Productivity - PromoKitchen

BE A PROMO SUPERHERO!

Posted on June 6, 2013 by PromoKitchen Contributing Editor

BE A PROMO SUPERHERO! The jargon in this industry sounds like a foreign language to a newbie, right? Like many people, I came to this industry from another career. I remember sitting in my first promotional products staff meeting wondering what a placket was. My past training in sales was very feature/benefit driven. Quickly, I became completely bamboozled by…

When the Peripheral Opponent is You

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Bobby Lehew

(Cross-posted from bobbylehew.com, with apologies to Steven Pressfield). As an avid book collector, I’ve amassed more than my share of unread books. It’s a possessive obsession, an incurable malady. Of the piles and piles of books I’ve purchased through the years, none seem to retain their unread status longer than the books that fall into the two categories of ‘self-help’…

Tips for Tradeshow Attendees

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Brad White

So you are ready to start the New Year and you’re preparing to go to the big tradeshow. You will be looking for new products, forming new relationships, and reconnecting with colleagues and friends. With travel and events, the show will keep you constantly on the move for a week straight. Then quickly upon your return home, you will be…

The Tools I Use: Dale Denham

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Promo Kitchen

The “Tools I Use” is a new series designed to help our community discover and share new tools to build their businesses and enhance their personal lives. We welcome members of our community to participate in this column. If you would like to submit a post, just answer the three questions in bold (below) and email your article, we’d love to…

5 Things I Have Learned from Being on Sabbatical and How I Can Apply Them to My Next Business

Posted on October 10, 2012 by Promo Kitchen

The following article was written by Craig Morantz, former VP of Sales with Polyconcept and founder of Burning Prescence (post was originally published on his blog Seems Obvious to Me). When I was working I was always booked, every 15 minutes in my calendar I had a meeting or a task to complete. Initially and really for the majority of…

The Tools I Use: New Series

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Bobby Lehew

We’re kicking off a new series in our productivity category on PromoKitchen, inspired by the uber-popular site, The Setup. This series is designed to help our community discover and share new tools to build their businesses and enhance their personal lives. We welcome members of our community to participate in this column. If you would like to submit a post,…

Juggling 101 – The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Sanity

Posted on July 31, 2012 by PromoKitchen Contributing Editor

The following article was written by Ruth Verver, partner at Paperclip Promotions. Being your own boss is one of the most amazing and rewarding things you can do. It also tends to be the kind of thing that ties your stomach in knots and causes your head to spin. It’s the beginning of the year…where are all of those sales…

Productivity Tools for Distributors – The Capture

Posted on June 19, 2012 by PromoKitchen Contributing Editor

Jen Vaughn is the Marketing Director for commonsku; commonsku is a next generation CRM, order management and social collaboration tool for the promotional products industry. Distributors are constantly being pulled in many directions at once. Quotes, research, RFPs, meetings, new products, order follow-up, ringing phones, and the inevitable fires to squelch can derail the best of daily to-do lists. I’m…

Why “Made in China” Isn’t As Bad As You Think

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Mark Graham

The Made in China debate in the promotional products industry confuses me. An article in a St Louis paper got me thinking about the sensationalist approach the media has towards our industry as it relates to the Made in China issue. While this article highlights the irony of promoting U.S. jobs by handing out Made in China carabiners, I…

The Facebook Hiatus

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Bobby Lehew

Two weeks ago I decided to take a Faceook hiatus and deactivated my Facebook account. (Those that know me well know that I have had a love/hate with Facebook since it’s inception). My reason for removing myself from the social slipstream? Purely attention deficit. I was spending more time reading status updates than reading essays or books. Now, I’m a…