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When not to use Groupon or other Discount Sites

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As a small business we are always trying to keep track of our expenses and save money for those days that might be extra rainy. As advisors to other small business owners, we are always providing cost effective methods for advertising to obtain new or returning clients.

Filling a Void for Slower Times of the Year

Our latest client, Fit911 Studio’s owner Andres Vazquez was looking to fill a void for those clients who go away on vacation during the holiday month of December. If you have ever frequented Puerto Rico during the holiday season, things don’t get back to normal until after January 6th .

We talked about several options with him and he brought up using Groupon to offer some packages for new clients. We were talking to another person who had used Groupon to sell some pastries and she explained how it was more costly than profitable. We relayed this information to Andres and we suggested using Facebook ads to obtain those new clients.

Facebook Ad and the Ultimate Payoff

He gave us the permission to create the ads, and ultimately he gained 15 clients; five more than he had hoped for during this slow period. Four options were offered to individuals looking to get a jump-start on their new year’s goals.

Our recommendations for this small business owner paid off and now the excellent staff at Fit911 Studio will train new clients.

Although the popular thing is to appear on sites that are promising potential clients up to 90% discount on your services, a small business must evaluate how profitable this will ultimately be for them.

So before you end up giving most of your profit to Groupon and the other discount clones, ask yourself these questions:

How much will Groupon and other discount sites take from your profit?

What other alternatives are there for advertising on the web along with your blog?

If you are having problems with coming up with a creative way to advertise your services, we can help you with a brainstorming session. In our next blog post, we will talk about how short sessions with CIMA IT Solutions Corp. can be a positive outcome for current and future projects.

 

If your interested in finding out how to kick start any new effort or project drop us a line or two and we can gladly advance you that info via email.

 

 

Websites not just your home for the holidays

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As the holidays approach us we see many people creating content about celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Christmas Giveaways, and Christmas Cookie Recipe Bake-offs. Everyone wants to create a list of the Top 10, Top 50, Top 100 blogs, websites, and influential people of the year to drive those people mentioned to the source that names them. What better way to get people to visit your website than mentioning them as the best at a specific genre?

Where are you  announcing your events or latest news? What about your holiday party that your company or organization will be hosting as you invite your community of readers and members to join you?

I see many folks using social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google + to make sure everyone reads their holiday experiences. But these networks shouldn’t be your main source of imparting information to your clients or community members. What would happen if these social networks all of a sudden stopped working? How are you going to get information to your readers if you are solely making social networks your home?

Networks and Platforms Should Complement Your Website

Your company needs to make sure that these networks compliment your website which should be your home everyday and not just for the holidays. What we do for our customers at CIMA is create a website that you can call your home.

A Place Where People Can Find You

When customers look for your company or organization, they are going to see if there is a website first. These days one of the first questions we ask people we encounter who state they are a small to medium sized business or organization is the name of their website. It amazes me how many companies don’t have a permanent home where customers can learn more about their product and services.

If you are a small to medium sized business, you need to make sure you have a website to let people know that your brand exists. We also see the other side where small to medium sized companies have a website but it is deadspace or looks outdated. Information has not been updated and the commitment to create content just isn’t there. At CIMA we have created content for our customers. But who knows your business better than you?

One of our clients, RomyBaez.com, sells car insurance, life insurance, and business insurance along with other types of insurance. In his latest blog post, he writes about the importance of having vital insurance information before you purchase a car. The website was made for those looking for all types of insurances in Puerto Rico, created with content in Spanish, and is his homebase for returning and new clients. As a small business, Romy was conscious of having a website where his potential clients could contact him for a quote. Can you upload important documents for your clients to download on Twitter? I have not seen that feature at all.

Although it is great to use social networks to update information about what your company or organization will be doing for the holidays, don’t forget that a website created by our team will celebrate with you everyday of the year.

 

3 Reasons How To Promise & Deliver When building…

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I see how many companies try to build their email marketing lists in a way that is not spam. But, once the list starts growing they get tempted to go towards the “dark side”.

Based on my experiences, I think these are 4 Reasons How To Promise & Deliver When Building Your Email List.

Set expectations

Be clear on how often you will publish your newsletters and communicate  that to the people who have trusted you with their email.

Stick to a schedule

When companies or marketing departments start seeing results of an email list, they decide to break the established schedule.

Don’t send too often.

If you are bombarding your customers with messages via a newsletter or social media sites, they might lose interest in what you have to say. Feel free to ask your audience every once in a while if they want more info or less of it.

My recommendation is a monthly newsletter with occasional supplements to promote events or specials.

How often do you engage with your audience and the awesome individuals who decided to sign up for your list?

Any other tips or ideas that I missed out on?

 

5 Small Business Benefits of Being at #SXSW

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Photo Credit by Jose Padilla ( @jpadilla_)

We where present at #SXSW and had the opportunity to experience it from a Small Business point of view. Different to other smaller conferences focused on many of the same subjects, I can clearly say that if you are a Small Business Owner the environment of #SXSW makes you feel right at home.

There were sessions focused the small business owners in mind. There were also great people attending the event, who wanted to get to know you as a person first.

Benefits of Being at #SXSW

Some of the clear Benefits we received as a small business were the following.

1. Access to a Large Network

Tapping into a Large Network of Quality People with common interests without measuring how big your organization is or who you are. Giving you the opportunity to meet people from various professional levels from different types of organizations.

2. Pool of Ideas

Many people together exchanging ideas from various perspectives. You had developers, marketers, bloggers, and people from various walks of life sharing their experience from their point of view.

3. Refresh

Refreshing your current efforts. It might be frustrating to get things done when you have individuals or a group of people that don’t get what you do. Based on conversations and interactions, new ideas will arise helping you take a new approach at something that you have probably been frustrated about.

4. Experience Latest Tech Tools

It can also help you find new tools and gadgets. I usually end up learning about the most practical and cost effective gadgets and applications when I am surrounded around peers who have been using them. I end up getting tools that are better and faster at getting things done than what I might be currently using. A good example of interesting apps I was recommended during #SXSW were Beluga  and Liveshare which I learned at a party sponsored by their creator Cooliris.

5. New Relationships

Extending your network with stronger relationships. It is not the same to meet someone online than meeting them in person and continuing the conversation online. Every time I have met someone in person and later on reached out to them online I  created great  relationships.

Did we miss any other benefits of going to a conference like SXSW?

If you want to read about our Raul Colon’s (Co-Founder & President) experience at SXSW feel free to visit his blog.
Photo Credit by Jose Padilla @jpadilla_

Starting a Business in Seven Steps by @raffel

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Content and post from jimraffel.com

There are many details involved in starting a business. Here, I’ve boiled it down to the seven that I have found to be most important to continuing business success.

1. Open a checking account. The moment you make the decision to go in business for yourself, open a new checking account. Decide how much you are willing to invest (lose) giving this business idea a shot. Fund the account with that amount. By the way, your accountant is going to love you because you will not be commingling personal and business funds. Also, until you setup an accounting system you have a basic way to keep track of expenses and income.

2. Decide upon legal structure. There is no right answer for this step. I’ve been a sole proprietor, a member of an LLC and probably will have S and C corps before my career is over. This is the time to call on the professionals in your circle. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each with your accountant and attorney. Then, you can make an informed choice; a choice, by the way, that is not etched in stone.

3. Decide on an accounting system. If I was doing it over again I’d probably use something like FreshBooks.com and OutRight.com. Again you’ll want to consult with your professional support to decide on issues like; calendar year versus fiscal year; cash basis versus accrual accounting methods and other details that matter but can be worked out quickly with professional assistance.

4. Sell something. I’d actually be totally okay with this being your step number 1. There is really nothing wrong with selling first. I’ve read enough business success stories to know that getting out there and selling is the key to success. In the early days, when the founder of Sam Adams brewery wasn’t quite sure what he should be doing, he took a six pack of beer and walked into six pubs and let the bartender try the beer. It always resulted in increased distribution.

5. Spend about 10 seconds putting together basic marketing materials. I am talking about the very basics like a web-site and some business cards. It might take more than 10 seconds but honestly if you spend more than a day on this at this point in your business’ life, I think you are making a mistake. Later, when business is booming, you can hire a designer to clean up and improve upon what you’ve started.

6. Sell something else. The life blood of any business is revenue. Unless you’ve had past business successes and lots of capital (venture or otherwise) behind you, selling will be your #1 job. Early on, you will very likely sell the wrong things at the wrong prices. It’s okay as long as you protect the downside and don’t let any one transaction put you in a position that could put you out of business.

7. Decide what you should be selling. Now that you have sold a few things, decide if what you are selling is actually what you should be selling. I realize this may sound silly on the surface, but I learned early on what I could sell profitably and what I could not. Whatever your business is, you need to analyze your products and services mix often. Products that are profitable and awesome for your business today could be putting you in the red a year from now.

Once you have an ongoing concern, make sure to look at your books a minimum of once a month. I’m not talking about a glance at the financials. I’m talking about a solid hour or two of uninterrupted time figuring out what is working and what is not. Once a year, I look at all our monthly expenses and commit to cutting them by 20% no matter what. It’s never been difficult to do so.

Obviously, every startup will be different but I suspect the steps that work for you will be approximately the same. Did I miss any important ones?

Photo Credit

Learn More About the Author

Jim Raffel is the CEO at ColorMetrix Technologies, LLC a company he co-founded in 1996. Jim earned a B.S. degree in Printing Management at Rochester Institute of Technology in 1986. After graduation Jim worked as a quality control manager assisting in the start-up of two 8/9 unit web presses. Jim then engaged in two years of independent consulting while developing an early version of the ColorMetrix software. The consulting assignments were diverse and took Jim to places as far away as New Zealand. Next, came a position as a special projects manager with a large web printer. Jim worked on and managed projects related to quality and productivity enhancement through the use of technology. One project alone added over two million dollars to the company bottom line. During this same period Jim earned an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management in 1994.  In addition to managing the day-t0-day operations of ColorMetrix Technologies, LLC, Jim writes daily at JimRaffel.com with his unique inspirational storying telling public speaker and small business CEO perspective.

Follow him on twitter @jimraffel