How Do I Attract More Customers On A Shoe String Budget?

Working on a shoestring budget oftentimes makes people feel like there is simply nothing they can do to help attract customers or to grow their business.  They don’t market, because, they rationalize – it doesn’t work unless you have a lot of money.  This simply isn’t true.  There are a myriad of ways to generate business that don’t need to cost a small fortune (or a large one, either.)

Let’s begin with some reflection on a simple rule – people covet that which is around them.  In general, establishing good connections with your community is essential as a small business owner, in order to make it.  Some thoughts on how to do this – reach out to the people within a square mile of your business. 
A simple flyer or note delivered to the door, with a handshake and smile, can do wonders.

Work with other businesses in area who are interested in the same prospects you are – but who don’t compete with you – this can lead to opportunities in immersion branding, and to potentials with networking.

Speaking of that, start a networking group with others who also want to grow and expand, with customer relations at the heart of the matter.

From there, begin to work on information that will benefit your customer – and listen to what they say – and to what your competitors clients complain about.  This is one of the most powerful ways you can tweak your business to make it appeal to the competitor’s current clients.

Write online and off.  Start a blog – write some press releases (see below for tips on how.)  Oftentimes, writing can be used to help you position as an industry expert.  Also, you can tap the power of the internet through podcasting and vcasting.  To combine all of these into one locations, check out Hello World.

Keep in touch with your customers with a newsletter, blog or other form of communication.  Along with quick announcements of sales, or new products or other items of interest, a newsletter online can allow for affiliate links to related services and testimonial or endorsement space for those in the networking groups I already mentioned.

Use the power of technology to leverage your email list – and to get regular attention.  First, find an autoresponder you like – I use MMG.  Then build capture pages (it is very VERY easy to do) – and then send the page address to people who would be interested in the tips or ideas you place in the autoresponder.  For instance, my 5 free tips to increase sales and save the bottom line won me 150 subscribers to the larger, 52 tips – weekly for a year, in text, audio and video format.

One final thing you can do – earnestly offer a guarentee – place yourself in the customers shoes of being slightly wary of a new experience or service – and give them some confidence.  I tell people that if they implement 5 of my tips a year, out of 52, and don’t make back their $100 or $150 they invested, I will refund the money.  Period.  No questions.  (Honestly, I know there is NO WAY they can honestly tell me that, as any two implemented over a year, will raise $100 each or more.)

If you do advertising, make sure it is not something you just “try.”  Work on solutions oriented sales copy, and not feature based rhetoric.  No one cares that your product complies with Code 15T7Y – what they care about is “Since our product is registered properly to make sure you are in compliance with all local state and federal mandates, you won’t have headaches there.” And a laundry list of the neat things your product does is virtually useless…instead tell the consumer how what those features do benefits them. 

Obviously, this is just the start of the possibilities – but it is a good way to get some traction established with a lower budget – and then work towards bigger ideas on down the line.

Identifying “Real” Work From Home Opps

We all have the same dreams – spending more time with our kids, more time on the beach or wherever YOU relax, or just having more freedom, financially and in general.  Unfortunately, there are those out there who prey on those dreams and others who help advance them.  How can you tell the difference? 

Many different “work from home” and “independent consultant” businesses exist in the marketplace.  And if you are new to the scene – it can be very overwhelming.  We’re going to take a look at a few tips to identify ways to establish what is a good home business and what is a fraud. Here’s a quick overview:A “real” home business almost always has a startup cost of some sort.  There is no free lunch. Also, be sure they are asking for your social security or EIN #.  If not, this isn’t a real business opportunity.

Is this company led by real people who Google well?

Is this company a strong contender in its field – or is the offer “like many others – what makes it unique?

Do you believe in it? – if your friend of cousin or coworker does, that doesn”t matter – it won’t propel you past the first meeting.

Is the compensation plan solid? If you have questions, I can help you understand what to look for – both pro and con – contact me with any questions.

And finally, is this in front of, in the midst of, or falling off of a growth curve?

Some resources I’d encourage you to watch and read would be Brilliant Compensation and any books by Robert Miyasaki.

Save Money on Shipping Costs

For any business who sends between 1 package a month and $5-$7k a month in shipping – there is a unique option out there for you - saving you money on costs for shipping – whether at a corporate rate (or even more from a UPS Store or other shipping outlet.)  If you use the code ATL101 in the signup process, you’ll support this free resource, as well as the show Uniqueness is Power.

Introducing InXpress – a DHL backed consolidator – who allows you to send those same $14.95 packages for about $9, plus massive savings on all other shipping as well.  These guys are amazing, and I can not see, for the life of me, how someone would not be interested in utilizing their services – unless those people are THAT attached to the movie Castaway – or to the color brown and perhaps, recently whiteboards.Give Dustin a shout at the link above and ask him how he can help you save your bottom line.

Credit and Debit Card Acceptance – on and offline

This is a three part article about credit card processing.  We expect that any businesses that accept credit card payments for goods and services rendered will benefit from reading our thoughts.  This information is intended as informational and is an incomplete compilation of some practices that can be found in the market place.  It should not be assumed that any one “processor” uses any or all practices related herein.  Any business, small or large, should always be vigilant about merchant services and be sure to seek an annual evaluation of merchant services. 

EQUIPMENT FOR PROCESSING (Step One)When a business is considering accepting credit card payments for goods and services, care should be given to type(s) of equipment they will need.

There are basically three ways to accept credit cards, the traditional “plug-in”, through the internet, and wireless. It is not unusual for a business to need two or all three methods to best serve their business model.  As a general rule each type of processing will require a different piece of hardware, or software and security is of paramount concern.  Further complicating the selection is that newer hardware, and even software, has multiple capabilities that can allow more flexibility within your business. 

Paying for the hardware will be the next consideration and here is where the business person must be especially careful.  There are three traditional ways to pay for equipment needs, cash purchase, rental, or lease/purchase programs.  The best way is to pay cash, while rentals and lease/purchase programs as offered by processors are absolutely the worst.  Even if a processor offers “FREE” hardware the business owner must be very cognizant of surcharges that will dramatically increase his merchant service fees.

The best piece of advice I can offer is look for a merchant services representative who will carefully answer your questions, and offer options that can be explained and understood. 

MERCHANT SERVICES CONTRACTS (Step Two)Do not be influenced by what sounds like really low processing fees or rates.  Generally speaking a merchant service contract will have no guarantees about maintaining original pricing as rates can change any time “interchange rates” change. 

If you have signed a contract that locks you in for a three year period of time, you will be totally at the mercy of the processor because all contracts carry an early termination penalty.  The good news is not every processor requires long term agreements.  There are actually some processors that want to keep you as a customer because of good service.

Besides rates and contract lengths there are other possible charge items to be aware of, such as agreement set-up charges, monthly minimums, statement fees, header charges, annual charges, chargeback fees, NSF fees, support fees, and the list goes on.  Then there are the dreaded surcharges that will be on statements when transactions are not “swiped.” 

There are only two ways a business can effect a credit card transaction, either “swiped”, or “not swiped”.  Surcharges occur when a card is not swiped.  After you have determined what equipment you will need, and the merchant service company you want to do business with, you are ready for Step Three (the processing fees and rates you will actually have to pay.)

PROCESSING RATES: (Step Three)Business people have been conditioned to make decisions based on a rate.  In truth that rate is the rate for swiped credit cards.  I have seen contracts that has a “rate” listed that was way too low for the processor to make any money.  It is not unusual to see a contract with no concession for debit/check cards which carry a much lower rate than credit cards.  Nor will there be clearly stated rates for corporate cards or rewards cards which must carry a higher rate.  Far too often the business owner makes his/her decision based on the one rate quoted that gets his attention. 

Here I will relate a true story of a sale I was able to sign to give you an example of just how tricky decisions can be.  This prospect already had a “proposal” in his hand and all he could tell me was the rate was 1.32%, which I thought was impossible.  I asked him about other charges and that, of course, prompted him to show me the proposal.  Hidden in that proposal was $40 of monthly recurring charges that would be charged to him even if he never accepted one card.  To make things worse, the hardware they recommended insured that he would never see a swiped rate. 

The bottom line is, consider the total picture of credit card processing and realize that you should know what you are signing.  It is unfortunate that these games exist, but they do, and the more you can learn about how the process works, the better decision you can make. 

Please contact me with questions, or for a free review of your current situation. 

Getting Better Healthcare in Atlanta GA

Insurance is hard to obtain for many families and individuals in Atlanta.  Many people simply don’t qualify, due to current weight, habits or pre-existing conditions.  Even when coverage is granted, there are often high individual deductibles, or the policy only covers catastrophic care needs or is an HSA with other limitations.  Does this sound familiar to you?

It sure did to Mike Davis, now CEO of My GA Doctor, who developed what clients are calling “the best thing to happen to me” and “a revolution in health care.”  Partnering with a skilled team of doctors who work in existing clinics, Mike saw a way to make changes so more people could gain coverage.  Mike Davis, CEO of My GA Doctor, says “We developed the idea after watching so many people fall prey to needing treatments while under high deductible or catastrophic plans.”

On the plan, individuals pay $675 for the first year, and $500 for each year thereafter.  Families (from 3 members up to unlimited) pay $1850 the first year, and $1500 ongoing.  (Yes, that means large families benefit the most – you can have many children on the same family plan without paying extra.)

So, what do you get for the money you are putting in?  Well, for starters, this is a flat-fee, one-cost-covers-all proposition.  No deductibles here, and co-pays are an appealing zero dollars each visit.  My Georgia Doctor services are available to everyone, regardless of sex, age, income, medical history or national origin – including non-immigrants & visitors. 

For families in and around Atlanta this is amazing, even those with decent insurance policies.  You simply can’t and won’t be turned down. Once you pay your fee for the year, you can visit any one of the 15 clinics and 22 doctors – available at the site www.mygadoctor.com/alwaysapproved.

My Georgia Doctor members receive an annual AMA Physical Exam, unlimited doctor office visits, blood sugar tests, x-ray and lab work, EKG and minor surgeries, minor emergencies, vision, hearing and even offers discounted high-tech radiology services such as MRI’s, mammogram’s, CT Scans and Ultrasounds.  And one final note – for anyone who needs it, there is a 7 Day-a-Week urgent care facility as well, located in Norcross.  Far better than a trip to the ER, this is great for the times your kid falls out of the tree and ended up cut and bleeding on Sunday afternoon. 

In order to apply for My Georgia Doctor membership, you must live in one of the following counties or cities: Alpharetta, Roswell, Cumming, Sugar Hill, Suwanee, Duluth, Buford, Dawsonville, Gainesville, Flowery Branch, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Lawrenceville, Sugarloaf, Buckhead, Snellville, Lithonia and all areas in between.

$100 Logos (plus 500 Business Cards)

Create Your Own Logo for Under $100 – that’s right, for less than one Benjamin, we have all the tools to scale out your own logo, color palette and even printing your first 500 cards - for your starting business.  And no, it won’t be the same quality as a pro-shop, but it will be a lot better than clip art or most “friendly freelance” efforts.

 A large part of getting the most out of your logo and your new company id is to create a color palette that works well for your business, your product, your brand and your clientele.  So, how the heck can someone without a lot of experience begin?  What if, like many small business owners, you left corporate
America in part due to not wanting to pick out suits, shirts and ties that matched?

Adobe has developed kuler - and in doing so has taken a huge step in allowing online sharing of created color palettes for businesses to use.  It is fun, easy to use, and anyone who wants to learn and experiement with combining colors or creating a color palette is welcome.  Kuler is tapping into the social networking idea that top color consultant talents are now present on a “as you need it” basis – and many of the top designs are really superb blendings of colors and generate the feel you want for your logo, backgrounds, accents and more.  Now you, the small business owner can tap into these skills and conquer, for free, one of the formerly unbeatable challenges in logo design (at least not until you paid big money.)  Cool work Adobe!

Now, let’s move onto Logo Maker where you can create your own logo for free, share it with friends for feedback and then download and use it in a variety of formats for just $49.  In just a few minutes, you can be working on a logo that is professional in design and can be enough to get you through to the next level as you begin a business.  Not what a pro-shop can pull off, but then again, nowhere near the cost, either.  Coupled with Kuler, this is perfect for small startup businesses that can’t afford to hire an agency or firm.

To double check yourself on the logo you create and the color shades you use, check out Color Palette Generator - a very amazing tool to use in conjunction with Kuler and Logo Maker. 

Ok, so now you have the logo, and the color palettes.  From there, you can take the designs you have created and upload them to Vista Print for fast, inexpensive and solid printing and quick delivery.

A few other words about logo, color palette and design.  Colors that are your favorites are not the ones you want to pick.  No matter how much they please you, as the owner, they need to resonate with your customer and client.  If the clients aren’t feeling warm fuzzies about it, you won’t hear the register ring and those initial warm fuzzies you had will go away faster than a lead against Tiger Woods on the back 9 at Augusta.

Happy logo-ing!

Google Radio Ads

Reviewing and Advising on Radio Ads for Google Ad Words

This isn’t at all what GAW was even 3 months ago.  So much you can do – we’ll walk you through some of it now – how you do it – plus pros and cons.  This is really a great service with a few small shortcomings.

First of all – how do you get to it.  Go to Google and click ad programs under the search bar.  Login if you have an AdWords Acct - if not, create one - Audio Ads is an extension of GAW, so you need an account.

Click the Audio Ads tab, and walk through the setup. 

You’ll come to a choice of – Start Building or Find Audio Creation Specialist.  If you don’t have an audio ad ready, Google gives you have the chance to have a certified person help create your ad for you, for a fee.  Or you just progress to the campaign. 

For our purposes, let’s assume you have the ad.

First, you name your campaign and then assign a weekly budget.  The lowest amount I found that worked well was $100 per week.  Under that in a major market and it won’t give you much return.  This is where I set the budget – $400 monthly, $100 a week.

Next, you define your area.  You can go nationwide or name and select specific cities, like GAW.  For the test campaign, I chose to use Atlanta, Macon and
Savannah.

Next, choose your demographic – by gender and age.  Here, it helps to know your product and your target.  Who buys from you?  Who would you like to reach and pinpoint that you don’t?  Ads can have many uses – but for now, choose who this particular ad works with.  For our purposes, we chose, M-F, 35-65.

Next, you choose your station formats – you can go for bang for the  buck or choose a specific type â?? jazz, rock, talk, sports.  And then if you are feeling like you understand who you want to speak with – you can use the advanced tab â?? complete with Arbitron Ratings.  We used basic bang for buck but would normally use Arbitron.

The next screen asks you to confirm your weekly budget, asks your max cost per 1000 listeners, and confirms start and end dates. 

The final option is to select when your ad will be played.  Since we are promoting a business show with our ad, we chose - M-F, drivetime (7-10am), (3-7 pm)

Now, it is time for the magic to begin.  Click the continue button and you’ll find your final stats –

We would reach 175,000 ears within our target demo, and 203,000 gross (meaning 28,000 people who hear the ad would fall outside our selected parameters)  We would pay $2.25 per 1000 within our  target demo.  And we’d get 168 ad plays for a cost of $393 for the month.

Now, the next question is – does this scope and reach make a successful campaign?  Well, it sure could – but until we understand a little more about frequency and reach and what stations we’re on, it is a little hard to tell.  For a first round of entry level user-driven programming, this is typical Google – solid, with a few small things to improve, which you can be sure they will.  Nice work Google - this is worthwhile stuff folks.

Drop me a line with any questions.