Is now the time to deploy a new product or service in Canada?

It is with great satisfaction that I begin a new series of articles for Castanet. Four years ago this month, I started Floodlight Consulting in Kelowna BC with the view of assisting small and mid-size businesses, and entrepreneurs to articulate what they do best in the Okanagan Valley.

The idea was to support my clients in such a way as to have them generate more daily sales. This would be accomplished through increased exposure, marketing, and branding.

In tough, economic conditions, I believe that our clients help us to decide what new services we should be deploying. It is only when we are tuned into our target market are truly offering the right services this business-client insight is then reflected in the retention, and acquisition of a new client base.

When was the last time you surveyed your clients?

In my first year of coaching on a professional level, I was providing three specific services to my clients, and this only over a short period of time. Every six months, I would have to find new clients in order to continuously fill the sales funnel.

At the end of the first year, I decided to do a survey through the services of Survey Monkey. I used a template questionnaire that they provide for Service, adding this question: “What is missing from my program?”

The answers were, on the whole, favourable this confirmed my expectations.

However, what I did find out from that survey was the following: my clients did not pursue my services at the end of the existing contract, this due to the fact that I did not offer them the next steps in the process, i.e. the services that would have ensured a continued, working relationship.

What a wake-up call!

In a short period of time, I added a few more services. To date, due to these additional services, I retain 65% of my clients.

In listening to my clients, I formulated appropriate programs, and created a niche for my coaching services in the Okanagan Region.

The question now is: what new services can you provide to your present clients, the ones that they would be willing to pay for?

The $29.95 I spent was a worthy investment which allowed me to better understand my clients.

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Do you want to grow and market your business — even in a down economy?

Click here for more information

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Donald Robichaud

President FloodLight Consulting

250-768-9415

http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/

http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

As posted on Castanet:

10 Ways to Grow Your Homebased Business in Kelowna

In doing some research for FloodLight Consulting we came across this great article online at http://www.entrepreneur.com/ and recommend it to all Okanagan Entrepreneurs.

Don Robichaud - FloodLight Consulting

When the status quo just won't do anymore, these 10 ideas will help you take your home based business to a new level.

Small is beautiful. Slow and steady wins the race. Inch by inch, row by row, that's the way my garden grows.

While such homespun wisdom might be fine for common folk, it can be awfully frustrating for an ambitious home based business owner determined to take his company to the next level of growth and profitability.

Sure, a thriving one- or two-person service business with no inventory, rent or employees can seem like an easy way to make money at first, but when the phone starts ringing off the hook and customers keep coming back for more, home based business owners who fail to plan often fall victim to their own success. Either they burn out trying to juggle everything themselves or they spend so much time and money hiring people to help them that their profits go down the drain.

Fortunately, there are some ways to take your home based business to new heights without sacrificing your business's profitability or losing your peace of mind.
Follow these 10 steps to grow your home based business into the personal and professional success it was meant to be:

1. Focus on a single product or service, and then market it, sell it, promote it-do everything you can to increase sales of that one product or service in Kelowna. While it's tempting to swing for the fences and try to be all things to all people, it's often less risky and more profitable to pick a product or two that you can execute really well and just try to get on base.
Richard Roy, a Sparta, New Jersey landscaper, started a home based dog-waste removal business called Dr. Pooper Scooper when he got tired of picking up the dog poop from his customers' lawns. Instead of splurging on a retail storefront or an expensive Yellow Pages ad, Roy decided to use his truck as his primary advertising vehicle. Says Roy, "I decorated the truck as a Dalmatian, used full signage and put magnetic business cards on it. By using the truck as my moving billboard, by joining community groups and through word of mouth, I've turned what was once my nightmare into a thriving business serving 100 customers and making 1,100 pickups a week."
Thanks to Dr. Pooper Scooper's success, Roy is now planning to phase out his landscaping business and focus on his new venture full time. "When I scoop the poop, I do it 12 months a year and never have to fix or replace equipment," Roy says. "It's also three time easier than landscaping, and I can do it until I can't walk anymore."

2. Expand your product line in the Okanagan to offer complementary products or services. Once you've hit on a product or service that customers really like, don't miss the opportunity to bring out related items to diversify your product line. Not only does that give your customers a wider selection, but it also makes your products more appealing to retailers who typically like to stock a line of products as opposed to a single item.
Meredith LiePelt, who runs a company called Contemporary Baby out of her home in Dublin, Ohio, started off making colorful burp cloths for newborns. Now she's expanded her line to include such "go along" products as receiving blankets, bibs and gift baskets. Says LiePelt, "Our retail customers have enjoyed having more gift-giving options, and our wholesale clients are able to offer their customers a wider selection to choose from."

3. Find ways to increase sales to your existing Kelowna customers. It's a lot cheaper than finding new ones. Even if you can't expand your product line, you can boost revenues by selling more of your existing product or service to the clients you already have. One easy way to do this is through volume discounts. Especially if your products cost little to produce, offering your customers the chance to buy, say, two T-shirts for the price of one lets you ring up additional sales without sacrificing much profit. Another common practice is to reward loyal customers by giving them a punch card that entitles them to a free product or service for every 10 items they buy. This technique is common at hair salons, car washes and arts-and-crafts stores, but home based businesses can use it, too.

4. Hire someone in Kelowna to help you out-an employee, a freelancer, an intern, an independent contractor, even your kids. Not only does this free up cash flow by adjusting your expenses to the level of work you bring in, but it also enables you to cultivate a large network of talented people you probably couldn't afford to hire full time.
Marc Kirschner, a neighborhood directory publisher in New York City, employs 50 to 75 writers-all of whom are freelancers-to develop his directory's content. This way, Marc saves on payroll taxes, medical benefits, employer liability insurance and all the other costs of hiring full-time staffers. There are other benefits, too. "Bringing in outside help gives you someone else to bounce ideas and strategies off of," Kirschner says. "It prevents you from feeling you're going it alone."

5. Create a Web site to advertise your company in Kelowna or sell products online in the Okanagan. Thanks to the Internet, it's no longer necessary to open a store to reach retail customers. For marketers of specialty products like rare books, collectibles and gourmet foods, a Web-based boutique lets you reach millions of shoppers around the world without paying for rent, utilities or garbage collection.
And while creating Web sites once required a big investment and the skills of an experienced Web designer or programmer, do-it-yourself Web sites are now available for less than $30 a month with no technical knowledge required. Typically, the companies that help you register your domain name (Web address) will provide online templates you can use to build your site, host your Web pages on their server and provide you with multiple e-mail addresses as well. E-commerce capabilities can often be had for an additional charge. You can also set up low-cost Web sites through Web hosting companies and search engines.

6. Join forces with another business in Kelowna to promote your company. Partnering with a company in a related industry is one of the cheapest and easiest forms of marketing that you can employ. If you make spa products, for example, you may be able to convince a local health club to carry them in its store by offering a discount to its members. Likewise, you can send a free, one-day health club pass to anybody who buys your lotions and scrubs.
Nancy Tamosaitis, a home based publicist, says her New York firm, Vorticom, has partnered with a graphic design firm to provide creative services such as Web design and brochures to her corporate PR clients. From time to time, she also joins forces with specialty PR firms to assist clients in fashion, finance and other industries. "Now that I'm working from home, my clients receive infinitely better service and results-at much lower cost-than when I managed a $3 million profit center at a top PR agency," Tamosaitis says.

7. Target other markets in Canada. If you sell to teens, start marketing to college students. If you sell to working moms, maybe your product will work for stay-at-home moms with a few modifications. Another strategy is to take a retail-oriented product or service and sell it wholesale. For example, a home based catering business that specializes in cakes, pies and other tasty desserts can contact local bakeries to sell its goods on a wholesale basis. While the price you get from the bakeries will be lower (because the bakeries need to mark it up to their customers to make a profit), you'll sell more products and generate consistent cash flow that you can bank on.

8. Find new and different ways to market your business in Kelowna through e-mail newsletters or by doing guest-speaking gigs or by teaching a class.
Marketing your home based business doesn't need to involve spending big money on newspaper ads, Yellow Pages listings, or TV or radio spots. Grassroots marketing techniques cost far less and are often much more effective. Most chambers of commerce and community groups are more than happy to provide a forum to a local business owner who's willing to share his expertise at no charge. Sending out a weekly newsletter is also a great way to get your name out in front of new and potential clients. Thanks to the Internet, you can send out your newsletter via e-mail using online templates and automated delivery systems.

9. Expand to another location in Kelowna. That could mean renting "virtual" office space in a business center or by sharing office space with another growing business.

Brad Taylor, a CPA in Springfield, New Jersey, spends most of his time at home preparing tax returns, developing tax-planning strategies and revising his clients' QuickBooks files. But when he needs to come to New York City for a meeting, he sometimes rents space at a Manhattan business center operated by HQ Global, a national provider of temporary office space.
For a monthly fee or a la cart, business centers like these offer everything from conference rooms and receptionist services to remote-access voicemail, high-speed Internet connectivity and tech support, offering home based business owners as much or as little outside office services as they need. Taylor pays just $10 an hour to use the space and is able to bill the cost to his client. "While I still want to run my business from home, this has allowed me to pursue new opportunities and network with other professionals," Taylor says.

10. Think about turning your business into a franchise or business opportunity in the Okanagan. While most home based businesses remain small, yours may have the potential to hit the big time through franchising, licensing or wholesale distribution. The key question to ask yourself is if your business can be converted into a business format that somebody else could operate (a franchise) or if you have a standardized product or service that someone could resell multiple times (a business opportunity).

While you may think that expanding your business requires raising capital, hiring employees, buying equipment and leasing office or warehouse space, it's often more profitable-and less risky-to license your product to a big corporation with manufacturing capabilities and an existing sales force to do the work for you.

Building Sustainable Communities Event Kelowna

From Tuesday, February 24th to Thursday, February 26th, 2009 The Delta Grand Okanagan Resort in Kelowna B.C. will be hosting the Building Sustainable Communities Conference.

With more that 100 speakers from the public, private, non-profit, and academic sectors.

Featured Topics Include:

-SustainAble Agriculture
-SustainAble Business
-Community SustainAbiltiy (for local governments

to register for the conference please visit:

www.regonline.ca/bsc2009

for more information on sustainability please visit:

http://www.freshoutlookfoundation.org/

“sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
-The Brundtland Commission