When you think of marketing structures for your small business what do you think of? Google? Website? Billboards? Flyers? Signs? Events? Craigslist? But, do you think about Social Media? These days Social Media is huge and it is just continuing to grow more and more every minute. A lot of small businesses don’t have the money to invest into their advertising/marketing portion of their business. They may not be able to pay for keywords on Google, or pay for rent of an event, or billboards. They mostly will rely on the power of Social Media now. You can reach so many people from a click of a button on Facebook and it is free, or you can spent less than $100 on “boosting” your post to reach even more people. Facebook is key to most small businesses these days. They are able to reach people outside of their local town and get people to travel to them. Small businesses rely heavy on word of mouth too. So when people that follow them share their posts, tag others, or even just like it, they are now reaching a whole new category of people. Now, Facebook isn’t the only type of Social Media businesses like the use. Twitter is also getting big and is also free. Businesses can post all new products, promotions, sales, new hires, etc. on their Social Media page and will always reach at least someone from there. People have Social Media at the touch of their hands. You do not have to wait for people to get home from work and log onto their desktops anymore, people can access their Social Media right from their mobile phones and that is what is huge for businesses now. At any point of the day, you can reach anyone and get your name out. The business I work for relies a lot on our Social Media page. We have a lot of people sharing our posts, traveling because they saw something they liked, etc. We actually just hired our new driver through Facebook because we posted out job listing through there. Whether you are just starting up your business or you have been around for 10 years, create your Business Page on Facebook and see what changes/benefits are going to come to you, for free!
How Important is Marketing?
I started working for my Dad about 4 years ago and realized how much I enjoyed business. I ended up switching my major half way through college to be able to fulfill my dream. When starting out with my Dad, it was just him, my uncle, and me. There wasn’t much to our business and not many people knew we were there. I was starting to be able to apply the things I learned from my classes to his business to better it in the long run. I was able to use my stats class, accounting, management, business writing, and finance classes to really focus on the background of the business. Once we started growing and becoming bigger than we dreamed of, my Dad wanted to get even bigger. We realized the only way we could do this was if we put more time and money into our advertising. I then realized how important it was to start taking marketing classes at UW-Whitewater to help my dad get his name out. We started out small with Craigslist and Facebook. Then after that we started looking into signs at the local High School football games and advertising on the local pizza boxes. Once we started bringing in more revenue we were able to invest even more money and time into advertising. We would make sure we posted on Facebook at least once a day and even started to boost our posts to reach even more people across the state. We then invested into a sign at our local race track/county fair grounds and two other build boards nearby. Once we started getting our name out locally, we started getting a lot more people from our town/city into our business. Once we hit that target, we then started getting people from all over the state traveling to us. The one thing I really took away from my marketing classes that my Dad and I never would have known about on our own was the important of Google. Google is a huge hit for businesses. Google Adwords is a huge asset for businesses and all of their search engine importances. We invest a lot of money into Google each money to keep our companies name on the top of the search list. Keywords for Google is huge for companies. Whether it is just organic searches or paid searches, businesses really need to invest the time and money into Google to get their name out and have people find them at any time. Whether you are working for a new company or starting your own business, always keep in mind the importance of marketing. Marketing is going to build your business higher and higher and get customers into your shop. You have to spend money, to make money.
Who Inspires You?
People always seem to ask “Who is your hero?” “Who inspires you?” “Who you do look up too?” This always seems to be a hard question for some people because sometimes you can’t pick just one person. Well today I actually sat down and tried to figure out who inspires me in life the most and why did I pick them? After thinking long and hard and looking at different perspectives, it was a no brainer to me. The person who inspires me the most is my Father. Since day one my Dad has shown me nothing but who I want to be in life. He has shown my sisters and I that we should never settle for anything less than what we deserve and want. Growing up, my Dad was a full-time FireFighter and I have been nothing but proud of him. The fact that my Dad would risk his life to save others was amazing to me, but scary at the same time because you never know what could happen. As I got older I realized that FireFighters didn’t make much money and always seemed to have side jobs. My Dad had three daughters to support and my Mother. He wanted to make sure we always had everything that we needed and wanted to make sure we could go to college to fulfill the future that we wanted. When my dad got sick of having random side jobs on his days off, he decided to start up his own small business. Now keep in mind, he has never went to college and growing up school was never his thing. He started up a little trailer business where he would drive down to Mississippi after working a full 24 hours on the department and bringing 10 open trailers back and selling them off Craigslist. He did this for a couple of years and then ended up realizing the demand for trailers in our area and all the different types of trailers he could venture off in. 10 years later, my Dad has now taken an early retirement from the Fire Department, due to health issues from the job, and now runs a successful business that he started on his own from scratch. I have currently worked for him for 4 1/2 years and would never want to work for another company. My Dad is so passionate with what he does and always makes sure his customers are taken care of. He will stay late for customers who cannot make it during business hours, or meet on the weekends, even when he does not feel like going in. He will bend over backwards for anyone just to make sure they are taken care of and satisfied with their purchase. Everything that he has shown me and taught me in life, I could never of learned in college. Yes, college teaches you the book end of businesses, but they can never learn or show you passion in a company. The things I learn from him in a day, I could never of learned in my 4 years of my college career. Helping my dad run his business is one of the most rewarding thing I could ever do. Just watching him put his entire heart and soul into something is so inspiring to me. Yes the money at a big corporation may be nice, but the feeling you get from working with a small business is so rewarding and heart-filling. I will never look up to someone as much as I look up to my Father. Next time you stop at a small business, just remember all the work and time that owner puts in their business just to make you satisfied.
Importantance of Small Businesses
People seem to be so fixated on buying from big department stores and/or big corporations. They tend to forget about the small businesses right down the road from them that are barely making ends meet, but will do anything they can to make sure you are satisfied with your experience and purchase. You will most likely learn something new, make someone smile, or just help out a local family with their bills. Yes, you may pay a little bit more when you shop a small business, but with that being said, when buying from a big corporation you are now helping the owner get another vacation house or another trip out of the country, etc. When you buy from a small business you may be helping the owner pay for their kid’s college tuition, their daughter’s wedding, or maybe braces for their kid’s teeth, etc. You also will never have the same experience at a big department store, than you will at a local shop. Small business owners tend to bend over backwards for their customers and make sure they will always leave happy. They will also do anything it takes to make them have a great reputation and have people come back for more. Small business owners rely on word-of-mouth. Their reputation means everything to them and they will continue to do what it takes to keep getting customers into their store. The things you buy from a local shop may also be more meaningful. They could have been homemade or even homegrown and will mean more than buying the same thing as everyone else at a big store. The next time you walk into a big department store looking for something new think to yourself, is there somewhere locally where we can help each other?
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Courtney Pfeiffer 