Your product or service may be one of a kind, but you need the right kind of marketing message in place to ensure your customers feel the same way. Beyond just a catchy tagline, you need to brand your company and tell your story in a way that gives customers an idea of who you are and what they can expect when they work with you.

While coming up with the perfect messaging can seem like an arduous task — especially if you don’t fancy yourself a copywriter — there are some proven tactics you can take to get the creative juices flowing.

Apps are the new Internet: a technology boom that is making some people a pile of money while simultaneously changing the way other people do business. While it’s true that many apps are simply new and shiny ways to do the same old thing, a few rise above the rest and improve business communication immensely.

If you haven’t already, check out these rock star business communication apps (and share your favorites in the comments!):

Don’t get me wrong – winning is great! But these four companies learned that it’s not all about taking home the gold.

They went through all the hard work of competing in a startup competition, but they didn’t catch the big prize. However, they did walk away with unique experiences and ideas they couldn’t find anywhere else which helped grow their business.

Their stories go to show that competitions have a lot more to offer than just the prize packages.

What’s more exhilarating than jumping feet-first into a brand-new business idea and investing every waking hour into bringing it to life? For entrepreneurs, not much. The luxury of spending all that time on a new venture, however, is something few have at the very beginning.

“Starting a business doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to lay everything on the line right now, all at once,” writes the StartupNation blog. “Many entrepreneurs figure out how to hang the Open for Business sign on a part-time basis.”

For all the benefits of launching a part-time business while still maintaining a steady income elsewhere, it is certainly far from simple. Entrepreneurs who have made it work are those who have carefully managed — or juggled, rather — their time, revenues and commitment.

Today we’re celebrating Khoi’s 5th anniversary here at Grasshopper. Khoi is a senior systems engineer here on our network operations team. To celebrate (besides doing fun things around the office – check our Facebook page for photos later!) we thought it would be fun to offer a discount in his honor.

For today only,  all new sign-ups can enjoy $25 off, thanks to Khoi!