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| Mar 07, 2009 11:26 pm |
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re: The Sky is Falling! |
Kurt Schweitzer
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Kathy,
This is the type of marketing I like to do! (I'm not very good at it, but I'm learning!)
I'm budgeting roughly six events a year, concentrated around the start of my selling season (March & April). I did one event in December that attracted about 30 people and just about broke even (including buying lights and a tree that I will reuse next year). Those people told me they had a good time.
I did another event - a "Tiki Party" - about two weeks ago. About 25 people (roughly half of whom were at the December event) showed up in spite of a nasty snow storm, and also had a good time. Even though that was a lower cost event it did not result in a noticeable up-tick in February sales, but traffic into the store jumped measurably after the event and has been increasing pretty steadily. Several of the attendees have returned to "kick the tires" on some scooters, so I expect they will convert to sales once the weather becomes reliably warmer.
My next event will be the "April Fools Ride" for the local scooter club. It will be a combination membership drive and kick-off of the club's weekly get-togethers, and will give me an opportunity to show off the new products in my inventory to extremely hot prospects. The cost will be virtually zero, too!
The biggest event is the club's three-day rally in September, which I am underwriting. Rallies generally charge admission fees and usually break even, so I expect to have very little expense after everything's done. Nonetheless I'm already helping the club find other sponsors who want to place their products in front of 60+ dedicated scooterists.
In addition to hosting events I have a number of smaller activities designed to publicize my business. While I won't be able to ride in the St. Patrick's Day parade due to family commitments, I expect to be riding my scooter w/sidecar in as many parades as I can book this year. Again, nearly free publicity.
Meanwhile I have one of my scooters "representing" for me at various neighborhood events, culminating in the Rochester Lilac Festival in May. At that one event alone it will be seen by some 500,000 people. The scooter will be raffled off by one of the neighborhood associations, and is expected to be a major fund raiser for them. Here again, nearly free publicity.
All in all I expect this to be a banner year for my business. It's been growing at an astonishing rate, and even after near hibernation the last few months, I expect it to more than double this year.
I may even be able to start paying myself!
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer (new win) |
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