Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: The Future of Small Business Marketing?

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A solid marketing plan is one of the most powerful weapons a small business owner can have at their disposal. Relying on tried-and-true techniques, like word-of-mouth, is one way to drive traffic to your restaurant or retail store; but if you really want to create buzz around your business, embracing technology is a must.

Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR and VR respectively) are the latest innovations to make headlines. Marketers believe both have serious potential to revamp the way businesses attract and keep customers. Here’s a look at how these technologies work and how small businesses can leverage them to their advantage.

Augmented and virtual reality defined

Virtual reality and augmented reality often get lumped together, but there are subtle differences between the two. With virtual reality, you’re interacting with a computer-generated 3-D environment, typically via a headset or goggles. Essentially, you’re in a completely fictional setting that’s separate from the real world.

Augmented reality, on the other hand, incorporates your physical surroundings with computer software to create a composite view. Artificial elements – viewable using a headset, glasses or a mobile device – are overlaid on the screen, incorporating them into the world around you. You can interact with this simulated environment but still be able to distinguish between it and reality.

Augmented reality and virtual reality as a marketing tool

Once you understand what augmented reality and virtual reality are, the next step is figuring out how to capitalize on these technologies to market your business. Pokémon Go relies on augmented reality tech. It is a great example of how smaller businesses have been able to do just that.

For instance, CNBC recently reported a story on Mad Hatter’s Ice Cream in Anacortes, Washington. After temporarily closing shop due to a personal health issue, the store’s owner Gary Dear was able to triple his sales thanks to foot traffic from gamers who were scouting out local Pokémon hotspots.

Other small businesses are also cashing in on the app’s popularity. They are doing so without having to blow their marketing budget. Coffee shops, pizza joints and retail stores are all getting in on the action. Because of this, businesses are reaping big returns with a minimal investment in the process.

The marketing tricks businesses use are fairly simple. CitySen Lounge, a bar and restaurant located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, draws in customers with the promise of a 10% discount for belonging to a particular Pokémon Go team. California-based coffeehouse It’s a Grind uses inexpensive Lure modules. This attracts Pokémon to a particular Pokéstop for a limited time, to hustle up business.

While Pokémon Go brought augmented reality to the forefront, it’s really just the tip of the iceberg where marketing is concerned. Larger companies are putting AR tech to work in other ways to build their brands. Think Ikea’s AR-driven catalog or Urban Decay’s Snapchat filter. Although the application is different, the idea is the same: using augmented reality to retain existing customers and embrace new ones.

Applying augmented and virtual reality on a smaller scale

Cost is undeniably one of the biggest barriers to using augmented and virtual reality as a small business owner. If you don’t have the budget to develop your own AR or VR-based smartphone app or pay a marketing agency to launch an augmented reality campaign on your behalf, you’re probably wondering how you can realistically use this technology to your advantage.

As we’ve seen with Pokémon Go, it’s really a matter of creativity and keeping an eye on trends. Paying attention to AR and VR apps that go viral can open the door to new marketing opportunities. As the technology continues to develop, small businesses should be able to cast an even wider net when looking for ways to utilize augmented reality in their marketing plans.

 

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped business in hundreds of industries.  Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

Resilience Series 4: Be Open and Honest With Customers and Employees

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It’s human nature to want to present an upbeat, everything’s-great image. But during a crisis, your company can be more successful and generate goodwill by being transparent and prepared. A solid crisis communications plan can head off disaster after a disaster, and can potentially win you fans and customers.

Just ask Frank Jadhavji, founder of JustDeals.com, a flash-deal site specializing in consumer electronics and appliances. When he started the company, nearly 1,000 cameras disappeared from his warehouse soon after they arrived. To make matters worse, most of the stolen cameras were sold, and customers were waiting for them.

But Jadhavji didn’t hide the fact. His team contacted the affected customers and explained the situation, offering discounts and coupons as well as negotiating with vendors to find replacement products. Because of the high level of service, the company lost few customers.

Lesson: Be clear and open in communicating with your own staff and customers, finding quick solutions to show your good faith.

Be prepared

Most companies don’t think about dealing with the media and public until they’re in the midst of dealing with a problem. A crisis communications plan isn’t something only large companies need, but nearly half of all companies don’t have one, according to a 2016 Nasdaq Public Relations Services survey.

Alison Podworski, owner of Alison May Public Relations, says small businesses should have a designated spokesperson for the media and public – often the owner – and direct all employees to funnel inquirers to that person. “If there are details that can not be released to the public yet, only those involved on the crisis team should know the information,” she says. “The company should tell most of their employees the same thing that they are saying to the public.”

Craft a pre-written statement, focused on your company’s history, values and commitment to the community and employees. Your company can tweak the statement based on the exact circumstance. Make sure that your statement emphasizes the main two or three points you want to communicate. Saying too much can be as bad as a cringe-inducing, “no comment.”

“The public despises dishonesty or a company that refuses to comment,” Podworski says. “A company should be as open as possible about the crisis. Ignoring or hiding the facts won’t change things. The company should always present a solution when explaining the issue.”

 

Turning a problem into a solution

Consider Buffer, a social media technology company, which suffered a security breach resulting in thousands of accounts posting spam messages to Facebook. Instead of passing blame, the company immediately apologized and published updates on their blog, explaining the problem. The post updated 10 times throughout the day, as more information was uncovered.

Their rapid, transparent response had people responding with Twitter comments like: “Proof positive that full transparency and openness is the only way to go when situations like this occur. Kudos to Buffer. I am not currently a user but will seriously look at your solution now.”

Imagine suffering a security breach and winning more customers because of the way in which you handle it! While no company wants to encounter a crisis, problems are inevitable. If you are prepared, establish the proper tone, and treat customers and employees with respect so they can provide a chance to shine.

 

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped business in hundreds of industries.  Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

You Spend a Ton on Social Media. Want to Find Out if It’s Working?

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Nearly three-quarters of small businesses invest in Facebook ads or other types of social media — in fact, they rely more on social media than any other form of marketing. But do you know what bang you’re getting for your social buck? Can you pinpoint which social media channels work for you, and where your content is falling on uninterested eyeballs?

If not, it’s time for a social media audit. While the word can conjure images of accountants and the IRS, a social media audit is a straightforward exercise that allows you to determine which of your social networks is delivering high-quality traffic, which aren’t generating results and what to do next.

Where Do You Start?

Simply Measured, an analytics company, produced a handy report called Spring Cleaning: Perform Your Own Social Media Audit, that says you should begin by making an inventory of every social channel you use. For each platform determine:

  • Is your brand active (you consistently engage – producing and responding to content), reactive (you typically only respond when someone engages with your brand) or inactive(you don’t really engage on your social channels at all)?What’s your URL?
  • What’s your profile handle?
  • Who has administrative access and what’s the login?
  • Who has posting access/ownership?
  • Does the profile use ads?
  • Who is your ads administrator?
  • What is the login?

Don’t focus only on the biggest channels (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn) or assume you know all your social channels, says George Schildge, founder and CEO of the Matrix Marketing Group. An employee who left long ago might have set up a YouTube channel you don’t know about.  With this in mind, you can use tools like Namechk and Knowem to find every one of your channels.

What’s the Impact?

After cataloging all your social channels, the next thing you need to determine is the impact each channel has within your business. Tanya Korpi Macleod, president and CEO of The Holistic Marketing Agency, says to examine how engaged people are on your channels:

  • How many followers on each?
  • What kind of posting cadence gets the most interaction?
  • What kind of posts get the most interaction?
  • Who’s engaging/interacting with those posts?

Ingrid Kibler, director of social media at HCK2 Partners, also suggests you examine platform features. For example, is your Facebook’s “About” section complete? Are hashtags used strategically in tweets? Does your YouTube channel showcase a featured video?

Once you’ve answered these questions, evaluate each profile carefully and determine if it is meshes with your business objectives for the channel. “At the top-of-the-funnel is where you use social media,” Schildge says. “The objective here is to capture the user’s e-mail on your website by using a sign-up form, gated content, or a special offer.”

What’s the Competition Up to?

Macleod says you should check your social strategy against competitors using free tools like the aptly named spyfu. In addition to comparing metrics to your own channels, determine:

  • Do their posts look professional?
  • Are they posted at regular times, suggesting they have a dedicated employee or an agency?
  • Do they have shortened links, like bitly? If they say something like hub.ly, they could be using expensive marketing automation software, suggesting they have a social budget, team or agency.
  • Is the content they post original or curated, or both? Lots of original content suggests a budget.
  • Are they running ads?

“Copying someone else’s strategy or plan means you have to copy every element of it,” Macleod says. “If you say, ‘They’re on Facebook, so I will be too,’ but you don’t put the energy or advertising or effort behind it, you’ll be disappointed. The channel is important, but it’s way more about what you do with it. And if you’re not going to do anything with it? Don’t bother. ”

What’s the Next Step?

After determining your own social media results and seeing what your competitors are up to, you can hatch a plan for moving forward. Furthermore, the findings of your social media audit should guide your social plan, including:

  • Who creates the content for each social channel?
  • Who posts the content?
  • How often should you post on each channel?
  • What posting rules do you need to ensure your company “voice” is maintained.

Schildge says, “Use the 80/20 rule for social media. Share valuable content, ask questions, help people out, and 20 percent of the time you can do promotions.” If you use an audit to get your social media in shape, you can get a big payoff. As Schildge says, “Businesses with over 1000 Facebook fans had 22 times more traffic. Conversely, businesses with over 1000 Facebook fans had 12 times more leads.”

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped hundreds of Industries including: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

3 Questions to Help Determine if it's Time to Hire a CFO

3 Questions to Help Determine if it’s Time to Hire a CFO

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Your business is growing faster than you ever thought possible. Sales have never been higher and your products are flying off the shelves. The problem? You are clueless about your cash flow, you have investors knocking on your door, you haven’t made projections for how your business will be doing a year from now (never mind five years) and you are too busy to dedicate time to the financial intricacies of your business operations.

Sound familiar? If so, it might be time to hire a CFO.

“There is the cliché that many companies go out of business the year after they achieve record sales,” says Arnold Lee, managing director of CFO Growth Advisors, a Bay Area firm that provides part-time CFO services. “When a company is growing rapidly, they grow out of the way they are doing business every three, six, and twelve months; and if they haven’t designed a strategic financial model for moving forward, they can get into trouble.”

Still not sure you need a CFO? If you say yes to any of the following questions, it may be time to start looking:

Is your company in rapid growth mode?

A period of fast growth is a signal to enlist the help of a CFO. That person can help you speak with your board of directors, provide financial projections and handle meetings around outside investment and potential acquisition.

“If you have any institutional investors on your board, you better have a CFO because they will want monthly meetings and there are expectations in terms of reporting,” says Ryan Keating, managing partner and founder of Keating Consulting Group, an interim CFO firm in San Mateo, California. “If you want to raise money, a CFO can be a huge help. That person can help you navigate the first meeting, second meeting, what to do when you get a term sheet and so on.”

Are you struggling to manage your company’s finances?

Every entrepreneur starts his or her company with the mastery of a skill—usually to build a product or service better than any other company on the market. This skill doesn’t always involve financial expertise. And while you may want to handle it all on your own, it pays to have a frank conversation with yourself about items that may be falling through the cracks. A CFO can help catch those items and steer your company on a path to profitability.

Do you have a cash flow problem?

“Cash is the life blood of a business,” says Madhur Dayal, founder and CEO of JMD Financial Partners, an interim CFO company based in the Bay Area. “When a company gets more complex it can help to have a finance arm to make sure you have the funds you need to continue to grow and the ability to make projections.”

CFO help doesn’t need to cost you a fortune, even at the interim level. Hourly rates can vary wildly so be sure to shop around, but as Dayal says, help is affordable for even the most cash-strapped companies.

“There are ways to get the help you need; some of our clients pay $500 for us to be a sounding board,” he says. “A little can go a long way.”

Now that you’re convinced you need CFO help, its time to find the right person for the job. Here are a few things to look for in your search.

Similar “stage” experience

Focus on a candidate who has experience working with companies at your similar stage, advises Keating. Going through a seed round? Find someone who has done that a dozen times. Need to talk to your board for the first time? There are plenty of CFO candidates with that experience. Find them and start the interview process.

Cultural fit

The best CFOs are strategic partners who work in tandem with the CEO of a company. This is a person you need to like enough to invite to dinner and respect enough to be open to their criticism.

“One of the biggest mistakes I see is that people like to hire people like themselves,” says Dayal. “You want them to complement your skills. You don’t want them to be a ‘yes man.’ Hire someone who will talk you through the reality of your business and you will be well on your way to a successful partnership.”

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped hundreds of Industries including: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

Resilience Series 3: Lean on Friends For Support and to Keep a Level Head

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Fires, floods and other major disasters are more likely to cause small businesses to shutter their doors than large businesses. While that might not be a shocker, one key factor of how some small businesses are able to persevere after a setback might surprise you: a strong support network to lean on.

“The more [ties] business owners have to the community, families, friends, and institutions (i.e. the more social capital they have), the better off they will be when they go through a crisis,” says a study that examined the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

 

Personal Incidents

Plenty of personal stories attest to the research. Loretta Harrison, owner of a candy shop in New Orleans, asked family to help out after her employees left the devastated city and sought help from a small business incubator. Given the scope of the damage, she believed she needed to seek counsel and not be afraid to ask potentially “dumb questions.”

This perspective resonates with Nat Wasserstein, who runs a crisis management firm in New York. “I’ve had many small business clients successfully navigate through a crisis, and they share an important characteristic: a very primal instinct knowing what you don’t know,” he says. “They are willing to put their ego aside and seek out answers from more successful people.”

During Hurricane Katrina and the recovery, Harrison adapted to the community’s needs by staying open and expanding the menu to feed volunteers and workers who were rebuilding the city. Small businesses can only draw support during a crisis if they have made connections well before it.

Just ask Jamie Silvestri. In 2010, flood waters devastated his auto parts business, claiming his entire inventory. His basement and entire first floor of his store filled with water after the area suffered record-setting rain. He admits it would have been easy to fold up. He relied on retirement funds, and help from friends and family to relaunch his business.

 

Community Support

Silvestri said little things, like community members dropping off food to make sure everyone was fed, made a big difference. He advises small businesses in such circumstances to throw their pride out the window and ask for help. Relying on people who don’t have an emotional attachment to the business also helps him from making irrational decisions.

The U.S. Small Business Administration gave Silvestri its Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery. Tellingly, Silvestri received support from the community because of the ties he made to it. He has served on his local town counsel. And even though his auto parts shop was be evacuated due to safety reasons, he spent the next two days working around the clock in his capacity as a volunteer firefighter, helping others in need.

This suggests a resilient business owner doesn’t go pedal-to-the metal on business matters 24-7. They also spent time connecting with the community, making friends, and being involved. Developing mentors who can weigh in based on their experience during tough times can be another difference-maker. Indeed, the post-Katrina study found this type of social capital should be taken into account as another tangible asset for mitigating and recovering from a disaster.

 

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped business in hundreds of industries.  Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

Daily Deal Technology

The Impact of Daily Deal Technology

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3 Businesses Weigh in on the Benefits (and perils) of Daily Deal Technology

Perhaps you’re one of many consumers whose inbox fills with a ‘daily deal’ email or three each morning? If you’re also a merchant, you might be wondering whether participating in a daily deal technology would be beneficial for your bottom line. Sure, you can reach customers beyond your regulars and locals, but how can you figure out if a daily deal technology would not only be a fit, but also be profitable for your business?

We sat down with three business leaders who share why they began incorporating daily deal technology into their marketing regiment, what they’ve learned, and advice they’d give any merchant considering daily deals:

  • Erica Harriss – Founder, Saving Grace Beauty, an online retailer that thrives on introducing people to hair products that make their “things I can’t live without” list.
  • Jeremy Levi – Director of Marketing, MARS Med Supply, a manufacturer and seller of high-quality health, beauty, and medical supplies.
  • Mitch Goldstone – President and CEO, ScanMyPhotos.com, an e-commerce photo digitization service which has scanned 300 million photos.

 

What attracted you to doing a daily deal offer?

Erica: The daily deal offer was attractive because it was essentially a risk-free way to get our company name and products in front of millions of people. These visitors are coming to these sites with the intention of buying something. Our company doesn’t pay anything for this marketing, unless a product sells.

Jeremy: For us it’s about getting our brand and product in front of as large an audience as possible. We are constantly bringing on new, innovative products. When we want to jump-start sales and get real customer feedback, daily deal sites are a great way to move large volume quickly. We then gauge what moves well and what customers think about the product so we can tweak it and improve it.

Mitch: I liked the vast outreach, economics and credibility of being featured nationally by Groupon for new customers who are predominantly female and match our demographic customer base.

 

What did you learn from your first deal that you used to make your next deal better?

Erica: Your deal photos tell a story, and you need this story to be one that consumers want to be a part of—to create excitement. Don’t just simply show a photo of your product. If applicable, show how this product can make a purchaser’s life better. You want them stalking their mailbox every day waiting for your product to arrive to help solve their problems.

Jeremy: What you think is a great product at a great deal doesn’t necessarily translate into great sales. You need to put out a lot of deals and then you’ll start hitting some home runs. Individual deals are often hit or miss.

Mitch: The first deal was a bit confusing and I learned to simplify the offer by featuring only our most popular photo scanning service. The deal must be self-liquidating (profitable) and have a game-changing crazy low price. Return S/H must be included. I realized that reviews matter most, and our company scored 92% favorable reviews on the Groupon platform.

 

How much return business do you get from your daily deal customers?

Erica: We have a product which is a consumable, so we see high rates of repeat business from our daily deal customers. Most of our first time customers find us on a deal site (about 60%). Sometimes they repurchase through a deal site, and other times they come directly to our site. We do notice that these repeat deal customers tend to order multiple products when a product they have already tried (and presumably liked) hits a deal site again.

Jeremy: For us it’s not so much about the return customer as it is about the brand awareness. That being said, when you provide a quality product, it tends to stick out in consumers’ minds—especially today, where so many products online are cheap knockoffs of quality products.

Mitch: Nearly 60% of our customers from Groupon return. Our analytical tracking tools identify that the majority become our most loyal fans and best referral partners.

 

What advice would you give any service-related business curious about whether a daily deal site is right for them?

Erika: In the service industry, time is your most valuable resource. Make sure you aren’t under-selling yourself. The deal site does take a percentage of the sale, as well as expecting you to offer your service at a discount. As a company, we are still able to provide standout service while participating in deal sites. Nearly always, we’ve been able to put a handwritten “thanks” or other quick personal touch on invoices.

Jeremy: Make sure you’re set up to handle the logistics of running the deal. Are you really ready to ship and handle the customer service of selling 1,000 pieces of your product in three days when you normally only sell 20-30? There are some Groupon sellers who pretty much live at the office from November through Christmas, and these are veteran sellers.

Mitch: Every merchant must embrace, celebrate, and welcome daily deal customers. Dazzle them. Establish a concierge customer support team to help all and make sure every customer becomes a fan. Don’t lose money and try to make it up on volume. Make sure to over perform to win the customers back.

 

What questions should businesses ask of the daily deal sites they’re considering to ensure they’re getting the most exposure and “bang” for their advertising buck?

Erica: Here’s my list of questions every merchant should ask:

-What is the reach of the deal site? Meaning, how many emails go out each day to people.

-How can you have preferred placement on the deal site front page?

-What is the expectation for percentage off of your product or service?

-How much does the deal site collect?

-What are the payment terms? We’ve had everything from 48 hours to 90 days.

-What is the return policy? Does the site’s policy trump your company policy?

Jeremy: How will you be promoting my deal? Will you be selling a similar product at the same time and if so at what price? Getting listed on the deal sites is only half the battle; you still need to make sure you are getting top exposure from them via emails, alerts and top placement.

Mitch: Have the account manager help with structuring the deal. They know best from experience what works. Ask for help and recommendations on designing a game-changing, smart deal that’s a “win-win” for all.

 

What do these deal tech companies NOT tell you when you’re approached to do an offer on their site?

Erica: They don’t tell you the formula for getting preferential placement on the deal site page. Always ask.

As well, do your due diligence when you are considering working with a site. Are they reputable? We made a mistake of working with a deal site once that we had to send several emails to finally get paid for the deal. We misjudged the fact that they only seemed reputable. While we did get paid, our company didn’t want to be attached to those type of business practices, so we’ve discontinued our relationship.

Jeremy: How quickly you get paid. If you’re just starting out you may not realize that many of the big sites pay you net 60 or 90 days, and you’ll need cash flow to survive that. Speak to those with experience and ensure you know the terms of payment and everything else these companies put into the contract, as large companies know how to protect themselves in the event something goes wrong.

Mitch: They are up front with merchants and my years of experience with Groupon demonstrates they are working with you. Everything you need to know is available and often on their FAQ pages.

 

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped business in hundreds of industries.  Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

Growing pains: questions to ask when thinking of moving offices

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You grew your business from a basement and quickly moved into an office space you thought was far too big. Now, after a hiring surge, your team is so cramped the head of sales takes calls in the stairwell. You want to move, but cash isn’t a guarantee. Do you bite the bullet and sign a lease at a new space, or stay and get cozy with your team? Answering these questions can help you decide:

Q: Are visitors comfortable in your space?

Appearances matter to clients and vendors. Aalap Shah and his co-workers at SoMe, a Chicago-based social media agency, spent nearly five years sharing a small office and shuffling between co-working spaces. As the company grew, so did the need for space to bring in clients. Shah knew it was time to make a move.

“We knew it was the right time because we wanted to create a stronger identity for the company and a welcoming space for our clients,” he says.

Companies that don’t bring in outside visitors needn’t worry about public perception. But they may still want to survey employees on their level of environmental comfort when making a decision.

Q: Can you get beyond the cost?

Sticker shock is understandable when looking at a lease agreement, but as Alex Cohen, lead and commercial specialist at CORE, a real estate firm in New York City, says, it can be shortsighted to focus only on dollar signs.

“In today’s tight labor market, the choice of a neighborhood and the appeal of a firm’s office may be critical to attracting and retaining talent, particularly if a firm seeks to appeal to Millennials,” he says. “The quality of a space can also generate important productivity advantages.”

Q: Could you utilize your current space better?

Renovating or redesigning your space may be the perfect solution if moving is out of the question. David Ciccarelli, CEO at Voices.com, a voice-over marketplace, says when considering a move, talk with a third-party design company to get a fresh perspective.

“They will be able to tell you whether your current office can be rejigged in a fresh and efficient way for your team, or if you need to consider a new space altogether,” he says. “Their recommendations may be based on numbers and factors that you wouldn’t have otherwise thought of.”

Q: What kind of growth are you expecting?

Take a serious look at your future projections. Are you planning to hire more people in the coming year? Will you need more space for office equipment or product? If so, start looking for a new space, says Alex Kamergorodsky, co-founder of San Diego-based Bright Ideas Lighting Solutions.

“If you’re in a space that currently holds six people and you’re looking to grow at 50 percent per year and maybe your lease is ending,” he says, “get a new space with a three-year lease so it can hold at least two years worth of staff comfortably. Then, ask your neighbors about their lease timelines. There could be the potential for taking on a neighbor’s lease after they leave if it aligns with your growth.”

Evaluating choices

Ultimately your decision will be influenced by a mix of these factors, but if your business is outgrowing its current location, you will have to make some changes. Client perception, attracting and retaining talent, and your ability to grow is influenced by where you chose to do business. Even if your lease has several years left, making a decisions early can make you comfortable in the long run.

 

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped business in hundreds of industries.  Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

Resilience Series Have a Disaster Recovery Plan in Place

Resilience Series 2: Change Gears When Disaster Strikes

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Legal problems exist in many small businesses. The question is, how do you get back up after falling down; and how can you use a setback to propel your business forward?

Just ask Eric Burns, a bar owner and transportation consultant in Omaha, Nebraska.

In many cities, people jump on public transit after an evening of food, entertainment and drinks. In Omaha, though, the buses shut down at 10 p.m. Burns combined the knowledge from his two careerss to create Nightlife Transit, a private “party” bus service that navigates Omaha’s entertainment districts from 9 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

He rented biodiesel-fueled buses, which allowed him to scale the service up and down as needed. He also put a tour guide on each bus who provided a fun atmosphere while pointing out specials that partner bars were offering that day, like half-priced appetizers.

Area bars, nightspots and apartment buildings clamored to be on the route. Burns won awards for his business plan. It had everything going for it. Concurrently, it served a business need and had a strong social mission: reducing the chance of drunk drivers in an environmentally safe way.

“We operated for about three months, gaining an enormous amount of traction and were being approached from individuals from around the country looking to franchise our model,” he says.

So what could go wrong?

“During this time a competitor in our market didn’t want us in their space and protested our certificate of authority for the bus line,” he says. “We spent the next few months battling our competitor over legal issues. Eventually, they nearly bankrupt us and we didn’t have the funds to continue paying our lawyers.”

And so a great idea disappeared. That would be enough to make many people give up the idea of running their own business and flee back to the safety net of a 9-to-5 job.

 

The Big Idea

Instead, Burns immediately began building a new business, called Gazella WiFi, which helps automate restaurant marketing. “We’re creating an auto-lead generation system to help restaurants sell more,” he says. “This business is gaining more traction everyday and we are able to make an even larger impact for our customers.”

Lesson: Be flexible— bad stuff will happen. If your business crashes, look for planks in the wreckage to rebuild, with a mindset that you need to accept the reality and not be deterred.

Resilient people don’t dwell on the past; they learn from it. And they get up quickly, giving themselves a limited amount of time to lick their wounds. Indeed, a recent study found that an entrepreneur’s chance for success rises with each failure he’s had in the past.

“There will always be mistakes in business, the more mistakes you make, the more you learn,” Burns says. “Mark Cuban often says ‘you only have to be right once.’ While my business won awards, it didn’t take off as ideally as I wanted. I learned an incredible amount about the legal, sales and business relationship aspects of running a business. I feel more confident than I have ever before, and I know my current successes would not have come without a little struggle.”

 

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped business in hundreds of industries.  Industries served include: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

Digital Expansion: Exploring e-Commerce for Brick-and-Mortar Businesses

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Growing a business — there are lots of options. Sometimes, you’re bursting at the seams and adding another location is just what you need. You can service a new geography and make accessing who you are and what you do easier for the people who love what you do and offer.

Other times, the right growth can be digital. With convenience as a major player in the lives of business people and consumers alike, it’s no wonder that smart leaders are looking to e-commerce to expand businesses that began as brick-and-mortar. If you’ve ever wondered about making the leap to expand your sales online, we have some real world examples of businesses doing just that. Let’s have a look at three different businesses that each have recently taken the digital commerce leap as a growth tactic.

 

    • Robin Autorino – Founder, Owner, and Chocolatier at Robin’s Chocolates in Longmont, CO, a boutique chocolatier located just outside of Boulder.

 

    • Frank Capasso – President, Valley Home Lighting, a retailer of lighting fixtures, residential electrical supplies, and ceiling fans in Ansonia, Connecticut.

 

    • Gini Dietrich – CEO, Arment Dietrich and Spin Sucks. Arment Dietrich is a boutique public relations and integrated marketing firm based in Chicago, Illinois. Spin Sucks is their online training company for public relations and marketing professionals.

 

How long in have you been in business?

 

    • Robin’s Chocolates: We officially started in February of 2008.

 

    • Valley Home Lighting: We’ve been in business 53 years, since 1963.

 

    • Spin Sucks: We’ve been in business for 11 years.

 

What prompted the decision to offer online purchases?

 

    • Robin: It made sense to be online since many people shop for holiday gifts online and chocolate is very gift-able. When you search online for chocolate, artisan chocolates, edible gifts, and the like, several chocolatiers pop up. The only way I could compete with them was to also be online. Being online definitely gives a company a broader customer base. My shop is in a small shopping plaza and the town I live in is not that large—I had to be online to spread the word.

 

    • Frank: We had customers who wanted to shop online. We didn’t want to lose business just because our existing customers wanted to order on an online platform instead of walking into a store. We also wanted to expand geographic reach. We’re a lighting store in Connecticut, but now we can reach customers across the nation.

 

    • Gini: In practicing the “seven revenue streams” approach, we decided to add online courses, a mastermind group, and a membership site to our services offerings. As the founder, I went through every emotion you can think, from, “I run a PR firm, what the heck can we productize?” to, “no one will ever buy these from us.” As it turns out, all the years we spent building an audience through our blog and developing an expertise around our services allowed a great entree into online product sales.

 

How have online sales helped (or hindered) your in-store traffic?

 

    • Robin: I think it actually helps. People that live an hour away have ordered online and then decide they want to see all the other items that we mention on the website but don’t sell online.

 

    • Frank: It helps people find us who would have never found us before, that kind of exposure you can’t get by just having a brick and mortar store. It is still hard to compete against Amazon and other big box stores, though. But now we can at least be in the running for online searches for anything lighting or home related.

 

    • Gini: It’s been pretty cool, actually. We thought clients might shy away; but it turns out, the ones who can afford to hire a firm would much rather hire the experts to execute on the process than try to learn it themselves. So, not only has it grown the services side of the business, it has allowed us to become experts in helping organizations take a traditional business online.

 

What was the most surprising about making the transition to operating with both brick and mortar and online sales?

 

    • Robin: How difficult it is to ship chocolate? It’s still a struggle for the online store for two reasons. The first is keeping the website up to date. My husband is the web designer but also has three companies of his own, so time is limited. The second is that shipping chocolate is hard since it melts. Insulated boxes are the answer, but they are quite costly as are shipping costs for overnight or 2nd day air with UPS. In the winter, it’s easier but we still have to check temperatures for each destination where we’re sending a shipment.

 

    • Frank: I was very surprised that so many people order from geographies that are far away. The volume of local customers who reach out to us through our contact page to ask questions was also surprising.

 

    • Gini: The difference in communication. You know how you get tired of all the emails you receive? There are so many emails you have to send when you sell an online product. If done well, though, they work extraordinarily well. I remember our first launch had 15 emails in 10 days and I was really nervous about it and even pushed back on my team about sending that many. But they were right. The emails worked. And the three emails we sent on the last day? Those are what generated the most revenue. The lesson there is, even if it’s uncomfortable, persist. It’s in the process for a reason.

 

What advice would you give B&M-only businesses right now considering the shift to adding online sales?

 

    • Robin: Learn all you can about shipping first. UPS and Fedex can be very costly, but USPS doesn’t always provide great tracking. Knowing how to ship your product – packaging, especially – and then training staff to actually get those shipments out is very important. Another important note is that if your employees change throughout the year, document your shipping processes as precisely as possible. I learned in the US Navy that when writing instructions you should keep it simple and detailed so that even a 6th grader could do it.

 

    • Frank: It’s the way people want to shop. You need a web presence–and if you think you don’t you will be surprised how many online customers you can and will reach.

 

    • Gini: Run, don’t walk. Do not overthink it. Do not over-analyze. Create a pilot, test it out, create the product, and get some feedback. Then move from there. The best book you can read on the topic is Launch by Jeff Walker. It walks you through a process and what you can expect the first time out. There also are tons of experts who, today, teach online courses. I recommend Danny Iny’s Course Builders Laboratory. As a services business, it’s hard to imagine that you can have online sales. Sure, some people sell eBooks (or traditional books) and in-depth webinars, but nothing goes much beyond that. But what if you thought about it as teaching your employees and your clients your process? In Built to Sell, the big message is “have one process and build a business around it that isn’t dependent on you.” So take that philosophy and figure out how to create online courses that first would benefit your employees and then your clients. And then launch it out to the industry. Intellectual property makes great online courses and that industry is exploding right now. Take advantage!

 

Strategic Funding provides needed operating funds to small businesses. Strategic Funding has helped hundreds of Industries including: restaurants, personal services, construction, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, retail stores, automotive, and food stores.

How to Create Compelling Infographics

7 Steps to Compelling Infographics

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A Picture Is Worth a 1000 Sales…

As the world (and the web) become ever more visual, small businesses are seeing the power in creating compelling infographics as a marketing tool.

Consider this: tweets containing compelling infographics were retweeted 832% more than text-only posts. So if you want your marketing to go viral, put some compelling information in a snazzy form. Here are seven steps to create an attention-getting infographic, even if you don’t have a design degree:

Originality Counts

“Don’t just repeat information that is already public,” says Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation. “Combine resources, do research, conduct a survey yourself and then translate that into a logical infographic.” Your goal should be to teach your readers something, so they’ll want to quote and share your material. Need some inspiration? Every year, Hubspot creates a list of the top infographics that showcase simple but impactful ideas like “Cost of living around the world” from a moving company and “How music affects your driving” from an insurance company. The key: keep your target audience in mind, rather than aim for something for the whole world.

Short and Sweet

Choose the right kind of data for compelling infographics — easily digestible. “Infographics are best suited to bite-sized data points, bulleted facts, and number-based information such as percentages and statistics,” explains Dan Redding, founder of Magnetic State design studio. “Too often, I see people struggling to make infographics out of lengthy paragraphs and long quotes. Lengthy text content really isn’t suitable for an infographic. “Keep the infographic focused on a single topic.

Let It Flow

Just like you would when designing a website, consider the user experience of viewing your infographic. Think about how the statistics flow into each other and be sure they build to a finish line. Start with your most compelling facts. For an example, an infographic on how the body falls in love begins “Hubba! Hubba! The ventromedial prefrontal cortex judges physical attractiveness in milliseconds.” If you wonder what happens next, so will everyone else.

Be Colorful

“Color can be used to highlight important stats and designate sections of a graphic,” Redding says. “It can also be used to brand the design with a company’s brand colors, making them effective promotional tools.” Consider how an infographic on the “the job description of a billionaire” is enhanced by color, which focuses the eye on key areas rather than just being visual candy.

Use Free Tools

Numerous web sites allow you to create an infographic for free or at minimal cost, including easel.ly (which offers a dozen free templates that are easily customizable with a library of arrows, shapes and connector lines); piktochart (which allows you to modify color schemes and fonts, insert pre-loaded graphics and upload basic shapes and images); and venngage (which has a simple three-step process for making infogragraphic — chose a template, add charts and visuals, customize your design).

Don’t Be Shy

An infographic won’t help your company if no one knows who produced it. Put your company info, including your website, company logo, and phone number at the bottom of the infographic.

Spread the Word

When your infographic goes live, promote it on social networks. “Facebook, Stumbleupon, and Reddit all have paid promotion abilities that can work very well in terms of generating exposure,” says Jared Carrizales , founder of Heroic Search. “But social isn’t enough. Get a prospect list together of people who would probably like/share your infographic, then let them know it exists with a personalized email.”

 

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