Practical, ready-to-apply how-to advice acquired from our years of real-life small business experience

Working from the cottage this summer? Here’s how to avoid some common pitfalls.

Don’t assume your technology will work
Ignore wireless coverage maps and TV ads touting speedy, far-flung networks. “Network coverage maps only tell you one story,” says Michael Bussiere, whose company, telecollaborativemedia.com helps people communicate from remote locations, as he does from his lake house in Val-des-Monts, Que. “If you’re on the wrong side of a hill, there could be a serious issue with reception.”

Roger Pierce, a small business expert who is co-founder of Bizlaunch.ca and works from his cottage in the Kawartha Lakes, says he’s also been burned by poor coverage. “Once, during a call with a client, signal strength started to fade. I had no choice but to untie the fishing boat and drift out onto the lake where the signal improved slightly. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to take notes during that call.” So, if possible, try before you buy and always check on the equipment’s return policy, before you get locked into a contract.

Choose your workspace carefully
Don’t set up shop somewhere where you’ll be distracted by people having more fun than you. Find a room with a door. “Spare bedrooms aren’t used that often, and guests typically don’t mind cohabitating with a small workstation,” says Pierce.

Make a schedule and stick to it
“Set some reasonable working hours and ask your family to respect those hours as do-not-disturb-time,” advises Pierce. Make sure friends and neighbours know your work schedule as well.

Work during quiet times
Whether it’s in the morning, or late at night, do the bulk of your work when distractions are few. If you keep your head down, you may find that you’ll only need three cottage hours to do eight city hours worth of work.

Don’t forget why you’re there
You’re there to work and play, so don’t pointlessly ostracize yourself from the fun stuff. Instead, Pierce advises that you use the cottage setting as a reward. “You’ll work extra-fast to get to that nice cool swim in the lake.”

—Ryan LeClaire

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By STEFANIA MORETTI, QMI AGENCY
Last Updated: 7th January 2010, 7:56am

Social media may be the advertising tool of the future, but it’s unlikely to produce positive results for most business owners who haphazardly launch Internet campaigns hoping they’ll resonate with consumers.

Even high-traffic social media sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace, aren’t a surefire way to attract potential customers, according to Canadian marketing guru and author Andrew Ballenthin.

More than 90% of business owners aren’t using social media to its full potential for personal branding, Ballenthin’s studies have found.

But the high proportion of failed Internet campaigns (in the neighbourhood of 75% to 90% by Ballenthin’s calculations) hasn’t deterred small business owners from using social media platforms.

A recent national BizLaunch survey found that more than 49% of small business owners have invested up to 101 hours in social media marketing during the past 12 months.

stefani.moretti@canoe.ca

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A free seminar on using online tools for marketing is being offered to Mississauga small business owners.

Bizlaunch Media Inc. is hosting the session at Staples on Mavis and Britannia Rds. tomorrow (Nov. 18) from 6:30-8 p.m.
The small business training company notes a recent national survey indicates more than 56 per cent of Canadians use social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Meanwhile, only 49 per cent of small businesses are investing in social media promotions and of that group only 28 per cent say their investments are yielding returns.

“Building business through social media is not something most small businesses are doing very well right now,” said Andrew Patricio, co-founder of BizLaunch. “Like a lot of new inventions, social media holds plenty of promise yet it is failing to deliver sales for small business owners.”

Patricio says business owners don’t really understand how to use social media properly.
“Entrepreneurs may understand traditional forms of marketing such as television or newspaper ads, but social media requires a different approach that is an entirely new skill for them.

“Pushy sales messages will turn off anyone who has joined your online group. Social media is more about building a community of people with common interests, then tying it to what your business does.”

For the past few months, business owner Ricky Pacheco has been attending seminars offered by BizLaunch. 
He runs Medalion Enterprises, a design and display manufacturing business in Malton, and has been looking to market his company better online.

“The content is pretty good,” said the Meadowvale resident of five years about the sessions. “It’s practical stuff, relevant to me and my business. I often tell people to go to these seminars because I find them brilliant.”

With knowledge gleaned from the seminars, Pacheco is working on setting up a new blog to update clients on his company’s projects. 
“We’re trying to build a community of interested people – industry professionals – and keep them coming back to our site,” he said. 
To register for the seminar, visit www.bizlaunch.ca.
jle@mississauga.net

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Learning importance of marketing is vital to a small business’ success and the price isn’t high
By Naomi Carniol
Special to The Star

In tough economic times, some unemployed people choose to start small businesses instead of sending out resumes.
In June alone, 37,000 Canadians became self-employed, Statistics Canada reports.

The newly self-employed have much to learn, including the importance of marketing. With dollars often tight at the start of a small business, some entrepreneurs may be hesitant to spend any money on marketing. But marketing doesn’t have to be pricey. There are effective, low-cost marketing strategies for small businesses, says Roger Pierce, an experienced entrepreneur and co-founder of BizLaunch, a Toronto-based training centre that runs how-to seminars for small business owners across Canada.

Before spending money on marketing, first identify your target market, Pierce says. Huge corporations like Wal-Mart can afford to reach Canadians ages 18 to 65 but a small business doesn’t have the money to reach everyone.

“We really have to narrowly define our market so we can break through and be seen with that particular group,” Pierce says.

When you know who your potential customers are, it’s easier to figure out ways to reach them. Write out a detailed paragraph (or more) describing your target market.

Armed with the knowledge of who you are aiming to reach, build a website that will appeal to your target audience. Make sure the website clearly explains what your business does. A website doesn’t have to be expensive. There are packages for building and then hosting a website for as little as $20 a month.

In today’s web savvy world, potential customers “want to check you out online first before they actually make contact,” says Pierce. “As a result, a website is “one of the first marketing tools that must be done.”

Another low-cost marketing strategy is networking. Attend conferences, trade shows, conventions or panel discussions where your customers or potential customers gather.

“If an entrepreneur went to one networking event a week, over time that would be a good healthy source of new business,” Pierce says.

Don’t try to close a sale at a networking event.

Each time you meet someone, quickly explain what your business does, then ask the other person questions. Listen carefully to assess if that person could be a potential customer.

“Exchange business cards, make a note on the back of the card and follow-up,” Pierce says.

Piggyback marketing can also be a low-cost strategy. This refers to a cross promotion by two companies with the same target market but who aren’t competing with each other.

A classic example would be a restaurant and a cinema who promote a dinner and a movie package.

“They’re both reaching out to the entertainment-going customer, without competing with each other,” Pierce says.

If your new small business partners with an already established business in a cross promotion, you could benefit from the older business’s customer base.

While networking, building a website and piggyback marketing are low-cost marketing strategies, there are also effective no-cost marketing tools. The latter may take some time but those launching new businesses “usually have more time than money,” Pierce says.

One no-cost strategy involves orchestrating free publicity for your business. Craft a well-written media release with an interesting story – not a sales pitch – that will interest editors and reporters. Send the media release to editors and reporters of publications that serve your target market.

“There is no point in getting a nice article in Computerworld magazine if you are selling pet food,” Pierce says.

Word of mouth is another no-cost marketing strategy. But don’t just rely on customers to spread the word for you.

Be systematic.

If you have a list of 20 customers, call each of them and ask they’re satisfied with the service or product you provided. If they are satisfied, then ask if they know other people – family members, friends or colleagues – who might be interested in your product or service.

Give each customer a few days to think about it and then call them back. If they’ve thought of possible leads, ask for an email introduction to their contacts. To learn more about BizLaunch’s free seminars for entrepreneurs visit www.bizlaunch.ca

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Derek Sankey, Financial Post

Stephen Kassinger spent years working in the custom home building business — a capital-and time-intensive industry where he was heavily reliant on contractors and subcontractors — before he decided to change careers.

On a trip to the Grand Canyon last year, he met a franchisee in a business with a cash base, no receivables and virtually no inventory — the low-cost salon industry. At first, he shrugged it off. As the U.S. financial meltdown began, the franchisee continued to pull in significant revenue and expanded his business with 14 franchises, it became clear there was something more to it than a haircut.

“It’s one of those businesses that’s not going to be outsourced overseas [or] replaced by advances in technology,” Mr. Kassinger says. “I got more confident it was a viable business. People still need people cutting their hair.”

As the financial carnage began to unfold, Mr. Kassinger was signing up to become a franchisee with the Great Clips chain. It was a strange, if not uneasy, process.

The same day Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Mr. Kassinger was shopping around for a loan with his business plan in hand, wondering if it was a sign he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. By the end of the day, though, he had two banks competing for his business.

“From a recession-proof standpoint, that in itself gave me some very good confidence that the banks were still willing to [lend] because it’s a very sound business model,” he says.

Last November, when the full extent of the economic downturn had become evident to everybody, he opened his first Great Clips salon in Oshawa, Ont.

Some businesses fail during a recession, but many success stories have been born in the depths of recession.

A recent study by the U.S.-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation highlighted the fact multinationals such as General Electric, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Burger King were all launched during bear markets.

In Canada, Manulife Financial, Petro-Canada and Bell Canada were similarly launched during less-than-spectacular market conditions.

In the franchising sector, the same hidden opportunities exist if you know where to look, says Andrew Patricio, co-founder of Bizlaunch.ca,a company that runs seminars and training programs for entrepreneurs across Canada. “You want to try to focus on the basics,” he says. “As soon as you’re selling something premium in these times, you’re going to struggle a bit.”

The service sector tends to do well in any economy, Mr. Patricio notes. Waste management companies, for example, have been thriving in recent months, and so have companies that provide homecare health services, cleaning services and, yes, inexpensive haircuts.

Mr. Kassinger is putting the finishing touches on a third location scheduled to open next year, and has plans to open more.

Rob Goggins, vice-president of franchise development for Great Clips, says the recession caused a lot of higher-end salon customers to drop down into the lower price market. Even with a recovery, he expects to keep a good chunk of those new customers. “When this economy turns around, I’m sure we’ll lose some of those people back to the higher-priced salons, but we’re confident a number of those people will stick with us.”

“If you can survive this year and half-way into next year … you are forced to become a better business owner,” Mr. Patricio says. He emphasises that a slow economy forces the franchisee to be more conservative and to market more effectively, so when the economy picks up, the business has proven its staying power and the owner has enhanced his or her management skills.

Caution still applies: For many who have been laid off franchising may look like their saviour. But despite looking like a “perfect opportunity,” would be franchisees must do the same due diligence and market research as they would for any business.

You also have to take financial realities into account. The cost of setting up a Great Clips franchise, for example, ranges from $128,000 to $245,000, with the average around the $200,000 mark, including all major expenses.

But for Mr. Kassinger, who did this interview while fishing on a lake north of Toronto, with his sons, opening more franchises is part of his plan for the future: “I’m going to be very aggressive with my opening strategy.”

smallbusiness@nationalpost.com