Small Business Advice Needed (Austin: sales, rent, day care)

[cdfblair]

I opened a small education business in central Austin after not finding a job after over a year of actively looking. I have made some posts o the forum before asking various aspects of advice. I am now looking for suggestions on how t get business into the store. I have mailed information from mailing lists, called school, sent letters to rec. centers and churches. I have mailed things to teachers I know. I have talked to people in my shopping center. I know that many of you stated that you hated the flyers on the door. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

[Creedmoor_Mom]

Try posting ads online like via facebook ... also think about advertising with schools that are nearby, say sponsor a football calendar or some such thing. Have you considered contacting area day care providers?

Just out of curiosity, what sort of educational items do you sell?

[Dr.Mom]

If you're female, you could join this professional group:
Business+Balance Austin - Home

Or there are Moms Clubs all over the country and they frequently offer speaking opportunities. This is a great way to introduce a business geared toward either children or their moms. There are several Moms Clubs in the Austin area, so there is probably one close to your location.

As discussed in another thread, Groupon offers are pretty popular. Maybe this would be an avenue for you.

Could you tell us a bit about your business? From your post I couldn't tell if it was geared toward helping others start their own business or if you are offering some type of educational service.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by cdfblair

I opened a small education business in central Austin after not finding a job after over a year of actively looking. I have made some posts o the forum before asking various aspects of advice. I am now looking for suggestions on how t get business into the store. I have mailed information from mailing lists, called school, sent letters to rec. centers and churches. I have mailed things to teachers I know. I have talked to people in my shopping center. I know that many of you stated that you hated the flyers on the door. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

It probably depends on your type of business. The key to a retail business is location. With a bad location you will never make it.

The arboretum is in general a great location, but move upstairs and it is like death. Move to one of the restaurants that arent part of the main arboretum (where dan mccluskys was) and you are dead. In my opinion rent at the upstairs of the arboretum needs to be 1/4-1/2 the rent of the downstairs locations.

People are lazy and unless you have something extremely special, people wont go even 100 feet out of their way to shop at your store.


For marketing messages, people need to see a message 6 times before they remember it. Marketing is about consistency.

Here are some options
1) people arent interested in your product
2) Your message is bad
3) your location isnt convenient
4) People havent received enough marketing yet to think of you


can you give more info?

[cdfblair]

Thanks for the advice thus far. I offer tutoring and assesments for grades 1st through 8th grade. I also offer renting of educational materials including games and books. I will offer learning camps where students can come play games and do hands on learning for a reasonable rate. This is geared for elementary and middle school. The locaation is not the greatest, but it is at the intersection of North Lamar and Airport. Ifeel that it is marketing, but that usually involves a big budget. I like the idea of supporting something at the school. The daycares are a little young for me at thisw time! Again thanks for the adviice!

[atxcio]

Austin97 gives some good advice. Marketing is really a numbers game. If you've never had to market yourself (or your small business), this can be difficult to see. Take what you'd assume to be an appropriate amount of marketing (X amount of emails, calls, fliers, etcs) and multiply it by 4. Then take the length of time you expect to need to do it before getting a response, and multiply THAT by 4.

You do that, and you'll finally start to see the fruits of your labor. Forget about the response percentages marketing companies will tell you, those are best case scenarios where the business is already known.

Oh, and something to keep in mind : Marketing your own company is hard. Making your own sales calls is hard. You have too much mentally invested, it is easier to sell something that's not your own! So be extra vigilant not to get discouraged with lack of results. It is really hard. When your business becomes successful, you'll pay other people to do the sales work for you -- and then it gets easier.

Final tip: With your kind of business, you can increase the volume of touches to your potential customers without just hammering them about your service and rates. Provide nuggets of info or tips instead. They don't have to be anything special. You can have something like "The three biggest mistakes parents make when hiring a tutor" or "Three reasons why your kids grades are dropping".

[thedogatemyhomework]

make sure you are listed on Yelp and that you are able to get some good reviews.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by cdfblair

Thanks for the advice thus far. I offer tutoring and assesments for grades 1st through 8th grade. I also offer renting of educational materials including games and books. I will offer learning camps where students can come play games and do hands on learning for a reasonable rate. This is geared for elementary and middle school. The locaation is not the greatest, but it is at the intersection of North Lamar and Airport. Ifeel that it is marketing, but that usually involves a big budget. I like the idea of supporting something at the school. The daycares are a little young for me at thisw time! Again thanks for the adviice!

Maybe Im classist, but I feel like that location is not that attractive to suburbanites who would be your major customers. The density of kids in that area is a little low.

What is the actual result that parents should be looking for? who do you compete against?

Look at where your competitors are marketing and understand why and make sure you understand how your unique value prop compares to theirs.