Storm Dawg Marketing

In my last story I told you about how my parents successfully rebranded their business.  It worked for them…but would it work for you?

To continue my short series on small businesses and rebranding, I wanted to talk about some reasons for rebranding,  and about why rebranding might not always be a good idea. 

There are a few reasons that would have you deciding to change how you are seen by the public.  One reason is that some businesses want to be classified differently so they are seen in different sections of the Yellow Pages or Yellow Pages look-up and search services. 

For Example: Exterminators vs Pest Control vs Pest Management Services.  You would think these are pretty much the same thing, but each title/classification gets searched for differently and with more or less frequency than the other.  By changing your name to the title/classification that gets searched or looked up more often, you are increasing your chances of being noticed.

Another reason to change might be that your business is expanding its products or services.  Offering more is always a good way to get more customers and to keep existing ones.  But unless you are changing your name to reflect those additional products or services, what is the point?

Another reason for a name change might be that your company has been sold.  Here’s a little story about that… 

A friend of mine works at a company that had a well-known brand and a good service to offer.  At the beginning of the year another company took note of their “reputation” and “offerings” and decided to acquire her company and roll their service and products into their suite of offerings. 

Apparently, that created quite a good combination because within 4 months of the initial purchase, that company was sold and she again had to email us her new contact info.  

Her signature line on her email to me last week read: 

Friends Name
at Blank Company (previously Blank Company & Blank Company)

Ha!  Seriously??  Obviously, there is value in the previous company names if you are still using it in your corporate signature line…so why change the name?  Letting acquisitions operate under their own name is not a bad idea if they have a strong brand. 

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why you would change it…but don’t advertise your identity crisis in your email signature on outward communications.  I wonder if any of her customers have moved on because they feel there is a lack of stability in the company?  Would you? 

Have a fantastic New Year!
Check in next week for the next installment in my rebranding series! 

Christina Kudym

 As a business, you always try to make your mark…to be known for something.  Whether it be through great signage/logo, a signature product, a service or a catchy slogan, people always know you for something.

Here is a personal and humorous story about one small business that rebranded itself successfully.

To start, let me explain that my parents have been in the restaurant business for over 40 years.  Thus, my passion for all thing small business, especially ways to help the small business.  Small-business owners work hard…they deserve all the help they can get!  My parents’ first restaurant was a partnership with a few of  their friends.  It was a diner that served homestyle comfort food in large portions. (Just thinking of it brings back memories…and makes me a little hungry!) 

After a few years of running the business with his partners, my father wasn’t liking the direction things were headed and decided to buy his partners out.  Luckily for him, they had all realized that owning a restaurant was quite a bit of work (ya think?) and they didn’t want to do it anymore.  Needless to say he got a great deal in buying them out. 

One big hurdle he saw that first month was a name change, you see the largest partner, who started the business, had used his own name for the name of the restaurant.  With him out of the picture and with a lack of resources, my dad was faced with a dilemma: Keep the name and continue, or change the name and go into even more debt. 

The restaurant was known for good food, great service, and a clean and well-run establishment.  So he worried, ”If I change the name, will customers and prospective customers think ‘everything’ is changed and effectively wipe my slate clean?  Or will people not even pay attention and come in to see the ‘new’ place?”

Well, my dad made decisions about the staff and menu and added things here and there, but the name of the business kept looming over his head.  His ex- partner was pushing for a change and wanted to charge my father for using his name.  You see, when my father made his little tweaks business picked up.   Apparently, making the breakfast menu available “all day” and adding a salad bar were KILLER busines moves in the 80’s. :)   Well, the partners were none to happy about this and wanted additional $. 

To squash this effort and avoid any legal battles, my father decided to change the name of the business.  Being the funny guy that he is, he took one letter off of their sign – changing the name of his business from LAMPE’s to AMPE’s.  The business flourished.  And for as long as I can remember, everyone thought our last name was Ampe.  So not only did my father rebrand a business, he also rebranded our family. 

My parents recently purchased another established business named Sam’s…I wonder how long before everyone thinks his name is Sam.

Until next time,
Christina Kudym

Please join us in congratulating May Volcy of ABL Case Management… our winner for October’s Free Marketing Contest!  You voted for her story, and with 93 votes she was the clear winner!  And with infoGROUP’s help, we’re going to make her business even more successful.

Here’s what May wrote in this month:

Nature of my business:
Medical Case Management services(telephonic and field) in the area of worker’s compensation. Our customers are: Third Party administrators, Insurance Companies, and Large employers. I am a registered Nurs Case Manager with twelve years of experience. My business is a certified minority business with WBENC and FRMBC. I am also a single mother of 3 grown children. I am facing the following problem/challenge: My competitors are large businesses that have a big market share with a big budget for marketing with all the big contacts. The only way I have been able to survive is by doing one on one contact with my customers in order to get business. As a one person business it’s very time consuming and I don’t have the funds to do enough marketing to increase my business volume. Meanwhile I have a staff to pay and it is getting harder and harder. I was told that I have to spend money on marketing in order to make money. I am afraid that I am spending too much and not getting any results in return. If only I could get my foot in the door of these potential customers and have the chance to present my company, I think this would be a step forward and a great success. My only competitive edge, based on what my current customers are telling me, is the excellent quality of the service I have been providing and a competitive fee schedule. It seems that I am running so hard trying to market new customers but I cannot meet any goal because I also have to do the current daily operation of everything else that has to do with running my business. Because of this struggle, I believe my company would greatly benefit from your help.

To say we are excited for May is an understatement.  Congratulations, May!  Who will be next month’s winner?  Stay tuned for some exciting new announcements about next month’s contest as well as some great success stories from previous winners!

Hey StormDawg fans,

I saw this great article in the American Express’s OPEN Forum written by Julia Rogers of Recession Wire titled “New Business in the Downturn:  Desperate Times Do Not Call For Desperate Measures” .  I thought you might like it.

Don’t Work Too Hard – StormDawg

Hey all,

This is going to be a wild week.  I am getting ready to head out to San Diego to the annual DMA conference.  I will be interviewing folks and putting some of their comments on the blog via a webcam.  It should be fun and hopefully informative.  Later, I will be in New York speaking to a group about how the economy is affecting consumer behavior.  I will share some of that research with you all later.

My small business antennae went up last week because of a conversation I heard about one of our stimulus package contestants.  A young man named Keith Fix (who I shouted out to a couple of weeks ago) was getting interviewed by Entrepreneur magazine.  It turns out Keith has a great business model but is at a crossroads with his business.   Is he really ready to make it grow?  Check out his website: http://www.provenpowerful.com/

Keith’s business does tech support for computer owners, much like the Geek Squad, but he does it at a much lower cost.  Keith is very particular about who he hires.  He looks for people who not only have the skills but also are an exact fit for the culture of his business.  It only takes him about one hour to bring a new hire up to speed and put them to work.  The problem is,  because he is so particular, his pool of potential employees is quite small.

In order for Keith to grow his business he will have to hire more employees and he may need to compromise his standards.  This is an example of a decision that needs to be made and it might not be the economically rationale decision.  Keith is a college student and maybe he isn’t ready to have his business take off quite yet.  Maybe he should finish school?

That is Keith’s decision to make!  P.S.  14 of the top 50 billionaires dropped out of college.  14 out of how many drop-outs….the odds aren’t that great.

What do you think Keith should do?

Send in your comments and don’t work too hard!

StormDawg

Good morning StormDawg fans,

I came across a very interesting article in American Express’s OPEN Forum by Rohit Bhargava titled, “How to get your small business covered in the media.”  Bhargava gives four great tips:

1. Be an expert
2. Remember the story isn’t always about you
3. Start with bloggers
4. Learn the beats and players

Give the article a good read…I promise it’ll be worth your time!

As StormDawg would say, “Don’t work too hard!”

Bryan D. Jennewein – StormDawg S.W.A.T. Team

Hey all,

It was another action-packed week. I spoke to a Marketing class at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and to a small-business conference put on by Pape Ventures about the blog and social networking. It is so interesting because we are breaking new ground every day, and the stuff we are learning about small businesses and social media isn’t in any text book.

On the other hand, life goes on for most small business – that is, until something goes wrong. I have a real-world example to share with you this week about a small business and the challenges its facing following the death of the owner.

The business is a group home facility in Texas. The group home has about 15 developmentally disabled residents who have, for the most part, lived together for 15 years. They are family to one another.

The owner of the business died recently, and now things are in a bit of disarray. He didn’t leave a will and really hadn’t done any succession planning. He was the business. He figured out how to make the place work for him and for the residents. He juggled finances to provide services, supervision and regular day-to-day food and shelter needs. He was a master at, and always made sure that, the residents were taken care of first.

The problem is he didn’t really teach anyone else how he ran the business and how he juggled things around. For example, the residents have their own accounts that show a balance each month after the tuition is paid and the fees and services are deducted. Most of the residents have a positive balance, and if they all asked to receive the balance of their account in cash at the same time, the business would implode. (Much like a bank if all the depositors asked for their funds back.)

Because there is no will, the estate is in probate and it will take some time to sort it all out. Meanwhile, the families of the some of the residents are getting nervous and are asking for the money in their relatives’  accounts. If this happens, the home may be forced to shut its doors. I am sure that was not what the owner intended and sure didn’t want to break up the family he created.

If you intend to have your small business survive the worst, take the time to figure out a succession plan and revisit it from time to time. You never know when one of life’s buses may hit you, and you don’t want all of your hard work going down the drain.

Don’t work too hard!

StormDawg

Hey all,

The results are in… and the winner of September’s free marketing is…Kathy Mann and the Save Our Sheep Club! Congratulations, Kathy! Her story had 156 votes (and sent more than 700 people to our site)!

I thought today would be a good day to update you on what else we’ve been doing with the people who send in their stories. In August we had more than 100 people write in, and my S.W.A.T. Team has been working hard to reach out to all of them and learn more about their businesses. Although we can’t give them all a free marketing plan, we have been offering them some free resources, extended free trials of our Salesgenie.com product when appropriate, and a 50% discount on all of our products and services through the end of this year.

Who knows… maybe we’ll make a similar offer to all of the September entries – stay tuned!

Don’t work too hard!

StormDawg

Good morning StormDawg fans,

I came across a very inspiring article in The New York Times entitled, Small-Business Owners Are Coping, and Feeling Grateful for the Bright Spots, and thought I’d share some of it with you this morning.

A restaurant owner, squeezed by a slump in sales and growing debt to his landlord, discontinues his health insurance. A contractor decides not to replace a member of his small crew who quit. An industrial bicycle maker starts selling to universities, prisons and zoos. For a quintet of small businesses that The New York Times has been tracking for the past year, the persistent recession has hurt some more than others. As fall began, some cautious optimism about a recovery crept into recent interviews conducted by Patrick McGeehan, Erik Olsen and Gabriel Johnson.

Small businesses have been (and are going through) a lot these days.  But these interviews show signs of improvement.  Georgette Blau’s tourism company has started to see a lift from European tourists and notes that customers have begun tipping again.

Wayne Sosin’s industrial tricycles and bicycles has had to create a new market for his products.  While he typically sold to auto plants, big factories and warehouses, this recession has inspired him to expand his market, selling to universities, zoos and prisons.

And while people like Mouhamad Shami still struggle with their restaurants (Shami had to recently drop his health coverage) and Ruben Villasante decided to hold off replacing some employees who quit… others such as Michael Menna are using the business slowdown to economize, reduce operational costs, and even pay down some debts.

Absolutely read the article for yourself, and keep your chin up. We’re on our way.

As StormDawg would say… “Don’t work too hard!”

Bryan D. Jennewein – StormDawg S.W.A.T. Team

Hey all,

We got back from vacation last week, and my wife, Kim, told me about an experience she had with the day spa she goes to for her fingernails, hair and the like. I really don’t know what goes on there, but I go in once in awhile because I have known the lady who owns the place for a long time. She does OK and seems to keep busy but never really grows the business and often wonders why.

They use some kind of contact manager to keep track of their appointments, and for some reason Kim’s appointments were deleted from the system. Kim has had a standing appointment every other week for more than 4 years, but when she showed up for the her appointment she was not on the schedule and no effort was made to accommodate her. Kim was told that she could come back next week and the lady could fit her in.

Guess what? Kim went somewhere else. Turns out the new place did a better job at a lower price. Kim has a decision to make: stay with old reliable (which turns out not to be that reliable) or go with the new place that does a better job and at a lower price. If Kim was making a business decision, this would be a no-brainer, but she is not. She is making an emotional decision.  But the lack of attention the lady at the spa gave Kim, the customer, is complicating the matter. The bottom line is that if old reliable would have been more focused on meeting the needs of the customer, no decision would ever have to be made.

This reminds me of a video I saw by Jeff Bezos on YouTube a few weeks back. He talks about being obsessed with your customers, being able to invent, think long-term, and treat every day like it is day one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hxX_Q5CnaA His message applies not only to Amazon.com but also to a small day spa in Omaha.

Check it out, and think about how it applies to your business.

Don’t work too hard!

StormDawg