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SESSION TWELVESmall Business Marketing and Opening |
Session 12 of 14 | |||||||
An opening checklist is a great place to start. Remember that airline pilots are required to use a checklist before they take off! Here are items you should have on your opening checklist. Add additional items that would be appropriate for your own business. Before you start checklist
Every business has a specific marketing strategy that usually works best and has already been proven by your most successful competitors. You can benefit from their experience by copying successful marketing plans, including selling methods, pricing and advertising. Make a list of the most successful businesses that fall within your field of interest and study them (and even go to work for them). Visit these businesses and be prepared to ask the questions that are most important to you. Learn as much as you can about the needs of your customers and how to gain feedback from them. For example, if you open a restaurant, a displeased patron will probably not complain because it is not a pleasant experience. Instead, he will not return. So, for example, you must take care to inspect the plates as they are returned to the kitchen. Will your customers be looking for convenience, pricing, quality and/or service? It will be difficult to make sound marketing and promotional decisions without being informed on their real wants and needs. If a specific geographical area defines your market, low cost demographic reports based on the census can be obtained that will furnish information on population by race, income and home ownership. For resources that provide this information, use Google.com to search for "demographic data" on the Internet.
 Recruiting, hiring, and training good employees
Most employers agree the toughest part of being an employer is finding and keeping good employees. Begin your search for the good employee as soon as you decide that you are going to be an entrepreneur.
To achieve these qualities, look for marketing employees who
Here's a checklist for hiring and training your marketing team:
Rapid delivery firms (UPS, FedEx) and just-in-time assembly systems are great tools to use to minimize your inventories. These expanding technologies have greatly reduced the need for warehousing as well as the risk of obsolescence. And, the cash you free up can be put to uses that are more productive. If you are selling a product, you may want to consider having the item manufactured by an outside source rather than setting up your own production facility. Many start-up entrepreneurs outsource production in order to concentrate on marketing. There may also be cost considerations because other places might be able to provide the same product more cheaply. How to buy checklist
How to go about making major one-time purchases such as fixtures, equipment, major repairs or construction needs:
Marketing tools Your business name will announce who you are and what you stand for. A memorable logo also adds to your marketability. It will establish your name and brand recognition. It will enhance the image you wish to create. Your logo can be used on all company materials including stationery, business cards, brochures, Web site, gift boxes and shipping containers. A good name is:
E-commerce You may want to include the Internet in your Marketing Plan. Please refer to Session 10: E-commerce Promotion and advertising
Discuss your advertising plan with your vendors. They may provide you with co-op money if you follow their rules and make proper application for the money. Even the smallest advertiser can get up to half of their advertising costs reimbursed. There are many types of paid media to deliver your message. A few of the most commonly used are
Whatever advertising media you decide to use, become knowledgeable regarding the do's and don'ts of advertising in that particular medium. For example, if direct mail works best for you, there are books in your library devoted to this subject. They will provide huge insights that can save you from wasting advertising dollars. Media publicity is free and helps to create a positive image for you business. Newspapers could be interested in writing a feature story about you because of the widespread interest in entrepreneurship and the fact that you are a successful start-up. Local newspapers, even the free ones, are very effective. Your "press release" must have news value that can be turned into a bit more of a feature story, as opposed to an announcement. This will make it more interesting and relevant to the reader. Editorial space is much more valuable to you than display space…and it's free! Mailing lists Now, before your start your business, is the right time to begin developing a database of future customers you wish to target. This list can be used for direct mail, invitations and newsletters. Your database could include specific individuals, companies and groups by location. Begin now to
A new marketing tool that is a huge benefit to local businesses is now available: the “local” button on search engines. To demonstrate the power of this tool, please go to a search engine such as Google or Yahoo and enter “Flower Shops”. Then, click on the “local” link at the top of the page and enter you zip code. Presto: local flower shops will be displayed on a map along with links to their Web site. Savvy businesses today are taking advantage of this marketing tool.
TOP TEN DO'S
My name is Charlene McNeil. I own Holiday One-Hour Dry Cleaners in East Whittier, California. I've been in business for 34 years. I would say - number one - enjoy what you're doing. Appreciate your customers. Our customers are number one to us, and we let them know it. Whenever you have problems with customers, their problem is your problem. Don't get defensive; work with them. The solution is going to benefit both of you. I would say the number one mistake is not finding out what type of marketing works best. If you can do that by talking to other people in the business, you can learn by their mistakes. I found that the best way for us to promote our business is through existing customers. Keep the customers satisfied, and they will recommend other people to your business. Plus, we run in-house promotions to get more business from our existing customers, and we have found that to work very well. Being in business today is much more complicated than it was even 10-15 years ago, particularly with our business because we use solvents. We're very heavily regulated because of environmental concerns. This makes it much more difficult and a much larger responsibility being in this particular type of business than it was in the past. Another thing is with employees -- because we're a small shop, I have only 5-6 employees. I really stress that we're a team. I'm not the chief and they're not all the little Indians. We are a team; we work together; we're equals. I want to hear what they have to say as far as better ways of doing things. Their suggestions are important because they are in direct contact with my customers. I want them to be happy in order that they project their happiness to their customers. In conclusion, I would say anyone who is interested in opening up his or her own business should carefully conduct research first. Find out exactly what is involved and be sure it is an activity you will enjoy.
Daina Johnson
My name is Daina Johnson and I own a business in La Canada, California, called Tudor Cottage. I've been in business for 25 years. There are some things that I've been doing right and a lot of things that I should have done differently. One bad habit developed through the '80s and the '90s and has grown into a bit of a problem. Simply stated, I've being buying too much product and have lost control of my inventory. In the '80s and '90s, customers were buying just about anything that we presented. I kept buying as I had always bought, as though there were no changes in the buying habits of our customers, and I failed to read their message. Also, I got into the habit of buying items in larger numbers, especially if a manufacturer offered a discount or free freight. This method of buying had worked successfully for a long time, but then I needed a warehouse to store the goods. For a while, I kept buying as I always had. Perhaps I felt a need to fill the space. I finally realized my error when it dawned on me that I was renting a 1,000 square-foot space to warehouse inventory for a 2,000 square-foot store. I am now thinning out this huge inventory, and I am much more careful at the gift shows. I'll not be swayed by the promises of discounts or free freight. If I'm not sure I can sell the amount of product necessary to meet the discount requirements, I won't buy the item. I'll keep closer track of what sells, and then I'll make that decision to reorder at that time. I've found that reordering is really very easy. When I attend gift shows, and I go to about four of them a year, I always attend seminars. Recently, I sat in on a discussion that covered the topic of planning and controlling inventory. One gem that I picked up, something that I have always known but I obviously opted to ignore, is the basic rule of buying: buy only what you know that you can sell. If you buy a dozen widgets, know that you must sell seven widgets in order to begin to make your profit. I'm in the process of correcting my bad habit, and I assume that in the years to come, my store will get back on track and I shall have a control of my inventory.
John Fellegi
My name is John Fellegi. I am the owner of Whittier Car Wash in Whittier, California, on Ocean View and Whittier Boulevard. Anybody who is going in business, I recommend to do your homework before you get into business. Do your research on all the aspects of the business, what good comes and goes, which one you need to accomplish. Make sure you have enough funds to cover you for at least the first year. Don't spend money until you earn it. If you don't know the business, hire a company who makes sure to research it for you. I researched this place very thoroughly because I didn't want to fail. I did it; I've been here five and a half years now, and I think I'm doing very well here. Even in the rainy season when a car wash is very viable for that, I did OK, even this year with a lot of rain. I feel if you give the customer what they expect plus a little bit more, they will come back to you, and they will patronize your business, and they will recommend you to other people. If you don't do that, they will bad-mouth you. I have a philosophy. People long forget how much they paid for a good job or a good service, but they will never forget if a bad service occurred in the business. I like to be in business. You're self-sufficient because what you do for yourself is reflected on your family and everybody else as long as you do whatever is legal and honest.
Ray Kovar
I'm Ray Kovar from La Habra Heights, California. I'm in the swimming pool service and repair business and have been for over 22 years. The reason I got into business on my own was that I was laid off from work and, as a result, knew that I wanted to do something for myself. I had previously researched businesses through newspapers and through acquaintances. When I found what I thought I might be interested in, I worked and trained for two months with a neighbor who was in the pool service business. Then I bought a small route. I also took a certification class through the L.A. County Health Services and acquired a health license, which really helped in my business. Some of the mistakes that I made were under-pricing jobs at the beginning because of the lack of experience and not wanting to lose the job, and insufficient communications with my customers due to inexperience and uncertainty. One advantage for me is that I can generate as much business as I want and work as hard as I want to accomplish it. I work my own hours and work around schedules. Some disadvantages are no paid vacation, sick time, and medical. Sometimes I don't have any backup for short periods of time off that I would like to take. Later on, I joined an industry group for educational purposes and insurance.
Terry Haney
My name is Terry Haney, and I am a consultant on dealing in the area of contingency planning. I work for state and local governments on a wide variety of planning issues. I formed my own business about 20 years ago after having worked for a company in a variety of capacities. I was becoming somewhat bored with the activities that I had been promoted into, and I decided at that time that I would like to get involved in some other kind of work. Fortunately for me, the company had a small contract at the time that developed multi-agency organizational planning for fire departments. I asked to be assigned to that project and was assigned to it. After a few years, I realized that is the type of work that I could do on my own. And as a result, I opted to take on that project on my own. But first of all, I went to the company, and I asked them if they would be willing for me to come back to work for them on a consulting basis until that contract became final. They agreed to that, and I then also checked with the client to see if the client would be willing at the end of that contract for me to take it on my own, and the client was willing. So with those two approvals, on my 20th anniversary, I left the company, came back to work the next day as a consultant, and I worked as a consultant for nine more months with the company, and then took the project over myself. In retrospect, looking back at the project, I think that the advantages to doing this were, to the company, they could get rid of the administrative activity associated with this small contract. And secondly, they didn't have to pay my fringe package. The advantage to the client is that the client got a lot more hours out of my time than they did when I was employed because of a much lower overhead rate. And, of course, the advantages to me were that I was self-employed, was my own boss. I could more or less set my own hours and feel the satisfaction of having known that I was the sole performer on this activity. If I had to do it over again, I probably would want to get started sooner. But I have no regrets for what I did and when I did it, and certainly I'd do it again.
We heartily recommend that you download the individual business plan template for this session Business Plan Template Document 12 and complete it now.
Instructions on filling in the business plan template:
The template for all sessions 1-14 can also be downloaded into your computer as a single document:
Include sufficient research findings and background materials. Make it interesting up by the use of background data, your biography, charts, demographics and research data. When your business plan is completed, print off and assemble the 14 sections. Many other business plan formats are available in libraries, bookstores, and software.
Please help improve this course by taking 20 seconds to answer the feedback question.
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Owner, Tudor Cottage Gift Shop
Whittier Car Wash
Holiday One Hour Cleaners
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Consultant, Disaster Management
Pool Maintenance
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Evaluating the Potential of Business | The Business Plan | Communication Tools | Business Organization | Licenses, Permits, Names | Business Insurance The text of these materials, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storing in an informational retrieval system or otherwise, except for students own personal use.
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