StartupNation

---

• WJR Business Beat: Earning Customer Loyalty Is Harder Than Ever (Episode 419)
• Free Business Funding: 5 Tips for Writing a Winning Small Business Grant Application
• The Challenges of Rural Entrepreneurship and Some Solutions
• Bespoke Marketing: A Tailored Approach for Startups

WJR Business Beat: Earning Customer Loyalty Is Harder Than Ever (Episode 419) Posted: 06 Jun 2022 12:20 PM PDT On today’s Business Beat, Jeff addresses the difficult business of attracting and retaining customer loyalty. Now, more than ever, customers are fickle. Tune in below to learn how your business can keep customers from straying:   Tune in to News/Talk 760 AM WJR weekday mornings at 7:11 a.m. for the WJR Business Beat. Listeners outside of the Detroit area can listen live HERE. Are you an entrepreneur with a great story to share? If so, contact us at editor@startupnation.com and we'll feature you on an upcoming segment of the WJR Business Beat!    WJR Business Beat Transcript Good morning, Paul! Well, it used to be that if you earned a customer, you had a shot at a customer for life by simply providing a good enough level of customer service and customer experience. Well, we’re here to tell you on the Business Beat this morning, those days are gone. Businesses have to work harder than ever these days to retain a hard-earned customer as consumers become less and less loyal and more and more opportunistic over the past year. In fact, 71% of consumers worldwide switch brands at least once. More than anything else, consumers are simply looking for better deals these days as expected and if someone else has a better deal, consumers are going to hunt for it and find it and buy it instead of buying from you. In fact, about two-thirds of consumers switched brands in the past year because they found a better deal, typically driven primarily by a better price point, but not always. More than half were seeking better product quality while 48% switched due to a brand that they would otherwise be loyal to not providing enough adequate customer service. Product availability and convenience relating to the shopping and buying experience were also heavy influencers that made consumers make a switch. Now for some good news. However, consumers are more loyal to getting what they view as value in their experience. Value, of course, is part driven by cost. But other aspects of the consumer experience contribute to value as well, such as expertise and guidance that the brand provides, supreme customer service and higher quality in the products a brand sells all count toward the perceived value that a consumer receives. And if you focus on value, you’ve got a good shot at keeping that customer as a loyal one. The bottom line: Attracting a customer is hard. It’s expensive at best in today’s world. Once you’ve got it, a customer’s attention and consideration, focus on providing the best possible level of value to your customers if you want to keep them. I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR. StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here The post WJR Business Beat: Earning Customer Loyalty Is Harder Than Ever (Episode 419) appeared first on StartupNation.

Free Business Funding: 5 Tips for Writing a Winning Small Business Grant Application Posted: 06 Jun 2022 02:00 AM PDT If you've researched grants for startup or existing businesses, you know how hard they are to find. Sure, you can find incubators, accelerators, loan programs, angel investors and venture capitalists, but the vast majority of those funding options require that you give up at least some equity in your business in exchange for some financial support. Grants don't. They're a no cost way to build your business in that they provide free money to invest in the people, materials, equipment or promotional tools you need to jumpstart your success. You might think that qualifying for a grant would require a lot of work but, in fact, most grant applications are fairly simple. You typically have to answer a series of questions about your business idea, your plans for the future, who you are and how the grant is going to make a difference in the success of your venture. Take your time in telling the grant committee why yours is the best business to receive the money being offered. Verizon Small Business Digital Ready: A free resource for grants, basic business skills, the latest digital technology and more. Here are some specific recommendations for crafting a small business grant application any award committee will pay serious attention to: Study winning grant applications The best way to approach your grant application is to look at past winners and model your responses after theirs. That doesn't mean copy them, but study how much space they devote to describing the business, how specific the response is with respect to customers and products and services, and how forward-looking the description is. That is, do the winners talk more about what they've already achieved or what they hope to in the future? See what has worked in the past. Many grant programs provide links to prior winners so you can do just that. Here's one from Eileen Fisher's business grant program, as well as past Amber Grant award winners. Provide numbers whenever possible Your first challenge is communicating clearly what your business does and who it serves, but your second challenge is proving that there is sufficient market demand for what you're selling. Organizations offering grant money want to support a viable business, so do your best to show yours is thriving. If you're already up-and-running, you can do that by reporting things like sales figures, growth percentages or average traffic figures to your store or website. It's easy to claim that there's interest in your products or services, but quantifiable evidence makes your case much stronger. And if you're a startup, although you may not have a sales history to report, you can still cite the size of your market, the growth rate of the industry as a whole, and demographic details that support the market opportunity. You could even do your own research by creating a survey using a tool like SurveyMonkey or run a poll in your business's Facebook group and report the results to the grant committee. Balancing written statements with numerical proof will make your grant application a much stronger contender for the money. Related: 15 Grant Programs for Minority and Women Business Owners Don't be modest Now is the time to speak up about your personal and business accomplishments. Include mentions of any honors and awards you've earned, any media attention you've received, or other achievements that reassure the grant committee that your company is already on the path to success. No, you don't need to mention your high school GPA (unless you're still in high school) or accomplishments totally unrelated to your business (like your record-breaking time running the 200-meter dash). But, assuming you have space, do include the fact that you have patents pending or are being mentored by a leader in your industry, for example. Be clear about how you'll use the money After you've convinced the grant committee that your business is deserving of their financial support, tell them exactly how you plan to spend the money. For example, WomensNet's Amber Grant application has only two questions, the second one being, "Tell us what you would do with the money if awarded a grant (of $10,000)." Be specific. What would you invest in? Then explain why those purchases will do the most good for your company. How is buying more raw materials the key to increasing profits? What will adding a part-time employee mean for sales? Or why is hiring an attorney the key next step for your business? Whenever possible, emphasize how pivotal this grant will be to your company's ultimate success. Indicate that your business has hit a plateau, or is just getting started, and that the grant money will make it possible for your enterprise to increase sales or profits exponentially. Follow directions In the excitement of filling out a grant application for your company, you may lose sight of some of the specific requirements. That's dangerous. Before you even start to type up your answers, read the instructions and guidelines several times. Know the rules so that you don't break them. That means knowing: The deadline for submission, most importantly. Miss that and you won't be considered. The maximum word count. If you're only allowed 500 words, don't try to reduce the font size to squeeze in 600. Your application will likely be disqualified and you'll be out of the running. Do you need recommendations? If you do, you'll want to start lining those up immediately, so you're not scrambling last minute to find someone who will provide one. Do you have to submit a video? Some applications require a video statement, which can take a little time to plan out and record, when done well. That means you'll want to think through what you're going to say, what backdrop you want to use, and who else should be in it with you, if anyone. Is voting involved? Public voting is sometimes a component of some grant programs. If that's the case, you may want to strategize how to rally your customers to vote regularly. The number of votes you receive may end up being the determining factor. Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter! Key takeaways The only thing you really have control over in this process is the quality of your application. Do the best job you can, then move on to something else that will benefit your business, whether that's exploring how to hire interns, or negotiating with suppliers about securing better payment terms, for example. There's so much else you can do to move your business forward, so don't think that a grant is the single answer to your startup’s success or failure. It's not. Nor is one grant application going to make or break you. In fact, there are several business grant programs out there for you to apply to. Originally published April 14, 2021. The post Free Business Funding: 5 Tips for Writing a Winning Small Business Grant Application appeared first on StartupNation.

The Challenges of Rural Entrepreneurship and Some Solutions Posted: 05 Jun 2022 09:00 PM PDT Rural area constitutes 97 percent of America’s land mass, but the 46 million U.S. residents living in rural areas in 2020 make up only about 20 percent of the American population. With so much of the nation considered rural, the concentration of people who might pursue entrepreneurship in a rural area is small. But, that doesn’t mean that rural entrepreneurship doesn’t exist. Quite the opposite! Rural communities have a higher percentage of self-employed individuals relative to urban areas. We see this on the ground in Marquette, Michigan. An entrepreneur at heart, I’m currently CEO of Innovate Marquette SmartZone and executive director of Invent@NMU in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Our work is to continuously push for more attainable entrepreneurial resources for small business owners, entrepreneurs and innovators. We’re a part of the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) where we foster solutions through cross-country collaboration with other rural communities. In Marquette, we partner with other economic development organizations to offer a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we have visibility into the many problems, and solutions, rural entrepreneurs face. Marquette, Michigan. Shutterstock What is rural entrepreneurship and what economic role does it play? Rural entrepreneurship is defined by both entrepreneurship that is launched in rural areas or that is brought to a rural area for incubation and acceleration. With many talented visionaries, recent significant investment toward broadband access, online learning opportunities, and space, the equation for rural entrepreneurship is well stocked. Rural entrepreneurship plays a major role in economic growth. In previous years, a large employer contributing to economic development in a rural town has been seen as a boon; these days that sort of recruitment is less desirable. Meaningful growth driven by rural entrepreneurship and innovation has become the focus for many communities across the U.S. New rural small businesses contribute disproportionately to job and productivity growth in many rural communities, providing numerous benefits. Opportunities & benefits of rural entrepreneurship Why choose rural entrepreneurship to start your business? Perhaps you’re one of the 46 million U.S. residents already located in a rural area. Perhaps you’re looking for lower startup costs, access to talent or expertise in a specific area (rural industries such as agriculture or outdoor recreation). Entrepreneurs can succeed anywhere — it’s a part of the tenacity that’s needed, among other things, to make it. Rural entrepreneurship has its own set of benefits. Eighty percent of rural small business owners believe the quality of life and cost of living are much better in rural areas. Rural businesses tend to operate at a higher profitability margin than businesses in an urban area (56 percent to 53 percent on average), and they are typically comparable in revenue to urban companies. This means rural entrepreneurs keep more of their business revenue and are subsequently able to provide a higher quality of life for themselves and their families, all while enriching rural communities. Verizon Small Business Digital Ready: A free resource for grants, basic business skills, the latest digital technology and more. The challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs Unfortunately, many well-documented challenges to rural entrepreneurship exist. Capital, talent and connectivity can all be hard to come by. Dedicated economic development groups are chipping away at these challenges, but by all measures there is a long road ahead. Access to funding A well-documented challenge for rural entrepreneurs is access to funding. Forty percent of rural small business owners have trouble accessing capital so most use personal savings. Resources do exist, but can be tricky to navigate. Local banking establishments may issue loans, the U.S. and state governments have grants available, and a growing number of funds specific to rural innovation like this one from CORI are now available to spur rural development. Access to talent Who are the people who make the move from urban or suburban to rural? One collection of stories is found in Make It Marquette’s People of Marquette series. From IT executives to international architects to folks homegrown in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, talent does flow in. Unfortunately, all over rural areas nationwide, it does also flow out. Rural communities across the nation have campaigns to attract talent for relocation to their corner of the U.S. It’s a solid solution, but let us not forget that the development of innovative communities can happen with all sorts of people. We know that common characteristics of innovative communities — those prone to entrepreneurship, vibrancy and growth – can be cultivated and even used to attract the sort of people needed to work on an entrepreneurial idea. Access to workforce is another challenge in some rural communities. Even if there are people looking for work, finding specialized workers with the right educational background is challenging with fewer people living in the area. Access to connectivity Connectivity can relate to digital connectivity, like broadband, or physical connectivity, like how easy (or hard) it is to get a flight to your rural area. Luckily, resources exist to help rural small businesses optimize connectivity that exists, and advocate to fill the gap of what’s missing. One such resource to explore is your local SmartZone. A SmartZone pinpoints a distinct geographical location where tech-based companies, entrepreneurs, and other small businesses are located in close proximity to the community assets they need to help maintain and grow their businesses. In conclusion While challenges exist for rural entrepreneurs, many solutions to counteract them do, too. Resources are growing all the time, and with dedication and ingenuity rural small businesses can grow right alongside.  StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here     The post The Challenges of Rural Entrepreneurship and Some Solutions appeared first on StartupNation.

Bespoke Marketing: A Tailored Approach for Startups Posted: 05 Jun 2022 09:00 PM PDT You probably get tired of having to answer the same questions over and over. After all, our lives seem to be an endless cycle of repeat questions. What is your social security number? When was your last physical? What year were you born? Do you drink more than one glass of wine/beer/spirits a day…a week…a month? It feels like Wash, Rinse, Repeat. This may be how most business owners and leaders feel when they contact a marketing agency or fractional chief marketing officer (CMO) service. The standard set of questions start: Who is your target market? What goals are you trying to achieve through marketing? What are the markers of success you monitor to determine your marketing is working? What marketing tactics do you use CONSISTENTLY? What is your most productive marketing tactic? What is your budget for marketing efforts? However, your marketing and bespoke tailoring may not be so different from each other in several areas. Marketing is a custom fit not a one-size-fits-all. Marketing requires specific tactics and tools. Bespoke clothiers work with only the best fabrics, seamstresses and tailor. Marketing just like bespoke clothing comes in a wide array of budgets. Depending on the level of customization, the budget for marketing increases. Let's see what happens when you begin to think of your marketing department, supporting marketing agency or even fractional CMO as a haute couture specialist or a bespoke tailor. Remember, they are trying to determine absolute best fit. Underrated Marketing Techniques Your Business Should Be Using Creating custom fit ME: Who is your target market? You: I just told you. We serve _____.  Why are you asking this again? ME: I know you told me ______, but after you explained your current business model, product/service, and clients, my guess is that your business may attract _____.  Do you want to attract the target market you mentioned, or are you just telling me what you decided years ago when you started your business? ME: What goals are you trying to achieve through marketing? You: I want to make more money! ME: Are there product lines that are under-producing? Are we attempting to drive traffic to those product lines to determine if they should continue? Or are we just growing your largest profit center even higher? What goals did you set as a company? My guess is that your goals are pretty specific. Just making more money is more generic. I am sure you need certain profit centers to make more money.  What are they? Who uses those services/products? What kind of marketing have you done specific to those services/products? ME: What marketing tactics do you use consistently? You: Nothing. That is why we are here! If we could consistently handle our marketing, we wouldn't need you. ME: I understand. However, there are probably things you do well. Do you ask for referrals? Does your staff share your Google Review Link? Do you network with certain groups regularly? Do you send out a marketing email monthly? Just because you aren't doing everything you would like to do doesn't mean that you aren't doing something well. We need to know what those things are so that we can build on those and grow your exposure. ME: What is your most productive marketing tactic? You: I don't know. We don't track that stuff. ME: Even if you don't track those numbers, you can make a best guess. How do clients/customers report they found you? Google? Social media? Someone told them about you? They drove by and saw your sign? This will give us a starting point of how current new business is finding you. ME: What is your budget for marketing efforts? You: As little as possible with as much reach as possible. ME: What I really want to know is whether your marketing budget is the first cut you make when you must make financial reductions. Do you keep your marketing budget consistent, or have you never really had a budget? Do you just make random decisions because something sounded like it would work or you had some extra money to spend? Do you believe that marketing is one of the driving forces of your business and you would never cut it unless it was a last-ditch effort? 7 Simple Reasons Your Social Posts Are Falling Flat Designing your marketing Owning or operating a business not only requires commitment, it also requires understanding of your industry/product/service and a fair level of risk tolerance. The questions your marketing experts ask helps them determine your level of each. Just as a fashion designer or bespoke tailor would want to know your level of fashion risk tolerance. Flashy silk lining or muted? Fabric with a lot of movement and flow or more structured pieces? Is your company open to new marketing channels or would you prefer to stick with more tried and true "classic"? Just as you would tell a bespoke tailor if the article of clothing is for a season or for a lifetime of wear, your marketing can also be built with the same perimeters. Are we building season campaigns or designing a long-term plan to provide the company with a plan that will "wear well" for the next five years of growth? Some channels work better over time. Others seem to be more season or trendy.  While all fabric can be made into an item of clothing, you might not select wool in the summer or silk in the winter. The same is true in marketing. If your marketing team is building a long-term campaign that will span a leveraged growth plan for your company, they would choose marketing tactics and channels that would be better suited to long-term growth and development over time and wouldn't change with the “seasons." So, the next time you reach out to work with your marketing team, a marketing agency or a fractional CMO and the questions start flying, maybe you will understand the questions they are really asking and be better prepared to communicate and engage quickly so that your marketing strategy and tactics can be employed efficiently. StartupNation exclusive discounts and savings on Dell products and accessories: Learn more here.     The post Bespoke Marketing: A Tailored Approach for Startups appeared first on StartupNation.

You are subscribed to email updates from StartupNation. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States