Raise Prices on a Regular Basis

Raise prices on a regular basis Hershey raised wholesale prices for its chocolate bars twice last year.

According to published reports, the U.S.’s largest candy producer increased prices 4-5 percent in April and 13 percent at year’s end.

“The Hershey Co. defended the move, saying it is more exposed to the rising cost of milk and cocoa than its competitors, which include Mars and Nestle.”

Do you believe that consumers will eat less chocolate due to the increase?

Will Valentine’s Day sales suffer?

Is a Hershey’s ban imminent?

Your mission as a solo marketer, aside from providing customers with great products and service, is to monitor supply costs and adjust pricing whenever required. If you don’t follow this mission, it’s likely that you’ll be out of business in one year’s time.

Customers don’t want to pay more, but what they really don’t want is to find another supplier if you fail to stay in business.

So here’s the plan.

1. Make a list of your products, services, and pricing structure.
2. Review last year’s costs to determine any increases in monthly purchases (gas, paper, etc.).
3. Determine if materials’ prices will continue to rise (the answer is “yes).
4. Increase your prices.
5. Buy a chocolate bar and celebrate.

Technorati Tags: small business marketing, Hershey, solo business marketing, how to raise your prices, solo entrepreneur

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January 31, 2008 | Filed Under Revenue | Leave a Comment

Financial Management Tips for Solo Marketers

Keep your money in line so you have more for marketing

Use every cent of your money to make money.

That was the first of eight financial tips advised by Bill Lynott, a business and financial journalist, in this month’s edition of Specialty Coffee Retailer.

I’m not part of the specialty coffee industry. However, I always read financial articles to learn new ways or refresh my memory on increasing my marketing dollars.

In this first tip, Lynott warns you to “NEVER make deposits directly into your checking account,” and instead make deposits into an interest-bearing account (money market, etc.) so that it immediately earns money.

This is advice I’ve followed since my first day in business. My deposits are made in an ancillary account, and monies are transferred as required into my checking account.

Here are three more tips from his list, which I paraphrase and expand.

Don’t pay your bills as soon as they arrive. Pay your bills when due, not before time. Set up a system so you stay on track without paying late fees and penalties. You don’t get paid ahead of time by customers, so follow their lead to pay your own bills.

Years ago I purchased a bill organizer from Lillian Vernon. I add my bills within the 31-numbered slots according to the due dates. It’s saved me countless fees because I don’t just organize my bills, I also check the system each morning to see what to pay and when.

Never overpay the IRS when making quarterly payments. Giving the government interest-free loot is not in the best interest of your money. Estimate your payments as best you can, but don’t just give your money away.

Credit cards are better than debit cards. In business, a grace period is a good thing, and that’s what credit cards provide. Depending on the closing date, a credit card hands you up to 40 days free use of someone else’s money, versus using a debit card, where money comes immediately out of your pocket.

Although Specialty Coffee Retailer doesn’t share these tips on their site, I’ve chosen four that will help keep more money available for you to invest in marketing.

Technorati Tags: small business marketing, Specialty Coffee Retailers, Bill Lynott, solo business marketing, financial management, solo entrepreneur

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January 29, 2008 | Filed Under Saving Money | Leave a Comment

Do You Purge Unwanted Names from Your Lists?

Keep your mailing lists clean Maryland residents are complaining about being bombarded with unwanted newspapers, and their local government is listening so intently that the state is proposing a Do Not Deliver registry.

It’s a story written by The Associated Press. Have you heard about it?

This registry will mirror “Do Not Call” which was enacted by the Federal Trade Commission to keep telemarketers from disturbing consumers by phone.

The complaints started soon after the 2006 launch of The Baltimore Examiner, a free paper which delivers about 230,000 of its total 250,000 circulation to Maryland homes six days a week…

According to the bill, which is “likely to run into opposition from lawmakers…who worry it could violate constitutional free-speech protections,” publishers could be fined $100 a day for delivering their papers to people who neither want nor ask for it.

Can you imagine, as a solo marketer, wasting your time and money sending your message to people who will never buy from you? The results are certainly counterproductive, and your sales records would no doubt be dismal.

That’s why we review our valuable mailing lists, purging the names of individuals who’ve moved without a forwarding address or notified us to remove them from the list. And we also encourage them to do so directly on each mailing piece with a statement such as:

If you, for whatever reason, no longer require notification from us, please pass this card to someone who does, or call us at 212-555-1212 to remove your name from our list. Thank you.

The same is true about our online communications. Individuals who wish to opt-out of our newsletters must be able to do so quickly through a link within each issue. I encourage this in my newsletter because I want my information received by interested parties and no one else.

It’s wonderful when consumers talk in glowing terms about what we sell and how we communicate. Let’s keep things on a positive note for them by only delivering our message to people who want to hear from us.

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January 28, 2008 | Filed Under Customer Connections, Email Marketing | Leave a Comment

Editorial Calendars Ease Marketing Tasks

Treat editorial calendars like a best friend At the end of December, I made a list of trade magazines that would be interested in expert quotes from me to feature in upcoming stories and columns throughout 2008.

Magazines sell lots of advertising space, and that’s the main reason why their editorial calendars are online. The monthly breakdown isn’t targeted for you but rather to increase revenue from potential advertisers. So why not use their calendar to plan your promotions?

I explain this subject in detail in Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today. Here are three quick tips.

1. Log the cut-off date for editorial submissions into your planner.

2. Email your quotes and ideas that match each story to the magazine’s editor 1-2 weeks before the cut-off date.

3. Resist the urge to call or Email the editor to ask if they will use your quotes. That’s a sure way to be ignored in the future.

More tips are found on the press release pages.

Why overlook a viable option for exposure when it’s freely available on the Internet?

Technorati Tags: small business marketing, press releases, media relations, solo business marketing, solo entrepreneur

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January 24, 2008 | Filed Under Marketing News, Online Ideas | Leave a Comment