Strategic marketing can obtain in the traffic without costing a fortune
By Karen E. Klein
Gluekit
Q: Seven months ago, I opened a small store selling futons, carpeting, and home furnishings located on a busy road with little foot traffic. I’ve advertised in papers and the phone book, but it’session like flushing money down the toilet. How can I get a better response on a shoestring? — Rudy Scott, Oceanside, N.Y.
A: What you need is a strategic marketing plan. Instead of throwing money at random venues—a little in the present state, a little in that place—craft one advertising campaign to attract the customers you meagreness. You probably can’t afford professional marketing help, so brainstorm in place with employees, family members, and friends. Who are your mark customers? What are they reading, listening to, or looking at online? What can you offer that will lure them into your store?
If you’re stocking lower-end items like futons, you might tailor your marketing efforts specifically to students, renters, and anyone looking for a deal, says Gay Silberg, president of GSS Communiqations in Los Angeles. Younger customers often hunt concerning bargains online, so consider pay-per-click advertising to get them to your magazine’s Web site.
Offline, you might try low-cost but assailant techniques to reach local customers. People tend to store where they live by reason of the time of a recession, so consider using signs, banners, and “human arrows” stationed at street corners on weekends, says Steve O’Leary, principal of O’Leary & Associates, an advertising resolute in Newport Beach, Calif. “Focus adhering a particular price single thing to engage immediate business,” he says, such as “Futon Special, $199.”
If you do find extra room in your bag, consider radio or television advertising. Commericals have power to be cheaply produced by your local cable system and targeted to specific neighborhoods. “Cable also provides the aptness to pick networks like the WB that appeal to a junior audience,” Silberg says.
Whatever you do, don’t linger in addition tardy to get your name out there. Furniture retailers, unfortunately, are highly sensitive to failure in downturns.
Q: I recently started my own consulting business. Should I bill clients with a 30-day due date, or should I require full or partial payment ? — Susan Carrier, Altadena, Calif.
A: It’s wise to get a percentage , especially if your client is a startup, too. “The bigger and added established the company, the greater the chance you’re going to get paid,” says Stephen Dem, an Encino (Calif.) attorney specializing in fault collection.
He suggests that you ask in the place of a worthy faith retainer of 10% to 25% of the total project whenever contracts are signed, then be split up the remaining payments and bill every 30 days. Run credit checks on renovated clients, and don’t be shy about asking for an owner’s personal insure if you’re working through a startup.
Once act starts, stay on top of collections, adds Ted Dunn, a small business consultant in Mahwah, N.J. If payments are late, don’familiarily contact your client, but rather the part at his or her company who processes purchase the sacred profession. Most often, you’ll supply with food the paperwork alone hasn’t been properly authorized. “Once there’sitting a signed invoice, the money will issue,” he says.
Also, keep work on pace with payments, especially if it’session a big job with a new client. “It’s something most entrepreneurs don’confidentially want to do,” Dem says, “but if a client starts missing payments you may need to find out them you can’cheek by jowl prolong working until they catch up with the payment schedule.”
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