CountrySmart CountrySmart
Presented by Chantelle Mader National Award Winning Business Advisor And Profit Strategist
BU S I N E S S N E W S Volume 3 Issue 8
Creating Financial And Lifestyle Freedom For Country Business Owners
Famous = Fortune. The name of the game is to move from being the hunter to being the hunted. That is, having prospective customers hunt you down and demand to do business with you over anyone else. To do this, one of the skills you must master is the art of getting the media’s attention. Getting featured in editorial, interviewed on radio, or on TV, will instantly position you as an expert and leader of your industry. I was recently told of a story of a car dealership owner that tried doing media releases that featured the wonderful charity work he was involved with. In doing so, his sales went up by 12%, as people wanted to do business with him as they valued what he stood for.
because you are too close to your business. So, here’s some ideas worthy of a media release. •
Being nominated for, or winning, an award.
•
Commenting on things that are happening in your industry.
•
Consumer awareness. (Is something happening in your industry that the public needs to be aware of such as law changes or changing trends?)
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Funky and fun marketing initiatives.
•
Your involvement with community events and charities.
To master the media you must first learn how the media operate.
Now, more than ever, consumers want to do business with human beings, not nameless, faceless organisations. They are looking to do business with people that stand for something and that they feel a sense of connection to.
In the newspaper industry, 60% of a newspaper is paid advertising space, this is what you are sold by the sales rep, the other 40% of space is free editorial space.
You may feel that you don’t have anything newsworthy going on in your business but, I promise you, you are overlooking newsworthy opportunities
One thing that may surprise you is, unlike you see in the movies, journalists don’t go hunting for stories. Most of the time the stories come to them by way of a media release. A media release is not a pre-written article that they simply plonk in the page. A media releases job is to sell the story, your story, to the journalist. If they think it is news worthy they will then call you, interview you and the resulting story, will appear, or go to air, and you won’t have to pay a penny for it!
In This Issue Media Fortune - Why Getting Publicity For Your Business, and Being Famous, Can Drive Sales (Page 1) How A Farmer Killed A Coffee Shop - How Not Understanding Marketing And Having A Cost Cutting Mentality Can Kill A Business (Page 2) Another Great Meal... Another Opportunity Lost: Don’t Let Them Leave Without Getting Their Contact Information! (Page 3) Business School of the Air Launches: Get A Winter Holiday When You Become A Member. (Page 4)
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Country Smart Business Solutions | Newsletter
How A Farmer Killed A Coffee Shop This is a lesson in how not understanding the value of marketing can kill your business.
“I think I had better stick to farming, it’s what I know”, was what he was last heard to say.
Once upon a time… there was a farmer who thought it would be a good idea to invest some money in an off-farm venture.
Sadly, this is not an unfamiliar story, as traditional farmers never get exposed to marketing as they simply don’t have the ability to influence their customers. They grow the wheat and hand it to the wheat marketing companies and hope they get them a good price.
When dinning with his wife at their favourite cafe, he discovered that the café was up for sale and arranged to purchase it off the current owner. Not being able to run the day to day operations of the cafe he made one of the long standing employees the manager and simply requested the financials be sent through to him on a weekly basis so he could keep an eye on how his investment was performing. One day, while going through the figures, he was looking at the expenses and saw a bunch of money was being spent on mini chocolates that were not used to on-sell to customers. Seeing an opportunity to cut costs, and increase his profits, he contacted the manager and asked what they are used for to which she replied, “They are put on the side of a cup of coffee.” “Well, that’s an unnecessary expense and we need to cut our expenses if we are going to make more money… so don’t order anymore.” He stated. Everything seemed to be travelling along OK, for a while, and he noticed that cutting that expense had indeed increased profits. Then, ever so slowly, he started to see the income decline, this worried him so he decided that it was time to cut some more expenses and head to the city and see what was going on. By now he had cut expenses to the bone and had even made the choice to manage the café himself saving him the cost of the managers wage, figuring the manager clearly didn’t have a clue and he could do better, while also still
working the farm part-time. This was not the plan at all, he lamented. So he decided to put the café up for sale, quite bitter that things were not going well. Listening to the nightly news, he even started blaming the economy for the reason people weren’t choosing to buy coffee and eat out anymore. Then, in desperation, he decided to throw some ads on the radio and in the local community newspaper, to try and get some more people through the door. “ These ads had better work or I’m up shit creek.”, he said to himself, knowing that he would have to pay for them even if they didn’t work. He offered a nice discount on the coffee and waited. Sure enough lots of new faces came into the coffee shop and he declared the campaign a success… Until he did the numbers and worked out that even though they had a heap more people in the café that week he had made no extra profit. Now what. Not only that but even though he had lots of new people through the door, the next week they didn’t come back and that made him mad. Clearly they were just after the cheap coffee. He just couldn’t make sense of it, he was sure it wasn’t because they made bad coffee as all his friends said it was good and that the food was nice… Eventually, he was forced to sell the coffee shop, at a greatly reduced price, back to the original owner.
The only thing farmers feel they have any sense of control over is their expenses, and even that is questionable, as when fertiliser prices go up they generally go up across the board, no matter what fertiliser company you deal with. It is only when farmers step into doing something out side of the norm that they quickly realise they have to learn how to get and keep a customer at a profit. But when they “get it” they are the best marketers you are likely to meet as they really get the value of building relationships. So really, in this example, the only mistake this farmer made was not realising he was missing some education. Instead he chose to learn by way of expensive experience. (But, you could argue, that he didn’t learn anything as you simply can’t learn when you are blaming.) If he were a student of marketing, of course, he would never have seen those chocolates as an expense, but as an investment. Let’s be clear, those chocolates were the very reason people chose his coffee shop over any another. But because all he knew was to cut expenses, he did what he knew to try and turn the situation around… but the only way to turn a business around is to drive more sales. Being too focused on cutting costs will simply lead to a slow painful death.
Country Smart Business Solutions | Newsletter
Another Great Meal… Another Opportunity Lost This one was at a great park with BBQ’s and lots of playground equipment for them to have some fun on.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
So, the family all piled in the car to the party and once they were off having a good time, Garry and I snuck off to the café across the road for a nice lunch together.
“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” “My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.”
I ordered the caesar salad and he ordered the burger.
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.”
I was impressed. I expected the usual small café stuff but from the kitchen emerged the yummiest salad I have had in yonks!
Oh well, it must just be another one of my strange habits. Anyway… I digress. Back to the story. So, we finish our meals and wander back to the party… And I sigh as I walk out. Another great business, doing great things that lets their customers walk out without getting their contact details to keep in touch. Are they too shy to ask? No, it probably just didn’t occur to them that they should do that.
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.” “Wether you think you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”
It was party time for my kids on the weekend. Yep, another party invite.
I always seem to eat more on the weekends and appreciate a fine feed. I think during the week I’m running on adrenalin so much that my taste buds switch off. Does anyone else notice that they don’t eat much during the week then find themselves eating everything in sight on the weekends?
Inspirational Quotes By Henry Ford
In the food trade it’s very easy to get stuck on making great food, and they should make great food. But they should also have a strategy that keeps people coming back. This is the value of having a database of customers… you can ask them back for a meal anytime you like. You don’t have to pray that you made a nice enough meal for them to want to come back when it suits them. You can be proactive and personally invite them back! And when you go to sell your business is sooo much more saleable if you have a database of customers that you communicate with regularly as you can PROVE the goodwill. Learning how to ask for customers contact details in a way that is effortless and comfortable is the skill missing for so many.
Welcome Aboard! Business School of the Air welcomes Greg & Robyn Holdcroft of Vogue Furniture in Bunbury, WA. Vogue Furniture is a long standing business in Bunbury. But Greg and Robyn aren’t sitting on their success, with the pace of change quickening they knew they needed to keep up with the latest marketing strategies.
Business School of the Air Launched! I’m writing this as I have had some people ask what I’m up to with Business School of the Air. (I think they think I’m just a bit nuts for giving up my high paying consulting clients, some who had signed $120,000 contracts, to do this.) So I thought I would give you a bit of my “reason why” and a taste of what is in store for members of this exciting new business education program. Business School of the Air has been in the wings for quite sometime. In fact, you could say, it is a culmination of 22 years hard work, in the trenches, helping business owners all over Australia. Here’s what scares me for rural and regional businesses and why I put this very unique program together… 1. The economy and the pace of change it so rapid now that it takes your breath away. Yet most business owners have no plan to constantly educate themselves. 2. Most country based business owners can’t afford ($3000/mth) for a dedicated business coach, and most coaches are city based with no-idea of what it’s like to do business in a regional town. And it is different.
work in country areas.
Break Or Bait!
We have put this learning together with as much help and support as we could muster… From unlimited live chat and email support and priority access to hand picked Expert Advisors all made accessible by a central membership website and communication portal. Here’s what members get access to: • • • • • • • • • • •
Country Smart Business Magazine/ Newsletter. CD of the Month: Interviews with world class experts. Live chat and email support. Unlimited Ad Critiques. Business Mastery Webinar Trainings Hot Seat Webinars with world class experts and surprise guests. Private one-on-one telephone consults with business coaches. Access to membership website. Priority access to Expert Advisors. Joint venture opportunities Online community.
And it’s only getting bigger and better! Doing business in the bush now has the support it needs for on-going success.
Given that most businesses go broke because they don’t know how to get, and keep, a customer at a profit… means that not investing in ongoing learning is business suicide!
Get A Winter Holiday When You Become A Member! Take a winter break on us, or use it as marketing bait in your business to drive sales. Become a Business School of the Air member during August and get a two night Freestay Travel voucher (Valued at up to $400!) Here’s just a couple of ways you can use it: •
Do an in-store competition and give your staff an excuse to make sure noone leaves without giving you their contact details.
•
Use it as bait on your stand at your local agricultural show, or field day, and leave the show with a bucket load of new leads for your business.
We want to see you have great success! So it just makes sense for us to give you a great gift that you can use to help kick things off.
Business School of the Air was developed with the idea of giving country based business owners exposure to the latest business strategies that have been proven to
To find out more about becoming a member call 1300 667 153
Phone:
1300 667 153
Fax:
1300 667 154
Email:
Info@CountrySmartBusiness.com.au
Address: PO Box 4001, BUNBURY EAST WA 6230
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