Opinion on Marketing

[John_Christina]

Hi everyone!

This will be the first business for us to own, but the franchise that we are buying is a company I have worked for, for 14 years. I know the business like the back of my hand, just not the owning a business piece (I worked for the corporation). Where we are opening our franchise it is a "start up" territory, only starting with 9 clients. I will be solely focusing on the business while John is still working his current job. We will not hire any employees until we have enough to where I'm to busy to do it all. We have the opportunity to market for new customers prior to our official open date.

Do you feel I/we should learn, have a solid understanding of owning the business/taxes/payroll/ etc prior to marketing and expanding? Or market right away, grow fast and learn as I/we go?

Thank you for any advise or opinions you have!

Christina and John

[Benjamin Ertl]

What type of business is this? Give me your "elevator pitch" if you will.

[John_Christina]

It is a residential cleaning service.

[David Hunter]

You won't have to worry about taxes/payroll, etc. if you don't have any customers.

market, Market, MARKET!

[John_Christina]

There are 9 customers that we will be starting with. So, we will have to learn the tax and payroll piece. Thanks for your input. :)

[Harold Mansfield]

Most people don't have the the luxury of choosing either or. One is not more important than the other, and not knowing either can be the kiss of death. Starting a business is wearing many hats at the same time.

Marketing is something that you should always be worried about, learning, executing, and improving on.

[DeniseTaylor]

When you own a business, you wear all hats. And regardless where you stand growth-wise, you'll be wearing all the hats at once in some way, shape or form. Setting priorities for these hats is pretty much called management.

I agree, marketing should be the first priority since you have no customers, but you will probably still have other duties with other hats even if you're small.

The best thing to do is set up a schedule (it will have to be flexible) so that you regularly wear each hat as needed. If there are areas where you're not trained, set up time to study and learn those areas. While some areas will require more time and will be your primary focus, these other areas of learning can be sectioned off so you can learn as you go.

Eventually you'll have everything rolling along, but you'll always need to prioritize.

Good luck!

[Benjamin Ertl]

In marketing, some say to market 60% to current clients, 30% to target market, and 10% to a broad market. Referrals can be your best friend, and as I`m sure we all know - keeping customers is a lot cheaper than getting new ones.

[goodns13]

Christina and John ,

Here is my 2 cents...

- In the business world, if we do not grow, then we are dying. There is no stillness. So please focus on growth also.

- While focusing on growth, I would recommend starting with the existing customers.ie. any known people to the existing clients, group discount, and so on.

- Also one more thing, instead of horizontally growing, see also for vertical growth. ie is there any other service that can be provided to the existing clients. It does not hurt, right?

Good Luck.

[paul woodall]

Christina and John,

The fact that you have 9 clients already suggests that you're not starving for clients.

For the first 60-90 days, I would focus on servicing those 9 clients (You don't want to lose them because your focusing on "getting new ones". Get to know your competition, the market you are in and how your company should be different. You should also spend this time writing a business plan. Yep. You should have one, if you don't already. I wouldn't worry about the taxes/ payroll yet but you should have a general understanding if you want to expand. Hopefully your accountant can help here.

You should develop a PLAN on what you need to do to grow. How many clients can you realistically handle now? next month? What Marketing you should do, how, where, what resources will you need (both people, money and equipment), what is your pricing model?

After 90 days or whatever time you feel, then start to put your plan to work. The death of business can also be growing too fast, losing clients, spending too much $ (i.e. CASH FLOW).

Good luck.

[John_Christina]

Thank you all for your advise and input to one of many questions. We are fortunate because we have family members who are CPA's that are willing to help us where they can. Also, there are many franchisees that we can reach out to in the brand that can help guide us on certain areas too.

Paul, to answer your questions. Yes, we have put together a business plan, a budget and different analyses. When we start up we can handle 20 clients and hoping to add at least 4 new clients a month to start off with, with knowing there can be some we may lose. With the projections we have put in place, we are hoping to add an employee by April.

The pricing model is the corporate pricing structure that was put together by the corporation, which we will tweak some. Some of our purchase fees go into a marketing account for our franchise. The corporate office has a marketing team that can help us put that money towards areas they have seen the most success. Some things we have in mind for marketing are, working with real estate agents, joining chamber of commerce as well as local schools and of course word of mouth/referrals.

Thanks again!

[billbenson]

In marketing, some say to market 60% to current clients, 30% to target market, and 10% to a broad market. Referrals can be your best friend, and as I`m sure we all know - keeping customers is a lot cheaper than getting new ones.

While accurate most of the time, this is not always accurate. Some products are one time purchases. Or at least they are purchased frequently enough that people know your name. Clients, purchasing managers quit, die, get a boss above them who says not to buy from you. Repeat customers are only valuable in a repeat customer world.

The 30% to the target market will depend on the 60% to current clients. That 30% will go way up if you don't have repeat customers in your industry. And that 10% is out there somewhere in limbo land.

Again, I'm not criticizing your statement. It's a very good starting point. But it needs to be fluid and industry dependent. In fact it is something that should be included in a formal or informal business plan.

[user2837]

Find the time to do everything that starting a business entails. One of the disadvantages of owning and running your own business can be the time commitment involved with getting your business up and profitable and growing.

[Dimolimo]

Going to make a marketing plan it's very important. All businesses today are online and build nice portfolio with clients reviews about location, service quality and everything related to their work. What is the purpose ? Well one client brings other client and so on. It's very important to list the business on Google map - and get real reviews from clients, yelp and other important places. As marketing strategies you can simply do what other business are not doing - being unique. Coming with offers that others don't come. Discounts and 1+1 offer I guess it's an old method already. Give to your clients custom gifts. Not to all but random. Don't need to be extra expensive but small attentions. I don't know if you saw on a news magazine what did a bank for its clients. 500 or 1000 clients got some custom gifts thing that was really really a good marketing move.

[Fulcrum]

All businesses today are online and build nice portfolio with clients reviews about location, service quality and everything related to their work.

What is the purpose ? Well one client brings other client and so on. It's very important to list the business on Google map - and get real reviews from clients, yelp and other important places. As marketing strategies you can simply do what other business are not doing - being unique.

I need to disagree with the first part of this statement. Not all businesses are online with portfolios and client reviews. I'm one of them and I can name at least 15-20 others within a 20 mile radius of my shop.

As for the second part, word of mouth is still, in my opinion, the best form of marketing. Slow marketing method? Absolutely and it should be complemented by other marketing tactics. Being unique is very simple in my industry - do a good job for a fair price, on time, every time and don't be afraid to admit to a mistake when one is made.