Just in time for the holidays, we’re excited to roll out our 2012 Holiday Card Collection with seven stylish, die-cut designs perfect for your business or personal greetings. Our original designs are printed on a high-end, subtly-shimmery “Pearl” press paper for an extra element of elegance and sophistication. All cards are flat, double-sided designs and come with blank white envelopes. Card pricing includes your customized message and/or your logo on the back side of the card.

Our 2012 Holiday Card Collection (click on images to enlarge):

Card pricing for all designs is as follows:

• 25 qty – $2.89 each plus $8.00 shipping and handling
• 26-100 qty – $2.39 each plus $8.00 shipping and handling
• 101-500 qty – $1.99 each plus $8.00 shipping and handling

Other things you’ll want to know about ordering your holiday cards:

• Turn-around time for card orders is four (4) business days from approval of your card proof.
• 5×5 Circle “Joyeaux Noel” card will require extra postage when mailing.
• Full payment for cards is due upon order placement.

Place your order today by simply calling us at 480.471.6393 or emailing us at holidays@visagecreative.com.

If you’re using an email address – such as @gmail.com, @aol.com, @mac.com, @msn.com, @cox.net – for your business, it’s time to make a change. Why advertise for Google or AOL when you can advertise for yourself? A self-branded email (yourname@yourcompany.com), besides simply reinforcing your brand, itself, also reinforces the legitimacy of your business, is more likely to be remembered, and is an opportunity to drive traffic to your website.

If you’re still using a non-branded email address because you like using a web-based email and don’t want to lose your history there, you should know that you can still do a self-branded email AND get at it through your web-based email account. It requires just a little finagling with your web-based account and domain registrar, but it can – and should – be done.

If you’re waiting until you have a web domain name and/or website, stop waiting. First of all, deciding on a domain name and grabbing it should be one of the first things you do for your business. And, simply having that domain name – you needn’t have a full-blown web site up and running – will enable you to use a self-branded email address. Again, there’s a little setting up involved to getting your branded email established, but it’s relatively simple — and we’re here for you should you need help.

SIDE NOTE: When you purchase your domain name (we’re big GoDaddy fans), until you put some sort of web presence in place, your web site will consist of an unbranded “parked” page. We highly recommend installing a branded splash page, instead, until your actual site is in place.

Bottom line: Whether you’re working on building your brand or about to start, a self-branded email is essential, and is an easy and consistent way to reinforce your business identity. Need help? Give us a call.

When our clients have a visual marketing emergency, as they sometimes will, they know they can turn to us. Well, last week was emergency central here at Visage Creative. It’s always a whirlwind in our office, but lately that wind’s been ablowin’ harder and faster than ever. While being ever so grateful to be engaged in creative collaboration with so many awesome clients, our coffee pot has really been getting a workout! It was clear we needed our A team on the job—someone on whom we could rely to have our clients’ best interest at heart, just as much as we do—our printer man, Dan. Dan is always up to a challenge and does everything he can to meet our needs, just like we do for our clients. It’s so good to work with someone who is on the same page as we are!

Finding a reliable vendor can be a challenge. But when you’ve got a good one, their support should not go unthanked. Someone like Dan, who goes out of their way to be an active part in your success, needs to be recognized. Getting the job done, after all, is always a team effort. And without vendors who push themselves for us, we wouldn’t be able to come through for our clients in such big ways.

So, in honor of all of the hard-working, team-playing, challenge-accepting vendors out there, Visage now deems today International Vendor Appreciation Day! Take a moment to say thank you to the people who make your job a whole lot easier, by doing theirs so well. Send them a note, bake them some cookies, anything to make them feel appreciated. And, thanks again, to Dan who last week was the butterfly flapping its wings to help us create our clients’ hurricane of success. Thanks for being a part of this journey with us!

If you’re reading this blog post you know that the name of our business is “Visage Creative.” “How did we come up with such an eloquent business name?” you might ask. Our articulate resident IT/Web man and all-around awesome team member, Chris tells me that he was playing around with the word “visual” when he came up with the name for the company eleven years ago. “Visual…visage…it was a natural progression from one to the other,” he said. “Here at Visage, our business is to make sure our clients succeed and we do that by helping to create the face of their business.”  Lori, owner and lead designer, told me. So Visage Creative was born. At least a third of the people we have come in contact with, however, don’t know the word Visage, or how to pronounce it. Go ahead. Say it out loud. I’ll give you a hint, it doesn’t rhyme with massage.

vis•age (vi’-zij) n.
1. The face or facial expression of a person. 2. Appearance; aspect

Now that you know how to pronounce the word and what it means, courtesy The American Heritage Dictionary, try using it in a sentence. I’ll go first: “We helped replace the conservative and somewhat-staid visage of their website with something truly vibrant and exciting.”

Go ahead and share your sentence with us via Twitter or Facebook for your chance to win a 16×20 poster print of our recent “Super Hero” desktop wallpaper. Individuals and business are both encouraged to participate. No purchase necessary. Get us your sentence by midnight on Friday, March 9, 2012. A winner will be randomly drawn (don’t worry, class, this isn’t for a grade) from all participants on Monday, March 12, 2012.

Click image to download as your desktop wallpaper. Enjoy!

Here’s to the self-starters,
to those who align the stars themselves.
Here’s to the pacesetters,
the rule benders, the pilots of their own path.
To those graceful globetrotters —
trotting to the tune of their own toot;
to the busy bees, the go-getters, the pistol-whips and firecrackers;
to those balls of fire
flying through life
with only the fuel of their own determination,
inspiring us all to greater heights —
to be our own superheroes.

© 2012 Visage Creative Business Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

There are a ton of benefits to having a home-based business. To name a few: being able to set up meetings and run errands on a more flexible schedule, the ability to maintain the kind of environment you want— everything from the paint on the walls to the thermostat, you avoid some major overhead that a small business housed elsewhere would usually incur, and the commute is pretty easy on the gas tank, too! But, be careful not to make the mistake of getting too comfy-cozy when working from home, lest you come across unprofessional. Here are some details to keep in mind:

1. Set actual workday hours, communicate them to your clients and vendors, and stick to them! This isn’t to say you shouldn’t take meetings out, or run errands during those hours, but being consistent overall will eliminate a lot of confusion and runaround when people are trying to reach you.
2. Get dressed for work. Even though you can hang out in your PJs all day doesn’t mean you should. Studies show that if you look ready for work you’ll be more likely to come to the table, office, or laptop with gusto and get your work done. Your focus will be easier to come by if you feel put together.
3. Always answer your phone professionally. “Thank you for calling Business ABC, Inc. This is Margo, how may I help you?” -vs- “Hello?” or  “Hey, Name of Caller (because I have Caller ID and I think I know that it’s you.)” Starting off the conversation with your company’s name reinforces your brand — as does asking how you may help the caller. Taking care to answer professionally also helps to instill your caller’s confidence – and the more confidence they have in you, the more likely they are to do business with you again and again.
4. Don’t communicate your personal goings-on just because you are in a personal setting. If you just hopped out of bed, or out of the shower, or are actually still in your pajamas, your clients don’t need to know. Focus on projecting a professional atmosphere.
5. Know that sound carries. Don’t let a noisy household carry over the phone…washer and dryer running, TV, children playing, dogs barking… Be sure to communicate your office hours to those sharing your home so that they can respect that time and give you the peace and quiet you need to manage your company effectively.

Projecting a professional image when you’re working from home will help make your “home, sweet home” a “business, sweet business!”

Recently a good friend said to me “It’s the journey that’s important.” As a young woman attending a liberal arts university in Seattle I was immersed in this concept. Each moment was “the point,” whether I was attending a lecture or drinking wine and solving the world’s problems with my peers. As an English major I read the Odyssey and though I was not fond of almost any of the characters (I found almost all of them to be cranky or whiny), I came away with a profound conviction to live my life, not with my eyes fixed on some future prize but with my attention on the now, on the journey. As I get older I find that it is easy to lose that immediacy. As adults, with bills to pay and retirement to plan for and perhaps children to worry about, it is so easy to allow ourselves to stress about the future and have little time for today.

You may be wondering why I’m blathering at you like you’re one of my old friends drinking three dollar Merlot and posturing toward world peace. “What does this have to do with building a strong business?” But think about it a second. As business men and women, if we are constantly looking at the bottom line instead of focusing on the current project or fretting over what’s coming next our business will never flourish as much as it can. The journey is what is important. Each project deserves full attention. Each moment is an opportunity to put your best foot forward with a client. Each interaction or communication is the chance to build relationship and solidify a strong foundation within your network. So to pay it forward, hopefully this blog post will bring you back into the moment and set you back on your journey a little more awake to the now than you were before, like my friend did for me. Allow your attention to be drawn to what is in front of you with a glance here and there to what’s ahead instead of the reverse and you will find that your work comes out higher quality, your collaborations go more smoothly, your clients feel more taken care of, and you feel more fulfilled.