Will Limkemann
Business Advisor
The Constant Entrepreneur:
Advice for Running a Productive Business
Help for small businesses
If you are a small business owner intent on implementing best practices that will improve your income, don’t miss out on the once-a-year opportunity to mingle with other like-minded people and learn from some of the best people in Northeast Ohio. Where? The Council for Smaller Enterprises (COSE) annual small business conference at the IX center next to Cleveland Hopkins Airport. When? Wednesday and Thursday, October 21 and 22.
I will Read more
Getting business cards at trade show
In a prior post I commented on using a give-away to accumulate business cards at a trade show. As one of the current hot electronic items is GPS navigation, I settled on a GPS device as a giveaway. What I failed to take into consideration is that most traveling folks already have either a built-in or portable GPS unit. Thus, GPS was not the attraction I had hoped for. Even Read more
Trade show follow-up
The American Institute of Organbuilders convention is over. Our careful planning for the exhibit paid off in spades! Our attractive and appealing exhibit drew in most of the 180 people in attendance. One visitor even told me that he normally walks around an exhibit hall in a daze (don’t we all?), and it was refreshing to find an exhibit that caught his attention. We ran out of literature and I Read more
A good night’s sleep
I can’t count the number of hotels I have stayed while traveling on business during my long career. The hotels have ranged from cheap motels to five star properties. My expectations of hotels are modest: clean and odor-free rooms; comfortable beds; and rooms that are quiet. If these basic expectations are not met no amount of amenities or service matters.
Sunday afternoon I checked into the Crowne Plaza hotel in suburban Read more
Outsourcing
Somewhere along the line outsourcing has become a bad word. It is true that many jobs have been lost in the United States (and other major western economies) as low-cost production has moved to emerging economies with low-cost labor.
But, I would venture to guess, most outsourcing is done at home. No business has the resources or core competencies to do it all. Website designs are outsourced to specialist firms; legal Read more
Inkstop store closings
Articles in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and elsewhere have be chronicling the sudden closing of its 161 stores by Cleveland-area retailer Inkstop, owing back wages to hundreds of employees and canceling health-care insurance. There are also stories of suits being filed by, and on behalf of, former Inkstop employees.
Legal issues are up to the attorneys and courts to sort out. I am outraged at lousy treatment of employees and apparent Read more
Trade show success rule # 4 – follow-up
Many businesses greatly diminish the potential and value of exhibiting at trade shows be doing poor, and sometimes no, follow-up. To maximize trade show benefit follow-up needs to be included as a strategy and be made part of the planning process. Here is my planning for follow-up after exhibiting at the AIO convention next week:
1. Take thank-you notes, envelopes, and stamps to the show. Each day I will write and Read more
Trade show success rule # 3 – create an eye-catching exhibit
How often I’ve walked through trade shows with booth after booth of lackluster displays punctuated by a few intimidatingly expensive two-floor exhibits. I wonder why a company spends the money for a booth just to display their cheaply produced literature on a plain table. Even the few people who pick up the literature will most likely discard it when they get back to their room or office.
An attractive display need Read more
Trade show success rule # 2 – know your costs
As I contemplated exhibiting our new line of lamps at the American Institute of Organbuilders convention, I quickly assessed the booth cost, room and meals, and transportation, and did a rough estimate on return-on-investment. Satisfied with the results I sent in my registration form and fee and started planning for the exhibit. Of course, as I began developing a detailed budget, the overall costs quickly escalated!
It is really important to Read more
Trade show tactic to get business cards
One of my goals for the upcoming trade show is to get business cards and/or contact information from at least of 80% of the attendees. To this end we will have an eye-catching booth (more about that later) which, I trust, will attract people to at least look at our wares. But no booth design will compel people to speak with me or to leave contact information.
So, I got to Read more