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You’re never too young to start a business
There was a time when the toughest decision for a college graduate was which one of five job offers they would accept upon graduation. Today’s graduates are entering a much different world and not so optimistic marketplace. Students have seen the constant restructuring and downsizing of top companies directly impact their career possibilities. With the increase in the number of qualified professionals seeking entry-level positions, the landscape for graduates is much more competitive. As a result, many graduates have limited options; either a) stay in school to pursue a graduate degree because there are no jobs or b) take the first job offer you get, and run!
But what about answer c) – starting a business? This option has become a trend for many graduates who are looking to take control of their destiny at an early age. A recent study by The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor shows that 18 to 24-year-olds in the United States are starting businesses at a faster rate than 35 to 44-year-olds. Many universities are now grooming students for business ownership by focusing on entrepreneurship as a major or concentration.
Locally, Northern Kentucky University’s Entrepreneur Institute has been a very successful program that has prepared students for starting a business or buying a franchise. For those students who may not have a business plan developed, becoming a franchisee allows them to learn the ins and outs of business ownership while having a support team to help ensure success. What’s better for a young person than real hands-on experience?
A warning for those who wait until later in life to begin an entrepreneurial venture – we all know that sometimes “life happens”, which may include marriage, children or simply deciding to take that first job offer right out of school. However, any of these factors can easily detour the aspiring graduate’s entrepreneurial goals until they slowly fade away. Starting a business earlier in life allows you to take risks you wouldn’t normally take as an older individual.
There are many reasons to start a business sooner rather than later. If you are successful in your business venture, great!! Enjoy the fruits of your labor and hopefully you will reap the professional and financial success you desire. But what if that college graduate fails? The answer is: SO WHAT! What is the worst that could happen, money lost? You can always earn that money back. The real world experience learned by that student is priceless! It can provide lessons that will be utilized within their next business venture. Conversely, what employer wouldn’t be impressed with someone who has owned a business, and can now bring that experience to their organization? And for that student looking to apply to graduate school, that business experience will look very attractive on a college application.
Some parents are helping their children realize their entrepreneurial dreams by forming parent/child teams to purchase a franchise business. This has become a great opportunity to bond with their child and get them moving in the right direction (with a little parental supervision). No matter the age, the longer one waits to start a business, the more reasons they will find not to do it. So when is the best time to start a business or buy a franchise? Answer: the minute you finish reading this article
Darian Richardson is the owner of RMC Franchise Connect in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky. You can contact Darian at (513) 407-8475 or darian@rmcfranchiseconnect.com or his website
www.rmcfranchiseconnect.com
STOP COLD CALLING, Referral Marketing Part 2
In early August I wrote a blog titled “Stop Cold Calling, Referral Marketing Part 1”. We talked about the need for you to create a Referral Marketing Plan and how to identify your target market. So now that you have a target market, now you need a hook.
We have to create an emotional based message so when people are out looking for referrals for you, they can identify who is a good referral and your name comes to mind. I hear all the time “why did you not refer them to me?” well “I never thought of you “. You have to tickle their brain.
If you want people to remember you then you have to give them something that when they see your potential client the alarm goes off and your name is in the forefront of their brain. Does this make sense? If you watch TV, it is done by every advertiser. They are trying to do the same thing getting you to remember their product or service when the commercial is over. Just think of all the products you remember when a certain stimulus is presented (The Geico song, Aflac duck, the target for Target stores and on and on, the Alka Seltzer song). Major advertisers do this all the time. So if we are going to develop a referral business why not copy the pros.
Your question next is “How do I do that”? Your EBM should be something which you have a passion for and something that directly tells people the main benefit of doing business with you. Many times you say It all the time when you get in the zone or when you a talking with your clients. What basic need do you satisfy. I was coaching a Referral Institute student last week and he asked “how do create the EBM?”. We were discussing his business and I asked him what goal are you trying to achieve when you discuss your clients financial situation? He said they always want to know “Where’s my check going to come from”. Wow, that’s a powerful statement and a pretty good EBM. I told him that he just found his EBM. I help clients discover where the check is going to come from, that’s what I do and when you tell people that, they’ll say “How do you do that?” And now you have a conversation. Isn’t it great? Just evaluate what you do and why you do it.
Why are you in business?
Who are your clients?
What do you sell?
How well do you compete?
Why do people buy from you?
How do you identify my referral partners and how do I develop strong relationships? Part III next.
Second you have to communicate with the people you want to get referrals from. You need make them aware of who you are and who is a good referral for you and find out who is a good referral for them.
Duane Plapp is a professional business coach with The Referral Institute Cincinnati. Duane can help you create “Referrals For Life”. If you’re interested in learning more about referral marketing you can contact Duane at duper2947@aol.com or 859-240-6428
Are You Memorable?
The average American comes into contact with over 5,000 advertising messages every day. If you subtract out 7 hours for sleep, that leaves 17 hours of available advertising contact time. That means the average American comes into contact with 294 advertising messages every hour.
An advertising message isn’t just a radio or television commercial, a newspaper ad, or a billboard you pass on the highway. Every time you open your refrigerator or your pantry, get online, drive past a business sign, open your medicine cabinet in your bathroom, or take a shower you come in contact with a form of advertising by simply looking at the products right in front of your face. If you see a logo, you are seeing a form of advertising.
Now, when you factor in radio, television, newspaper, magazine, and billboards you can see how that 5,000 number is believable.
So, how do get your message across? You need to make your advertising memorable and you do that by becoming relevant to your customers and potential customers.
“15 minutes could save you 15%” is how Geico made their name and because they are one of the biggest advertisers in the country, chances are good you have heard that line more than once. The characters they use in their advertising are cute, but their tag line tackles two issues that are relevant to nearly every person……it doesn’t take a lot of time to save money.
Have you seen or heard an ad for OnStar, General Motors in-vehicle security, communications, and diagnostic system? They use real life situations, such as locking yourself out of your car or being involved in a car accident, to showcase their product.
Geico and OnStar don’t waste time talking about themselves, instead they focus on how you will benefit by doing business with them.
The great thing is you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to take this approach. All you do is determine the need that your product/service fills and make that the focal point of your advertising. Geico could save you 15% in 15 minutes…..OnStar could save your life by contacting emergency personnel if you are in a car accident and unable to make the call yourself.
What need does your product/service fill?
Answer that question and you are on your way to becoming memorable. Remember, you are battling over 5,000 competitors every day for a spot in the brain of your customers. The odds are agains’t you unless you put in the effort to become memorable.
Doug Smith is a Senior Account Executive for WREW Rewind 94.9 in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky. You can contact Doug at (513) 535-9123 ordosmith@hubbardinteractive.com
With the good comes the bad, but help is in sight.
Last week I was in the market for new Golf Clubs. I was willing to buy, but I was not in a MUST HAVE mode. I also had just taken my kids to a driving range where they used my clubs and had a blast. I was pleasantly surprised when my 6 & 8 year-old could hit the ball GOOD with my clubs. So we set out on a mission to buy new clubs for the kids and if I found something or someone SOLD me, I’d buy new ones as well.
Our journey started at Play-It-Again Sports in Florence. We were in the store for 10-15 minutes sizing up clubs for the kids. Every few minutes I’d ask the guy working a question to which I would get a VERY generic answer like “Uh, yeah”….{Click Above To Read More}
Continue readingWhy should you power down office equipment?
By Jake Westrich, EcoPhone Systems, LLC
Computers and other office equipment are vital to the everyday functions and productivity of most businesses. They power our employees and our companies, but they also drain power and raise our energy bills. Limiting the energy waste of our office equipment can conserve resources and prolong the lives of our machines.
When Should You Turn Off Your Personal Computer?
There are obvious impracticalities to powering off your computer every time you step away from it. That would be a great inconvenience, since it usually takes a few minutes for a computer to turn on. There is also a small surge in energy whenever a computer is turned on, so turning it off and on too frequently could actually use more energy.
The U.S. Department of Energy recommends turning off:
- Your monitor if you aren’t using your computer for more than 20 minutes
- Both your CPU and monitor if you are not using your computer for more than two hours1
One argument against powering off a computer is that turning it on and off too frequently may have a negative impact on the life of the device. Generally speaking, the less time a computer is on, the longer it will last, so turning off your computer should be a net gain.
Activate Your Sleep Mode
Make sure to check your computer’s power down or sleep mode settings. An unused computer that is in sleep mode will consume considerably less energy than an unused computer that is humming along at full capacity.
Power down and sleep modes should not be confused with screen savers, which are typically not energy savers. In some cases, power-down features do not work when a screen saver is activated.
Beware of Standby Power
Standby power is the electric power consumed by electronic appliances while they are switched off. Many types of electronic equipment drain power even while they seem to be turned off, because they are in fact in standby mode. Standby power can be as high as 10-15 watts per device.2 An easy method of prevention is to plug all of your computer station electronics (monitor, tower, printer, fax, etc.) into a power strip or surge protector with an on/off switch. When none of the electronics are in use, turn off the switch to prevent standby power drain.
Every unit of energy conserved reduces the environmental impact of energy use. Make energy conservation a habit at your business and enjoy:
- A greener planet for future generations
- Cheaper energy bills
- Longer-lasting office equipment
Jake Westrich, EcoPhone Systems, LLC, http://phonesystemscincinnati.com/blog.asp
1http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/appliances/index.cfm/mytopic=10070
2http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/4929594.stm
What are you doing to HURT your brand?
Each week I write about how a company failed to properly market their company. It’s usually something really basic and it drives me crazy since most of these companies are spending money on mass media instead of working on the basics. But, I was on a streak, I hadn‘t come across anything major in a few days. I had just spent 4 FABULOUS days at The Greenbrier for the PGA’s Greenbrier Fed-Ex Classic and everything was perfect. I was excited and thinking maybe this was the week I would have nothing to write about…BUT THEN IT HAPPENED.
I’ll preface this by saying that most of you won’t think it’s a big deal, but I think that the smallest details can crush a company’s brand. We had just finished eating dinner and the kids had to have ice cream. We headed for The Cold Stone Creamery in Florence. I had always enjoyed their mint chocolate chip ice cream and the kids LOVE mint chocolate chip as well. We order our ice cream and as I’m watching the young lady mix everything up I noticed there were no chocolate chips, they were using chocolate shavings. So I asked, if she was going to be putting in chocolate chips and she informed me they had RUN OUT of chocolate chips. WHAT, how do you run out of chocolate chips and do you realize there is a Kroger 50 feet behind your store? If your customers are accustomed to a certain experience you have to either deliver it 100% or not at all. The Mint Chocolate “Shavings” ice cream was terrible. I took 3 bites and was done with it. They not only hurt their brand, but they lost a customer. They would have been better off to tell me they were out of the chips than to try something different.
So maybe you’re thinking I’ve lost it. But, I think that as a small business owner you have to do whatever it takes to protect what you’ve built, so I think what this ice cream shop did was major. So the next time you come across an opportunity to take a short-cut, or do something easier…Think “Is this REALLY whwa we want our customers to walk away with?”
Matt Plapp is a Marketing Consultant in the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky area specializing in small business marketing via grass-roots, events, guerilla, online and social media marketing. You can contact him at matt@mattplapp.wpengine.com
“Undo The Status Quo”
Do you market yourself or your business the way you do because “that’s the way it’s always been done”?
Truth be told, your answer is probably “Yes”. It’s a lot safer to follow the status quo, but can your business reach its full potential by doing business this way? If you’re happy with how things are going….great. But maybe, just maybe, there is a better way.
A classic example of someone who thought there was a better way was Henry Ford. Up until Ford’s assembly line concept, automobiles were constructed from the ground up in one location in the factory by one team of workers. Mr. Ford is often credited with the invention of the assembly line, which is incorrect, instead he took an idea from one industry and put it to use in his industry. The idea of building a car via an assembly line came to him during a visit to a sausage packing plant in 1908. The sausage company used an assembly line to package their product and when he saw it, Ford thought the idea could work for building cars. Over a period of 5 years he refined the concept and in October of 1913 Ford launched his moving assembly line and the rest, as they say, is history.
If Mr. Ford played it safe and stuck to the idea of “that’s the way it’s always been done”, the Ford motor company, and the automobile industry as a whole, would not be what it is today.
So take a look at how you market yourself or your business. When was the last time you tried a new idea? I would be willing to bet it’s been a long time. Maybe it’s investing in an electronic media you’ve never used (TV, Radio). Maybe it’s diving head first into the world of Social Media (if you are not using Social Media you are missing out). Maybe it’s changing the way you position your business in the mind of your potential customer. If you haven’t tried something new in a while, do it now.
Successful ideas are all around you and chances are there are some really good ones in places you would never imagine. (Who would have thought the sausage industry would forever change the automobile industry?)
Doug Smith is a Senior Account Executive for WREW Rewind 94.9 and www.cincysavers.com in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky. You can contact Doug at (513) 535-9123 or dosmith@hubbardinteractive.com
STOP COLD CALLING, Referral Marketing-Part 1
WHY are you still cold calling? Cold calling is fruitless, requires you to check your reputation at the door and is the easiest business to lose to other cold calling sales people. You need to start building your brand and start getting high level referrals. It all starts with an emotional message that shows your passion for what you do. Example I am a chiropractor, “I am a bone shaper”. I’m an insurance agent, “I create the future.” The response is “How do you do that.” Some call this an EBM (emotional based message) others call it a memory hook, whatever you call it; it’s funneling the conversation so that you can develop a relationship. This is what referral marketing is all about. I like to call it “My Power Phrase with passion”.
My mission is to create constant, continuous and predictable referrals for life without cold calling. We all want to do business by referral, but we don’t create the methodology to implement the platform, so it never comes to reality. Sure we get referrals but they are passive and not consistent. They are not constant, continuous, or predictable. There’s a “HOPE” that referrals will happen.
If our goal is to do 100% business by referrals than that can only happen if we pass credible referrals and receive credible referrals. It’s called a level 10 referral. Level 10 referrals are referrals where your only action is to show up a get the check.
There is a way to create a platform where you can create these constant continuous and predictable referrals, it is call referral marketing strategies by Referral Institute. We have created a system to help you change your whole way of doing business. First it involves a change of one’s mindset. You must change your way of thinking.
Referral marketing strategies involves three basic principles:
1- You must create a phrase for people to instantaneous recognize this is a potential client for you.
2- You must communicate with the people who you want to refer you business to and who you want to develop a strong relationship with.
3- And last, you must create your own brand.
Before you even get this far there is one important action that has to happen. You must have a target market. What is a target market? It is the section of the market that you are going to direct you marketing efforts towards to create credibility for your brand. It does not mean that you do not have other products or services. It is the people you want as specific target to create your niche. If you do not do this first then everything else with be fruitless.
Ok, now you have a target market. You should ask yourself “”who are my clients?”
Part II next week….
There’s no place like (working from) home!
Have you ever dreamed of running your own business? If you asked 100 people this question, I would imagine 90% would respond “YES”. Well have you ever dreamed of running your own business from the comfort of your home? That may sound like a distant reality to some, but according to the market research firm Interactive Data Corp, in 2009 over 18 million Americans did just that. And for many people, joining a home-based franchise system has been the answer to accomplishing their dreams of work-life balance, career satisfaction, and financial success.
When you hear the word franchise, many people naturally envision a true brick and mortar concept found on street corners, strip malls, and office buildings. On the contrary, some of the world’s best and most successful franchise businesses can be started from home. For example, are you thinking of starting your own children’s in-home tutoring business…there’s a home-based franchise for that! Thinking of starting your own business coaching/consulting company, there’s a home-based franchise for that! Thinking of starting your own dog-walking/sitting, commercial cleaning, senior care, home improvement, advertising, financial services, etc… there are home-based-franchises for that too! You get the picture.
There are a number of key benefits that a home-based franchise can bring versus a traditional business. Low overhead for office expenses, flexible work schedule (you set your own hours), and the freedom from “office politics” and that annoying boss. Once you find a strong home-based franchise system that provides the structure you need to achieve your personal and professional goals, you are well on your way to experiencing and enjoying the life you always wanted. So grab some coffee, turn on your home computer, and slide into your comfortable slippers because it’s time to go to work.
For more info visit www.rmcfranchiseconnect.com or email info@rmcfranchiseconnect.com