Posts by Larry

The Payment Protection Program — part of the US Government’s economic rescue efforts — was sort of like a massive truck looking to leap a deep ravine in a stunt. You hope the truck makes it, but you close your eyes because you can’t bear to look. The SBA loan program is similar in that you hoped it would turn out OK and we would all make it to the other side, but you could just imagine the breathtaking falls along the way. The initial rollout of the program was marked by confusion as to qualification requirements, Web portal glitches, difficulty in getting applications through the bank process and the banks themselves having difficulty in getting answers and loans approved. The initial $395 billion allocated went by in a flash with just 1.6 million loans, and if you were like a lot of businesses who got no money and wondered how that could be when this was supposed to be a small business lending program, you were not alone. Adding to the wonder was that some major companies got funding, including hotels, restaurant chains and the Los Angeles Lakers. Yes, the Los Angeles Lakers. Maybe Lebron could’ve just cut them a check instead. After that debacle the government did what it does best, throw more money at the problem to the tune of another $310 billion. Applications started being accepted again on Monday and of course the Web portal crashed within hours. Plus there’s the matter of the thousands of loans that were processed but never funded in the first round. But if you’re dogged and determined, you can still get your hands on some much-needed capital if you hurry (like today), even if you don’t have a team of investment bankers working for you:   Paycheck Protection Program   You can find the most recent application posted on the Treasury Department’s Cares Act resource page, although you still need to go through an SBA approved lender, and it’s probably best to go through your bank (they will have applications available as well). Any business that has employees qualifies and the loan can be used for payroll, rent, utilities and other operating expenses. Much of the loan can be...

This article first appeared in my Everyday Marketing Advice blog: This post was initially inspired in part by the passing by of #HurricaneDorian (passing by Florida; our thoughts and concerns are now focused on the Carolinas and other states up the coast, I hope they pull through fine). When a major disruption like a hurricane arrives, or even seasonal interruptions like vacations and back-to-school, many of my clients lament the ebb in their business flow, as if they were helpless observers of the business cycle. That perspective is indeed the problem. Like the proverbial squirrel storing nuts away for the winter, there are plenty of things you can do to counteract the effects of the business cycle, seasonality and unexpected events like the approach of a major tropical storm. They include: Work your customer base. This is the most important tactic. It’s always much easier to get repeat business out of an existing customer than acquiring a new one. Think of the approach of the real estate industry, that encourages several touches of a prospect a year. Keep in touch with your past customers, offer them updates and specials. Actively encourage them to do business with you again and regularly. Budget for the slow times. When times are good, you may feel no urgency to spend money on marketing, and those funds may wind up spent elsewhere. But just like the proverbial squirrel, you should be stocking up for those lean times, so you can bring marketing and promotional firepower to bear when times get tough. Cut against the grain. What I mean here is to run promotions when no one else is. Everybody tends to promote during the obvious times like the Holidays and back-to-school. Try running your promotions during those seemingly slow times when no one else is. Advertise and market consistently. Too many of my clients scramble during a slump to get out there and they’re essentially playing catch-up. Budget to get your message out consistently throughout the year so people are always aware of what you have to offer. If you need help with any of the above, give us a call at...

Well obviously parents care for a variety of reasons and kids care for the obvious reasons and people in neither one of those categories care because of the inevitable extra congestion on the roads once school starts. But what I’m referring to in caring is how much attention people pay to business promotions with a back-to-school theme. Or any seasonal or holiday theme for that matter. A recent study revealed that holiday-themed promotional emails had less engagement than promotional emails that did not try to tie into a holiday theme. These results may not be all that surprising. Too often, every local business will try to jump on a seasonal or holiday theme no matter what products or promotions they have to offer. So it essentially becomes a flimsy temporary outer coat on what they do that may not always be a good fit. And it can become like white noise. Take Labor Day for instance which is not that far away. A host of businesses will run Labor Day specials and unless you’re selling mattresses (and one can make the reasonable argument that Labor Day should be renamed Mattress Day) you’re more than likely to get lost in the static. So the takeaway? Tie your promotion into something specific related to the season in question. If it’s back-to-school and you’re a spa, give the Moms a chance to relax from the getting ready for school stress. If you’re a restaurant, offer a special for a lunch break from that back-to-school shopping. And if you sell clothing, well that’s obvious. If you need help with any local business promotion, give us a call. The advice is...

The great Bard once said that a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. So in other words, no matter what you call it, it’s still a rose. Now some business owners that I’ve talked to seem to believe the same holds true with how they describe or categorize their business. No matter what they say, it’s still what they do that’s most important, right? Wrong. How you describe your business on your website, in your marketing materials and most importantly on your Google My Business listing is of paramount importance, because that’s how people discover you, learn about you and frame their opinions of you. And although it may seem deceptively simple, the business category that you choose in Google My Business may be the most critical thing of all. I’ve come across energy consultants categorized as gas stations, massage therapists listed as health spas and printers listed as advertising agencies amongst other mayhem.  And the worst part of it is that these wounds are mostly self-inflicted. If you don’t actively manage your listing Google is going to choose a category for you, often based on inaccurate information pulled from their business databases. In other instances, businesses pick a category that they think sounds more enticing, or is something that they aspire to. But if the category doesn’t reflect the services you supply now, people are not going to find you and engage with you for what you actually do. So it’s simple, choose the business category that most accurately relates to what you provide (it used to be that Google would allow you to add custom secondary categories, but those days are long gone). Then add more detail in your business description and the other input fields that Google now makes available for greater clarity and visibility. If you need help with any of this you can always give us a call at...

Or is there? This is the time of the year when many of my clients complain to me of that summer business slump, with school out, the weather hot, vacations in full swing and gas prices rising. But the summer slump has more to do with what goes on in your business throughout the other times of the year, before the summer season hits. How you build and maintain your customer base during busy times can help get you through lean times. So here are some tips.   Actively Promote Your Business Throughout the Year Maintain your Google My Business (map) listing, get reviews, run promotions, optimize and update your website with blog posts, use paid search and other targeted advertising both on and off line. All of these activities will give you a broader customer base to work from. Look at it this way, if your monthly customer interactions are 1,000 and you see a summer slump of 20 percent, you’re down to a still healthy 800 customers. If your monthly interactions are a borderline 500 and you slump to 400, you could be in for some hurt. Plus, the bigger base gives you more people to market to during the summer off-season, which brings me to my next point.   Build a Customer Base to Market to During the Summer They may have bought and engaged with you or they may have been window shopping. If you’re a provider of services, they may have called during your busiest times and you weren’t able to accommodate them. All of these people can be a powerful pool to re-market to when things get slow. Get their contact information and interests and reach out to them with targeted offers, reward programs, insider deals and more,   Make the Summertime Special Do things during the summer you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Create a summer-themed event. Hold an open house. Conduct a seminar. Stage a customer appreciation day. All of these tactics can help ward off the summer time blues. As the song goes: “My Mom and Poppa told me you’ve got to earn some...