Global Marketing Plus

The most successful businesses are highly specialized. They have a product or service that serves a particular market segment or niche that no one else is serving very well or is not provided at all.

The have also done their market research and know that the niche market is large enough to provide them with enough sales.

Years ago I learned this in the printing industry. I had a compnay called Gold Leaf Printing. My competition was every other printer in the valley, an some outside the valley! So I found a niche. In fact, I found several niches!

I began a new company as a DBA called “Medi-Forms”. This company specialized in printing for the medical industry. I learned all I could about printing that the medical industry needed and requirements for them. Then I taught that to my sales team. I printed business cards and price catalogs for Medi-Forms. When my sales staff called on a prospect, we could tell them that Medi-Forms specialized in medical printing and all we printed was medical forms!

Now the printing we sold for Medi-Forms was printed with the same equipment that all out other printing was printed (Gold Leaf Printing), but we were serving a niche that no body else in the valley could say they served exclusively!

Did it work? You bet it did. Large hospitals that wouldn’t even talk to us before now invited us in! Sales sky rocketed! Marketing was so much more to the point for Medi-Forms. Since we knew our target market so well, we geared all our marketing for them and them only. We really stood out!

I went on to create other new companies, including “Restaurant Forms” (serving the food industry), “Property Forms” (serving the real estate industry), “Legal Forms” (serving lawyers, etc) and a few others. Each new company specialized and only printed those products in their industry.  I only created the new companies one at a time and only after the current company was successful. I also hired a separate sales team for each company and made sure each salesman was an expert in that industry.

Whatever stage your business is in, focusing it as tightly as possible on one or two areas will make it easier for you to attract clients or customers.

The natural fear of narrowing your market is that you will have fewer people to sell to and thereby fewer people will buy your product or service. In reality, the opposite is true. As long as the special area you have chosen has enough potential customers, the more specialized your business, the more people will be able to recognize the benefit of what you offer them.

Our low prices and great

service will insure that you get the best value for your dollar.  We have several wholesale suppliers that offer a large range of computer hardware and software.  We make upgrading and purchasing a snap with installation available.

We also have the new Android Tablet! (With or without the optional keyboard that makes it work like a laptop)

If you don’t have a product or service, you have no business.  How you produce your product or deliver your service will determine the succes of your business. 

How is your product or service different and better than your competition?  what do  you do that makes your product or service better?

Today we will work on the production column of your business hats form.  All other columns on your form exist because of this column.

List all the tasks you personally perform each week dealing with production.  Include anything about manufacturing your product or producing your service.  Include shipping, travel time … everything.  If you have employees doing your production, include the time you deal with employees.

Again, after you finsih your list, estimate the hours your spend each week on each task, then total all tasks and write the total at the bottom of the column and circle it.

Tomorrow, we deal with Marketing & Sales!

Today I am going to take a break from my daily tasks!  Today is my day of rest!  So this morning as I sat in my pajamas (My church didn’t start until 1:00pm) why did my wife tell me to get dressed and go shovel the 4 inches of snow from last night?  Her answer was her usual when I try to be lazy… There is no rest for the wicked!

So now I am home from church and the driveway is all shoveled and I am back in comfortable cloths….. I am taking my rest!

It has been a busy year and I have not added to the blog! 

As I wrap presents on Christmas Eve, I thought I would write a short post and tell all that my goal for next year is to be back bringing you tips and tricks for marketing your business!

So watch here after the first of the year and ask me your questions.  I want to help you succeed!

Today I watched a commercial for Home Depot on TV that depicts a small hair cutting business.  Across the street a large hair cutting chain opens for business.  The chain offers haircuts for $6.00 which the small business owner cannot compete with. 

The small business owner could try to compete on the chains level by buying advertising and try to our advertise the large chain.  The problem with this would be that the chain has much deeper pockets than the small business owner.  The small business owner should know that he could never compete with dollar for dollar advertising!

He buys some sign materials and puts up a sign that says “We fix $6.00 haircuts!”.  Within a few months, the large chain closes it’s doors and more business comes to the small business.

I love this ad because it shows that by using unique advertising that did not cost the small business owners much money, (only the cost of some sign materials), he out smarted the large chain.  If the small business would have tried to compete by buying normal advertising, he probably would have run out of money in a few months and the chain would have won!