Tag Archives: small business blog

Creating your small business niche requires thought and work

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When we throw around terms like “niche” and “specialized” or “premium,” we sometimes forget that success requires a lot of work, regardless of how great your product or service.

Here are a few things to think about when you are creating, improving or expanding.

1. Assume someone else has your idea. They are smarter, faster, and they have more money. Your fiercest enemy is hubris. Not costs. Not competitors. But the belief that your idea is completely original and infallible.

2. You can never have too much cash. Many companies with tons of sales have closed their doors because cash flow was poor. Build reserves and negotiate for additional credit whenever possible.

3. You don’t have to do it all. Decide early on whether you are an entrepreneur or a manager. Explore the pros and cons of licensing vs. production or sell your idea outright and use the proceeds to go do something else you love. But don’t just create a job for yourself.

4. Once you start slicing a market into segments, keep on slicing it thinner and more imaginatively. Emulate markets like sports drinks, energy drinks, clothing and cars. Everyone else is trying to turn your special product into a commodity. You must constantly innovate.

5. Maintain your focus. The sure way to fail is by trying to do too much at once. Pick a strategy, try it, evaluate the results, and make modifications, run with it or scrap it. But don’t try to test and analyze too many options at once; you’ll just overtax yourself.

The hard work is the planning and discipline. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s easy, but don’t think you’re doing it right just because you’re working hard.

It’s nice to know small business can count on excessive tendencies

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When it comes to small business marketing, it seems like all we have to do sometimes is fill the trough and call the hogs to dinner. But the truth is that marketing is much more complex. Or is it?



The other day I walked into the local large chain grocery store and took a quick appraisal of the floor plan. I didn’t even make it out of the breezeway with my cart before being offered furniture and food. I was greeted pleasantly by a store employee, but upon thinking about it later, I surmised he was only being nice so I would buy something.
Best of all was that right inside the door was a gigantic stack of three-gallon barrels of cheese balls. Wow! How did civilization progress so far in the absence of such an obscene quantity of this delightful blend of salt, air, corn meal, cheese flavoring and FD&C orange coloring?
But there they were, and it was obvious to me that the still-enormous stack and stood much higher not long ago. People were actually responding to this “deal.”
So, there it was. Amid nine-percent unemployment, mounting worry, stagnant wages and higher food prices, people were finding room in their food budgets for a seemingly frivolous item.
Then it occurred to me that the store had it all right. A special price. A value proposition based on getting a huge quantity at what seemed to be an attractive price. A product with all kinds of margin built in.
And even better: A sucker of a regular customer guaranteed to walk in the door and see the display.
As small business owners who are trying to compete with these strategies, we might consider adopting them ourselves.
Cheese balls were an innovative product made from the leavings. Everyone loves a sale. Most people will say, “Yes,” if you make it easy for them, i.e. a friendly greeting and a snack stack that you pass with an empty cart. And a tower of cheese ball barrels is just fun!
Be creative and have fun. Try and please the base emotions. It will pay off.

Wichita small businesses: We just want you to look good in public

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Look, we know we don’t always have all the answers. In fact, it’s our ability to admit what we don’t know that makes us better able to serve our small business clients. So, when we give you a point of view, a perspective, a hint, a guideline, an opinion or an informed recommendation, our motives are pure.

You might say we’re a bit like the fashion experts on “What Not To Wear,” who take style-challenged individuals and help them make better decisions on, well, what to wear.

worst-dressed

Did someone tell her NOT to wear this?

One big difference is that many times, we small business marketing experts don’t offer our clients a radical makeover and a complete change of clothes.

But what we have in common with TV’s Stacy London and Clinton Kelly is that we try to take what’s on the inside of the person–in this case, the company, the owners and the brand–and create an outward representation that makes them feel comfortable while conveying that TRUE personality accurately to onlookers.

In other words, we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. We try to take what’s best about your company and leverage it with a look and feel, and communication channels that best suit your business.

Unfortunately, not everyone listens to us–at least not the first time–and, like on “What Not To Wear,” we have to do our convincing in a little stronger manner. We’re not necessarily saying you shouldn’t stick with the brand-equivalent of the sequined tube top and Spandex® miniskirt, but you might want to look at some alternatives. After all, we’re only looking out for your best interests.

The other good news is that we can help you find solutions that fit you to a tee but don’t bust your budget.

And remember, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Let your small business marketing experts help you bring that to the forefront. Because it’s not just about the pretty pictures and the clothes don’t make the person or the business. But we’ll make sure what’s on the outside represents you accurately and in a way that’s attractive to customers.