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

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

- March 16, 2009. By Paul Brent

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Social networking websites help employees recruit and advertise

Josh Long
Biz/Tech Reporter

A couple of Humber grads told business students on Monday about the challenges faced using social networking websites in their working life.

Renee Warren, a 2007 marketing grad and manager at BizLaunch.ca, said some older clients have to be persuaded to advertise on the Internet.

“It’s difficult, but I know more than they do,” she told about 60 students attending the lecture.

Warren said there are benefits to having a presence on the web, noting she was recruited on Facebook and that companies often check out a prospective employee’s personal site.

“You might want to take the beer-chugging pictures down,” said Warren. “I have two Facebook accounts, one for business-related pictures and one for family and friends.”

Justin Hanna, a 2007 Humber grad and partner in a clothing company called Figjam Apparel, said he quickly discovered the benefits of promoting his products on Facebook and other sites.

“Magazine advertisements were a lot more expensive than I expected,” said Hanna.

Amanda Skelhorn, a 23-year-old marketing management student said the speakers were “very interesting, helpful and encouraging, because they actually relate to what we learn.”

Source: Humber Et Cetera, By: Josh Long

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The best recession strategy is to fight
Paul Brent, Financial Post 
Published: Friday, March 13, 2009

The economy is slowing, jobs are disappearing as businesses are chopping costs and consumers are cutting back on spending. A cold, nasty climate that prompts many small to mid-sized business owners to make like the groundhog and burrow deeper, waiting for a more accommodating environment.

However, this is precisely the wrong thing to do and will leave many businesses lethargic or fatally weakened when the good times return, experts say. Now, is the time to focus on strengthening relationships with existing suppliers and building new ones, developing and highlighting unique aspects about your business and looking to capitalize on weakened competitors.

“There are going to be casualties,” says Ken Wong, a professor of marketing with Queen’s School of Business. “The great thing about a boom period is everybody gets fat, the bad thing about it is some of them don’t deserve it so there is a culling of the herd.”

Targeting weak competitors is one of four survival strategies for the down market of 2009 he has drawn up: “It is easier to win a customers from someone who is bankrupt than it is from someone who is still in business fighting to keep them.”

His second strategy is all about “P” – think productivity and precision. Target your key group of clients and devote more resources to satisfying them. “The moment you start doing that you give your customer greater value and start cultivating very deep penetration” of your recession-period client base. That is very different from a boom period, “which is when everybody is chasing everyone and you are getting very shallow penetration across a broad market.”

Third, and according to experts, perhaps the most widely ignored recession survival “rule,” is to not cut back on marketing efforts. While it makes intuitive sense that a business upping its marketing efforts while competitors are throttling back will stand out, Mr. Wong cites a McGraw Hill study done during the early 1980s recession. Dividing firms into those that continued to spend on advertising versus those that cut back, researchers found companies that continued to spend doubled their sales and profits. Those that cut back lost about 20% of sales and profits. The most dramatic gains came in the first two years of the recovery when businesses that had continued to spend enjoyed sales and profit growth of 273%. Those non-spenders, they had 20% growth in sales and profit after five years compared to 1980. “There have been about a dozen studies on both sides of the Atlantic going back to 1950 and they all show exactly the same thing,” he adds.

Andrew Patricio, a partner at Toronto-based consultancy BizLaunch.ca agrees that the most common mistake made by entrepreneurs in downturns is to cut back on marketing and outreach efforts. This activity doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive, he noted, and can take the form of networking or returning calls and other communications more quickly than in boom times.

Prof. Wong’s fourth rule, is companies should not confuse better value with lower price. Value is a sliding scale dependent upon the level of quality provided at a given price rather than the common view that better value consists of getting the same at a better price. He says the better value equation can also mean a better quality product at the same price or more product at the same price.

He illustrates the benefits of fighting for business using the “value” approach rather than the less-subtle price approach this way: “If I cut price and it works and I steal business away from the competition, how long does it take the competition to cut price?

“But if I give you 24-7 customer service in an industry that never had that kind of service and I win business that way, how long does it take for the competition to react?”

Mr. Patricio adds that the “there’s no business” mindset can be overcome by having business owners put the downtime to good use by rethinking their offering. “I often say, ‘Get out your whiteboard and just relook at it.’ What is it that you are really offering customers? What benefit are you offering and why should they buy from you?” Mr. Patricio suggests. Other questions are what benefit are they going to get from your product or service and what return are they going to get from that investment. “All of us are asking those questions so that is why you have to focus on benefits and what differentiates you,” he said.

smallbusiness@nationalpost.com
Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/related/topics/story.html?id=1386478#ixzz0Vo8WaeM2 

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