Striped Mouse provides business support including bookkeeping services to small and micro businesses. Our support packages are tailored to each business to suit the level and type of support required and include regular visits and off-site processing. We work in the background - this lets the business owner spend more time running their business and doing what they do best.

Our key marketing challenge is how do we successfully establish our brand to target and reach new customers and grow our client base. It is also in educating business owners and building  confidence in the value and benefits Striped Mouse can bring to their business. 

Rowena Hand, Striped Mouse - 2 October

Week 4 of the Canberra Business Blitz was about focused around finalizing our website information and promoting our new brand at several local business events.

The first challenge for the week (and this was accomplished from my hospital bed – thanks to all the great staff at National Capital Hospital) was to compile the information that had been prepared over the last four weeks about our services and products and turn them into words for the website. Thanks to Steven and the design team at Link Digital, this wasn’t the mammoth task I had envisaged. Steven encouraged me to put all the info and ideas on paper and his design team has turned it into a great useful, easy to read and navigate website. I love the look and feel of the website, it fits with our entire new brand – I can’t wait to show it off!

The Canberra Business Blitz team attended two events this week – the monthly Schmooze at Rolfe BMW Philip and the Business in focus month, wrap up event. Prior to the Business Blitz I have to admit, networking just wasn’t my scene. Thankfully, Phillip and the other Business Blitzer’s were able to offer me tips and be good role models to help me slide into the networking scene – and, I have to say, I had a great time. I was having such a good time talking freely to people that had similar interest or topics, I soon realised (thanks to Phillip’s explanation) that networking isn’t about selling yourself or your product, its more about being yourself and sharing thoughts and ideas with others.

So as work on the first Canberra Business Blitz comes to a close and the voting hot’s up to draw the competition to an end, I would like to share my lessons:

• Use professionals in business. All businesses need to start some where and with no budget. But as time moves on, a good business owner knows when and who to engage as a professional to manage elements of the business. Yes, most business owners have good multi skills and can perform multi tasks but the key is how well can this be done and what time and value are these tasks worth?
• Understand your business market - research and really understand your market and competitors and where you want your business to be. It’s valuable for business decisions and planning now and in the future. It’s also a great way to stay in touch with trends.
• Build a strong network of support. A network isn’t just a resource for new clients or new customers. A good network gives a great foundation of knowledge and support to businesses.
• Brand isn’t just a logo – brand is your whole image, the look and feel for your business or product
• Service is a product – and like any product, it needs to be marketed appropriately
• Business can be lonely – get to know people in the same boat!

Thank you to the whole team at the Canberra Business Blitz, especially Lisa, Duncan, Clint, Phillip and my supportive and encouraging project manager Steven. As a business owner I have leant so much from the program in such a short period and developed great working relationship that I hope will continue in the future. I am very grateful to finish the program with a fantastic new brand, supported by professional and appropriate marketing products! This program has given my business a giant ‘foot up’. Thank you again.

Rowena Hand

Steven De Costa, Link Digital - 25 September

In the studio we have been busy with stacks of stuff. Following on from some brand testing work Rowena underwent with help from Clint, we have been working on the Books&BAS logo to make it more approachable (for those of you who haven’t heard Books&BAS is the new name for Striped Mouse – registered this week!). The new version of the logo is softer and less dominated by the ‘arrow’ device.

We have also been working on a new flyer. Our writer is especially happy with this one so please check it out. We are presently working on the Books&BAS website design, which is based on a structure influenced by the detailed and thorough research Rowena has been undertaking throughout the month. Her research has investigated five competitor sites that Rowena likes, categorizing the types of information they contain to be expressed in a new structure which incorporates all the good parts without diluting her core message to business and accounting clients. And, finally, business cards for Books&BAS are, well, on the cards for next week….as are more lame jokes, no doubt.

Rowena Hand, Striped Mouse - 24 September

How time flies when your having fun! Week 3 has been about concept testing and planning how to communicate our product to our market.
 
I spent lots of time having conversations with people about our logo concepts getting feedback on what works and what doesn't work with the three designs. I then sat down with Clint from Threesides with the most common responses and he showed me how to put the positive and negative feedback into our final brand concept.  We also spent time brain storming how to communicate our product in the market by defining what the 'function' of our product is and the 'emotional benefit' customers will receive by using out product. 
 
Steven had me thinking about how the structure of our website influences how messages and information is communicated to our customers. Steven and the team at Link Digital have been working so hard but at the end of week 3 we have our final logo design and a new flyer that matches our brand while communicating who we are and what we do!
 
I have been having so much fun with the Business Blitz process, it has been so valuable for me to understand how marketing and branding effects the success of my business - I've also learnt that marketing is not just having a logo, business cards and letterhead that all look the same!
 

Steven De Costa, Link Digital - 18 September

I spent most of the second week of Blitz doing some creative bookkeeping.  Well, not exactly, but I was focussed on coming up with some creative concepts around the branding and naming of Striped Mouse. In defining and understanding how to reach her market, Rowena and I had already discussed the possibility of rebranding the business. Now it was time to seek genuine market feedback on names and styles that would best work for her and her audience, and time for Link to flesh out the design side of things, coming up with three alternative logos and names which were provided to her with the full background story to each. She clearly enjoyed this process.

An effective brand presents a design look and feel for your business name, products and services that works across many applications including letterhead, printed promotional materials and, of course, websites. When it’s all working together, the end result is a tool that consistently represents the principles, positioning and objectives of your business and that persuasively markets your product and/or services to your target audience.

Week two was also my first one on one meeting with GPT to discuss the iAmp product for hearing impaired people. Again, not wasting any time, we dove straight into the specifics of humanising the product in an online narrative/seminar for a broad market. The online narrative is to be storyboarded and greater detail will be featured here at the end of the blitz project but the initial briefing determined an outline that will see this narrative address: defining the product for a broad audience; explaining the technology in laymen’s terms; delving into some scenarios that demonstrate the application of the product and its value in improving people’s lives; and educating the community on the broader issues surrounding the iAmp product.

Rowena Hand, Striped Mouse - 17 September

Rowena Hand, Striped Mouse - 10 September

I am so excited to be involved with the first Canberra Business Blitz. Meeting the Blitz team last week was great - everyone is so motived and passionate about being in business. Its great to work with such professional and fun people. It was also nice to meet Lisa from Therapy Masters and the GPT team who, like me, are excited to be part of the Blitz but feeling a little unsure about how we are going to achieve a Business Blitz in four weeks.

Steven and I quickly established and defined our key goal for the Business Blitz as improving how we attract and engage new clients to the business, with a key focus on our image and basic marketing materials. At the end of the first week, I have completed the tasks Steven set for me. I did a review of the current business market as well as an analysis of the bookkeeping and accounting industry in Canberra. This task was really interesting and demonstrated the value of evidence based research. This was a task I thought I did myself when I started the business but Steven gave me some great tips to get the information we need. I also spent some time thinking (and talking to others) about how my business image will compliment my target market.

The challenge now heading into week two will be to decide on our image so we can start developing marketing products - I am really looking forward to watching this part come together.

Steven De Costa, Link Digital - 4 September

With so little time to ‘blitz’ three businesses, we knew we had to hit the ground running and that meant the ‘getting to know you’ side of things had to be swept up in the process of assigning key tasks and delivering real results - right from the start. But charging ahead has allowed us to witness the passion and drive behind all three businesses and it was encouraging to see their faith even in the early days of this new initiative.

After the group workshop, I met with Rowena, my new ‘Blitz buddy’ to discuss the ins and outs of understanding her specific market: who needs her bookkeeping and related services, where can she find them, and what does she want to tell them. Coming from an online and design background, Link’s approach to a client like Rowena is focussed on making them think about how they want to target their audience and how they then present themselves in order to draw that audience in...and keep them. With this as a starting point Rowena was tasked with a number of assignments that were designed to guide a rebranding brief. Lucky for her, she wasn’t expecting us to go easy on her, even in week one!