The storeowner was obviously frustrated and depressed. The recession of this past year had devastated his business, slashing sales to an all-time low. In response, he'd had to lay off most of his staff and was working the floor six days a week by himself. He was making only basic inventory purchases, cutting his ad contracts and wracking his brain for creative, cheap ways to market.
It's a scenario I see every day. Eight new and experienced business owners just took a class from me on that very subject. Recessions cause depression and depression often causes a sense of hopelessness. Businesses are closing left and right. The emotional state of the owner takes a toll on the business. Sometimes that creative spark that helped inspire the business burns down to an ember and getting it lit again is more than many can muster.
I've been there. In the recession of the early 1980s in Bellingham, we lost our pizza parlors. Out of it came the birth of the Colophon Cafe in Fairhaven, built on a shoestring, with only our creative drive to make it work. Nearly 25 years later, that restaurant is one of the few still growing in sales, though we sold it eight years ago.
You CAN make it through tough times, but it will take some tough decisions, creativity and focus. Here are a few ways to survive the worst.
Revisit Your Marketing Plan
Ask yourself if you have the same target market that you did when you first opened. Identify that bull's-eye group that brings in the most money for you. Are you marketing appropriately to those people? Media has changed. Advertising is far different than it was five years ago. Do NOT waste money on advertising purchases that don't directly hit your bull's-eye or are haphazard.
What you did before may not be what you should be doing now. Study the demographics before you buy.
Clean up Your Act
Go through the business thoroughly. Clean windows, pick up litter, weeds, scrub the floors, rotate merchandise, make new signs and paint the walls. Use all five senses. How do things look, smell, feel, sound? The subtle descent into decay is subconsciously detectable by customers. They won't come back, and they don't even know why. Even if you have an office that customers don't visit, give your staff a comfortable and clean working environment. Small changes change the attitude and the entire energy of a place.
Train Your Staff
Look at yourself first. Employees learn attitudes from the top down. If you are rushed, apathetic, depressed, angry and worried, they will be, too, and customers will feel it. A happy staff helps keep customers happy and coming back, and that's a lot cheaper than having to advertise to get new customers. Teach good service techniques, reaffirm knowledge of products, make it easy to handle customer complaints, returns, etc. Teach selling in such a way that it comes naturally as a matter of course, not pushed. (Would you like some nice, hot coffee with that pie?)
Keep Track of Your Customers and Remind Them You Are Here
Create incentives, clubs, or frequent-buyer rewards. Utilize e-newsletters, postcards, birthday coupons, event announcements, product updates, and more as reasons to touch base with your clients. Build local customer loyalty in a way that national chains cannot.
Build an Effective Internet Presence
Every type of business needs a Web site. It can be simple or complex, but it must be up there. Start by buying a domain name. NOW. For $9, you can go to GoDaddy.com and buy a place for your Web site. Even if you can only hire a student intern to build one page with basic information, make it happen. When you have money, get an expert to do your search engine optimization. Keep your Web page updated and interesting. I could give you a hundred examples of why this is a good idea, but I don't have the space. Let's just say if you don't have a Web site, you'd might as well not be in business at all.
Partner with a Charity and Invent Events
You get four times the media attention if you partner with a charity. Do a Food Bank Drive. Help the Humane Society, Boys & Girls Club or Literacy Council. Pick a charity and make it your own. You can help people, get goodwill and garner good publicity all at the same time.
Do Some Press Releases
Send out press releases about your business. If you can't write, hire someone or see if you have a writer on staff. Be sure to send the right thing to the right people. Go online and find out which editors and reporters with Web sites or newspapers are interested in what you have going on. You can get publicity for new management or employee promotions, seminars attended and certifications awarded, business expansions, events, product updates, charitable donations, and more. Make it short, interesting, to the point and timely.
Master Guerrilla Marketing
Read the classic business book by lay Levinson, and open yourself up to the possibilities of thinking outside that confining box. Get creative with new ways of getting customers to notice you. Hand out free water at a festival. Hire a college student to wear a costume on the corner. Edit a YouTube video and post it online. Brainstorm with friends, customers and staff. You'll be surprised at what might inspire you.
Get to Know Your Neighbors
If you belong in a district, attend merchant meetings, join the chamber of commerce or tourism bureau, a leads group or an industry association. Get involved, be generous and be approachable. Your business are not an island unless you make it one.
Have fun
Create a fun sense of humor around the business. It makes employees happy and puts customers at ease. Do something different with the window display. Dress up for Halloween. Feature a "quiz question of the day" for customers. Laugh often and tell great jokes. If you can't regain the fun and love for your business you once had, it's probably time to go do something else. But, that's another article altogether.
* Taimi Dunn Gorman is a marketing consultant with Gorman Publicity in Bellingham. She was co-founder of the Colophon Cafe and created the Doggie Diner. With 30+ years of retail and restaurant experience, Gorman teaches marketing and business seminars at WCC.
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