Google My Business Part 2 - Free ways to get better search results

Eric Brandt, CEO of 5th Gear Marketing, joins me again to discuss more ways to use your Google My Business profile to increase your search results.

To view the first video in which Eric explains how to set up your Google My Business account, click here.

Verb Live lets you broadcast and sell online in real time!

Verb Live is a new platform that allows small shops to create shoppable, online "TV" shows while interacting with viewers live - essentially recreating the in-store experience.

No downloads or tech expertise required. Plus, you can start for free.

If you're looking for an easy way to start selling online today, watch this demo today!

http://www.verb.tech

Three steps to a great holiday season!

If you’re wondering where to begin your planning this holiday season, here are 3 steps to help you get ready to succeed in this unusual time!

1.       Decide what you’re going to sell

2.       Decide how you’re going to sell it

3.       Let people know

Decide what you’re going to sell

I’ve been talking a lot about re-thinking your product and menu selection to meet the new needs and priorities of today’s post-quarantine consumer.  There’s a good chance what worked last year won’t resonate this year.  Take some time to thoughtfully consider what you need to offer to be relevant this year.

One strategy is to repackage and bundle your offerings in ways that strike a cord with today’s consumer and also generate increased average sale and possibly recurring revenue if offered as a subscription or membership.

Here are a few ideas

Babysitter in a box
Anything to keep kids entertained and happy are sure to be a priority for parents this year.  How can you creatively bundle products or virtual services (i.e. kid’s cooking classes) in a way that will appeal to parents?  By the way, since parents are going to be doing some guilt shopping this season, every category of store and restaurant should consider stocking kid-friendly goods.

Other box or subscription ideas include Happiness in a box, Serenity in a box, etc. that appeal to the sentiments of the day.

Zoom ready looks
Don’t just sell tops, jewelry, makeup or salon services. Promote them as being good choices for all the video conferences we’ve been doing.  Which makeup works best?  What tops are too bold? What kind of jewelry is too much or too little? Which hair styles t enhance your video image? You get the picture.  Even better, why not collaborate with your neighboring businesses to sell complete “waist up” look packages.

Virtual vacations
Restaurants can tap into people’s desire to travel by offering virtual vacation packages including the food, posters, movies, music, virtual tours and décor of a particular country in a complete at home dining experience. This type of package will sell at a premium price and can be sold as a subscription, featuring different countries and cuisines.

Finally, examine your product mix in context of today’s  at-home and socially distanced lifestyle, including the need for home office, home entertainment and unique gifts that express love and thoughtfulness in a world where personal contact cannot.

If you’re wondering what products and services are tops in online search queries in your state, try Thing with Google, a free service that posts tops searches by week, month and year and then even breaks it down by state. It’s free!

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/feature/category-trends/us/month/en

Decide how you’re going to sell it

Once you figure out how to package your products, the next step is to find new ways to sell it. Typically, retail and restaurant owners have relied on foot traffic as the defining success metric for their businesses. I encourage you to shift that thinking and focus on the sales themselves…understanding they can come from many different places and in many different ways.

Today, you have a variety of channels to enhance your sales and while you don’t have to necessarily become a traditional ecommerce seller, you must explore online sales options and I challenge you to test at least one of these options:

Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS)

Social media flash sales

Facebook/Instagram Shops

E-bay /Amazon

Virtual shows/sales

You can also look to add pop ups, offer co-retailing space and fine tune your curbside pick up program.

3.  Let people know

Step 3 is all about marketing. How can you effectively let people know what you’re doing?”

Think of marketing as the global impact of all the touchpoints of your business. From interior merchandising to high impact windows to outreach through email, social media and any other channels available to you.

With new and exciting offerings, your marketing has to match in tone. Think about Instagram-worthy merchandising, windows that “sell” using QR codes that link to merchandise or menus and high impact social media ads and posts.  We’ll be offering more hints and tips to up your marketing game in future blogs.

This is no time for business as usual. Consumers have been shopping online for 6 months now and it is our job to give them a reason to leave the house and shop local.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!

Angel

Restaurant increases revenues by 20 percent during pandemic.

Nick Moon, owner of Melbourne Seafood Station, opened his 4th location about 6 months before the pandemic.

Today, he has increased revenues by over 20% by doing 5 simple things:

1. Menu adjustments with a focus on value

2. Transition customers from 3rd party to self-delivery/pick up

3. Implementing a strong loyalty program

4. Taking pre-orders to increase capacity during peak times

5. Creating a consistent social media program

He tells you exactly how he did it in this video interview.

Plus, he started using Numa, an AI based platform that answers your phone and converts calls to orders. Numa was featured on an EASY+RETAIL+TECH podcast you can listen to here.

https://www.angelcicerone.com/easyretailtechpodcast/numa

Angel: We have got a great story to tell you today. You hear a lot of bad news during COVID, but today we feature a really good story about a business that is exceeding revenues from its pre-COVID days. Today we welcome the owner of that business, Nick Moon. Nick is the owner of Melbourne Seafood Station. He has four restaurants, but we're going to talk about one, the most recent one that he opened, which is in the Orlando, Florida area, correct, Nick.

Nick: Yes. In Hunter's Creek neighborhood of Orlando, Florida.

Angel: And this restaurant only opened in September of 2019. And by March, 2020, boom, the axe came down with Covid, correct?

Nick: It did, it really kind of kicked us in the gut.

Angel: Tell everybody a little bit about what you serve at Melbourne seafood station. And I want to add, the other three restaurants have been wildly successful.

Nick: Absolutely. We are a fast casual seafood restaurant. We focus on seafood boils. So it's primarily shellfish, shrimp, lobster, crab, scallops, oysters, mussels, clams, that kind of thing. We also do fish and chicken as well.

Angel: And it is fast casual, but it's a little pricey, correct? 

Nick: Compared to a hamburger, it's going to be a little bit more expensive, but if you're comparing us to Red Lobster or another seafood restaurant, it's a really good value.

Angel: Fantastic. So you opened up in September and then the Covid lockdown came and you were not prepared. Everybody was unprepared, but you were so new and you hadn't done this in any of your restaurants. You didn't even have delivery or online menus or any of that kind of thing set up yet, right?

Nick: No, we definitely didn't have any delivery setup or any online menus. It was just people walking in and people calling in.

Angel: And so how long before you set up delivery and how did you do it?

Nick: Immediately we started repurposing employees as delivery drivers and we signed up with GrubHub to handle deliveries for us.

Angel: This is when you and I started working together and you did one thing very early on that has made a tremendous difference in your business. What was that?

Nick:  We did a $29 family meal that included two pounds of shrimp. And they could get either rice or pasta, plus corn on the cob or broccoli. And that fed four people, and it was an extremely successful promotion.

Angel: And I want to make sure that everybody understands that was still a profitable deal.

Nick: Yeah. So it was about a 50% food cost for us. 

Angel: Fantastic. And you're used to high food costs in what you do anyway, so you pivoted immediately to provide that value. Then the next thing that we did, which I loved was the idea of delivery. I'm glad that GrubHub was delivering, but I don't want to use them if I don't have to. So tell everybody what you did then.

Nick: We added promotional cards to each delivery package to promote our own delivery.

Angel: So you put a card in with each order that went out through GrubHub.

Nick: Right. All orders that went out or were pickup included a promotion card, letting customers know that we deliver as well.

Angel: And did you offer a discount for that first one?

Nick: We offered $5 off their first store delivery order.

Angel: So inside of the GrubHub delivery order, you put a coupon for $5 off if they ordered directly through you. And I don't know if you know the percentage, but what kind of response did you see?

Nick: It was strong. Once the dining rooms were reopened again, then we saw the delivery kind of fall off. But during delivery we definitely saw an increase in store delivery - maybe about 50% more than we were doing before we offered the discount.

Angel: And then over the course of time, you kept adjusting and updating those family meals.

Nick: We did. Initially there was only one option, which was shrimp and the two side options. And then, we offered it with salmon, cod or chicken. So we had four different options for the family meal for the $29 price.

Angel: And did you see what percentage of sales did that family meal end up making of your total revenue?

Nick: Across all four restaurants, it was about 30% of our revenue.

Angel: Wow. That's a lot, people really did gravitate towards that, didn't they?

Nick: They did. So we actually added it to the menu now. Now it's something that's on our offerings permanently and it still accounts for 10 to 15% of our sales.

Angel: When you opened for dine-in, your delivery business stayed strong, correct?

Nick: The takeout stayed strong, the delivery kind of fell off a little bit.

Angel: So as we sit here today in August, what's your percentage delivery versus dine in?

Nick: Dine-In is going to be about 40% and delivery is about 10%.

Angel: Excuse me. That’s dine-in and delivery versus takeout? 

Nick: About 50% right now. 

Angel: Wow. That's huge. Another thing that you did during all of this craziness is you implemented a loyalty program.

Nick: We did. And I think when I ask our employees, “what's the number one thing you think that's working right now,” that's what they say; the loyalty program. They say the customers are just loving it.

Angel: Tell us a little bit about what your benefits are and what people have to do.

Nick: Just for signing up, they get a $10 reward in the mail. It takes about two weeks for them to get that, but it’s a hook. “Hey, sign up for this. You're going to get $10 off your next meal.” They also get a point for every dollar that they spend. Every 200 points they receive a $10 reward. They also get a birthday coupon for $10 and a free entree on their anniversary. 

Angel: And you offer double points on Tuesday.

Nick: Yes. We wanted to see if we could increase business during the week. We decided to just do it on Tuesday, which was one of the slower days and it really works.

Angel: Do you have any numbers for us on that promotion, in terms of increase?

Nick: Yes. It's been about 20 to 30% increase since we started doing that. 

Angel: That is really big. Now most of your business is weekend business, correct?

Nick: Yeah. Friday, Saturday and Sunday accounts for two thirds of our business.

Angel: So you created a preorder system and rewarded customers for ordering. Tell us about that.

Nick: When we knew we were going to be really busy on mother's day and father's day and a couple other times we implemented a $5 coupon toward their next purchase if they pre-ordered by the day before. And that really helped out. We had almost so many preorders that we weren't taking new orders.

Angel: That's amazing. And your mother's day was absolutely stellar, correct?

Nick: Across all of our locations. It was phenomenal. 

Angel: Isn't that amazing in the middle of all of this, the best ever. And your mother's day offering was the family meal with some additional things, correct?

Nick: We offered a, it was a whole lobster with scallops shrimp and it was, I think it was $30 or something like that for mom, it was a really good value.

Angel: I want to make sure everybody knows that during this time seafood prices were going down. So you weren't losing money on any of these things that you were making money. 

Nick:  That's one of the things that I’ve found has been the biggest savior is finding a good value item, like a lobster or something that people are really going to draw their attention in and then coming up with a great special, and then promoting the heck out of it on social media.

Angel: Let's talk about promotion. Because I know that wasn't your favorite thing to do when we first met, you've been more aggressive on social media. Tell us about some of the things that you've done that have worked for you.

Nick: The biggest thing is taking like a really appetizing picture and then promoting it through Facebook ads and boosting posts. We didn't do that consistently before, so we've been adding more money, at least a hundred dollars per post. And we've seen the revenue really take off from that. I believe it's because people are on their phones a lot with Covid, they are trying to get updates and they're just, they have more time to do that. So that's really the best way to reach them.

Angel: That's fantastic. So you are a new restaurant that's not doing as well as it could be. Covid hits, you implement five or six key things like menu items, loyalty program, marketing, value oriented deals. And why don't you tell everybody the upshot where your revenues are right now?

Nick: So right now our revenues for the last three months have been up 20% from where they were prior to Covid.

Angel: If anybody says you can't be making money during this time, what do you tell them, Nick?

Nick: You have to try. You have to try as many things as you can and find something that works and then stick to it and then find the next thing that works. But you can't just sit back and do nothing.

Angel: So I want everybody to understand Nick implemented quickly. He took new ideas and he executed quickly and well. It didn't really take you that much time, right? It didn't cost you any money. 

Nick: No, no it didn't. 

Angel: So it can be done. One of the things I want to talk to you about is a company called Numa, which I did a podcast on. And I happened to mention to you early on, and you actually went in and order their service. So why don't you tell us a little about how that works and what results you've seen?

Nick: Well, it's taken about two weeks to implement it. Because we do have four locations. We had to install it at four locations, train everybody and get it set up. But it gets to the phone requests that you can't get to. So in the busy periods, you're going to have a customer on the phone that you're trying to take an order for, another customer on hold and then other people trying to call in. And Numa takes on everybody, leaving the customer that's either in front of you placing the order or the one that you're on the phone with by answering the phone for those other customers. And it uses an AI technology that response to the basic converts to call into a text message where it can answer the customer's basic questions, as far as what time you're open, where to find the menu, those kinds of things you can prerecord responses to. And then if they want to order, it gives them a link to put their order in. Customers can even pay for their order on the system.

Angel: We're going to have to circle back with you in a couple of months to see the effectiveness of it. Because I think it's going to help a great deal.

Nick: It is. Just this Saturday we saw 20% of orders going through Numa.

Angel: Wow that is amazing. Great job. Great job. So we are definitely going to come back in six months from now, Nick, and we're going to hope that you have doubled business everywhere, particularly Orlando.

Any plans for the next new thing, between now and the end of the year? Because things are not going to change so quickly. So anything you've got on your mind?

Nick: We're just going to try to come up with as many creative marketing and advertising campaigns as we can address providing value for people, letting customers know that, hey, we're in this with you. We're not trying to make a fortune right now. We're just trying to get people good food at a reasonable cost.

Eric Brandt, CEO of 5th Gear Marketing explains how local business can leverage Google My Business

If you aren't maximizing outdoor dining, you are quite literally, thinking inside the box

I've heard a lot of talk about restaurant owners not wanting to offer outdoor dining offering excuses from it's too hot out or they'll just wait until local ordinances allow them to increase indoor dining capacity or simply, it's just too much trouble.

In my opinion, this is a BIG mistake. Here's the simple reason why.

There are a lot of folks out there who simply will not set foot inside a restaurant ...for a long time! They are uncomfortable with the idea of indoor dining and shopping and no amount of marketing or discounts will get them inside. That doesn't mean they don't crave the dining experience and wouldn't avail themselves of open-air dining, especially if you go the extra mile to help them feel safe.

Your knee jerk response might be that this cautious customer will continue to order curbside or delivery. Perhaps. However, the in-person experience offers a better opportunity to foster loyalty and increase check size through upselling and alcohol sales.

By offering an outdoor option, you not only increase seating capacity, you have a better chance to grab some new customers and gain market share. Plus, by fashioning a fun outdoor ambiance, you will create a lot of buzz in your community.

So broaden your view of what restaurant dining looks like. It doesn’t have to be indoors. The Europeans have been dining alfresco for years! You have a choice. You can throw a couple of tables outside and see what happens, or you can create a wonderful - even magical- outdoor dining experience. Even better, gather some of your neighbor restaurants and join together to make dining outside in your center something customers wish was available year ‘round!

Here are some tips and ideas for making outdoor dining appealing and efficient.

Space

Delineate your new “dining room” with planters, fencing, flower boxes, astro turf or plants to make it cozy and welcoming.  Tents, umbrellas, fans and misters are also options to keep guests cool and protected from the elements.

Create ambiance with hanging outdoor lighting and candles. Consider outdoor speakers for music or bringing in live entertainment.

Dress the tables so they are welcoming

Put  a sign at your entry that welcomes customers and outlines safety precautions your restaurant is taking.

Really important – be sure the chairs are comfortable! If you’re using metal chairs, provide pillows.

Menu

Adapt/simplify your menu to accommodate longer running times for orders.

To increase sales, offer 2-3 course menus, flights or other bundled options.

Service and safety

Use QR codes so customers can access menus online. This is more sanitary and saves money on disposable menus.

Put self-service water bottles on each table to eliminate need for additional contact and glass handling.

Instruct waitstaff to take entire order at one time. People will understand and this will make your kitchen more efficient.

Offer sanitizer gel at the hostess stand and on each individual table

Set out rolled utensils.

Offer serving utensils in dishes that are meant to be shared so customers won’t be tempted to use their own forks and spoons.

Put trash cans and sanitizer inside and right outside the restrooms.

Of course, make sure your staff and guests all abide by all social distancing and mask mandates.

Branding and Marketing

Look for opportunities to promote your brand. Logos on fencing or facemasks are fun. Encourage employees to bring extra shirts so they always look cool, crisp and clean. (If it’s really hot, give them extra breaks to cool down.)

Once you’ve gotten it all together, let the world know through every channel available to you, including letting your neighbors know. If your new space looks great, send a photo to the local newspaper for additional publicity.

When times are difficult, use the opportunity to take advantage of every resource you have. Right now, for restaurants, the path to increased revenue is right outside their doors!

Until next time remember,
You can do this!
Angel

7 Tips to Help You Prepare for the Recovery Marathon

Short term thinking is going to  damage more business than coronavirus! Of course you’re trying to scrape together sales today and  recoup the money you lost during lockdown. But more importantly, you need to be looking at the next 18 months and ways to rebuild and reinvent your business for a new (and exciting) reality!

Here are a few tips to get you started in your long term thinking strategy.

1.       Preserve capital
Slash expenses wherever you can and hold on to your cash with a tight fist. We don’t know how rough the recession is going to be or what changes you’ll need to make to your future business that will require money.

2.       Be ready to answer this question
“What do you sell and to whom? “  That answer shouldn’t be the same as it was pre-COVD.

3.       Seek clarity in small bites
None of us seems to have a working crystal ball right now and therefore, none of us knows what the future is going to look like. (Anyone who tells you they have the answers is lying!) So each time you see a clear path, even it’s only to the next step, take pride in that milestone

4.       Understand that recovery is not linear
Just because we may hit bottom, doesn’t mean it’s a straight shot back up. There may be plateaus. There may be changes in course.  Instead of being surprised, be prepared.

5.       Get real data on the situation

Take your personal life, business and perspective out of the equation and research how COVID has affected your category of business and your community. Is unemployment higher because a large company had massive layoffs? Were cases relatively mild? Try to drill down to understand how quickly your community will recover and get a better understanding of how to best serve them.

6.       Rehire carefully and with intention

Rebuilding your team is a fantastic opportunity to create a new culture that will successfully suit your future business.

7.       Cultivate your own war room advisors

This is absolutely no time to go it alone! Gather together business neighbors, friends, even customers to discuss the future from various points of view. You’re almost guaranteed to find new ideas and inspiration by doing this.

It’s time to let go of the business you used to have and embrace the new opportunities that lie ahead.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!
Angel

The post-quarantine customer profiles - and how to sell to them

Are customers behaving and acting a little different these days? Probably so. As we come out of lockdown, customer behaviors have changed, as have their attitudes. Here’s an overview of the four post-quarantine customer profiles to help make purchasing and marketing decisions as well as to correctly adjust your revenue expectations in the coming months.

Number 1
The Fearless

These are the folks that were at stores, restaurants, salons and gyms the second they open. They are unafraid of the virus and anxious to socialize. They are immediate customers and happy to be able to access shopping and entertainment.  Get them into your loyalty program and market aggressively to increase frequency of purchase/visit.

Number 2
The Fearful
The exact opposite of group 1, these are the people who won’t come out of their house until they get the all clear, probably until there’s a vaccine. Unless you are selling necessities online, you probably won’t win these customers back for some time.

Number 3
The Unable
This group is, for a number a reason, unable to leave their homes for physical restrictions or unable to purchase due to financial circumstances. Online necessities and low-cost digital entertainment might be good options. Consider online book clubs and other digital gatherings to keep your visibility high for when this gr

Number 4
The Cautious
This probably represents the majority of consumers right now. They are open and optimistic but adopting a “wait and see” attitude to each new phase of reopening. They won’t be forced into shopping and dining out but, if they feel safe, will dip their collective toes in the water. The most important thing to remember with this group is to market consistently to inspire them to come out and when they do,  insure their experience at your store and restaurant is flawless. Safety first is the message here.

Diffusing the great mask debate!

Masks are making business owners crazy! 

Whether you agree with wearing them or not, as a business owner, you need to figure out how to diffuse customer situations from escalating and enforcing employee compliance. And still keep your sanity!

I just created a short video, 3 things you can do to diffuse the great mask debate and 1 thing you should absolutely NOT be doing! 

The successful business is one that solves problems. Duh!

A very successful small business owner said to me last week, " A successful business is one that solves problems." It's a beautifully simplistic motto for us to remember daily.

What I am finding however, in the post-quarantine world, is too many business owners are trying to solve their own problems, not their customers'! It's understandable. You're fighting for the future of your business.

But if you are really looking for immediate and long term success, you need to be thinking about how to serve your customer. In subtle - and not so subtle ways- you may be putting your needs before theirs and quite frankly, losing the loyalty of these important early stage return customers.

Here are a few examples I’ve seen in just the past week:

A restaurant owner doubling the price of wine by the glass with the explanation that f he isn’t going through wine as quickly. Duh! Why not offer attractive wine by the bottle options to increase average sale and make the customer feel great about purchasing it?

A clothing retailer desperate to sell existing inventory that consists mostly of prom and wedding guest dresses. Duh! For the most part, people need comfortable daily wear to get them through a routine summer. Keep changing your inventory to meet the changing needs of today’s consumer and when the time comes, they’ll come back for your specialty.

A restaurant trying to cram outdoor seating areas to maximize capacity is wondering why so many potential customers are walking away. Duh! Even if you’re not scared of the virus, there are plenty of people who are still fearful. Do everything you can to make them feel comfortable. If you have to charge a minimum in order to make your numbers, go ahead and do that but don’t be insensitive to customer needs.

A dry cleaner bemoaning there’s no business because people aren’t going to work. Duh! By contrast, another dry cleaner is literally cleaning up by helping customers “clean the quarantine” out of their home goods (sheets, bedspreads, etc.).

Your custome'rs needs today bear almost no resemblance to their needs four months ago! Don’t sell them what you have. Fix a problem. Fill a need. Calm their fears. Solve today’s problems today and you’ll most likely have a loyal customer for life.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!
Angel

Are you one of the 10 percent?

As states permit businesses to reopen, 90 percent of owners won’t do anything other than unlock their doors, provide mandated safety measures and wait for something to happen.

Don’t be one of them.

Because these are the business owners focused on merely surviving the next few months, getting forgiveness for their PPP loan and trying to sell customers whatever it is they happen to have pre-virus. These are the 90 percent.

But you are different. You are not focused on merely surviving. You are focused on coming out of the other side of this with a healthier, stronger business.  One that’s ready to continue to adapt to a fast-paced and changing environment and services its customers on the highest level.

Now, the big question, what do you need to do to become one of the 10 percent?

First, float
When caught in a rip current, swimmers are advised to stop fighting and just float. This pandemic has been the mother of all currents and fighting it is exhausting. Nobody expects you to completely understand how to navigate the situation but if you want to successfully get past this particular point in time, you need stop fighting for life and take a minute to clear some headspace. You need to let new ideas materialize instead of panicking because you don’t have all the answers.

Learn the lessons
What could have/should you have done differently prior to the pandemic? Identify the weak spots that existed (yes, every business has them) and fix them as part of your move forward plan.  Whether it’s net profitability, staff training, merchandising or marketing – now’s the time to fix it!

(Note – while we don’t have a lot of answers on what life is going to look like over the next months, we know one thing for sure: those businesses without a robust digital presence did not have as strong a chance to succeed. You might need to put this at the top of your list.)

Get the facts
There are two things you need to look at: what’s going on in your industry and what’s going on in your community.  Are there best practices within your industry? Do they jive with what is happening in your neighborhood? Understanding what people want and need right now is the best framework in which to make decisions.

Create a tribe
Engage your team in becoming part of the 10 percent team. A great business is made up of great people and employees need to be buy in to your vision because they are critical to making it happen.

Make it fun
Just because life is difficult, doesn’t mean you can’t shine a ray of light in people’s lives. From your marketing to your attitude, make your business a bright spot.

Give people a reason to leave the house
This has always been one of the “aha” moments in my work with retailers; are you doing something that makes customers want to leave their house vs. ordering online? Today, that’s taken on a whole new, meaning in a world where we, quite literally, have to encourage people dip their toes back into regular consumer behavior. As a retail store or restaurant owner, be sure you are providing good reasons for a visit. Status quo won’t cut it in these days.  

I applaud you for making the commitment to be a part of the 10 percent club. Adapt. Change. Fight.
Make this situation a stepping stone for a great future.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!
Angel

4 steps to re-emergence

As most of you prepare to open your stores to the public in some capacity, here are a few key tips to consider.

Re-enforce your message

A consumer’s decision to patronize your store or restaurant now isn’t just about need or desire. It’s about trust.  Do they trust you are doing everything possible to keep them safe? Beware that even one mishap in front of visitor that would even hint your procedures are lax will likely garner a passionate, negative review.

Not only do you need to do the right thing – you need to reinforce your sanitization and safety measures consistently. Let customers know what to expect when they visit. Be as specific as possible with your cleaning schedule and your rules. Train your staff to not just follow procedures, but to also inform customers about them. Your job is to let visitors know you take this very seriously on a daily basis, not just today, but as we continue to move forward.

Re-hire with intention

Pre-pandemic retail and restaurant owners did a lot of complaining about staff quality.  Yet post-COVID, owners seem disappointed when those same employees failed to return. If there is any upside to this pandemic, it’s that the labor pool is deeper than it’s been in a long, long time and you have an opportunity to improve the quality and culture of your staff. Don’t just re-hire out of guilt or because it makes things easier. Use this time to interview and hire the best possible employees!

Re-imagine your business
At first, you’ll probably be in survival mode, trying to sell what you’ve always sold the way you’ve always been selling it. But that’s probably not going to get you where you want to be in the long term.  Pay close attention the impact of the virus on your community.  Were there major layoffs?  Was it highly impacted healthwise? Perhaps you live somewhere that escaped major impact.

Be prepared to adjust your business to meet the needs of your community. You may have to do this a number of times between now and “normal.” Be flexible and fluid with merchandise types and price points as well as delivery channels like curbside and online shopping carts.

Request community support

There’s never been a greater awareness of or support for small business. But sadly, there are financial hardships which will prevent many from patronizing your store or restaurant at this time.  Nonetheless,  you can still request support for your business in non-financial ways. Reach out and ask for reviews, referrals and social media followers. Be authentic in your request and you’ll be surprised at how many people want to do their part to help.

You may think you’re reopening your old business but in many ways, you’re opening a new business. Be flexible. As a small business owner, you have the extraordinary advantage of being able to make decisions and changes quickly. Use this to your advantage as you find new ways to serve your market.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!

Angel

Linda Cahan discusses high impact exteriors - even if you're closed!

Creating an online store quickly with Shopify expert Megan Spaulding.

Understanding that money is extremely tight for small retailers right now, Megan has created an exceptional offer to create a Shopify store with up to 100 products for just $129 per month. Here's the link for details. http://brand-science.co/ecommerce/angel/

RECOVERY Don’t fix the faucet, fix the well.

Take a good hard look at your pre-virus businesses. Chances are it wasn’t perfect. How many times did you do a work around rather than actually fix the problem. What systems were broken? What did you always want to do, fix or change?

Use this time to fix it once and for all in 5 key areas.

Operations/store

From properly programming your POS to decluttering your cash wrap to improving your signage and merchandising get your store experience and efficiencies in order. (We'll discuss COVID related changes in another post.

Customers

How much do you really know and how much can you find it? Dig into the data Frequency of purchase? Average sale? What are they buying?

Create the reports that tell you as much as possible about your current customer to use in future decisions.

Vendors

This is a great time to negotiate pricing and payment with your existing vendors and also to research new vendors. You might be able to negotiate some exclusivea or find more made-in-the USA products.

Training

If you are still paying staff – use this time to train in customer service, sales, upselling and protocols for handling a “new type of customer we may be seeing in the future. If they’re not working, prepare a training program you can commit to.

Technology

Research new tech platforms that will help you run a more efficient and effective business. It’s all there for you. Check out the EASY+RETAIL+TECH podcast for ideas. http://www.angelcicerone.com/easyretailtech

The Challenge

The last step in the rebuild process is a challenge, I challenge you to grow your social media followers and /or your email database by a minimum of 10%. Make this a goal now that you’ll reopen with a bigger base of fans. Having a larger base may help you gain more traction during the recovery.

Until next time, remember,
You can do this!
Angel

Make it a Mother's Day to Remember!

Mother’s Day spending in 2019 set a chart topping record at $25 billion! While we can’t guarantee sales will be quite as robust in this very strange year, this important holiday can add some additional revenue to your bottom line, if you prepare and market properly.

Social
Even if you’re not open for sales, you should still take advantage of the holiday to community in a heartfelt way with your tribe.
Creatively connect with your followers. Here are some ideas.

Ask kids to write short love letters to or make homemade cards or create ways to thank mom (i.e. chalk drawings on the driveway) for their moms and post to your page

Post photos of famous TV moms for identification and discussion

Ask mom’s to post their favorite photos from pregnancy

Tik Tok asked people to re-create a favorite old family photo with amazing results. 
You can do the same.

All these ideas can be the basis for competition and prizes, from awarding a prize to the entry with the most “likes” to choosing random winners. Use the time leading up to Mother’s Day to engage your audience and offer a sweet distraction.

Looking forward
There will be a time when we can go to the theater, a concert or a restaurant again! So don’t limit your Mother’s Day offerings to what’s available today. Use the holiday to create “Future Fun” packages. Bundle together dinner and a movie for a future date. In doing so, you are starting to rebuild your in-store business at a later date while generating cash flow now.

Product sales
Just as there are moms with a million different interests, there are a million different gift ideas, so no business is really exempt from potential Mother’s Day sales. Your best opportunity here is to create bundles and packages that have a “wow” factor and a higher average value. For the crafty mom (glue guns, fabric and sewing notions) to handy moms (tool kits)  to  podcast/blogger mom (mics and software) and healthy mom (gym equipment). This list even extends to home décor and gift shops to set up virtual meetings with interior designers. Aren’t we all ready to decorate after 6 weeks at home?

Be clever and add wine or balloons to the bundles or even hard-to-find sanitization products as a special nod to these unusual times.

Even if you don’t have an ecommerce site, post your best bundles on social media and link to PayPal or take credit cards by phone.

Spas and Salons
Personal services have always enjoyed a big bump in sales for Mother’s Day and this year should be no exception. Again, create product and service bundles to increase average sale with value-add gift certificates to encourage in-store visits later on.

Restaurants
In addition to special brunch and dinner menus, add picnic and grilling options and consider fun packaging for delivery like picnic baskets with napkins, bouquets made out of napkins, DIY card kits for the kids to make – anything that will make the day special.

Encourage pre-orders by eliminating delivery charges for ordering 24 hours in advance.

Start promoting now
Although these sales tend to be more last minute, it’s important to keep your offerings front and center while they’re making their decisions. Keep in mind that you are still competing for market share so It’s a wonderful time to be creative and timely.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!

Angel

3 Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make With Their Video Marketing

For those of you exploring video marketing, Nina Froriep
Visual Storyteller at Clock Wise Productions talks about the 3 tops mistakes to avoid.

Restaurants, this is your time to shine!

Restaurant owners, you are now at the heart of our home-bound economy. And in an interesting twist of events, food delivery has made you an important link between us and the outside world. With that, you are now uniquely positioned, not just to feed our bellies, but to feed our souls as well.

If you are willing to be flexible, open minded and stay relevant over the next month or two (or three) as we move through this crisis, you can create profound relationships with your customers, find new ones and come out the other in an even better position than before.

Here are a few suggestions.

Keep pushing the sanitization and customer service messages
I noticed much of the promotion I’m seeing has stopped talking about sanitization procedures and is simply promoting product.  It’s way too soon for that and will most likely be an ongoing consumer concern months after businesses reopen.

Here’s a great message from a client of mine that hits all the right notes:
“Your continued support is what drives us. We are navigating this storm called Covid-19 with you as well as with millions of other small businesses around the country. We’ve abbreviated our menu, changed our hours and have stepped up sanitation protocols. All these changes have produced greater flexibility and understanding with meeting our customers’ requests. If you have any questions, concerns, comments or special request, don’t hesitate to contact us via phone, emails, DMs at any moment of the day. This is the right time to have open and flexible lines of communication.”

Continue to refine your menus, ordering windows and efficiencies

Hopefully, you have already migrated from your regular menu to family meals and “take and bake” options, etc. Keep refining that menu week after week to keep value and interest high. People are feeling the financial pinch and at the same time, getting bored and on the lookout for new meal options. Include the ability to pick up or deliver multiple meals, reducing delivery fees and human contact.  Create shortened ordering windows to allow you more time to prepare your food. And, of course, offer market staples like eggs, milk, meats, produce and bread as part of your menu.

Become a social connection
Just because your customers aren’t dining together doesn’t mean they aren’t still part of your tribe.
Invite your customers to stay connected with each other via your social platforms. Place a flyer in your to-go orders that asks customers to post a photo or video of them eating your food and tag you. Have a “dine out with each other night” and host a Zoom dinner. Ask customers to record a message of thanks to healthcare workers, grocery store workers or whomever else you want to honor and post them on your Facebook page. Invite customers to do a social media takeover for an hour or a day. People are craving a connection and you are in a unique position to facilitate that.

Become a purveyor of life’s little pleasures

As the new delivery connection, why not use the platform to bring more than just food into the lives of your customers – and help your local business neighbors at the same time? After multiple weeks in quarantine, people are starting to run out of candles, nice soaps and other things that make life bearable. Partner up with nearby stores to add these little pleasures to the menu. Also offer celebration opportunities like candlelit dinners.

I urge you to take a breath and remember, you are not just working on your short-term survival, you are building the foundation for a new and better business post-crisis.

Until next time, remember,
You can do this!
Angel

Checklist for scaling back or closing your business.

If you are closing your store or restaurant, I have uploaded a checklist to help you through the process. Click here to access. If you have any additions for the list, comment below and they’ll be added.

Restaurants: Delivery business vs. closing

Many of you have been trying to adjust to the delivery and curbside pick up model this past week. Some are experiencing good sales; others are struggling. Here are some tips to improve your to-go business and some tough questions to determine whether or not you should close your doors for now.

To improve delivery and pick up business
1. Adjust your menu to meal-based options. Focus on comfort food and healthier dishes. People will no longer be able to afford “off the menu” single dishes.

2. Create a weekly menu of options so people so they can order once for the week. This will afford you efficiencies in prep and delivery and possibly reduce costs.

3. Provide the option of purchasing food staples with orders (eggs, milk, bread, produce, etc.

4. Don’t be afraid to offer something special as well (date night box, brunch in a box, specialty drinks, etc.)

5. Cut your hours. No need to be open 7 days.

6.. Don’t stop promoting your sanitization procedures

7. Promote like crazy. Use your email database and social media platforms to get the word out.

8.. Check out this video called Getting Ahead of the Curve through Collaboration for ideas on working with neighboring restaurants to improve efficiencies and exposure in the community.  https://www.angelcicerone.com/covid-19/collaborate

If you did not have a decent take out or delivery business before the outbreak, there’s a good chance you aren’t seeing sufficient revenue. Should you close for now?

Please take a minute to do an honest assessment. If you don’t have a good email database, a decent social media following or traction with the 3rd party delivery services, there’s a good chance you’re not going to be able to sustain as a delivery-only establishment.

Take a breath to evaluate, even if you have to close for a day. Do the math. How much are you losing? How much would you save by closing the doors, and reducing the electric bill and cutting off all unnecessary expenses like internet access, reducing payroll and payroll taxes?

If the numbers tell you it’s time to stop, then stop. Don’t panic. Preservation of capital is an excellent strategy for future success. Cut every cost possible.

Remember, closing up is not giving up.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!
Angel