Max Rotary

Three Ideas for Local New Business Marketing

One truism about local small business marketing is that results are seldom quick and easy to obtain. Patience, perserverance, hard work and a strong marketing plan are essential to getting your business known and getting people into your business. These three tips will help you market your small business locally.

1. Make a Reasonable Marketing Budget

Many small businesses spend all their time and energy developing products and services, finding suitable work spaces and hiring employees and then realize they have no money left over for marketing. Restaurants, for example, will often spend thousands of dollars planning their menu and interior decorations without a sizeable amount of their start up funds focused on actually getting people into their restaurants. The “build it and people will come” approach to business just leaves too much to chance. It’s clearly a recipe for failure.

A reasonable marketing budget will include expenditures for the following (at a minimum):

• Effective Website: This should be the core of all businesses’ marketing these days.
• Online Marketing: Pay-per-click and search engine marketing are essential to help people find you.
• Flyers/Brochures: These are needed as handouts or for mailers.
• Postcard Campaign: These are especially effective for a business-to-business company.
• Newspaper Ad Buy: A small ad for three months is more effective than a big one-time ad.
• Radio Spot Buys: Other than a grand opening campaign, spread your ads over time.

2. Hit the Streets

While it is generally not a good idea to stop by businesses unannounced and expect to get an immediate meeting with a decision-maker, it is generally acceptable to stop by small and medium-size businesses and drop off a brochure, menu or a few imprinted pens. If you do stop by a business unannounced, keep it very brief, but do try to get the name or a business card of someone you can make a follow-up call with at a later time.

Cold calling can work, but it takes a certain type of person to experience such high levels of rejection. Try it if you are so inclined, but be prepared for a 99% rejection rate.

Also part of the “hit the streets” advice is to make your business as visible as possible on the streets. Vehicle magnets, a temporary banner outside your office space, sponsoring an event or sports team—whatever you can do to get the name of your company visible to people can be a way to create business.

3. Network in Organizations

Never underestimate the value of a contact made through a shared interest group. Joining a sports team is one option, but the focus of these is often on competition—hardly an easy way to make good business contacts.

Most cities have an active chamber of commerce that holds regular business and networking events. These can be a great way to meet other businessmen and women.

Another less obvious way to make business contacts is to join civic-minded groups like Rotary or a Lion’s Cub. The focus of these groups is more about doing community good, but you will find the membership is mostly successful business people. Helping to build a park or run a fundraiser is a wonderful way to show other business owners that you are generous with your time and care about the community. Not surprisingly, people like to do business with those who share common interests.

One sad reality of most small businesses is that most will fail within five years. Some, like restaurants, have a much higher failure rate. That said, a business that plans and works it plan will have optimal opportunities for success.

About the Author

Kona Impact is a leading provider of web design services in Hawaii. We help small, medium and large businesses plan and execute a strong online presence plan. Our Hawaii online marketing services have helped many companies become more profitable.

How long would a 2004 Mazda RX8 engine last?

i want to buy a used mazda Rx8 for less than 10k. but it has close to 84 thousand miles. i want to know if it is worth the cost, and how many more miles that engine will pump out for me. and possibly what the max amount of miles it can get upto. Also if anybody knows, Mazda's use Rotary Engine, are they cheaper to replace than normal ones? if so, how much?

It will last until it breaks down.

An engine doesn't have an expiration date, or an expiration mileage.

Seriously. Think about it. Why would miles mean something is in good shape or bad shape? All that really matters is how it is MAINTAINED during that time.

I've got two cars with over 300k miles EACH. Run like the day they were made. So 84k miles isn't even breaking the car in.