talking about the time you have to invest. For the breakfast, networking before and afterwards and other meetings you have to calculate at least four hours per week (forget 1.5 to 2 hours per week, it will definitely be more, trust me). Every week. You have to think thoroughly about that. From an economic point of view, it’s worth a try - mostly for local/regional businesses and start-ups I would say. From a personal point of view, you’ll really learn how to present yourself much better than ever before. #bni #entrepreneurship #business #networking

Your business has a logo for sure - a symbol that represents you and your vision and positively communicates with your target audience. You print it on your business cards, use it in your email signature, on your letterhead, on your website and so on. Have you ever asked yourself if your logo needs a refresh? Here you see nine facts that show you need a new logo. 1. TARGET GROUP SHIFT Businesses develop. That’s why your target group can shift. If you want to attract different people than you used to in the past, a logo relaunch is a good idea. Let me give you an example: The 4 star group A CASA rents out luxury holiday apartments in Tyrol. Years ago, they used to rent out to the middle-class. Now, A CASA arrived in the luxury segment and thus wants to attract the relevant audience. 2. COLOUR VS. BLACK-WHITE A logo must not only work in colour, but also in black and/or white. Just think of sponsor walls or other 1-coloured communication materials. Experience shows, there comes a point when you definitely need your logo in 1 colour only. For sure, trust me. If your logo is not clearly recognisable in 1 colour or important design elements are lost, your logo won’t be identified as your logo any more. Then you have a problem. 3. SMALL VS. BIG Your logo must survive also in a small size (in terms of readability too). Think of smartphone screens for example; mobile B2B website visits often exceed 25 %, mobile B2C website visits are even higher. Your logo must work also as a small social media profile picture on a phone display. This means, it must be clear that it’s your logo. 4. SEVERAL OLD LOGOS In my neighbourhood there is a hotel with several annexes. Every one of them shows a completely different logo with the same hotel name. That hotel counts most of its guests from Asia who might not be able to read the hotel name (due to the letters), so they might not understand that this is one and the same hotel. Remember: 1 new logo is better than 3 old logos, especially when they are all still being used in public. 5. TOO LITTLE DIFFERENCE TO YOUR COMPETITOR Does your logo look too much like your competitor’s logo? Then you probably give off the impression of wanting to copy your competitor which doesn’t demonstrate self-esteem at all. Why would your target audience go to you to buy a copy? They probably prefer the original. However, it also works the other way around. In the photo above you see a snapshot from my Colombia holiday back in 2018 (Medellín). The logo of this coffee shop looks very similar to the Starbucks logo. At first glance, clients probably think they are buying coffee at Starbucks’ - this attracts people. In this case, the logo looking like the "big US competitor" is for sure welcome. 6. RETRO IN A NEGATIVE WAY Do you keep hearing "Your logo looks like from the 90s"? Then there’s probably some truth in it. A new logo would be a good idea - unless you prefer to live with a negative retro image. 7. YOUR LOGO CONFUSES PEOPLE Does your logo transport a message that has nothing to do with the reality? In order to eliminate even more misunderstandings and possible profit losses resulting from that, you should hire a designer to create a new logo for you - with a message that you really want to transport. Let me give you an example: The old cubile logo was often mis-interpreted by the target audience. Speaking with the client, it turned out that cubile was understood as a wi-fi solution at first glance (= seeing the logo). However, the product has nothing to do with wi-fi. In order to eliminate any more confusion, a new logo had to be designed. 8. SELF-MADE A self-made logo unfortunately often looks - well - self-made. Don’t forget: You save money now, but you might also save profits in the middle and long run. 9. COPYRIGHT LAWSUIT If you receive a letter from a lawyer with a copyright infringement notice, you should take this serious. Obviously, your logo (or important parts of it) was copied. You can read more about a sad case from real life in my blog . Should one (or even more) of these nine facts be true for you, it’s time for a new logo. Here I show you eight things that make a good logo. I’ll be happy to help you in this matter. Simply drop me a message . I’m looking forward to you! #logo #copyright