As I consider how to create my business, with the tentative name of MEA’s Memory Potpourri, incorporating my various family history and memorabilia interests under one brand (as suggested by a branding expert), I’ve written about these possibilities on various blogs.  Some can be undertaken as a single home business.  Others might be incorporated  under a single brand or umbrella.
These appear at my Small Business Boomers blog:
Develop a Business of Remembering Those Who Will Be Forgotten
Christmas Cookie Journal – A Business Idea?
Preserving Family Memories as a Business

Finding a unique niche and/or developing a brand reflecting this niche enables you to become better known in your field.  Kyra E.  Hicks, author and quilt researcher, has become an experi in the area of “Black Threads” (the name of her blog) and is a font of information about African American quilters.
Her most recent book, This I Accomplish about Harriet Powers and her quilts, also reflects Kyra’s expertise as a researcher.  She sought information about Harriet Powers’ Bible Quilt and other pieces, discovering little known and totally unknown details about this quilter’s life and her work.
Harriet Powers was a former Georgia slave , who lived from …read more

For some time, I’ve considered developing my quilting heritage surrounding the Trails End Quilters, into a series of books, patterns and recipes. 
 I’ve even started a blog to this effect, Tales of the Trails End Quilters and work at it off and on as I research more information. 
Here is the description of my blog as it relates to my quilting heritage.
My quilting heritage began at Trails End Farm in Milan, New York. There I often sat beside my grandmother cutting squares and sewing them by hand. Eventually I realized that my mother and her sister, their grandmother, and others made quilts here, …read more

Mention the words, Elm Creek or Elm Creek Quilts, and most anyone familiar with the quilting world immediately thinks of the series of books written by Jennifer Chiaverini.  Whether Jennifer thought she’d be writing a series, as well as brancing out into fabric design, quilt patterns and recipes when she started, I don’t know.  However, she has branded herself and Elm Creek (the location of most of the stories in this series), so that quilters and others who are captivated by her books immediately pick them up.
I knew Jennifer at a online writers’ group when she sold her first book.  I was excited …read more

After reading Susan Gunelius’s book on branding one’s business the Playboy Way, I’ve been contemplating on how to combine my various interests under one brand that will be logical, promotable and profitable.  Then I also need to come up with a catchy name for my business.
These interests include:

Researching & writing about family heritage
Teaching others to do this through workshops
Teaching through online classes
Writing books based on my various ancestors
Compiling family heritge recipes for family and others
Creating memory books for others
Teaching others to create memory books
Developing scrapbooking kits and classes for assisted living and nursing homes
Compiling a blog and book about my …read more

Susan Gunelius, a specialist on branding your business…the necessity of branding and how you can develop a brand…has written a very informative book on this topic.  Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, offers excellent information on building a brand by using the Playboy brand as an example.
 No, Susan’s book isn’t a book about sex.  It shows how the Playboy brand has become very effective in name recognition.  Some of it happened accidentally due to Hugh Hefner’s business instincts.  Some was deliberately developed.  As Susan says, “Love him or hate him, Hugh Hefner provides the ultimate example of successful branding.”
I find this a very …read more

With all the talk about branding and creating an image for yourself and your business, consider how you’re representing yourself on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.  This also applies to a blog you establish, either a personal one available to the public, or a business blog.
 When I see all the personal information people write there on social media and photos they post, I wonder if they realize how they appear to others.  Perhaps they don’t care.  But those words and photos could follow them for years.
Do your words and photos portray you as want the public to view you as a …read more

Previously I discussed incorporating pets into your promotional projects and/or product designs.  The pet may even become part of your brand.  Even if your business doesn’t involve pet products or items with pet designs, you may include a pet reference for interest in some way.
Children’s author/illustrator Jan Brett has written about and drawn her hedgehog, Hedgie.  However, Hedgie has somewhat become her trademark or brand. 
The e-mail newsletters I receive from Jan essentially come from Hedgie.  When I receive postcards or book signing announcements, they include Hedgie’s pictures.  Hedgie makes his way into Jan’s web site and blog. 
Perhaps you have a …read more

Generally we think of developing a product or service and then using our blog or web site to announce it and promote it.  We even may sell from the web site.  However, one of my readers mentioned that some web sites/blogs gain such a good following that they then can develop a related logo, picture, saying that brands them and sell it on various items.
A business like Cafe Press will print your art on the items they sell, such as cups, caps, t-shirts, sweat shirts, notebooks, postcards, notepaper, tote bags, etc. This is done at no cost to you since the items are printed …read more

Whether you agree with Barack Obama’s programs and government slant,
you’ll generally have to agree that he has and is using very successful promotional strageties…all during his campaign and the first five months of his presidency…to sway a majority of the American people into thinking he has their best interests at heart.
Using modern electronic capabilities to reach the people, such as blogs, the media, social media and key phrases, he branded his campaign as one of “change,” with people automatically thinking that meant change for the better.  You also find he is branching out into new techniques.  As you study his strategies, can you find anything there …read more