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Top Goal for Small Businesses: The Eight Most Important Checkup Questions for 2021

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Are you happy with your business this year? What are you going to do differently? How can you hire the right people to support your vision? Sadly, many small business owners do not spend enough time planning for the future. It’s quite understandable. Managers must keep pace with the daily demands of their businesses, including payroll, taxes, product/service delivery, and customer expectations.Fortunately, the end of the year is the perfect time for a comprehensive evaluation of your company. Your business needs a checkup. Most people can relate to a checkup with their local doctor, depending on their background and personality characteristics (age, sex, family medical history). The doctor will conduct a variety of tests, including blood, vision, heart, and hearing.In fact, one element like an individual’s weight is not the only indicator of overall good health. Likewise, small businesses could benefit from a good checkup too. Successful entrepreneurs think strategically when engaged in a hostile, global environment.After 27 years of managing projects and conducting over 100 organizational evaluations of business organizations, I realize that both large and small organizations struggle in implementing their operations effectively. This article examines how small businesses need to conduct an effective checkup of their organizations.Welcome to the New Normal! Yet, nearly a year after this pandemic, the full impact on the U.S. economy is unclear. According to recent studies, more than four million Americans have left the workforce, and nearly 10 million are now unemployed compared with last February.In fact, the number of unemployed people continues to rise. According to a business study conducted between March 28 and April 4, 2020, small businesses have been heavily damaged by the lockdowns due to Covid-19.In an analysis of more than 5,800 small businesses (reaching a network of 4.6 million small businesses), the research highlighted the damage caused by the pandemic. The results showed evident damage of the pandemic. At this juncture, 43% of businesses had temporarily closed, and nearly all of these closures were due to COVID-19.Respondents stated that they had temporarily closed, largely pointed to reductions in demand and employee health concerns as the reasons for closure. In fact, the businesses, on average, reported having reduced their active employment by 39% since January.All industries have been impacted. However, retail, arts and entertainment, personal services, food services, and hospitality businesses showed significant employment declines exceeding 50%. Some businesses hope for assistance from the government.According to a Babson’s Goldman Sachs report, 88% of U.S. small business owners have already exhausted their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan; the Small Business Association gave these loans specifically to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the pandemic. These loans were helpful.Yet, these successes do not diminish the fact that more than 32% of PPP loan recipients already have laid off employees or cut wages. In fact, Forty-three percent of Black small business owners reported that their businesses’ cash reserves would be depleted by year’s end due to Covid-19.Today’s small businesses and entrepreneurs must retool themselves, given the potential impacts of Covid-19 have the necessary capacity to change their way of thinking because of their passion. However, small businesses must be willing to evaluate their current operations and make the required changes.For example, customers have largely gone online to purchase services due to the lockdowns. If a business does not have an online presence now, this company does not exist. Internet pioneer and CEO of PSINet Bill Schrader explains the significant of online visibility: “Almost overnight, the Internet’s gone from a technical wonder to a business must.”With the appropriate diagnosis of an organization, a business can develop more sustainable success. Thus, the right checkup is critical.Below are some critical questions to help you conduct your own self-checkup:

Do you have a clear vision for your business? What is it?

Do you know why your customers buy from you and why others do not buy from you?

What results are you getting from your marketing? Do you have an effective online presence on the web?

Are you collecting data or the right kind of data on your customers and competitors?

Are you keeping pace with your industry trends? If so, what are the key trends?

How are you measuring results (i.e., key performance indicators like cash flow and revenue)?

What are your key competitors’ marketing strategies?

Have you evaluated your strengths and weaknesses (i.e., SWOT Analysis)?

In summary, successful global businesses, like IBM and Google, have continuous systems in place to evaluate their performance. Let’s call this process an organizational checkup.Small businesses that want to succeed in this global and technological climate must be able to conduct this self-evaluation or checkup. This article demonstrated the relevancy of a good checkup to help improve a business by asking probing questions. In many cases, small businesses do not have to take on this organizational checkup along.There are various organizations like the Small Business Administration and local universities that can assist in this process. Have you conducted a checkup for your business this year? It’s not too late. Start the new year with a healthy business checkup.© 2021 by D. D. Green

Have You Thought Of Using Entertainment Marketing To Hook Customers?

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“Entertainment Marketing” has not been taken advantage of very much by many brands and companies.How To Fulfill A Human Need?Hook your customers’ attention and persuade them to consume your products by fulfilling the human’s needs for entertainment.Now what is “Entertainment Marketing?” Here is a simple definition:Entertainment marketing is the strategy of creating, associating with and promoting entertainment and entertaining activities to excite, then engage the customer, while forming a high-profile, positive affinity with the brand to drive continuous profitable customer action.Other Marketing ApproachesSome other marketing terms that have been used by marketers, for example, are:Retail Marketing: Retail marketing is the range of activities undertaken by a retailer to promote awareness and sales of the company’s products — Tracey Sandilands, Demand MediaContent Marketing: Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.When it comes to marketing and attracting more customers, I observe many businesses, especially retailers, hit the wall. Usually, the strategy being employed tends to be more of what I call “sales marketing” which is offering services such as “discount coupons, freebies, sales, ladies’ nights, happy hour, special packages, birthday specials… “Those are strategies a business should keep using regularly, but after awhile, it loses its lustre with customers and in the end, it doesn’t matter much to them if they get another discount. I know this is what happens with me.Why Does Entertainment Marketing Work?But on top of that, a business should really look into the immediate elevation of your brand or product in the minds of the customer by associating itself with an entertainment idea or activity, whether it be an event, a performance, a song, a movie, an entertaining video, a game or contest, celebrity or public figure endorsements and appearances.Now, “entertainment marketing” probably works best for retail businesses, but it is not only applicable to B to C’s (business to customer), but often, bosses find that they also need it in B to B’s (business to business).McDonald’s is a ready example of a business that has kept customers coming in for years with entertainment marketing. Rather than keep “pounding on” (no pun intended) the ingredients or value meals for their burgers, McDonald’s is often your source for the current box-office movie premiums. Remember the “Hello Kitty” or “Minions” soft toy craze which saw alarming lines at McDonald’s? Well, we don’t need to ask McDonald’s to show us their daily sales report in order to know that they would have had jackpot sales that day!If, as a business, you are expecting the media to give you some coverage — unless you are an NGO (non-governmental organization), political or governmental organization, social or charitable benefit, cultural or educational association — do not expect the media to give you much time of day unless you advertise hugely with them.Now, many small medium enterprises (SME) might lament that you could not possibly afford the licensing or cost of bringing entertainment to your premises, or even being associated with big-time Hollywood films, like the McDonald’s example.Believe it or not, your customers will still be entertained by cleverly-executed concepts at much lower budgets. Therefore, don’t worry if you cannot afford the licensing fees for hit movies such as Star Wars or engaging top Hollywood or K-Pop superstars!The keywords to remember are Excite, Entertain and Engage — conceptualized and customized for your needs.Once entertainment elements are used to market your business, product or brand, the opportunity is very much bigger for:1) the media to report your stories,2) the customers to run through your doors,3) customers to bring friends and family along to enjoy fresh offerings,4) elevating your brand into a premier, go-to position,5) more public relations and networking,6) collaborations with and third-party endorsements from the media, celebrities, public figures and customers.