Succeeding in the New Economy :: CBCC 2010 Business Growth Series
One of the first things I did when I moved to Doylestown was to join the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce and if you’re in the area, I highly encourage you to do the same. The Chamber offers amazing opportunities and tools to help businesses succeed.
Within the Chamber, I work on the Entrepreneurial Assistance Committee, whose mission is to help businesses grow. In addition to offering hundreds of free business consultations (which are also available to non-members!), including marketing, business management and succession planning, the EAC, produces a yearly educational workshop series.
Sponsored by National Penn Bank, the 2010 series centers on Business Growth and tomorrow’s session is titled “Succeeding in the New Economy”.
I will be presenting along with David Werrett, President of the CBCC and Mario O. Vicario, Jr., CPA Kreicher Miller. David will present a global view of the economy, Mario will discuss the trends he sees when working with small businesses and what makes them successful and what holds them back, while I am the case study and will be discussing my philosophy and methods for success in this new economy. Donald V. Cericola, CPA DVC Financial Services, will be facilitating.
3 SIMPLE STEPS TO SUCCEEDING IN THE NEW ECONOMY
DIVERSIFY
In today’s market, consumers and business are cutting back severely and in some cases, all together. Avenues of revenue that were free-flowing in 2005/2006 have dried up today. My answer to this problem is diversification. As a small business owner, I’ve been told to find my niche and perfect my game within that niche. For example, one of my specialties is wedding photography. If I focused soley on marketing to brides, I would be sitting in the corner crying right now. On average, brides are spending 1/3 of what they were spending on their wedding 5 years ago and I am now competing with pro-sumers who have purchased pro-sumer cameras and are billing themselves as professional photographers, driving down prices. Then there’s the bride who is choosing to cut out photography all together and depending on family and friends to cover her event. If I stayed pidgeon-holed in my niche, I’d be in serious trouble today. You would never invest all of your money into one stock, so why would you want to depend on all of your income flowing from a single source? In addition to being a wedding photographer, I am a food photographer, a fashion photographer, a meeting and special events photographer. I photograph interiors, families and advertising campaigns. I have teamed with an event planner and am the Photography Director at his company. I am also the Senior Editor of Nesting Newbies Magazine and develop content as well as contribute my photography services. I teach Digital Photography workshops. I sell B2B and B2c. When weddings are slow during the winter, corporations are throwing holiday parties, planning educational seminars and working on their annual reports. Since it’s difficult to predict who will be spending what and when, I try to keep as many avenue of income open as possible. I’m sure you get my point. Diversify.
BUDGET & FORECAST
Since the market is so volatile and unpredictable, I have cut my spending back to the very bare minimum. I created a spreadsheet listing all of my monthly expenses, canceled any service that wasn’t crucial to running my business and shopped around for the lowest prices on those expenses that just couldn’t be cut. I then created a spreadsheet for the entire year and created a forecast showing me what I would be spending and when to expect to pay annual bills. I added a page to the spreadsheet showing my projected income for contracted jobs. I used this information to forecast trends in my income and determine the appropriate months to market certain services. This is a time consuming activity, but well worth the time spent to get a better understanding of the trends within your business. This is also an effective exercise if you need to open a line of credit during lean times. When you have a forecast, you prove to the bank that you are a responsible borrower and show them exactly when they can expect to be paid back.
SOCIAL NETWORKING & WARM LEADS
Advertising was one of the big ticket items in my budget and the first expense to be cut. Since I was cutting my exposure dramatically, I had to find creative ways to market myself. I started a blog, created a Linked-in profile, a Facebook profile and began Tweeting. I also joined several different organizations, including the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce and ISES (International Special Events Society) and got involved. When I had the opportunity to personally connect with someone at a networking event, I looked them up online and connected with them there as a follow-up. Having the online connection strengthened our live connection. Social networking also works in the reverse. There are several people with whom I am connected because we have a mutual colleague in common and when we were at a networking event, it was easy to recognize these people and talk with them, since we already started our relationship online.
Getting involved with an organization is a great way to show colleagues your work ethic first-hand, which makes them more inclined to hire you or recommend you to a friend or another colleague. This is called a warm lead and if strategized correctly, can be a valuable source of business. I find that when I am referred thru my network, I am more likely to be hired and my client values and respects my services more because of the personal connections involved.
YOUR ACTION ITEMS:
1. Diversify
2. Create a budget and a forecast
3. Get involved online & with your trade organizations
IN SUM
The most important trait you can have as a business owner is this economy is flexibility. Be willing to constantly re-evaluate your plan and be flexible with your decisions. Try new things. My motto is that it’s better to try something and do it badly than not to do it at all. The more you do something, the more practiced you’ll become. There’s a learning curve associated with pretty much everything we do, but if you never try, you’ll never know where it can take you.
WESTIN DIPLOMAT RESORT & SPA | HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA
WESTIN DIPLOMAT | HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA
I recently had the honor of being the photographer as part of the In Good Company Meetings & Events team at a corporate shoot, which took place at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood, Florida. Working closely with the client, In Good Company Meetings & Events, along with the support of the Conference Services Staff of the Westin Diplomat, expertly orchestrated a week of educational sessions and social events for over 500 attendees who flew in from all around the world.
The flight from California was a long one and I still had a team meeting to attend the evening I arrived at the hotel, but as soon as I walked into the lobby, I was relaxed by the clean smell of the Westin’s signature White Aloe Scent and a view of towering palm trees lining the path from the entrance of the hotel to the glowing pool outside. Ahh hospitality, wouldn’t it be nice if this was vacation, but…alas…it was time to work.
Once I snapped back into reality, I met the rest of the professionals with whom I’d be working that week. After we ran through our game plan, I rolled my camera bag into the elevator, began exploring the spaces and capturing the elements that the In Good Company team utilizes when creating successful meetings and experiential events.
ALLURE WEST IN SPECIAL EVENTS MAGAZINE
ALLURE WEST STUDIOS IN SPECIAL EVENT MAGAZINE
I recently photographed Kristjan Gavin, President of In Good Company Meetings & Events, for his feature article in the February issue of Special Events Magazine titled Hospitality Starts Here.
In his article, Kristjan discusses the hospitality experience and challenges each of us to take a step back and reflect upon our own projections.
How many times have you stepped off an airplane and proclaimed that you will never fly that airline again because of the flight attendant’s terrible attitude? Or how many times have you gone out to eat and left a meager tip because you felt the service was subpar?
What we each have to come to realize is that change begins within ourselves. If we are not happy with a particular situation, the first finger pointed must be at ourselves. If you find yourself in what you feel to be a compromising situation, take a deep breath and ask yourself how you can carry yourself differently. The slightest change in your own attitude could make all the difference in how another person treats you in return.
So as a wise friend once told me, change comes from within.
ISES Eventworld 2008 in St. Petersburg Florida
2008 ISES Eventworld in St. Petersburg Florida
When Jung and I moved our company headquarters to SF from DC, I was intent on finding an organization to which I could contribute and help grow and in turn, teach me to become a better leader within my own company.
I attended the meetings of several different organizations throughout our first year in California, but the ISES events lured me back time after time. The events were designed and presented professionally, included an educational segment and I could see how much energy and attention the team dedicated to making each event spectacular.
The combination of educational content and networking were exactly what we needed in our lives. But a strong professional fit wasn’t our only driving factor—we also needed to be able to connect sincerely on a personal level.
The ISES Northern California Chapter welcomed us with open arms professionally and personally and since I joined in the winter of 2007, I have forged a solid professional network and have made friends that I know will support me in whatever capacity they can.
I believe that ISES is my key to professional development and so, I have whole-heartedly dedicated myself to my chapter. And thus, I am proud to announce that I am now a Director at Large on the Board and have been awarded a full-paid scholarship to the annual ISES convention, known as Eventworld, held in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Here I am, still spinning with excitement, as I sit here on this humid, rainy afternoon in the Tampa airport awaiting my flight back to California from Eventworld. I feel empowered with knowledge and a concrete support system.
I flew the red-eye out of SF Wednesday night, the 20th of August and arrived in Florida the morning of the 21st. As soon as I checked into the Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club in St. Petersburg, I joined the rest of the board in a round table leadership discussion, during which we connected with the leaders of other chapters and shared and exchanged suggestions of what has or has not been successful for each of our chapters.
The roundtable wrapped up around lunchtime and we rock-n-rolled into the general session with a stellar presentation on the importance of team work by Col Mike Mullane, a NASA Space Shuttle astronaut aboard Discovery and Atlantis.
The general sessions were officially open and attendees could choose to participate in seminars that were separated into three distinct tracts: Topics for Business Owners/Executive Track; Corporate/Non-Profit Track and the Interactive Tract.
The first day of sessions concluded with the ISES Eventworld Welcome Reception, which was held on the sugar sand Gulf of Mexico beach of the Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort. We attended the reception as a chapter and had a ball taking pictures of each other on the beach, before a glowing pink and gray sunset.
On Friday, attendees had the option of participating in a behind-the-scenes tour of Walt Disney World or attending workshops throughout the day.
I began the day by attending the session titled Unlock the Potential Hiding in the Rental Company Next Door, which was presented by our very own Gwen Helbush of Where to Start, Inc., Kathy Newby of Classic Party Rentals and Kristjan Gavin of In Good Company. Gwen, Kathy and Kristijan artfully illustrated the importance of communication and teamwork. And although the course was directed specifically towards planners and rental companies, the principals could be applied to any professional relationship: In order to create a successful team, communication, respect and courtesy are integral.
Amongst the other courses I attended on Friday, Business Owners: Tips, Trick and Shop Talk was another of my favorites. Here we listed several issues facing us as small business owners and then listened to the strategies and techniques that 4 prominent ISES professionals employed to successfully run and grow each of their own companies.
After another intense day of learning, we all came together at Fresco’s Waterfront Bistro for a delicious seafood dinner. Afterwards, we attended a benefit for the SEARCH Foundation, which was co-founded by planner, Sasha Sousa. The SEARCH Foundations mission is to support event professionals confronted with a catastrophic occurrence and fosters, develops and promotes educational initiatives for the advancement of the industry.
The last day of seminars began with general educational sessions, which were followed by a delicious luncheon and awards ceremony, during which several Northern California members were acknowledged for their dedication and professionalism.
After the lunchtime award ceremony, we split for the last leg of seminars. On Saturday, I chose to participate in the Interactive Track and joined the workshop titled How to Stop Letting Your Marketing Dollars Needlessly Fly Out the Window. During this session, we separated ourselves into groups and developed a Positioning Statement, identified our Customer’s Profile and completed a Competitive Analysis. I was fortunate because my company was chosen as the sample and it was extremely interesting to hear other perspectives on a proposed marketing strategy.
Eventworld concluded with the ISES Esprit Awards Celebration during which the success of several of our members was celebrated and recognized as 2008 Esprit Award Nominees.
I feel inspired and motivated by the determination and professionalism of the members by which I was surrounded this weekend. I can hardly wait to start applying the knowledge I gained and the principles of leadership I learned. I bonded with my chapter members and feel a special connection to each one of them. I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of such an amazing group.
I await the arrival of Eventworld 2009 August 5-8 in San Francisco with rapt anticipation.