Focus Groups in 3 Easy Steps
When reworking your brand, outside input is essential — but you need to know what you’re doing
A well-organized focus group provides feedback you can use to create a strategy to move forward, build on what’s working well, remove obstacles and finally articulate a clear and concise elevator pitch for your brand. Here’s how to conduct one:
Open Office
Despite high vacancies, Sacramento’s office market is full of potential
Bad news first: Vacancies in the Sacramento office sector remain high, there were no new construction projects in 2014 and average asking lease rates stayed flat at $1.69 per square foot per month. But these stats are yesterday’s news, say real estate analysts.
Detox Your Brand: Step 1
Improve your company’s marketing strategy by cleaning up your image
All too often, companies fall into bad habits and need a systematic reset of their marketing program in a way that is manageable and sustainable in the long-term. They need to do away with bad habits and increase the good. So where should you begin?
The Black Box of Sales Hiring
5 tips for hiring good salespeople who stay
For all its importance to business survival, companies tend to fail miserably at hiring sales staff. A 2011 survey of more than 400 firms by DePaul University researchers found that hiring one seller costs $29,000. But a lot of that money flutters out into the ether; a third of recruits don’t make it through their first year.
Summer Feeding
Local libraries are valuable tools in addressing issues of food access
Your next visit to the public library might not be to check out a book. Libraries are becoming critical agents in a sprouting local food movement, so you might instead bite into an actual meal, join a cooking class or even check out garden seeds.
Unnatural Selection
Scientists at UC Davis may be on the cusp of an HIV cure
The person who finds the cure for HIV will have their name etched in medical history. It’s a hard pill to swallow for one man who has spent 40 years chasing a cure. A cure for HIV, built upon decades of his work, could very well be proven this year. Yet Dr. Gerhard Bauer’s name may be little more than a footnote in the arcane medical journal that publishes the breakthrough.
This is the story of curing HIV.
Groves & Fishes
There is water war brewing between farmers and fisherman
Facing epic drought conditions, Gov. Jerry Brown called this month for mandatory cutbacks on urban water use statewide. But the ag industry, which uses 80 percent of the state’s water, is exempted. This decision has struck a cord with environmentalists and fishermen who fear the drought will compromise aquatic species — and their livelihoods.
How to Navigate a Disruptive Market
Create the radical innovations that will shift your market
In our current era of the startup, responding to disruptive innovation has become a new and often harsh reality. When disruptive innovations and emerging trends radically shift your market and throw you off your game, how do you respond?
Collaborative Spaces
5 companies that work together in style
These local businesses take teamwork to the next level with bold colors and innovative designs that inspire creativity and collaboration. Show us your company’s collaborative space for a chance to take over our Instagram account!
Room to Grow
Should the Capital Region focus more on global exporting?
In 2012, the Capital Region ranked 48th of a total of 100 metro areas on total value of exports and 95th on export intensity. Can more be done?