Author: emergingenterprise

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Marketing for Small Businesses – 3 Steps to Success

Written by Dora Cheatham, Program Manager, Emerging Enterprise Center

We often hear of the failure rates of start-ups and new businesses, or even longer term firms going out of business for one reason or another.The US Census Bureau’s statistics certainly bear this out, with as many as 44% of businesses failing by their 3rd year and 71% failing by Year 10.

While this depends greatly on the industry, the chart below from Statistic Brain, shows just how fragile some industries can be:

While the final cause of death is usually financial collapse, the symptoms most likely started much earlier with failed strategies and operational inefficiencies. While no-one has a crystal ball into the future, you can certainly try to preempt as many obstacles as possible with careful planning and preparation; as Alan Lakein once said “failing to plan, is planning to fail”.

So if you’re thinking of starting your own business, or you’re beginning to see fissures in your business, there are definitely steps you can take ahead of time. Here are a few from a marketing perspective to ensure that your business survives and succeeds.

  1. MARKET ANALYSIS │ THE LAY OF THE LAND

Understanding the lay of the land is critical in helping you determine what actions you will need to take to grow—or in some cases—survive. An excellent tool for establishing the lay of the land is Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model. This popular model forces you to look at your industry within a specific framework that takes into consideration competition between existing firms, the threat of new entrants, the strength of buyers and suppliers and the threat of substitute products. Another simple but frequently used framework: the SWOT analysis that assesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats—use it to assess not only your own business but also that of your competition.

How do you fit in these frameworks? What are your core competences? What are your weaknesses? How can you leverage your strengths and improve on your weaknesses? It’s not enough to know and believe in your own product: you need to understand how it fits within the industry and among other like products in that industry. You also need to have a clear understanding of your customers’ (existing and/or potential) needs and wants.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a one time exercise—external forces and world events can impact the lay of the land, change the balance of power in these forces and overturn the positions in these frameworks within a matter of weeks! A catastrophic event – think 9/11 and its impact not only on the aviation industry but also the industry’s suppliers, travel, tourism and beyond – can and will result in a need to re-assess your business strategy in short order.  

  1. MARKET STRATEGY │ START WITH THE END IN SIGHT

Once you have a clear understanding of the lay of the land, the business then needs to determine its focus: What is your differential advantage or value proposition as a business? What are your growth objectives? Which products and markets offer the best opportunities to achieve your growth objectives? How will you achieve these objectives? Will it be through market penetration? Product development? Market development? Diversification? How will you position the business and your products to meet these objectives? Which core competences do you need to develop to achieve your targeted growth and create a sustainable competitive advantage? What will the investment be in time, talent and treasure to develop these core competences and what will your return on that investment be? 

  1. MARKETING MIX │ THE ROAD MAP

The Marketing Mix is generally referred to as the 4Ps (or 5Ps depending on the source!) and encompasses decisions surrounding your Products (performance, features, design, presentations, name, etc), Pricing (direct, distributor, geographical, etc), Promotion (PR, marketing collateral, advertising), Place (distribution channels), and People (tasks, sales, support). In other words, you know your market and you know your customers. You now need to ensure that you have the correct products, that they are correctly positioned and that your communications correctly reflect that positioning. Do you have the right distribution channels set up? Do you have effective and efficient processes in place?

A common fallacy to avoid is that marketing is the same as sales, particularly on a B2B level. The two are very different and – while they work hand in hand – they perform different functions. Marketing creates the value, the visibility and the lead; it can also provide the tools to make the sales process more effective, but it is an ongoing process and does not preclude the need for a sales strategy to leverage and capitalize on the value created through the marketing process (check out the posts on Creating & Selling Value and What’s In A Brand?).

 

STRATEGY X EXECUTION = SUCCESS

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, it’s not just about the strategy but about implementation and execution of that strategy. Once the lay of the land and the road map have been laid out, specific tactical and action plans, budgets and measurement criteria can be put into place to guide that execution and implementation. One of my favorite quotes is from the entrepreneur Naveen Jain. “A great strategy alone won’t win a game or battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling.”

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Why Do Passionate Entrepreneurs Fail?

Written by Frank DeSantis, Certified Growth Wheel Trainer, Former Emerging Enterprise Center Program Director

The link below is to a great article in HBR on Passion vs. Preparedness, and reflects what I believe is the approach the Emerging Enterprise Center tries to take with their Incubator companies.

An entrepreneur has to have passion. It’s entirely too hard to start and run a business if you don’t absolutely love what you are doing! Apparently, according to this research, passion is a key ingredient to attracting attention of investors, especially novice investors, those typically found on crowdfunding sites.

Long term success, however, depends upon your ability to be prepared to scale the business. For that you need to have a vision (what do you want to be when you grow up), a game plan (strategy or business plan), and the processes and procedures to replicate what you do and how you sell. For more experienced investors, the passion and the concept may attract them initially, but they move quickly to determining how prepared they are for success; what is the experience of the management team; have they started a business before; is there a market; have they proved the concept?

At the Emerging Enterprise Center, they try to help you focus first on DRIVING YOUR BUSINESS (sales), while in parallel, developing the business skills and the policies/procedures to enable you to take advantage of opportunities that help you achieve your vision.

I believe you can have and, in fact, need both: PASSION AND PREPAREDNESS!

https://hbr.org/2015/07/for-founders-preparation-trumps-passion

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Williams Humphreys and Company to Sponsor Swim with the Sharks Video Pitch Competition again along with others

The Emerging Enterprise Center is excited to once again have Williams Humphreys and Company as the Presenting Sponsor for the Swim with the Sharks Video Pitch Competition Program.

By being a Presenting Sponsor, Williams Humphreys and Company can bridge the gap between the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the small business community in New Castle County, Delaware.

In addition, the Emerging Enterprise Center has received sponsorships from Young, Conaway, Stargatt, and Taylor, LLP, as well as Advertising is Simple (a graduate from the EEC).

For more information on the Swim With The Sharks Video Pitch Competition please click here.

If you are interested in sponsoring this program, please contact Erica Crell at [email protected].

 

 

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Breaking News – New Program Director Announced!

The Emerging Enterprise Center is proud to announce Dora Cheatham as the new Program Director. Dora has had a long career focused on sales, marketing and product development in a corporate setting. For the past several years, she has run her own consulting shop focused on assisting small businesses here in Delaware and throughout the region. She has also been a key player in organizational and promotional work for the Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance.
Dora Cheatham was born in the UK and grew up in Europe, studying and/or working in the UK, France, Spain and Cyprus regions. She holds degrees in foreign languages and business from Thames Valley University and the University of London and speaks fluent Spanish, French and Greek.
She relocated to Delaware 25 years ago and has since held several positions in International Business Development and Marketing, most recently as International Business Development Manager with Celeste Industries Corp-a subsidiary of ITW, Inc. Where she implemented and managed New Product Development & Marketing procedures to create and commercialize new products on the global stage, generating over $5 million in new business and helping to establish Celeste Industries as a leader in aviation industry cleaning chemicals. On a local level, she has also worked as Director of Development at Kent-Sussex Industries, Milford, Delaware, where she coordinated a $2.2 million capital campaign and successfully increased non-campaign donations.
She has published several editorials for the aviation industry including:
  • “How Safe Is Your Water?”
  • “Complete Hygiene-Cleaning & the Disinfection Myth”
  • “How Green Is My Cleaner?”
Thanks to all of you for your patience and understanding during the time we have taken to search for a person to fill the role of EEC Program Director.  We are very excited to have Dora join the team at the EEC to continue to provide support, access to resources, and advice to our members.
Dora will begin work with us on Monday, June 26th. Join us in congratulating her.
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Program Director, Emerging Enterprise Center

DORA CHEATHAM, Program Director, Emerging Enterprise Center
Dora Cheatham is the Program Director of the Emerging Enterprise Center. Dora has had a long career focused on sales, marketing and product development in a corporate setting. For the past several years, she has run her own consulting shop focused on assisting small businesses here in Delaware and throughout the region. She has also been a key player in organizational and promotional work for the Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance.
Dora Cheatham was born in the UK and grew up in Europe, studying and/or working in the UK, France, Spain and Cyprus regions. She holds degrees in foreign languages and business from Thames Valley University and the University of London and speaks fluent Spanish, French and Greek.
She relocated to Delaware 25 years ago and has since held several positions in International Business Development and Marketing, most recently as International Business Development Manager with Celeste Industries Corp-a subsidiary of ITW, Inc. Where she implemented and managed New Product Development & Marketing procedures to create and commercialize new products on the global stage, generating over $5 million in new business and helping to establish Celeste Industries as a leader in aviation industry cleaning chemicals. On a local level, she has also worked as Director of Development at Kent-Sussex Industries, Milford, Delaware, where she coordinated a $2.2 million capital campaign and successfully increased non-campaign donations.
She has published several editorials for the aviation industry including:
  • “How Safe Is Your Water?”
  • “Complete Hygiene-Cleaning & the Disinfection Myth”
  • “How Green Is My Cleaner?”
Dora is a member of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce Marketing Committee, the Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance Operations Team and is an active volunteer for the Biggs Museum of American Art.
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Congrats You Found the Egg

You have found the Easter Egg!

With this code (EGGFREE) you can attend two workshops for free!

A Growth Wheel Workshop Series 
A Finding Your Next Customer Workshop Series
Each workshop is $25 but we are offering the 2 workshops for FREE for you as a valued customer and someone who found the prize. This offer is only valid until April 21.

Use the promotional code: EggFree to receive the discount for registering for both workshops.

 

Information about the two workshop series:

  • The beauty of the Growth Wheel process, like in running your business, is that there is no set beginning, and no end. Based on the situation or opportunity, you jump right in and work towards a solution. And, nothing happens in a vacuum. Everything you do, every decision you make is connected to something else in the business. It’s all about consistency: consistency in your brand, in your message, in your execution. The key is the process you take. The Growth Wheel process is designed to help you:
                          Focus – Set an Agenda – Make Decisions – Take Action.
  • The Finding your Next Customer workshop series is a series that focuses on marketing, networking, social media, and sales topics. Each topic offers a strategic and hands-on context that allows business owners and their appropriate employees a chance to learn from business professionals, on how to work smarter, not harder, to grow the business.
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Bulk Workshop Deal

EXTENDED DEAL. This deal will be available for 1 more WEEK!
As someone who is a regular attendee of the Emerging Enterprise Center‘s Business Education Workshops, I wanted to invite you take advantage of our combined offer!

 

The EEC would love to give you a special deal. 2 workshops at a reduced price.

 

April 25 – How to Overcome Customer Objections – A Growth Wheel Workshop Series (click on link or bottom of page to read more about this workshop)

 

May 18 – How Do the Pro’s Overcome Sales Objections? – A Finding Your Next Customer Workshop Series (click on link or bottom of page to read more about this workshop)

 

Each workshop is $25 but we are offering the two workshops for you as a valued customer of the EEC for $35. That’s a $15 savings. This offer is only valid until March 31st.

 

 

Register with this discount here in the April 25th workshop fee section and we will automatically register you for the May 18th event. Login with your member login. Register for “Two Workshops on Sales Objections,” and use the promotional code: 15offmember to receive the discount.

 

If you happen to be a nonmember and receive this. You can still get $15 off for the two workshops. Login as a nonmember. Click the register for “Two Workshops on Sales Objections,” and use the promotional code: 15offnonmember to receive the $15 discount for nonmember fees.

 

Information about the two workshop series:

The beauty of the Growth Wheel process, like in running your business, is that there is no set beginning, and no end. Based on the situation or opportunity, you jump right in and work towards a solution. And, nothing happens in a vacuum. Everything you do, every decision you make is connected to something else in the business. It’s all about consistency: consistency in your brand, in your message, in your execution. The key is the process you take. The Growth Wheel process is designed to help you:

Focus – Set an Agenda – Make Decisions – Take Action.

 

 
The Finding your Next Customer workshop series is a series that focuses on marketing, networking, social media, and sales topics. Each topic offers a strategic and hands-on context that allows business owners and their appropriate employees a chance to learn from business professionals, on how to work smarter, not harder, to grow the business.