Benno Pieters' Blog

I believe that the Cottage Industry will return in Full Force! What is the Cottage Industry? In Medieval times, in the villages, people used to produce from their own homes. They had a small plot of land to grow vegetables, perhaps keep a cow, and had a few chickens. They were blacksmiths, or bakers, weavers, or cobblers and paid each other with pieces of silver. Some were beer brewers, which used to be very important because you could not always trust the water supply. Gold was used for larger items. In the Anglo-Saxon world, 1 troy ounce of gold, would buy a gentleman a hand-tailored suit. It still does. People were not really rich in those times, but they were quite happy. Here in the Netherlands, you can get a grasp of how that used to be at the Archeon Museum. Industrial Revolution Once the Industrial Revolution started, people flocked toward the cities because they could earn more. The Cottage Industry ceased to be effective as specialization and economies of scale started to set...

One of the best Social Media Branding strategies is the social patterning method:  ‘on becoming a Brand!’, which has proven itself extremely well in the past 5 years. It originated in the Netherlands (Europe) and enables small and large companies to brand themselves or their products in a fast way using the social media. In order to do that you need to set-up a Social Media Pattern , which is an investment in time of about one working week. After that it only requires 15 minute a day monitoring time. There is a book called ‘On becoming a Brand!’ written by Benno Pieters and Antoinette Pernot which describes the whole method. So what are the rules? 1)       Knowing what you want. Your product or service offering needs to solve a common problem for a larger group of people, the so called niche. There has to be a vision behind the product which lasts at least 5 years. People love consistency. Next you need to have a mission; the road to achiev...

Having forgotten for some time about this Blog, I am back to pusue my Blog activities and publis my Blog thoughts. I also blog professionally on http://www.auriumcommerce.com/Aurium_Commerce/Blog/Blog.html, (take a look) but on this blog I will tackle issues which amuse me or make me wonder. Professionally, I have eveloved to being a Business Catalyst. I have gone beyond the business formula of TC-One (the Sales Consultancy) and have now Aurium Commerce, The Sales Support Company. Antoinette Pernot is my Business Associate and together we conceive new ways of getting business done. Or latest way of supporting small businesses is our Personal Sales & Branding Support Service, in which we help small businesses become a brand in a short time using a combination of traditional business development and the new social media. The goal is to become an authority and the game moves on to Authority Selling. I will be blogging about this on my professional Blog. This will create a continal str...