The Long Overdue Update July 31, 2008

Keeping up with a blog has proved to be more difficult then I was expecting. It’s been a little while since my last post and I don’t really have a good excuse. Things have been a little busy, but no more busy then normal. Without any further ado…….

There have been a few updates to report over the last couple of months. Vegin’ Out brought another full time employee on board to handle customer relations, freeing me up to focus more on marketing, planning, and of course music. We recently announced that Vegin’ Out is now offering catering. that’s right we’ll put together a delicious vegan spread for any event that you have. If you need entertainment we can even book that!

The month of June was exceptionally good for us, because of a great piece of press we got in The Desert Sun which is a Palm Springs publication. I’ve learned over that last few months that PR can give you an amazing response, but you can never tell what article is going to work and what one is not. Just like print advertising. I do highly recommend investing in a PR campaign to any small business. Not only can it increase your business, but it also helps you build credibility in your industry as an expert. This is the long term effect of good PR. An investment in your future so to speak.

Things on the musical front are going well. About a month ago I left a band that I have been playing with for more about 5 years. It was a tough decision to make, but one that I feel good about. Being in a band is just like any other relationship. It grows and matures over time. Sometimes you grow closer to people and sometimes you grow apart. After 5 years I felt that we were growing apart, and that if I wanted to continue my growth as a person and as an artist that it was time to move on to other things. I think that it is important in life to know when to call it quits. Many times in life we look at a situation and decide whether the energy and time we are putting into something is worth the potential return. This is probably something that we do unconsciously until we start to feel like it might be time to get out. Don’t underestimate this feeling. The key to a lot of things in life is knowing when to get out, before it is too late.

Well that’s it for now. I hope to post more regularly in the future.

DB

A Stroke of Insight May 13, 2008

I just watched this great video!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229

It’s a brain scientist talking about what she experienced while having a stroke.

A word or two about Marketing. May 6, 2008

Marketing is one of the most important ingredients in building a successful business. Yet I think that it is often overlooked by many small business owners. There are many ways to market your service and none of them have any guarantee of success. Every type of business is subject to different rules. There are several ways that I have marketed my vegan meal delivery service over the years. I have tried print advertising, banner ads, google adwords, referral promotions, flyer distribution, attending events, event sponsorships, and the newest a PR Campaign. Out of all of these the biggest bang for our buck has been google adwords. I’m not saying that google adwords would be the best form of marketing if you own a hair salon, or a bookstore, but for my business which is a unique service that has no physical storefront it works very well. For new businesses you just have to make some educated guesses and try some things out. Monitor what is working and what is not, and don’t be afraid to change direction if you aren’t getting the desired response. Keep the law of 80-20 in mind. That is 20% of your marketing efforts will give you 80% of your business. Find out what that 20% is and focus your energy and money on that.

I realized about 2 years ago that print advertising was just not giving us the response we wanted and found that our google adwords campaign, and our flyer distribution was giving us much better results at a fraction of the cost. We were spending $100 a month on our adwords campaign and getting almost twice as much business as a $600 ad was getting us. We even tried a direct mail ad for $800 a month and received no calls for a month and a half. It was an expensive lesson to learn, but it could have been more expensive had I not paid attention to how our customers were finding us. We quickly terminated the print ad campaign and increased our google adwords budget. Ask your customers how they found out about you. It is one of the most important pieces of information to keep track of.

Last month we decided it was time to get a PR campaign going and hired on Evolotus PR. The specialize in PR for socially beneficial industries. They sent out our first press release last week and so far things are going well. I did my first interview a day after the release went out and have gotten many articles written about us, which has already garnered us some new customers. My brother/partner Tim did a radio interview today, and is speaking this weekend at an event called Worldfest. We seem to be tapping into markets that we were previously unable to reach, like the seniors demographic. There is one thing that a PR campaign can get you that regular advertising can not, that is credibility. I am really looking forward to seeing where our public relations campaign takes us.

When it comes to marketing for your small company be smart with your money, and pay attention to what is working and what is not. Don’t let those salespeople talk you into buying ad space in a publication that you know doesn’t cater to your target demographic. They will say whatever they have to to make you buy. If you do decide to give it a shot don’t sign a long contract upfront to get a cheap rate. When negotiating that direct mail ad that I spoke of earlier they tried to talk me into a 6 month contract. I negotiated a 3 month contract with one month free. Looking back I shouldn’t have even done that, but it is hard to judge any ad campaign after 1 month. Get them to give you a deal for your 1st contract. What good is the price break on a 12 insertion contract going to do for you if you aren’t getting any business from the ad. Remember the 80-20 rule, and don’t be afraid to change directions if something isn’t working.

Please tell me about your experiences with different marketing campaigns.

My reading list May 1, 2008

As promised my recent reading/listening list.

The E-Myth resivited – by Michael E. Gerber

The Millionaire Next Door – by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko

The Millionaire Mind – by Thomas J. Stanley

The Conquest of Happinesss – by Bertrand Russell

Eat, Prey, Love – by Elizabeth Gilbert

Raising The Bar – by Gary Erickson

The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Punk Marketing – by Richard Laermer and Mark Simmons

The Starfish and the Spider – by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom

Think and Grow Rich – by Napoleon Hill

The Tipping Point – by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink – by Malcolm Gladwell

The 4 Hour Work Week – by Timothy Ferriss

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – by Stephen R. Covey

The Divine Matrix – by Gregg Braden

Electric Mail Jeeps, The IRS, and more. April 26, 2008

I don’t know exactly why this idea came into my head, but it makes so much sense I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier. The USPS could take a huge step toward saving the environment if they converted their whole fleet of delivery jeeps to electric. they stay parked every night anyway, so charging them would not be a problem. They make frequent stops like a golf cart, and they are super lightweight. It’s seems like a no brainer. I know it’s easier said then done. We’re dealing with an insanely large number of vehicles that have to be replaced, and we’re also talking about the federal government. I’m sure putting large sums of taxpayer money into the USPS is not at the top of the list or even on the list. I would rather see the government convert to electric powered vehicles then send everyone a check for $300.

Which leads me to another thought. The presidential candidates have been talking about doing away with income tax in favor of a fair tax. Which in simple terms means you pay tax on what you spend not what you make. This would mean bye bye IRS. With FedEx, UPS, DHL, California Overnight, and all the other privately owned services out there, is there really the need for the USPS like there used to be? I don’t know all the ins and outs of it, but it seems to me at some point we could do away with The Postal Service as well as the IRS. These may be some very Republican thoughts I am having here. It just seems to me if there are private companies doing a better job, then why is the government spending so much money trying to compete with them, shouldn’t the federal government be outsourcing to them? They maybe already, and I don’t know about it.

What do you guys think?

Great article! April 21, 2008

This is a great article! It goes right along with my last post about artists needing to approach their career as if it were a business. Because it is.

Click here!

Own a business not a job April 19, 2008

Boy was it a hot one today! Looks like summer is almost here. I spent most of my day in my office while the kitchen crew was sweating their butts off getting all the food made for Mondays deliveries. Vegin’ Out is a vegan weekly meal delivery service and Monday is delivery day, which makes Sunday cooking day.

In the early days and until just recently I was part of the kitchen crew in addition to all my other responsibilities. I realized many years ago that my passion for food included eating it, getting it to people that appreciate it, and talking about it, but not slaving away in a hot kitchen for 12 hours making it. I used to think that I had to like cooking food to own a business that makes food. I’ve realized that there is nothing wrong with not being passionate about the technical side of your business as long as you are passionate about the finished product. We should all focus on the things that we are passionate about and find others who are passionate about the things that we are not. This way everyone enjoys what they are doing which creates a better product or service.

There is a wonderful book that I have read a couple of times that really enabled me to see the light. I should say listened to. I’m a big fan of audio books, my brother and I started listening to them in the kitchen years ago. I highly recommend getting a subscription to audible.com. they have pretty much every audio book there is. Anyway the book I speak of is “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber. This is the book that made me realize that I was headed down the path towards owning a job, not a business. What’s the point of owning a job? Often times when you own your job it’s even harder to take vacations and focus on the things that you really want to do. Not to mention the financial risk you take as a business owner. If you just want to focus on one particular task and get a steady paycheck then entrepreneurship is not for you. There is no point in owning a job, yet many business owners find themselves in this position. You have to work on your business not in your business as Mr. Gerber says. I highly recommend “The E-Myth Revisited” it changed the way that I view myself, and business.

Since I majored in music performance in college I didn’t learn much about the fundamentals of business and the economy. Although looking back I can’t believe that there were no business classes required to get a degree in music performance. Most of the skills needed to be a successful freelance musician involve common business skills. All the successful artists and musicians I have ever met looked at their career as if they were building a business. A business who’s sole product was their talent.  Sales and networking are obviously a huge part of any business, especially for anyone offering a service.  In my short time as a musician I have come to the conclusion that if you’re really bad a selling yourself, then you had better get someone to do that work otherwise failure is inevitable.  You could be the most talented musician, lawyer, doctor, graphic designer, plumber, accountant, etc…….., but if no one knows you exist, you’ll starve.  I guess that’s why we say “starving artist”.  I have worked with so many musicians over the years that are world class, but can’t pay their bills.  They don’t know the first thing about how to market their skills, and to be honest until recently I didn’t either.  It’s just not something that is talked about among artists.  When I was 22 and had just moved to L.A I thought that if I just practiced 4 hours a day that the phone would just ring.  Why wouldn’t it?  Nobody ever told me otherwise.

There have been so many books that have changed the way that I think about business, marketing, and life.  In my next post I will put together a list of some of the books that have influenced me and guided toward the light.

Thanks for reading!

Dan

Hello blogging world! April 6, 2008

This is my first blog post ever! I have started this blog to chronicle my successes, and set backs as I build a million dollar company while keeping my “day job” as a professional saxophonist. I plan to share what I learn along the way to hopefully help other entrepreneurs. I am also open to any advice that readers would like to share with me and the other readers. When I first started to get serious about my business I spent a lot of time looking for a definitive step by step on how to bootstrap a business and to this day still have not found it. What I have realized is that being an entrepreneur is a creative job just like playing music, writing, or painting. There is no definitive step by step because building a business is like writing a song. You must pay tribute to those that inspired you, but at the same time you have to create your own style. Your business is an extension of you, it’s a public representation of your morals, and values.  I’m looking forward to sharing my thoughts, documenting my entrepreneurial journey, and passing on any information or advice I receive along the way.

Cheers,

Dan Boissy