Note: I got an e-mail a while back that challenged me on my inclusion of an Amazon link in one of my e-mail campaigns. This and the following post (and probably a few more beyond that into the future) will be my long-considered answer to the seeming “crisis” presenting itself to local brick-and-mortars… the invasion of big boxes and big-box style on-line competition. Here’s my first stab at how small businesses can beat Goliath.

Small businesses face a double challenge in the new economy; not only are we in the midst of recession like times, with everybody tightening belts and spending less, we’re also transitioning from store-front shopping on Main Street to isolated shopping via the Internet. Location is not the factor it used to be in shopping choices; anyone with Internet access (which seems to be practically everyone) can shop at any store online. The options have opened up, and for the most part, consumers seem to love the choices.

Locally owned small businesses can thrive in the new economy – and love it – but it requires a different approach. When your competition expands from being the other small retail shop two streets over to being the biggest national box stores plus the on-line retailers… it’s time to think of a new angle.

Independent bookstores are a good example, because the ones that have survived and thrive despite competition from Amazon.com have learned to work the new economic angle successfully.

The angle is this: you must create your own niche position and dominate it in order to compete with huge brands and online options.

It’s not enough to be an average bookstore, or an average retail shop, or an average restaurant. When customers have limitless options, average is not going to bring them back.

But you can bring them back.

Niche Examples from Independent Bookstores

An article in the New York Times highlighted how the niche angle has helped independent bookstores to survive. “Being a specialty store gave us something that would distinguish us,” said Alan Beatts, owner of Borderlands, which focuses on science fiction. “We are serving a special demographic, and we receive customer loyalty in return” For a locally owned bookstore, a niche could include

• Selling signed first edition books (and holding regular author events)
• Selling, trading, and assisting customers in rare books
• Covering niche topics (stocking and special-ordering specialized books, magazines, newspapers, and trade journals)
• Establishing expert status in book-related topics or specialized topics
• Engaging an active online community and having stellar e-commerce options

So, if you’re a bookstore, a retail store, a service-oriented business, or a restaurant, how can you find your niche, establish yourself in it, and thrive in this new economy?

“It’s entirely possible that you will choose a niche that’s too small. It’s much more likely you’ll shoot for something too big and become overwhelmed. When in doubt, overwhelm a small niche.” -Seth Godin, business & marketing expert.

Want more ideas from the local book store angle? Here’s a post from USA Today on a similar subject showcasing ways that small local brick and mortar bookstores are competing with the Kindle, Nook and similar book technology…

Image by ReneS.

This week, I spoke to a lot of downtown redevelopment types at the National Main Streets Conference in Oklahoma City. We talked about how to tell your story in this modern world (whether community, business district or small business). Social media plays a big part in that. But it’s not the central element…

In my presentation, I pointed out that to tell your story well, you must play by four basic rules. Without repeating my speech here, I do want to share the first rule and most important rule with you, because strategically, everything else will crumble if this rule isn’t followed:

Rule #1: You Must Have a Strong Home Base for Your Business or Community

That home base should most likely be your web site. In nearly all marketing models, it works for the web site to be the epicenter of the marketing universe. (It doesn’t HAVE to be that way, and I’m more than open to creative thinking on this subject depending on goals and budgets. But in most cases, it works for it to be the web site.)

Is your web site working as the epicenter? Are all roads leading back to your domain name…to your web site?

How can you make your HOMEBASE stronger?

1. Make sure it’s easy and quick to update. If you can’t update your own web site, you’ve got a big problem in today’s fast paced world. We love the WordPress platform because it takes me moments to make major updates to my own web site. It’s as simple as sending an e-mail.

2. If it’s easy to update…are you updating it? Are you adding new and interesting photos, educational content, employee and owner profiles, product and vendor information, demonstration videos and how-to lists… Are you making your web site and interesting and valuable resource for your customers and prospects?

3. Is your domain name appearing everywhere, even if your logo can’t? This includes audio communications (like radio, word of mouth, etc.), store signage (yes, including the front door and front window of your store), shopping bags (you never can tell where those bags will go), t-shirts, postcards, advertisements of every sort and at every opportunity.

4. Are you actively seeking to create traffic TO your web site through interesting posts on social media, links from vendor or organizational web sites, etc.? Remember that valuable content you created? Now it’s time to tell folks about it through Facebook wall posts, encouraging folks to share that information on Facebook, Facebook advertising, Twitter posts, LinkedIn posts, e-mail marketing and many more new media traffic drivers.

5. How does your site appear on search engine results? Does it even appear at all? Keep an eye on this, and ask your web guy for help if necessary.

6. Do you have Google Analytics and other robust web site analytics packages installed on your web site that are set to send you daily or weekly reports? Are those reports summarizing how much web traffic you are getting and from where (both geographically and by keyword topics)? Do you know who and why your customers are visiting your web site (keywords, inbound links, etc.)? Are they finding what they’re looking for – and so much more (bounce rate, number of actions per visit, time per visit). You might be surprised at what you learn, but you certainly need to know. And you need to correct course with the web site if it’s not delivering the desired results.

P.S. Interestingly enough, on my trip home, I was catching up on some reading and found that Chris Brogan had an interesting post on this same subject. His post has cool screen shots demonstrating how confusing it can be to customers if you do NOT have a strong home base. I hope you’ll enjoy his post as well.

Also, if you’re also just home from the National Main Streets Conference, you might enjoy our conference wrap-up of conference tweeters to follow and other good resources.

What say you? What results is your home base providing for your business?

We’ve all been to conferences and come home with the bag of goodies that were given out. I admit, I’ve gotten those bags, carried them around for the entire conference, and seldom done with it what I should have done. However, recently I’ve taken some habits away from conferences and trips like the National Main Streets Conference in Oklahoma City, OK.

We’ve created a list of people who are tweeting around the #MSCONF hashtag. If you don’t know what a hashtag is, it’s simply a way to connect on twitter around a specific topic. Twitter as a community will have hundreds of people tweeting, sometimes in the same room. The way they are all aggregated is via a hashtag. If you watch a hashtag, you’ll hear brief snippets of what people are saying about speakers, topics, meal plans and more. It’s a great way to find the cream of the crop, technically speaking, at conferences like this. Last year’s conference had a handful of folks tweeting along the hashtag #MAINST09. We just made it up, since no one seemed to be doing it in an official way. This year, many, many more people are already using the social media tools out there, and it’s been great to see people who are leading the way. We created a short list of those people, and hope you enjoy following them. We don’t endorse any of them, but just are noting that they are tweeting from the conference this year.

Here are some more tips I’ve learned over past conferences:

1. Friend or Follow. I have SMS enabled on my cell phone, and I often ask people I meet what their Twitter username is. I simply text “FOLLOW JOESMITH” to Twitter 40404, and I’ve instantly added them to my virtual rolodex on Twitter. This also gives me instant SMS updates on my phone when they tweet. It’s very handy to be able to quickly connect in a way that is harder to lose than a business card, and you’ll be reminded that you followed them when they tweet. You’ll get a text message each time. In many cases, the several messages a day are a good way to keep up with a new contact that I’ve met, and a nice reminder each time they tweet.

Facebook allows us to do the same thing, from smart phones, you can go to the url with the username of someone you’ve met. I use this to add them, on the spot, so I don’t have to keep up with a business card. Adding them allows me to message them, and see other contact information that my new friend may have shared.

2. Following up. The great part of these techniques is that you’ll almost always be reminded of the person, and what they do just via the social media connections. I’ve done it hundreds of times, and it’s a great way to keep in touch with people, even without carrying around a huge bag of names and numbers.

3. Organize. After an event, you might want to go back in to facebook, or twitter and make a list of the people that you met or connected with at the conference. This allows you to keep up with them in bulk, and also (if need be) communicate with them in bulk. A private twitter list, or facebook list, is a great way to do this. It will also help you remember where you met them.

I’m not against business cards, and I always keep a stack of them with me. But usually they tend to get handed out with an invitation to connect on social media. Mine have the links for connecting electronically, as well.

If you want to get the most out of a conference like the National Main Streets Conference (SAME LINK HERE PLEASE LAURA) have a plan, and keep up with folks. Use these handy tools, and you’ll be glad you did.

Whatever the process you undertake for your community – from Web development to branding to market analysis to business recruitment to marketing in general – the planning stage should be long enough to point you in the right direction and short enough to keep the momentum going into the implementation phase.

Plans are only as good as their implementation, and we’ve seen far too many plans sit in drawers idle… a waste.

The preservation of your community and business lays in the hands of the preservers… you. Your community or business stands for something, embodies something. It is something special. It holds a sense of place.

Your community or business BRAND is a reputation, not a logo.

With that in mind, the first step to preserving your community’s or business’ brand is to preserve your reputation.

What is your reputation? What experience do you sell? What do people believe, think, feel about you, your community, your business? How do you make sure they keep believing, thinking or feeling that?

If you don’t know, how will you preserve it?

Once you have defined the nature of your reputation, also known as your defined experience, then you can create physical symbols – a bank, so to speak – that will embody and safely hold your reputation, your experience, your brand. These concrete visual symbols will carry the weight of your consistent, well-defined and well-preserved brand and be the beacon that will shine your reputation – your brand – into your world. Your world is your target customer – old customers and prospective customers, your community of supporters and preservationists…

When you get the definition nailed down, the visual brand should have three parts:

• Logo
• Color scheme
• Domain name

Slogans are optional. And sometimes used to excess, in my opinion. A great slogan is good. A bad slogan is harmful. No slogan backed by a great reputation and experience is the best.

It does come full circle, doesn’t it? A brand is just a reputation. It is the preservation of who you are as a community or business. With a well-defined reputation, you can create a physical, visual brand – or a logo, color scheme and domain name combo that embodies your reputation. And once you have this physical embodiment, you must continue to preserve your brand – your reputation – by continuously upholding, even enriching, your experience and allowing your supporters to help you in the business of preservation. Brand preservation is a community effort and the community is larger than your city limits.

What do you think? How has your branding experience worked? Has the planning led to great implementation? Tell us your stories so we can all learn.

Block after block, empty storefronts can signal an economic decline–or a terrific opportunity!

I recently had the chance to participate in the execution of Target’s first pop-up shop in the Midwest.  Designed by David Stark Production in NYC, the Bullseye Bazaar occupied an empty space along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. . .prime real estate! With the creative use of wall coverings, flooring, fixtures and signage, the space was transformed into the best of both worlds–Target products and Target prices in a fun, unique shopping experience.

So, what’s the catch?  There are Target stores all across Chicagoland–what makes this location special?

It was only in business for 3 DAYS!

I can’t help but think that there are ways to reinterpret this approach . . . it needn’t be an option only for big businesses in big cities (with big budgets!)

Consider the following possibilities–which of these could work for you?

• A limited-run gallery for area artists or students, perhaps as a working studio?
• A chance for a potential business to take a “test drive”?  Gauge traffic, customer interest, etc.
• A special occasion venue?  Who doesn’t want to see and be seen?
• Rent or donate windows to market a specific promotions?  Breast Cancer Awareness in October, Back to School in August, etc. ? In these situations, full-size graphics applied to the glass eliminates any need to direct energy or attention to the inter.

Moving ahead, you will need to:

• Identify one key location–visible, desirable and user-friendly.
• Establish occupancy parameters and timetables–I recommend one week limits. Tenants who linger, promotions past their expiration dates. . . avoid situations that erode the “gotta go there NOW” energy that you’re working to establish.
• Clean, paint and light the facade, windows and interior.  Don’t skimp on this!
• Give it a name.
• Post photos/floorplans of the space on your website.
• Extend an invitation to your first occupant and be prepared to help offset the cost.

When the Bullseye Bazaar opened, the line of customers circled the block. Those customers could easily snag the same Mossimo shorts or lemonade pitchers at their Target but that wasn’t the point–this was a “happening”, a very limited run and couldn’t be missed!

Well, obviously the National Main Streets Conference 2009 is over. I am writing from the comfort of the deck swing at my family's farm in rural Mississippi. The last time I wrote, we were enjoying the free Wi-Fi of our Club Quarters accommodations. The conference hotel (where we spent long waking hours during the bulk of the conference) was the Palmer House Hilton – a historic hotel, beautifully renovated. Frankly, it was absolutely stunning.

But the Palmer House and my family's rural Mississippi location have something in common. Neither have high-speed Internet. This made the conference not so tech-friendly. I assumed that we'd have access to wireless internet – or at least cell phone service so I could do a little blogging, Twittering and the like from my blackberry throughout the conference. I was wrong. Se la vie, I will learn from the experience and press on with my notes which will provide you with reading material on this blog for days and weeks to come.

Small business tip #1: Don't make promises to blog readers that you can't keep. I made assumptions about Internet accessibility – and I was wrong. I didn't do my homework as thoroughly as I should have before making promises. It's a simple thing – and probably easily forgiven. However, it is a good note for business overall – don't assume anything. Do your homework. Under promise – and over deliver.

The bottom line of business and non-profit managing in today's world can be summed up in one demanding word: CONNECTED.

In order to do your job best, you must be able to leave the office. Your job, after all, isn't to RUN the business or non-profit, it's to make it better overall, more profitable, productive, successful. Times such as conference attendance, vacation days, continuing education seminars or workshops, and market/buying trips are just a few of the reasons why extended absences from your business or office might be required. Yet, gone are the days of turning on the "out of office" auto responder on e-mail account and changing our voice mail and disappearing for a week. We are required to stay connected – or risk losing business in an already soft economy.

Here is my checklist for successfully managing those "out of office" excursions:

• Plan ahead (this was covered partially in my previous post). Plan ahead for success while away – and for your business to succeed without you. This means that you should have a team meeting in advance of your departure explaining where you are going and why. Your team should be empowered to make emergency decisions on your behalf (such as returns, fixes, etc.) to a certain budget. They should be empowered to take messages and explain when you will return messages. Callers, customers, etc. should be educated about your absence in a way that serves as a marketing message and builds intrigue and curiosity with customers (in a good way), rather than just leaving them hanging. Basically, you want to empower your team and setup systems that will minimize contact with you while you are away.
• Have a Blackberry/iPhone/etc. and know how to use it. In today's world, the quickest way to take care of issues is to return a text message or send a short e-mail reply. For those communications that break through the gatekeepers back home, direct as much as possible (use your voice mail as a directive) to your e-mail and text message in boxes. Often, a ten minute phone call can be answered just as easily with a 5 second text message. The time you free up working in this capacity between sessions at a conference or by checking it twice a day while on vacation, is worth the extra $50 a month for an unlimited data and text plan.
• Prior to making hotel reservations, check their policies, fees and availability on high-speed, WIRELESS, Internet. Some hotels are still requiring you to plug into the wall for high-speed Internet (reference a recent trip to Boston where the Sheraton on the Back Bay – a very nice area – still had wired high speed on most floors of the hotel). Many nicer hotels charge $12-$18 per day for Internet access. Not only that, in many hotels, the wireless access and bandwidth is limited even when you pay. Don't just take the hotel's word for it (they will not admit their bandwidth is limited or that their reception is spotty). Do a Google search and check travel web sites to get the real scoop so you know what to expect upon arrival.
• Check ahead of time for local free wi-fi locations. Pack your laptop along with printed directions, phone numbers and hours of operation for 2-3 easy to access wi-fi venues. This is often far easier to manage than hotel Internet connections.
• Own and know how to access a back-up e-mail account through a free web-based service. We use GMail. This will allow you to access your e-mail from a hotel business center or other Internet connected computer even if your own technology fails you.
• Pack your laptop, phone charger, and a USB flash drive to ensure that no matter what tech challenges may come while you are traveling – you can access and transfer files and make connections as needed.
• Check your travel schedule and plan ahead of time for one hour per day to return phone calls, answer more weighty e-mails, etc.

Have other travel tips to share? Feel free to comment…

The most important factor is to make sure that when you are away from the office or your small business that you turn it into an opportunity – and not a threat. Think strategically and take action ahead of time to ensure that you are able to be productive and able to do what you are away to do – all while maintaining customer loyalty and a consistent customer experience back at the office. (In other words, maximize your return on investment where you are going – and at your office at the same time.)

With your target objective (mission) and goals in clearly defined, it's time to start planning, researching and taking action. With our planning for the National Main Street Conference, we really only had about two weeks of firm planning time.

Here is how I broke down the planning: logistics, action items tied to goals, contacts and packing.

For me, the list proved to be a bit daunting. I am a perfectionist, and on occasion bite off more than I can chew. This conference wasn't the only thing on my plate after all. I have small business owners that I consult each week and projects and other speaking engagements to manage. Knowing all of this, I must say I did a fine job of making my lists, then editing myself.

I cannot state this any more strongly for those planners among you: there are plans that will save the world – but require the moon's sacrifice in order to happen. And there are the plans that work, that achieve real, measurable results – because, quite simply, the plan was edited into reality.

I am a journalism student by training, so with list in hand, I took out my trusty red pen. I found it helpful to actually categorize my action items by those tactics that would produce the most bang for my buck with no regard to my personal comfort level. Some of the items would require me to get outside of my actual personality in order to produce the greatest results for the least effort. (Now that is what I call LEAN THINKING.) The categories led me to basically edit into oblivion every tactic that wasn't an all-star. What we ended up with, I believe (and I may be wrong), we've ended up with a more flexible schedule that will allow us to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves while securing PRE-conference certain appointments and plans that have us well on our way to achieving our target objective.

Let me explain:

Tactic that got the red ink:
- Drinks and appetizers for a large group of folks, many of whom we don't know. Would have required a fair amount of planning, organization and time spent inviting, etc.

Instead…
- Made lunch appointment with a state coordinator to discuss upcoming opportunity to speak for the first time in this state.

We did set some meet-ups and lunch dates in advance of the conference, all scheduled for the first two days. This leaves us time to build new relationships over a meal, coffee or drinks later in the conference schedule, if needed. We used the list that the conference provided of registered attendees as well as our existing contacts in order to schedule valuable encounters.

We also took the time pre-conference to promote our attendance at the conference on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Twitter. We also offered some valuable information and information of our attendance via the Main Street members only listserv to which we are members. Even now, you can follow the conference at the Twitter hashtag we created at #MainStreet09.

We have an on-site goodie in store, too… stay tuned, so you don't miss valuable small business owner survey results that will be available to conference goes FIRST, before we post it on our web site.

Small business tip: Making plans BEFORE you get to the event in order to maximize your time AT the event.

P.S. For real live blogging of the actual conference sessions, etc.
check out the official conference blog which is very well done so far
at Main Street Live 09. You can get an insider's perspective as the staff of Michigan Main Street live blogs the conference on their blog (What can we say? They are our star student!). And you can follow the conference on Twitter at #MainStreet09.