Heather Vreeland | Business & Bright Ideas

There’s an upcoming event in Atlanta for Wedding Professionals that’s all about business plans. Although, the thought of writing one kind of brings one back to college paper writing days, my journey to Atlanta Occasions started as a direct result from my business plan so I have a special place in my heart for them… no matter what stage of your business. The irony is however, I didn’t write the business plan for the current business I own…… so here’s my story.

In 2006 I moved to Atlanta knowing no one and nothing about this city. I left behind a well established career in the Spa and Salon industry, but I knew that this new city had new experiences for me, so I wasn’t looking for a job in the same field. Instead, I got a job at David’s Bridal that paid a whopping $7/hr…. a far cry from my previous salary, but a clock-in and clock-out type gig with no responsibilities besides making sure the mirrors were fingerprint-less. Heaven.

While working there I found an opening for a Spa Director position at a Medical Spa near my house and ultimately left the hourly job for a career back in the spa world. While it was tremendously rewarding, it wasn’t ME. I’m terribly assertive and a go-getter.. My way or the highway type person and I knew I had the desire to be an entrepreneur, I just didn’t know in what fashion.

Everyday on the way to work I would pass this super cute old Antebellum home just outside of my neighborhood. Restored and currently outfitted as a restaurant, that place had been for sale since I moved to the big ATL. One day I said, “I think that place would make a great event venue.” The next day I viewed the property with the realtor and the day after that I began putting together what would end up to be the thickest, most well thought out business plan for “Bear Creek Manor” (that’s what I was going to name it), a new wedding and special event facility in Hampton, GA. I spent months planning, researching, acquiring financing, meeting with contractors and when it came down to closing the sale… those people just wouldn’t take my low ball offer. So, I walked away from the project. By this time I had quit my job and was left soul-searching for where I was meant to be.

I went back to my business plan thinking “what the heck am I going to do with all this now?” I got to thinking about how I was going to market the facility in the first place. How would I reach the Henry County bride. Metro Atlanta is so large, how could I have ever really made this new venue stick out in the sea of facilities online. I just had this thought, spark, idea… call it whatever, that made me wonder why Atlanta, or any other major metro area, doesn’t have a website where someone can narrow their search by region and county. Something that gives us Henry County businesses, our own spot in the limelight. And because one didn’t exist… I decide to make it myself.

From that moment on I immersed myself into what was now known as AtlantaOccasions.com with no business plan, prior planning, major research or financial backing. Fast forward two years and I now have a very successful AtlantaOccasions.com AND an Atlanta Occasions Magazine that’s morphed a tad bit from my original inspiration, into something even cooler. I have made mistakes along the way, nothing of too much determent to my biz, but things that had I forseen in my initial pre-planning would have saved me big bucks along the way. Had I paused to create a new plan for this idea I had been inspired to created by my initial business plan, I may have made different decisions that could have quite possibly saved me time, heartache and money-honey.

Everyone needs a little pause and focus time in their business. Time to stop, smell the roses, reflect on what you’ve created and reanalyze your path. Maybe you’re headed in the right direction, or maybe the currents are moving and so should your business. You’ll never know, unless you give yourself the time to think it through. Business plans do not make or break a business but they do force you to completely analyze your business from every facete and angle. They point you in the best direction and serve as a guide to keep you on that path or highlight new paths that you may not have considered.

Atlanta Wedding Professionals have the opportunity to do just that in a few weeks. A course completely designed for the bridal industry business plans is coming to Atlanta. I encourage you to seek out more info the Sage Wedding Pros are offering and consider what a class like this could do for your new, established, or in need of some TLC business. For more details click here.

I do this a lot. Some may say too much, but keeping a keen eye on your business and your market keep you tuned into the reality which surrounds you. Many people think that I have a glamorous publishing background, and sadly it’s just not so. I’m on my way there though. What I did have was inspired thought and the guts to act on it. Sometimes, that’s all you’ll ever need.

How’s your business going? Is there advice, questions or new marketing topics you’d like to see discussed that would help you succeed?

Walmart is good for one thing. People watching. No wait, two things… midnight runs to buy the movie Twilight when you realize you can’t stream it live from Netflix (yes, that really happened).

I used to shop at Walmart. I admit. I was single, broke and starting my fresh new career and on a budget. Every time I went grocery shopping I would get so frustrated because Walmart never had the fresh produce I was looking for. I’d inevitably have to go to a second store to complete my list, walk into Publix and be immediately greeted by every single person on their floor when I was just there to get lettuce. I got so fed up of making multiple trips, and so attracted to a smile and the question “Can I help you find anything?” that I decided it didn’t matter how broke I was, I didn’t mind paying .29 cents more for Lean Cuisine when I could always be guaranteed a pleasurable shopping experience. Hence…”where shopping is a pleasure” came from.

Your media relationships can often be compared to the relationship you have have with your local grocer. Do you buy your groceries at Walmart or Whole Foods? Are you looking for the cheapest price no matter what you miss in the process? Or, are you willing to pay the price for quality, service and an all around pleasant experience.

Just like bananas, an ad is an ad is an ad (plus or minus basic demographics and coverage details). Mostly, it’s where you buy the ad that truly makes the difference. Some medias are going to offer you the quickest, cheapest ad. While other medias, who may be less likely to budge on the final price, offer the same ad, but bring “intangibles” to the table that far increase the value that ad is actually worth. It’s the difference between shopping at Walmart and Whole Foods.

Ask yourself, do you want to stand in one of three (out of 30) open checkout lanes for 20 minutes at Walmart or do you want to buy local, buy organic and peruse the colorful aisles, sipping the latest imported wine (that has happened), at Whole Foods? There is a HUGE difference.

I begin each of my new client meetings by asking a bit about their business like what marketing efforts they use, what works, what doesn’t, etc. Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of “oh and we do that magazine because their ads are so cheap…… “

Um, Houston, we have a problem…..

Why do you want to buy the cheapest ad? You’re not buying pantyhose or plumbing supplies. You’re buying new business!!!! Do you really want to risk that new business or the future success of your own with the cheapest gig in town? Are you okay with an attitude of “I ran your ad what more do you want”… or do you want to know your marketing dollars are buying you more than just the paper?

If you’re looking for the Whole Foods shopping experience, the intangibles you should look for from your media partners are things like networking opportunities, connections, events, marketing advice, sponsorships, referrals, introductions, etc. It’s not just about the ad… rather the ad package.

When it comes time to buy an ad or renew, these are the things you should consider in your advertising investment as well. Because, if you enjoyed the intangibles, then those need to be weighed evenly with the direct inquiries received from the ad too. It’s likely they’re a package deal. If you pull the ad, the intangibles will go right along with it.

Make a left into Walmart rather than a right turn into Whole Foods (okay, that would never happen in real life, they’re rarely on the same corner, but you get it) and the end result of your shopping experience will be entirely different. Same goes with your media choice.

Marketing, in general, is a long term investment and your media relationships should be too. Think lasting and reliable, then come up with ways you can utilize the perks of your purchase. Partnerships are two way street. If you haven’t connected recently with the media you’re doing business with, get in touch and get the most out of your investment.

What ways has your business benefited from a solid media partnership?

Let’s just get one thing straight.

It’s not the job of your potential customers to keep track of your marketing efforts, it’s yours. So don’t leave their response to the question “How did you hear about us?” open for interpretation. The response should be pretty simple. Comparing your marketing plan.. it was either.. your print ad, your online ad, a friend, or recent PR coverage, etc.

Assuming your new client is a bride…. Give the girl some options. Do you think that after looking through a handful of magazines, perusing thousands of web pages .. when a she finally picks you to contact.. she’s going to remember where she saw you ? NO.. help a sister out and give her obvious options.

If you can list the options that you KNOW you are doing.. why wouldn’t you? Are you expecting or rather hoping to hear something different?

On the example below, I compare a before and after contact us page. The before leaves an open ended, fill in the blank option on the “Where did you hear about us?” line. The second has been modified to guide the the new client towards possible options. The switch is simple and may lend more precise results. Instead of leaving an opened ended option, where they could quite possibly not even fill it out, listing all the possible avenues where she COULD have heard of you just may jog her memory and help you keep better tabs on your marketing.

A good way of rearranging that question would be, “We market our business across multiple platforms so, knowing where you found us helps to streamline our marketing plan and keep costs low. Could you tell us each avenue you saw our advertisement or heard about our company?”

Then, list them with the opportunity to check multiple options.

If you leave it up to the client to tell you how your marketing is working you’re not going to get the feedback you might expect. After all, she doesn’t know how important it is to you, she’s just worried about what’s important to her. So tell her. It may seem lengthy or long to you but it’s your money. Do you want to know what works or always be left wondering?

How do you keep track of your marketing efforts?

I’m turning over a new leaf, launching a new version of myself, morphing this blog into a soapbox of sorts (still with all the great marketing advice, plus more) and rearranging how I function on a daily basis.

Heather 2.0 comes with all the great features of Heather 1.9 but with greater control, discipline and work/life boundaries to help the entrepreneurial extraordinaire build her media empire while not destroying her personal life.

Features you’ll grow to love with Heather 2.0:

• Limited Business Hours :: I have a tendency to be open & available 24/7. Which makes me feel like I never catch a break. Not good. The 2.o update includes scheduling my time, clocking in and clocking out, sending the phones to voicemail after hours and turning the auto-responder on until I return.
• Structured Schedule :: no more flying by the seat of my pants. Office days, meeting days, limited social networking. FAMILY time.
• Inbox Zero :: Process my email to ZERO each time I check it. Which means, I won’t be checking my email every 5 seconds, rather select times a day that I can dedicate my time and attention and process them, instead of scan. Delete, delegate, archive, respond, defer.
• Business Blog :: Marketing and advertising are my passion, but along with that comes a whirlwind of ideas and advice that may not necessarily fall into those categories. So, although, I do still believe that “advertising makes the world go ’round,” I’ll be including other topics too.
• Funneling the avenues in which I can be reached :: I love Twitter and Facebook, but I can’t manage those inboxes in addition to my email. So, if you follow or friend me, try to contact me at heather@atlantaoccasions.com if you want to talk biz. I use my social networks primarily for business, but not necessarily as a point-of-contact. You’ll get a quicker response from me if you reach out via email.

That’s the gist of it for now. There’s bound to be bugs and hiccups. I’m hoping, posting it for the whole-wide-world to see, just might help me be more disciplined and follow through.

Happy New Year!

By the way, I totally stole the phrase “Heather 2.0″ from my friend Ben Vigil.

This post is a no-brainer. It’s deadline week for me and I’m swamped. So, I’ll just pass on this absolutely fabulous video I found online about truths regarding magazines.

Watch and Learn…..

In life, the saying often goes “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” It’s true. And for good reasons.

Take a lesson from the Bernie Madoff scandal. Many of those investors trusted the majority of their money to one man. One man who stole it from them. They believed and trusted in one man to make them millions. Why? Because he talked a good talk and had a pretty good reputation. Everyone else invested with him, why not them? But, instead of putting all of their eggs in one basket, had they diversified their funds into multiple investment opportunities like stocks, bonds, high-yield accounts, CDs, IRAs, etc… when the Bernie -shit hit the fan, the end result might not have been so catastrophic.

Or what about the guy who made an entire move about eating McDonalds for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think he gained 45 pounds in a matter of weeks, had trouble breathing, and experienced a variety of health issues all from eating the same thing… over and over again.

I could go on with more examples, but I’ll get to the point: Just like your money and food, when it comes to marketing your business, you’ve got to diversify your brand across multiple streams of medias to capture each and every client. No two are alike and therefore each has different shopping habits. Relying solely on one advertising stream is simply not smart. And risky if you ask me.

Take a marketing lesson from the big guys. Here’s an example…..If you live in Atlanta, I’m sure you’ve heard of the BODIES exhibit at Atlantic Station. It’s an exhibit of all the parts of the human body. Widely popular across the world, the traveling show comes and goes in Atlanta at various times of the year. You can’t live in Atlanta and NOT see one of their ads promoting the exhibit. They have billboards, bus wraps, newspaper ads, heck, I’ve even seen them on lamp posts. Why? Because their big expensive ad agency knows, they have to diversify their advertising budget and marketing campaign across multiple mediums to capture the highest return of impressions.

So because my expertise is in the wedding industry in Atlanta, I’ll touch on that. I’m not saying you have the budget like BODIES does, but you can mimic the marketing plan of the pros at a level comfortable for you. It’s simple: determine your advertising budget and allocate those funds across multiple streams of marketing to increase your chances. Include online placement, print ads, boutique-type opportunities like The Bridal Bar or Studio Wed, blogging, social networking and bridal shows. If you can’t afford them all, pick the ones that lend you the highest return on impressions. Don’t forget there are results and relationships attached to each option so you should consider those as well, but mainly remember it’s called a marketing plan, not a secret recipe. The only tried and true way to gain more clients is to promote across multiple, TARGETED mediums at a level that is within your means.

It’s all about filling your sale funnel. The more impressions, the healthier you’re sale funnel will be. Although not all of those impressions will equal sales, they will increase the chances of those impressions actually turning into sales.

It’s all about increasing the odds. Trusting one brand to do that, will only leave you disappointed.

I’ll talk more in detail about the sales funnel next post…

The other day I had a conversation with a local business owner who shall remain nameless. He was interested in finding out about advertising and as always I asked “what are you currently doing to promote your business?”

His first response “Word of Mouth.” Of course! Everyone says all of their business comes from word of mouth. Moving on….

His second response was an online ad he was running on a competing site of mine but he said something interesting. “I’ve been advertising with {soandso.com} for three months and I haven’t gotten one single booking. They have a leads system, but they’re budgets are too low so I don’t bother calling them.” I asked “How much do you pay for that site?” He says “$55 a month.”

CUT! Doing the math if he paid $55 a month for 12 months he would have invested $660 year to promote his business. Knowing what I know from the wedding photographers I work with, most of them charge anywhere from $2000 and up for a wedding. Chances are this wedding photographer charges more than $660 for any given event. Having put in more time, he may very well have booked a bride, covered his costs and then some. But yet, he couldn’t see the value in spending $55 a month to potentially book said $2000 bride.

Before I go on, I’ve just got to say there comes a level of commitment and value you’ve got to place into you business before you can ever expect anyone else to invest in it. If you can’t invest $660, how can you expect your client to pay you double or even triple that?

This photographer was ready to jump ship for the next best thing without ever giving the current advertising medium a chance. I bet if he called his account executive from {soandso.com} and explained his concerns they would have gladly given him some advice to boost his return or attraction to his ad.

But it goes even farther than that. Advertising is like dating.. you’ve got to give it time. If you’re boyfriend didn’t propose in the first few weeks of dating would you dump him?

When it comes to most medias, advertising is part results and part relationship. Don’t go into an advertising agreement just thinking about the ad, think about the “added value” that comes along with it. The intangibles. Connections in an industry you may need, marketing advice you’ve always been looking for, networking opportunities, event sponsorships, a shoulder to cry on (you never know, it HAS happened to me) and so much more.

My plain and simple advice is this…Invest in your business far beyond what you expect your clients to and your returns will be plentiful. Utilize the relationships that come with those investments. Combine those together and you’ll have a recipe for success.

I’m just going to say it….. if there were a Google Analytics for print, maybe the industry wouldn’t be the target of so much criticism. Not just print even… television, radio, billboards… they’re all being made to be the bad guy because there’s no fancy software to tell you EXACTLY how many people touched, looked, or listened to your ad.

Just because there’s not doesn’t mean that those forms of advertising aren’t effective. Yes. It’s more difficult to measure the traffic generated, but discrediting the effectiveness of them all together is just plain wrong.

Food for thought… When you look at your Google Analytics account, notice two things…

1. Direct Traffic: those are people who have directly typed in your web address. Ever wonder how they knew your URL anyways?

2. Search Terms: if one of your top search terms is the name of your business, chances are that person who was searching your business name found out about you from another form of advertising.

I’m just sayin’…..

In my opinion, advertising and its purpose, are widely misunderstood. In the vast gray area between calls to action and brand awareness the average business person gets lost in the purpose, point and profound importance advertising brings to the growth of businesses.

The purpose of advertising is to expose your business to potential clients. Period. Be the town crier, bridge the gap, be your voice. Go without it, and you have a mute message.

Here’s where the major misconception comes into play….. Companies that sell advertising don’t sell customers – directly that is. Frankly, it would be impossible and probably illegal in some states. It’s unfortunate, and because I sell advertising too, I would LOVE to be able to guarantee my clients and advertisers an exact amount of new customers they will bring in from their advertisements. It’s just not the case. What advertising account executives bring to the table is exposure. Media avenues guarantee exposure to people that will either see, hear or touch your ads. Impressions, viewers, readers, traffic, visitors, and pageviews are a measurable guarantee. That is what you buy.

Your message and product that relates to the client’s need is what turns those impressions into inquiries. Once the calls start coming in, it’s now up the sales staff, customer service reps and you to qualify the client and close the sale. Not the ad. That ad’s responsibility was exposure. And it delivered.

My suggestion? Quantify the advertising medium you choose. Doing so will increase your chances of turning those impressions into inquiries and then clients. You are buying exposure, not customers, so make sure the exposure is the right exposure for you.

If you choose the best medium for your business but still aren’t getting the result, don’t be quick to blame the vehicle. Take a look a your message. Revamp it. Change the image, wording, call to action, offer, etc. I’m sure your advertising executive would be happy to help make suggestions and adjustments. You never know, you may just get a completly different response.

Closing common sense comparison: Imagine if you only used YOUR word of mouth to deliver the message about your business to friends, neighbors and family, but not one came to buy or hire you. Would you stop speaking and blame yourself for not working? Probably not….