Dial-4U-Marketing  

The Iraq War identified a major combat strategy deficiency-dealing with "improvised explosive devices" or IEDs. Reports say that the IED caused more casualties and injuries of American and coalition forces than any other arsenal item the enemy possessed.

Like the IED, there's another weapon devastating American business. At first glance, you cannot see it. Even after multiple visits to a business, everything looks just fine. To my fellow consultant colleagues, if you do not believe me, just ask a few CPAs, dentists, salon owners, or automotive repair owners how their businesses are doing. They will tell you everything is fine.

But here's the truth folks. After speaking with hundreds of business owners, seeing them go through the motions of running their businesses, I can humbly say that there are EIDs in most American busnesses just waiting to go BOOM! For American businesses, instead of the destruction coming from EIDs, businesses are crumbling due to a lack of marketing.

Marketing scares the hell out of most business owners, and will bring them down to their knees. Yes, as a business owner, you got the start up money from cash on hand, selling assets, a bank loan, venture capitalists, or friends, relatives or grandparents.

Next you received your business licenses and permits, incorporated the business to protect your personal assets from creditors and lawsuits, signed building leases, spent a ton of money on inventory and equipment, and hired a few teenagers or people pretending to really care about your business.

Now this is the part that I do not understand: you pay someone $3,000 to $5,000 to put your business in a yellow directory that nobody really looks at. Then a cute saleslady, with a Beyonce-like, curvacious figure, wearing a short dress and low-cut blouse, tells you that your ad will be customized to set your business apart from every other poor slob who fell for the same pitch. Well, I can tell you gentlemen or ladies (if the salesman looked like Joe Buff from Orange County with a painted-on tan), that you just paid for 'something else'. In San Francisco, we call it a 'peek show'.

Let's get back to thinking about this from a marketing point of view. Marketing is an emotional, relationship driven event. Marketing is about your clients feeling the same love for your business as you do. Marketing is about your service being more valuable than the Visa swipe the client performs. Marketing is about your business solving the client's problems or your products, goods or services (PGS) enhancing her lifestyle.

This is what Rosa wants when she walks into your salon to spend $300 on a service that may only use $25 dollars in actual product and cost you about $50 in labor. Rosa wants to hear "hello, how are you". Rosa wants to be pampered. Rosa wants you to listen to her and how she spent $3,000 on a Versace dress and $400 on Kenneth Cole shoes. Rosa wants you to listen to how she is expanding her business enterprise in Brazil. Stop right here! When and where did the marketing take place? How did Rosa find your business? How did the relationship begin for Rosa to ever find your salon? Or Thomas, the engineering CEO, find your CPA practice? Or Caroline, the broker at the real estate agency, find your automotive repair shop? Or Rogelio, the self-employed mobile auto glass business owner, find your dental practice to receive a special cash only discount to have his teeth cleaned?

Marketing, to our consultants, is a three-prong contact sport: contacting clients, web design and SEO/SEM marketing, and building the relationship with you in the picture, the business owner. Where did you find Rosa? Did you meet her at Nordstrom's? Did you prevent Rosa from having minor fender bender while backing out in the parking lot? Did someone highly recommend Rosa to visit your salon? Or, did someone from Dial-4U-Marketing pickup the phone and invite Rosa to your salon using the theory behind the "Law of Large Numbers"?

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, marketing is a predictable event that can be queued up on demand, can be turned on and off, and that will always produce results. Period.

I sincerely thank you for reading this blog today. If there is anything I can do to help your business grow, please feel free to contact me. As a marketing professional, I would appreciate it if you call me instead of emailing. Picking up the phone and making the call shows that you want more control in your business and you want it today!

N THE BEGINNING...

The day was June 2, 2007 and the self-proclaimed day of the new economy. This was the day that began a four week series of devastating financial events that I will always remember. The scud missile came in at 4:15pm from a Richmond California title company. The escrow officer called and said, "The lender has decided not to fund the Rohnert Park property purchase because that loan has been pulled from investor sheet".

The was the day where I expected to close a real estate transaction to receive about a $6,000 commission check. Fast forward to the middle of June...another escrow failed to close because of investor refusal to fund. The loan program was no longer available. And for a third time, during the first week of July 2007, a loan did not close. Total income unreceived: $12,000.

These events happened for hundreds of real estate agents and loan officers throughout the State of California. The public was not empathetic. Media reports of unaffected consumers wagging their fingers accusing real estate and loan officers of unfairly making above average incomes. Now the public was happy that real estate agents and loan officers were losing nice homes and cars and falling from their good lifestyles. "Go out and get a real job" was the comment often heard and reported in the media. Everyone working was happy to see those in the real estate industry fail until...it started affecting their jobs.

Real estate supports just about every industry in the marketplace. Nuff said! Now people long for the days when they could work and tolerate those pesky real estate professionals earning $10,000 per month.


THE CREDIT CRUNCH...FOR BUSINESSES

Banks began to deny businesses short term loans. Little did we know that many businesses used short-term loans to meet payrolls and cover accounts receivables. With banks tightening business loan standards, companies started laying off employees to align expenses with cash revenues.


THE CREDIT CRUNCH...FOR CONSUMERS

Consumers, no longer with access to the falling equity in their homes, began defaulting on mortgages. With credit cards at maximum limits, consumers stopped shopping and spending impulsively. No more Chuckie Cheese pizza parties. No more $50 dollar car washes. No more $120 family dinner tabs on Friday night. No more car shopping on Saturdays to get the newest Lexus or Hummer. Plus, with gas prices at $4.60 per gallon in California, driving was the last thing on people's mind.


THE VIRTUAL BUSINESS TSUNAMI

Then, almost overnight, businesses discovered that less and less customers were patronizing personal care and professional businesses such as hair salons, auto repair shops, CPA firms, and dental clinics. In one major West Coast city, 283 hair or spa salons went out of business. Auto repair shop service bays stood idle as car owners deferred vehicle maintenance until the last minute. The dental industry, already saturated by the number of dental practices, saw patients foregoing intermediate and necessary dental procedures because they could afford the deductible or the balance payable by patients after dental insurance pays its portion.

CPA firms begin to layoff accountants as the number of billable hours shrank.

You probably could add more stories to this blog.

So what can a business do to return to profitability and capitalize on this new economy?

Dial-4U-Marketing is a an outbound call service for businesses that want to reach more customers. The service is very affordable and offers even better pricing if Clarence Nappier serves as your financial services advisor.  Clarence can be reached at (888) 824-6919 or, via email, at clarence@dial4umarketing.com.

Enjoying my first cup of coffee this morning at 10am (PST). My son returned home from Idaho on his first military leave since enlisting. He drove from Idaho to Sacramento (almost 600 miles at age 19). I am so proud of him.

Sitting at the Cirby Ave and Sunrise Ave Starbucks in Roseville, California. Roseville is one of the few communities that did not do too bad in the housing crisis.  It boasts of having one of the lowest crime rates in California.  Close to the coffee house is a hair salon that just dropped its price for haircuts to $4.99 from $15.00.

What is the message that this salon is sending to consumers?  First, it's desperate for customers. Five dollar hair cuts, ten dollar oil changes tell customers that these business owners will do anything for the business...and in any manner.  Second, poor service or poor workmanship is the first suspicion consumers have with severely discounted prices.

Business owners, mistakenly, based their pricing on the laws of supply and demand. Meaning, by lowering prices, business will see more customers.  Although the principle of price and demand may be mathematically or graphically true, consumers have a built-in value detector and sense that they may receive a less quality product or poor service in return for an extremely low price.

Business owners may also be unaware of the effects of severely discounted pricing.  In business, there are fixed costs that cannot be eliminated.  By lowering prices that produce profits that barely cover fixed costs or have less than desirable returns on investment, the business may be on its way to closing its doors.

The morale of the story is business should only reduce prices if it can still earn a profit far above fixed costs and consumers perceive the products or services as good values.

This is an old-school marketing approach for small business owners who want to take control of their businesses today. The approach helps hair salon owners, dentists, and independent auto repair shop owners start the process of finding clients without spending a ton of money. Dial4UMarketing helps business owners find clients at affordable pricing and equitable terms.

Bringing you the best from the Midwest's queen of stickers for young children visiting salons for the first time. Every one can recall when their child first sat in a salon chair and perhaps was afraid. Lori's business brings a taste of nostalgia as we see our children beginning their lives. These stickers will add a nice touch in salon's PR campaign parents and their child customers The business is based in Wichita, Kansas. You can visit her site at www.stylestickers.net

We are interviewing Peak Virtual Accounting's CEO and MBA, Leila Samoodi. Based in Irvine, California, Leila owns and manages a virtual, full service accounting firm that performs bookkeeping, accounting, and CPA services for US-based businesses. More and more businesses are adjusting to changing economic conditions. This has led to more scrutiny of overhead expenses and timely financial reporting. Business owners want to put more focus on core business, income generating functions such as product development, sales and marketing, and staff training. Peak Virtual Accounting’s end-user services offer clients flexibility, affordability, and accurate reporting. With high-security, encrypted interfacing, clients can scan, fax and or mail documents for Peak Virtual Accounting staff members to take appropriate action. Clients have access to their total financial outlook within three business days after receipt. Get those unrecorded receipts and invoices out of the shoe boxes and bottom desk drawers and let Peak Virtual Accounting free up your time and add more stability to your business. Please mention that you heard about Peak Virtual Accounting on the MyCityNetworks Radio Show. See the demo at www.peakvirtualaccounting.com/demo