THINK TUB BUSINESS BLOG
Small Business Tips, Solutions, Marketing and Success Stories
HG Business Consulting is Transitioning.
Over the past two years, I have seen a lot of growth with my business, and to see that valued growth continue, I have needed to reassess and restructure.
Every business needs to reevaluate from time to time. Where we now, what direction are are we headed, where will it take us, and do we want to go there?
Along with the economy and the dramatic changes we have all witnessed in the past 18 months, there is also the change of values and perspectives that eventuate from personal growth and development. (Some call it aging!)
The Path is Always Unknown
No matter how hard we plan, how we strategize, how clear we are about our goals – Life happens while we are busy making those plans.
I suppose I thought that by now, I would barely “work” and mostly work/play with my artistic inclinations. When it dawned on me a few years ago, that life didn’t seem to be following me down that path – I got resentful and resisted.
Of course, a whole lot of nothin’ follows that kind of energy. But 6 months ago or so, I got re-tuned, re-focused and truly energized to use my business acumen to help others and enjoy what I do. I have always loved science and art, and with more emphasis on internet marketing, search engine optimization, generational marketing and the Triple Win Strategy, I am able to focus on things I love (lots of science and art in the technology world) while I make money. It’s my own triple win strategy.
What You Will See in the Future
I will be moving this website to a new home on a wordpress site. I help so many of my clients build wordpress sites and I love them. Why wouldn’t I do the same? Besides, I do have a host of affiliate marketing sites built on wordpress also. It’s time for this site to migrate.
I will be launchingInternet Marketing Savvyand using that site to focus on helping small businesses to learn internet marketing for their business, and the search engine optimization techniques they need to drive traffic to them for little or no money. Paid search marketing will also be covered as well as hundreds of resources. I will be offering classes both on and offline on the subjects as well as providing extensive written material.
I have a business directory that will be public soon and a small business answer to questions site, so the network keeps building.
What about HG Business Consulting?
On this site, (even after the migration), the focus will be on trends affecting small business, generational marketing, and promoting the triple win strategy. (By 2011, there will be a site dedicated to triple win strategy.) My consulting practice will evolve from these topics and of course, internet marketing.
I value my readers and appreciate your patience over the past month while I worked to design a business growth strategy. In fact, that is what I would challenge any business owner to do. With the economy reshuffling our priorities, it is vital that we take the time to examine our direction and determine if the destination feels like paradise or a pair of dice, and luck is all we’ve got!
Small Business Ideas for 2010
Based on the extensive data available on social trends, copious opportunities are available for business in 2010 and beyond. You will need some imagination, courage, financing where appropriate, basic business strategy, and a network of people smarter than you to assist you when needed.
Hip Trends with Big Opportunity
- Rentals
- Copy Cats
- Do it for yourself (DIY)
- Everything is Green
- Upscale Discount
Rentals
The shortage of credit available coupled with North American’s present mood to avoid more debt means consumers are buying less. Rental options have become a great way to meet the need for basics and beyond.
Now buyers can rent designer handbags for a weekend, gowns for events, baby equipment for their holidays, GPS units to keep them going in the right direction or impressive furniture for their next party.
If they can’t buy it, they still want to enjoy it short term.
What can you offer? Do a keyword study with one of the free tools online and find out what people are searching to rent in your area. If the demand is right, and the competition reasonable, you may want to give it a go.
Copy Cats
The recession has given a new meaning to the word KNOCK OFF. It’s hip to be thrift, so offering “look alike”, or dummied down versions of the real McCoy, can yield returns.
Do it Yourself - DIY
In a recent article I mentioned a student of mine that is launching a business targeted to would-be mechanics. The customer will bring their badgered auto to the garage, so they can fix it themselves.
Of course, there will be a mechanic on site for advice, and peers up to their elbows in grease, sharing one another's burden. Essentially, they are renting the shop, the tools, the expertise, and maybe sharing a beer.
There are DIY art studios, grocery check outs. even do- it-yourself hotels and serve yourself pubs. What could you simplify, thereby reducing costs, and allowing your customers to be self-sufficient, save money and cultivate their creativity?
Sexy Green
You are a sensual, sexy, savvy individual if you eat, wear, dispose of, clean with and drive green. Green is the new COOL.
There are new products on the market everyday for items that protect or respect our natural environment. To name a few:
- You can recycle your old vinyl albums – into serving bows, picture frames and coasters. What could you do with milk jugs, discarded light bulbs, used batteries?
- Industrial Artifacts takes cast offs from manufacturers and recreates something useful.
- Commit to Care for An Acre of Land. The Nature Conservatory encourages buyers to purchase an acre for preservation in endangered rain forest areas. Could you sell sponsorship for care of a block of city streets? What about selling shares for community expanding recycling stations? Some new business models are built entirely on collaboration.
- There are green septic tanks, children’s toys, clothes and furniture, office equipment, eco-friendly travel, and water bottles.
Do you remember what we thought when someone first put WATER into bottles and wanted to charge us for what had always been free? Who could have dreamed that the industry would grow to global usage of 188,776.6 million liters in 2007 with a compounded annual growth rate of 7.6%?
To add insult to injury, the largest manufactures of bottled water, Coca Cola and Pepsi, use municipal water.
Who will make the new water pill popular? What if a handy dispenser was available that you could carry in your pocket or purse? Filled with tiny pills that effectively oxygenates the water while cleaning up the unwanted up toxic residue? Possibly, they are displayed in local grocery stores next to the mints and gum.
The new fashion would be to carry designer “green” water bottles with us and fill them up anywhere (using the same municipal water no doubt). We then pop the pill into the bottle as mindlessly as we would a piece of gum into our mouth, and bam, purified water that doesn’t pollute as a result.
My imagination takes me a couple years ahead when the competition for pill manufacturing has taken us to new heights. Now the water pills have vitamins in them too, or bio-identical hormones, or weight loss stimulators.
Upscale Discount
Discount is in. 
People still need underwear, trousers for work, kitchen tools, baby clothes, kids toys and laundry detergent, and automobiles but for the best price they find. Even though the price is cheap, that doesn’t mean consumers want to feel cheap. Feelings have a significant impact on where and what we buy.
Luxurious attitudes can make discount shopping a rewarding emotional hit. While the economy slugs through the recession and gradual growth spurts, businesses that offer great pricing, for less quality but great “feeling,” position themselves significantly in the marketplace.
For businesses in a discount-targeted business, consider adding a line of products that customers can use short term and enable them to continue to do business with you. Or perhaps, use the rental idea. Established businesses can offer discount items online, or consider trade-in options, using the trade-ins to sell through other distribution channels. Don’t hesitate to offer coupon savings, coupons are making quite the comeback!
Related Article: Trends the Small Business Owner Must Know
To our Success
Harmony Thiessen
PS. Please share if you liked what you read.
What are the trends evidencing in 2009 that could affect your small business in 2010?
Over the next few weeks we will examine data from Google’s 2009 Zeitgeist (or spirit of the times), Hitwise, news summaries, future trend specialists, and others to determine how the next decade is poised to begin, and what your small business can do about it.
Although business owners are community leaders and stand out among the crowd as free thinkers, risk takers and entrepreneurial minded, owners are nonetheless the summary of the societies they serve. It is vital to our success that we become tealeaf readers of the times, or those who see beyond the obvious to prepare for future needs and opportunities.
Luxury is required
Skimping and saving and “making due” are getting boring to the American public.
When a society has been marinated in privilege and choice, a year or 18 months of cash flow limits is quite enough.
However, the emotional need does not reflect the economic reality.
According to Harvey Schachter, in the Jan 04, 2010 Globe and Mail, shoppers in 2010 will be well informed, research savvy and ready to shop for a bargain. All things being equal, the deciding factor for many shoppers may be the “feeling” that accompanies the hunt.
A Luxurious Cup of Java?
Look at Starbucks. The lines are long, young and old cued together with the classy and the ordinary. The middle working class from the nearby office towers, and CEO’s alike, share lattes with no foam and hazelnut flavoring. They may joke at the price they spend for their fix, but they will likely return this afternoon for latte #2.
Starbucks opened their first store in 1971. As the chain grew and matured, they found an unusual niche. Not the niche for those who loved coffee, they found a niche of people who wanted to feel ‘gourmet” at a price they could afford. People feel good about going to Starbucks. Face it. It is the emotional attachment to the self-perception, and of course, the savvy business minds that provided the environment and standards of excellence in the staff to keep the dream alive.
Sure, people who like coffee go to Starbucks. But as small business owner who leases office space at no charge (except for my coffee!) from the aforementioned, I have witnessed plenty of people who drink juice, tea and even warm milk at Starbucks.
What can you do?
The question for the business owner is not “how do I get into the luxury market. Ask rather, “how do I help old and new customers to feel like they are treated like royalty when they do business with me”?
- Do you offer your customers free upgrades when what they want is not in stock?
- If they are a few pennies (or dollars) short do you act as though they are so important and respected that, you toss your hand in the air and say, “not a problem!”
- If they are responsible for dropping their purchase in the parking lot and you know it, are you still willing to set them up with a new product?
- What environment do you provide for your “guests”? Is it trendy, savvy, or relaxing? Clearly if you sell antique furniture, you may not want trendy, but what could you do to help your guests feel like “this IS the place” where they want to part with their dollar?
- Do you cater to the hours of your customers or expect them to take time off from the job they are happy to have, just to buy from you?
- Do you provide extra services?
The Produce Shop That Could
Just a few blocks from where I live, is a produce market. They sell a bit of bread and deli meats, but mostly produce; FRESH, CHEAP, NO SPRAY, CLEAN, SPOTLESS produce. The store is a run down little dent in the wall, and the videos they play while you shop are from the disco music of the seventies and Russian opera. Mary, the main cashier wears hats. Wild, crazy, abominable hats. And the lines are eternal. You wait 30 minutes on a good day to get out of that store.
Why does this middle class and upper middle class neighborhood flock to Mary?She knows you, throws in free produce, makes you try new things, tells you to pay the remainder next time, sings, encourages the line to sing, and cheers people through by name.
The style is discount, the manner is luxury.
Your business can cash in on the desire of North American’s to feel special once again.
To our Success,
Harmony Thiessen
PS Look for me at a Starbucks near you!
Top 10 Ways to Say Thanks To Your Small Business Staff At Christmas
Small business owners are busy people and there is little time for shopping, even for the family. Oftentimes the staff is neglected. Here are some impractical, rude and maybe outrageous ideas to help you find that last minute staff gift.
#10 Send cards by mail, after Christmas suggesting they use the gift card enclosed to cash in on Boxing Week sales. Tell them you heard the sales would be significant and thus the reason for the scroogie $10 card.
#9 Buy the smallest pot of poinsettia you can find and gift each employee. Ask them to take good care of it until next year, when they are to bring it back to decorate the office.
#8 Engender good will with the neighbor down the street and offer to take the litter of kittens off their hands. Bam! Buy a bag of litter and offer each of your staff a kitty and a bag of litter.
#7 Dollar Stores have great buys on candles. Buy a red or green pillar candle and enclose a gift card with a link to a free download of “You Light up My Life.”
#6 Christmas is for the kids. Offer to let yours come visit sometime between Christmas and New Years!
#5 Send an email to each staff member with a slide show of photos you have taken of them during the year. It shows how attentive you have been at the most inopportune moments, and allows them to be truly "seen" by collegues.
#4Go all out! Give them each a free week at the local fitness centre. You can pick the coupons up for free and maybe they will slim down and work harder in the new year. You are so smart!
#3 Get personal. Share homemade baking that has been given to you – just don’t mention where it came from.
#2 Be generous. Find the free makeover section in the department store and make appointments for the women on your team. Nothing says I love you like “you need a makeover!”
#1 THE #1 STAFF PRESENT – Go away on a great trip until Mid-January with your significant other. Send postcards of great times, photos of hunky men or sexy women, the beach, the food, the pure relaxation of it all. What better gift could you offer, than to go away so the staff can play?
To our Success,
Harmony Thiessen
Share if you dare!
If you are in charge of the marketing for your small business, you can't afford to ignore the social trends that will influence their buying decisions in 2010.
You don't have to agree with the trends or subscribe personally, but smart marketers will endeavor to meet a need or solve a problem within the trend.
Capitalism is giving way to Socially Conscious Behavior
Obvious greed is no longer palatable to society. A growing and powerful movement of socially aware and disciplined business has emerged. From “going green” to sustainable uses of energy, and charitable contributions to actual partnerships with developing countries, corporate greed has met it’s vixen in socially mindful business applications.
While no one is claiming that socially conscious business doesn’t involve greed, (didn’t we just hear about revealing emails that cast doubt on climate change?) the change of guard seems to insist that greed be curtailed at least, and that ideas with the Triple Win Strategy behind them, inspire new ways of doing business.
Worth noting is the premium example: Pepsi. Known for 23 years of Superbowl ads, with stars like Michael J Fox, and Michael Jackson, Pepsi has chosen to forego the ad in 2010. Their marketing efforts are launching The Pepsi Refresh project. Promising "Together We Can Do A Lot Of Good", Pepsi is taking their campaign online and recruiting the public to join them promising, “Every Pepsi Refreshes the World.”
Starbucks has been heavily involved in the LOVE PROJECT, challenging the world to drink coffee and buy product, and at the same time give through Starbucks to aid Africa in their terrifying war with AIDS and the rapid infiltration of the disease into African society.
Localism – people want to do business with local suppliers
Driven by economic change, environmental concerns and soaring energy costs more North Americans are buying local. From produce to clothing brands more people are choosing to keep shipping minimal and support local economies.
Unusual and most likely directed to the early adopters to date, local marketing behavior has been spotted in the local branding of international products.
Absolut City Series launched special blends of Vodka for certain cities and labels them accordingly. Starting in New Orleans, other cities with unique potions include Boston, and Los Angeles.
Even bank machine ATM’s have caught onto the consumer drive for local pride. In East London, the machines are primed with an option to read the instructions for each transaction in Cockney, if preferred.
Evidently, the online community has caught on as a quickly emerging trend within SEO, or search engine optimization, is the local search specialty.
Internet has Gone Mobile
No longer tied to the home PC with dial-up or even cable service, today’s consumer can carry a Smartphone such as the Blackberry or I Phone, and have access to the web anytime, anyplace. Mobile computing with access to applications that assist buyers to locate the best deals within blocks of where they are at the moment, will require new forms of marketing and a new paradigm to “mom and pop” businesses.
People Love Living in the Urban Centers
In North America, according to Unhabitat’s “Global Report on Human Settlement in 2009” there is currently over 80% of the North American population living in cities.
The effect will be reflected social behavior, compact living, and a new style of offline social networks that mirror their online mentors.
“And, as we've remarked here before, all things being equal, people who live in compact communities tend to keep more of their paychecks as disposable income and spend less time commuting and running errands, meaning they have more money and time to buy gadgets, experiment with innovative tools and update their systems... thus perhaps fueling more and faster innovations.” Alex Steffen with World Changing.com
Boomers Want More
Baby Boomers, or those born from 1946 to 1964, are at least 46 in 2010. In the US alone, that defines almost 76 million individuals who have the most discretionary income to spend, save and invest. Boomers expect quality, long life, and certain luxuries.
Health care, youthful appearances, relaxation, personal passion and wisdom are only a smattering of the buzzwords “50 somethings” are fond to quote.
Their desires have simplified over the years, and after the latest economic scare, they may not be as frivolous with their spending. Still, this demographic group controls the economy and their consumer demands and ingenuity will help fuel the full market recovery.
To Our Success,
Harmony Thiessen - Hey if you enjoyed this please use the SHARE below to pass along the information!
Additonal Resources of Interest:
Trendwatching.com - Very useful resource on an ongoing basis for understanding the impact of social behavior. A resource used in this article.