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Here we look at a real online adventure through the eyes of someone who has taken the journey and lived to tell the tale.

It all started with ignorance

Ben Watts ran a small business in a local town. The population was not big but the neighboring counties added to the overall number.

People knew Ben because he was a good guy, played some sports at the local clubs, donated to the odd charity, nice wife, and had a couple of kids.

He even had time for a few beers with the boys on occasions.
Life was pretty good as a small business owner.

Ben wanted more from life than a corner store

The Store that Ben had could never really grow, like any small business owner he had times when things were pretty tight.
It was hard to meet the quarterly tax bill and the wages had to be paid before the family could eat.
A situation nearly every business goes through as they grow and try to survive.

“There must be more than this” was a thought constantly on his mind as he worked from early to late always too busy to concentrate on the bigger picture.

Yes, he had laid out a bit of a plan at the start of the year but nothing that marketing could fix.

He pondered if there was anyway to grab new clients and increase the turnover by more than a few percentage points.

Looking 10 years ahead Ben saw just an older image doing the same things day in and out. Nothing new except to see the next 10 years of same, same.

He wanted more and that meant to change and by change, it means dramatic actions to grow the corner store into a thriving growth-orientated business.

Where do you get new business?

He could perhaps expand his market to all the neighboring towns and even to the city.

The tourist trade might offer an opportunity and drivers flashing past on their way to somewhere greater could be waved down.

Of course, a bit of local discount might be a quick fix but that starts a trend that needs to continue. The result is falling margins.

Ben had a need for new traffic and no one else was going to help with the problem. It was his issue and his alone to find a way out of the mundane and into some positive patch of excitement and possibility

The business had a need for money

We all have a need for money but expansion has its own cost center so we really have to do the figures and go hat in hand to the bank or a rich uncle.

However, there are some things we can do without spending the family inheritance on hope and prayer.

Would a web page help a local business

We haven't really worried about the internet said Ben because people just come in the door when they want something.

However, he made a few inquiries around town and a young dude with a goaty beard and punk attitude told Ben to lift his game.
Online shopping is not just a fad and your customers are using it to buy from the Big City or from that new Amazon place and you, my good friend are missing out.

And so started the online Adventure

The Cool Dude knocked up a web page for a few hundred bucks and a carton of beer. It was enough to start the journey.

Next, he said you need to know the name, email, and phone number of everyone that comes in or has been in the store. Also, the date of birth if you can get it. Why? Was the question and the answer was, later Ben you will see why.

These are your customers and they have a right to be included in where we are going.

Let's start up the Ben W exclusive VIP club for everyone that buys from you.

OK, have a raffle so one of them wins a great prize every month just by being a member. That is sure to get a few names.
Incent your staff as well so they play the game and get this rolling.

What is best for new business

The Cool Dude explained to Ben all about Keywords and how they were going to include words targeting all the nearby towns in all the media.

This meant if someone searched a product Ben's website would pop up.

However, the Cool Dude said we still have a lot of work to do. Our next thing is to get a listing of your business in all the local trade directories.

We will set up a bit of a template and then do some searching, If we are in the listing we will modify them of the changes and if not ask for inclusion.

About 50 listings should be possible. But, said Cool Dude when they ring up and ask to pay for a better position we will politely decline until they can prove the number of calls.

That was local directories out of the way. We expected a result of at least a dozen calls a month extra.

More one-time business-building ideas.

Cool Dude then did a LinkedIn page for Ben to start the social media launch and to make sure he was visible to anyone that wanted to know about him.

The corner store had achieved some branding image having been in place for a few years but they wanted more.

They talked about painting the building or increasing the signage but settled for a couple of banners to flutter in the breeze outside the store.
One other step that we thought was necessary was to sign write the delivery van with a big logo and make it into a mobile bill board.

When parked outside the store it stood out and attracted many more lookers.

Next came the uniform

Ben did a deal on a bunch of T-shirts with the corner store logo and with a stitched-on christian name of the staff who would wear it at all work times.
This bought recognition to the workers as customers used their names when talking to them.

More business with Facebook

Having a business Facebook account does many things and completes the recognition patern of the business.

We check your Facebook to see what's happening and it hits our stream to keep in front of us.

However, nothing looks as bad as an old neglected Facebook account.

Cool Dude said that Facebook has a great tool for posting messages into the future so every couple of weeks do a post scheduled for a specific date.

Plus when you do a blog post on your web make sure it copies to Facebook.
You will soon grow your following.

How to use Video in your business

How could a little corner store possibly use a video that people actually want to see?

The answer said Cool Dude, “is a how-to-do things video”

We search them all the time, even for simple things.

The Dude said I had trouble adjusting the brakes on my pushbike so I googled the question, got the answer in a video, and fixed the bike.

They ask about things, best things, cheapest things all sorts of questions you could cover. Plus share them on your Facebook and Web page.

Instagram in business

The Cool one explained that Instagram is owned by Facebook but is really very different and takes a bit more thought.

However, it sells better than most things so we need to consider this.

Instagram is for live posts, no scheduling tool and it is done on a Mobile phone.
They try to make it difficult.

What we are going to do is report a sale every day and photo a product bought and why this was important. We will then post to our Instagram account.

Not much time is taken to do this but it will really start to have an Identity positive approach.

We will focus 60% on a Female audience because they are the big users of Instagram.
Sometimes we will link to a Video but you will understand this is not all about selling it is storytelling.

The trade Show

Cool Dude contacted a couple of Ben's best suppliers and got them to agree to a special promotion package.

They then set up a morning and an evening event to highlight the selected products. A bit of breakfast for the early starters and a low cal beer for the latecomers.

They then sent out an email to the people on their list telling them of the event. Prizes, surprises, and a bit of fun.

Those that had opened the email then got an SMS message a week before and on the day of the event.

This became so successful they will do it every couple of months

The dilemma of working in a business

The crunch arrived in the way of a massive problem for Ben. He was spending way to much time working on the business and not enough working in the business and things just weren't getting done properly.

The Cool Dude was costing money and everyone was working harder to compensate.

Ben had a bit of a breakdown and complained to the Dude it was all too hard being two people at one time.
His wife was on his back for working too hard and the Kids were complaining they never see him and when they do he is the grumpy man.

An online adventure was failing.

The business talk

It was time, said the Dude, to have a talk about the journey.

First of all look at your sales figures and see where we are at. By now Google Analytics was showing an increase in visitors and interaction with the website.

But what of poor Ben, how could we fix his problems?

The Cool one explained that you should always build a business with the objective of selling it.
Your buyer will want a business that is managed and not one where he needs to be the hardest worker.

Redefine all your staff and give them new responsibilities and let's look at outsourcing a couple of issues.

Debtor follow-up is a critical one and this is easy to get a home worker to do for an hour or so a day.

Get your phones backed up to a message service so in peak times the staff can concentrate on the customers in front of them.

Many of the accounting functions can be done by others.

Then we will look at a point of sale system to go online and be automated. No more handwriting invoices.

Your Job Ben is to run the business not work in the business and this way you can generate enough income to do it.

After the business talk.

Ben liked the idea of being a manager and decided that point of sale was a priority.
However, there is a cost to set it up and quite a bit of time involved so it needed some planning.
The Web page needed a shopfront
The decision to go Shopify or Woocommerce?
A full inventory needed to be done and loaded.
Stock levels are decided and customers put into the system.
This was going to take a couple of months to set in place. Ben asked the Cool one what to do next.

Making a difference in the online journey

First of all, let's build the base and the sales said the Dude.

Our target market was not only our town but near ones as well.

Your plan is to do a Pop Up Shop in the next biggest town.
Then working through the others.
One every two weeks. Target is naturally extra sales but we want their contact details as well.

Now to a Newsletter in the online business.

We will do a Newsletter every two weeks to everyone on our list. Not a big sales push but an information document that people will read and remember. This is not a big-time consumer but you may outsource it as well.

The Dude and Ben sat down and wrote out 52 subject lines on which to write about. That is one a fortnight for a year so easy done

Along with Newsletter, we will start doing emails as well. The base will be segregated into interest groups and even sex and age so we don't sell hammer drills to the girls or makeup to the blokes.

The emails will be done in an autoresponder from Constant Contact along with the Newsletter.

Knowing more about Online marketing

Ben has a lot to learn because we still have a few things to do. Yes, sales are increasing nicely and the plan seems to be working. However Ben must learn to delegate more.

The Dude recommended his favorite training site at Wealthy Affiliate. A plan that cost little and provided lots on almost any subject you want.

They also run weekly live training on the latest ways to improve your business.
The Cool one explained that the internet is complicated and changing so you need to stay on top at all times.

Let's have a recap said the Dude.

The Cool Dude and Ben had a board meeting and looked at what they had achieved.

• Ben was now working more on the business
• All trade directories were done
• He understood his sales figures and growth that was being achieved
• He had turned the website into a shopfront and was doing regular Blogs
• Facebook Instagram and YouTube
  were working and being done by others.
• The point of sales program was returning dividends in time and money-saving and stock loss.
• Pop up shops were generating new customers and instore meetings had become a must-do.
• Emails were going out and the Newsletter a real hit.
  

An active Social media Channel

You need one active social channel that you concentrate on because they all take time.

The Dude suggested Instagram because this has more future as a sales tool.

This will make an online adventure work really well.

We are going to tell a story with great pictures and we will post one everyday.

Back up a bit said Ben, you will drive the customers away with too much content.

The Cool one explained that two times a day is about right and people will enjoy the journey.
In your case, we will do one a day as we build a following.

Then we are going to spend some money and do re-targeting as well.
You need to learn this Ben because this could make a huge difference in your sales growth. Back to the Wealthy Affiliate training site

Ben and the Cool one were now pretty comfortable in the direction and what they were achieving.

They had more than enough to do for the next 12 months to keep them all busy although Ben had cut back his hours. ( Happy wife, happy life)

conclusion

The tale, just like Ben and the Cool Dude story, is happening in businesses everywhere.

What they should realize is when they achieve a double up in sales they also achieve a double up in the value of the business. This provides more security for future growth.

Is your business doing all it can to maximize the opportunities or do you need to take some advice?

An online adventure by Peter Hanley

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