Motorcoach Marketing Summer 2018 by Deliverabilities

MOTORCOACH

ISSUE 07/ AUGUST 2018

MARKETING SUMMER 2018

Marketing and Sales Information Designed for the Motorcoach Industry

Motorcoach Marketing Survey Industry Driven Marketing Data

TOTAL

Average Fleet Size: 48 Vehicles OTHER

TROLLIES

31 CARS

VANS/SUVS

144

MID SIZED

194 MINI

10 Ways to GROW 32%

NUMBER OF PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY FOCUSED ON SALES PER COMPANY

208

SCHOOL

1,198

FULL-SIZE

2-4

55%

13%

NUMBER OF VEHICLES ACCOUNTED FOR IN SURVEY: 3412

Are you currently doing all the marketing you would like to be doing?

5-10 11-15 16+

1,547

your BUSINESS Yes

HAVE YOU USED THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS?

Unanswered

12%

52%

LIVE EVENT

WEBSITE

YES

MAGAZINE

VIDEOS

DO IT FOR YOU

ONLINE DESIGN

SOCIAL MEDIA

TIME SPENT ON MARKETING WEEKLY

5-10 HOURS

< 5 HOURS

31%

20 Travel Trends to Know for 2018 50 NO 15 YES

58 NO 7 YES

53 NO 12 YES

50 NO 15 YES

CUSTOMER PUBS

29 NO 36 YES

CABLE / TV

DIRECT OUTBOUND

BUSRATES

27 NO 37 YES

34 NO 31 YES

SPONSORSHIPS

56 NO 9 YES 28 NO 37 YES

VIDEO

PPC / PAID ADS

44 NO 22 YES

TRADE SHOWS

36 NO 29 YES

DIRECT MAIL

40 NO 25 YES

SOCIAL ADS

SOCIAL BOOSTING

SEM

FULL-TIME

23%

of the year

40 NO 25 YES

27 NO 38 YES

SOCIAL POSTING

PART-TIME

13 NO 51 YES 29 NO 35 YES

PHONE BOOK

DESCRIBE YOUR MARKETING PERSON/TEAM

40+ HOURS

RADIO

2019 Marketer

10-40 HOURS

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING?

66%

CONTRACT

HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOURSELF AS A MARKETER? 0-10 (10 BEING BEST)

< $1000

11%

$1000 - $5000

How does your

$5000+

WHAT IS YOUR COMPANYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S TOTAL MONTHLY MARKETING BUDGET? WHAT STANDS IN YOUR WAY?

HOW TO HANDLE 28%

Budget

25%

Staff Available

CUSTOMER 13%

Staff Training

10%

Where to Start?

43%

Time

Other

COMPLAINTS

marketing

83% of respondents report spending less than $36,000 a year on marketing. Average fleet size of respondents was 48 pieces of equipment.

$750 Per YEAR/Per piece of equipment. .2% GROSS REVENUE 2% net revenue ($1000/day per piece of equipment & 10% profit margins)

stack up? 7

9 10

28 46 06

HAVE A SEASONAL BUSINESS? 5 TIPS FOR YEAR-ROUND PROFITABILITY/ By their nature, seasonal businesses only have a few months to generate enough...

HOW DOES YOUR MARKETING MEASURE UP?/ The Motorcoach Marketing Council has just released an infographic based on...

TOP 10 TIPS FOR HIRING THE RIGHT EMPLOYEE EVERY TIME/ 10 Best Ways to Ensure You Find the Right Person for Your Available Job Need 10 tips for hiring...

20 TRAVEL TRENDS TO KNOW FOR 2018/

When you think of trendy industries, your thoughts likely first turn toward the world of fashion. What’s...

2019 MARKETER OF THE YEAR/

HOW TO HANDLE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS/

Looking to take your business to the next level? Then check out these 10 practical ways to expand....

OVERCOMING BAD PRESS ON SOCIAL MEDIA BEFORE IT DESTROYS YOUR BUSINESS/

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT/

It happens every day. Great companies lose potential business overnight because of a social media...

10 WAYS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS/

MANAGE YOUR MARKETING: THE FACE OF YOUR COMPANY/ Whether you are a businesstoconsumer company or a business-to-business company...

5 strategies that can help resolve a customer complaint in a smooth and professional manner.....

The 2019 Motorcoach Marketer of the Year Award, is it you?...

HOW TO PAYYOURSELF WHEN YOU’RE SELFEMPLOYED/ You made the leap. You’re a fulltime freelancer. Each and every day belongs to you. And although you...

THIS IS HOW TO ACTUALLY WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER/ We’ve found eight unexpected (and counterintuitive) ways to squeeze more out of your workday...

PRODUCTION Production deliverabilities layout&design: Phone: 360.468.3699

Email: info@deliverabilites.com www.deliverabilities.com

ADVERTISING Motorcoach Marketing Council opportunities: Phone: 360.840.0779

Email: chris@gomotorcoach.org motorcoachmarketing.org

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NO TIME FOR MARKETING? NO PROBLEM... WE CAN DO IT FOR YOU.

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The Motorcoach Marketing Council/ From the president.

Marketing: the one thing we all know we need to do that always gets pushed farther and farther to the back of the pile. Even though I’ve served as president of the Motorcoach Marketing Council for the last 3 years, I am just as guilty as the next person. While the products we have built are, in the words of our executive director, “simple, easy and effective,” one fundamental problem remains. We, the motorcoach operators in North America, have to decide to make them enough of a priority to use them. This may seem completely nuts to anyone looking from the outside in. (I’ve even felt that way on days when I’ve sat down with team members who have been assigned to help implement many of the council’s tools. When I ask why we aren’t doing more, I’ll often get this answer in response: “I simply don’t have time to get to it.”) In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t be that complicated, right? All we have to do is push a few buttons to copy, paste, and publish; with no logins or accounts to navigate, it only takes a few seconds to successfully get something posted. We never get around to posting, however, because that always gets put on the back burner while we’re tackling everything else we have to do.

every month, and those hours are growing. And it’s not because I’ve told my employees that this is how it has to be; it’s just that they now see the wisdom in making marketing a priority. And that, any way you spin it, is a win. I hope you will choose to do something—anything, really—that will help you drive more sales to your company. I hope you’ll do it not because you have to, or because there’s some regulatory compliance looming over your head. I hope you do it because it’s the right decision for you and your company. I hope you’ll see results from your efforts and gradually grow into someone who makes time for marketing. It’s a no-brainer that, for all of us, additional business and profits would go a long way toward fixing many of the issues we have in our companies. And for me, the first step to selling more charters and bringing in more money was deciding to do one thing every month. I hope you’ll take the challenge and join us. Good luck!

-Jeff Rogers

Marketing is about creating additional demand for our products or services. Whether we sell line run service or charters, I rarely run into a company that doesn’t need more business. Some motorcoach operators are focused on filling up dispatch sheets, while others put their energy into replacing bottom-feeder, lowball customers with those who are happy to pay for great service. Here’s something ironic, though: while marketing is crucial to my business and the businesses of so many of my friends in the industry, it is almost universally neglected. Most of us are just hoping we’ll get more business during our slow times, or that more people that are willing to pay our going rates will call us. And it isn’t that we are spending our days on the golf course or jet setting to Europe; we’re just up to our eyeballs in the operational and regulatory compliance juggernaut that is the motorcoach business. We’re focusing on the things that must be done, and marketing, like so many other things that should be done, gets pushed back to the “I’llget-to-that-someday” pile. We’ve made a commitment at First Class Tours that I want to share with you. I don’t share it to boast; rather, my hope is that it might inspire you to action. I have challenged my company to do one thing. Yep, that’s all! We focus on doing one thing every month that will help us create additional demand for our products and services. I have been doing it for over a year now, and I’m happy to report that this effort has brought a feeling of accomplishment along with real, tangible results. In the beginning, we did really small things. As time went on, however, my entire team began to see that it could be done and it was working! Little successes led to additional efforts being put forth, and one win led to another. Before we knew it, we were spending more time and energy on marketing. It wasn’t that we worked more, or that we somehow managed to cut down the time we spent on operations or compliance. Simply put, the act of doing it made it real, and each little success made it more important. I’m not saying that we spend hours every day on marketing, or even several hours in a week. But we do spend some time on marketing

Jeff Rogers

MMC President. Owner First Class Tours Houston, TX

STRATEGY

Have a Seasonal Business? 5 Tips for Yea BY SAIGE DRIVER

Business oweners should also be utilizing their time to access business needs and set goals and profit targets....

By their nature, seasonal businesses only have a few months to generate enough money to sustain themselves all year long. However, being a seasonal business doesn’t mean you’re doomed to zero cash flow in the offseason: It’s all about careful planning and creating a strategy to keep you going long after peak season.

Whether you’re gea holiday season or after your summert how to keep your throughout the year

1. Understand offseason expenses

The first and most im managing your fina

cutting back your marketing and ad budgets to save money. You can also renegotiate some of your vendor contracts and recurring services to see where you can scale back, he said. Damon Millotte, vice president of Tailor Made Lawns, suggests spanning out commission or sales as a way to receive income during the offseason. Tailor Made Lawns offers different payment options, which helps with year-round profitability. “In the lawn care industry, it’s not unusual to offer a prepay discount for customers who would like to pay for the entire upcoming year of service all at once,” Millotte told Business News Daily. “The prepay also helps us stay profitable year-round when we aren’t actually making money.” 2. Use the offseason to strategize and plan.

ar-Round Profitability/

aring up for the slowing down time rush, here’s business afloat r.

and s.

manage

mportant step in ances is getting

a good understanding of your expenses in the offseason, and then thinking of ways to minimize them, said David Goldin, president and CEO of business financing provider Capify. Goldin advised reducing your business hours and days, lowering your staffing requirements, and

Business owners should make the best of their slow time so they are prepared when the busy season hits. For example, Millotte trains employees during the offseason, while Christopher Tabone, CEO and founder of Koda Sail, uses this time for strategic planning. “Being a seasonal business, we know that for two months out of the year, we are so busy and have no time to think of strategies to grow and improve, so we use the offseason for this,” he said. “Business owners should also be utilizing their time to access business needs and set goals and profit targets for the next season,” said Brandon Stephens, president of Christmas Decor. “This might

include calculating ideal number of clients to retain, adjusting the training process, ordering new equipment, conducting pricing evaluations, updating marketing materials, etc.”

at a small loss [to] cash out those items.”

3. Find natural ways to repurpose your equipment.

“We’ll run a special on whatever color or type of lights we have in excess, sell off inventory to franchisees in the network or other companies,” Fouts said. “If, at the end of the season, there is still an excess of a certain color or type of lights, we’ll store them during the offseason.”

Gary Fouts, owner of multiple seasonal small businesses, said the best way to keep a seasonal business profitable is to operate two or more businesses whose offseasons complement each other and that can share equipment. For example, Fouts runs a landscape management company, an outdoor lighting company (Principle Lighting Inc.) and a Christmas lighting addon service through Christmas Decor, all of which drive referrals for one another.

Fouts said his objective is to get the inventory as close to zero as possible before the end of the season.

5. Experiment offerings.

with

new

product

Fouts also noted that his Christmas decor business has many other purposes outside of the holiday season, such as other holidays and special events like weddings.

To extend the season of your business, you might want to consider switching up your offerings to bring in new business. Kona Ice, a gourmet shaved-ice company, began selling Kona Cocoa and coffee at some of its franchises during the winter months as a way to continue relationships with customers throughout the year.

“We also get creative – offering lighting designs for other festive occasions outside the holidays like Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, sporting events,” added Stephens. “Make sure to never lose sight of potential business opportunities that may arise with a bit of creativity.”

“Introduce the product as a seasonal special, [such as] coffee shops that sell limited-time pumpkin spice lattes, said Tony Lamb, founder and CEO of Kona Ice. “It allows a brand to experiment, but people don’t start accepting that as [standard]. See what catches on.”

4. Seek out opportunities with businesses that have longer seasons.

“You don’t want to go all in; you want to test,” Goldin added. “Tread lightly and experiment to see if you can increase business. If it works, expand it next year. You may be pleasantly surprised.” 

Toffer Grant, founder and CEO of prepaid business Visa provider PEX Card, recommended looking through your inventory at the end of your peak season to see if anything can be sold off. “A business has to determine [if ] it is worth keeping money tied up in gear and supplies that sit around until the following season,” Grant said. “Recoup some of the money by selling materials for what was paid, or even

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ONLINE CLICK HERE

TOO BUSY RUNNING A

CHARTER BUSINESS TO DO THE MARKETING

YOU NEED TO DO? NO PROBLEM...WE CAN DO IT FOR YOU. GoMotorcoach

SALES TRAINING DRIVER RECRUITMENT

SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT MARKETING MATERIALS

EMAIL TEMPLATES MARKETING SUPPORT

COVER.indd 2

1/3/17 4:59 PM

MARKETING

Motorcoach Marketing Survey Industry Driven Marketing Data

TOTAL

55%

13%

NUMBER OF VEHICLES ACCOUNTED FOR IN SURVEY: 3412

Average Fleet Size: 48 Vehicles OTHER

TROLLIES

31 CARS

VANS/SUVS

144

MID SIZED

194 MINI

32%

NUMBER OF PEOPLE SPECIFICALLY FOCUSED ON SALES PER COMPANY

208

SCHOOL

1,198

FULL-SIZE

2-4

Are you currently doing all the marketing you would like to be doing?

5-10 11-15 16+

1,547

Yes

HAVE YOU USED THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS?

Unanswered

12%

52%

LIVE EVENT

WEBSITE

YES

MAGAZINE

VIDEOS

DO IT FOR YOU

ONLINE DESIGN

SOCIAL MEDIA

TIME SPENT ON MARKETING WEEKLY

5-10 HOURS

< 5 HOURS

31%

0 10-40 HOURS

58 NO 7 YES

53 NO 12 YES

50 NO 15 YES

CABLE / TV

CUSTOMER PUBS

29 NO 36 YES

RADIO

BUSRATES

VIDEO

TRADE SHOWS

50 NO 15 YES 27 NO 37 YES

34 NO 31 YES

SPONSORSHIPS

56 NO 9 YES 28 NO 37 YES

DIRECT OUTBOUND

44 NO 22 YES

PPC / PAID ADS

36 NO 29 YES

DIRECT MAIL

40 NO 25 YES

SOCIAL ADS

SOCIAL BOOSTING

SEM

23%

FULL-TIME

40 NO 25 YES

27 NO 38 YES

SOCIAL POSTING

PART-TIME

13 NO 51 YES 29 NO 35 YES

PHONE BOOK

DESCRIBE YOUR MARKETING PERSON/TEAM

40+ HOURS

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? 66%

CONTRACT

HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOURSELF AS A MARKETER? 0-10 (10 BEING BEST)

< $1000

11%

$1000 - $5000

$5000+

WHAT IS YOUR COMPANYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S TOTAL MONTHLY MARKETING BUDGET? WHAT STANDS IN YOUR WAY? 28%

Budget

25%

Staff Available

13%

Staff Training

10%

Where to Start?

43%

Time

Other

83% of respondents report spending less than $36,000 a year on marketing. Average fleet size of respondents was 48 pieces of equipment.

$750 Per YEAR/Per piece of equipment. .2% GROSS REVENUE 2% net revenue ($1000/day per piece of equipment & 10% profit margins)

9 10

How does your marketing measure up?/ The Motorcoach Marketing Council has just released an infographic based on a motorcoach marketing survey they conducted last year. The infographic includes information from motorcoach operators across North America, and it shows how much money companies are spending on marketing, the various types of fleet vehicles they run, how many of their staff members are working on marketing, how much time is being invested for advertising, and the obstacles that prevent these operators from moving forward with their marketing objectives. “We wanted to take what we learned from the survey and make that information accessible to the operators we work with,” said Christian Riddell, Executive Director of the Motorcoach Marketing Council. “We’ve had a collective goal to work together to sell more charters, to more people, for more money, and we hope that this infographic will help all of us see how we’re doing, what we’re doing, and where we can channel our efforts for improvement,” he continued. This industry-wide survey was given by the Motorcoach Marketing Council to evaluate marketing activity in individual companies,

and ascertain motorcoach operators’ level of familiarity with the council’s marketing products. “In the last several years, we’ve spent a lot of time developing materials that make marketing easy for operators. The survey provides a helpful baseline for us, and we hope it makes operators aware of the tools available to them and gives them a sense of what they can do going forward,” said Jeff Rogers, President of the Motorcoach Marketing Council. The Motorcoach Marketing Council is a North American, operator-driven coalition of motorcoach operators, coach vendors, state/regional/national associations, suppliers, vendors, and travel/tourism partners all working together to improve our industry’s image. It is our mission to help operators reach new markets and buyers, and increase ridership on coaches throughout North America. Every tool, training, and resource we create is specifically designed to help charter operators sell more charters, to more people, for more money. For more information, visit motorcoachmarketing. org, or contact the Motorcoach Marketing Council at info@motorcoachmarketing. org

MARKETING

2019 Marketer of the year/ The 2019 Motorcoach Marketer of the Year Award, is it you? Last year, the Motorcoach Marketing Council announced an annual marketing award for motorcoach operators. Because marketing so often takes a back seat when it comes to the day-to-day concerns of running a business, the council wanted to spotlight one company each year whose dedication to marketing was generating positive results and measurable growth. Following through on that announcement, the first-ever award was presented at the 2018 UMA Expo in San Antonio earlier this month. Christian Riddell, Executive Director of the Motorcoach Marketing Council, took a few minutes to talk about and introduce the award, and the award was then presented to Silverado Stages by Jeff Rogers, President of the Motorcoach Marketing Council. Silverado Stagesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; campaign centered on digital marketing efforts by highlighting the convenience of their online booking service, selling experiences instead of advertising the perks of motorcoaches,

and communicating the safety and reliability of coach travel to potential customers. As a result of their efforts, they achieved a 23% gain in lead generation, as well as a marked increase in web-based charter sales. This campaign also demonstrated an efficient use of marketing dollars; as their sales went up, their marketing expenses went down. The Motorcoach Marketing Council wishes to thank all those who applied for this award. We extend our warm congratulations to Silverado Stages in appreciation for the precedent they’ve set for the future, and we look forward to monitoring their progress. As a council, we believe that the entire industry benefits as individual operators execute effective marketing strategies to improve the overall perception of motorcoach travel. By working together, we truly can sell more charters, to more people, for more money. If you’d like to know more about the council, what we do, and the tools and trainings we’ve made available to motorcoach operators, please visit www.motorcoachmarketing.org. 

INSPIRATION

10Ways to Gro Business/ BY: Karen E. Spaeder

Make sure youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re maintaining a consistent bottom-line profit and that youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve shown steady growth over the past few years.

owYour

Looking to take your business to the next level? Then check out these 10 practical ways to expand your business. When you first started your business, you probably did a lot of research. You may have sought help from advisors; you may have gotten information from books, magazines and other readily available sources. You invested a lot-in terms of money, time and sweat equity-to get your business off the ground. So...now what? For those of you who have survived startup and built successful businesses, you may be wondering how to take the next step and grow your business beyond its current status. There are numerous possibilities, 10 of which we’ll outline here. Choosing the proper one (or ones) for your business will depend on the type of business you own, your available resources, and how much money, time and sweat equity you’re willing to invest all over again. If you’re ready to grow, we’re ready to help. Open another location This might not be your best choice for business expansion, but it’s listed first here because that’s what often comes to mind first for so many entrepreneurs considering expansion. “Physical expansion isn’t always the best growth answer without careful research, planning and number-planning,” says small-business speaker, writer and consultant Frances McGuckin , who offers the following tips for anyone considering another location: Make sure you’re maintaining a consistent bottom-line profit and that you’ve shown steady growth over the past few years.

Physical expansion isn’t always the best growth answer without careful research, planning and numberplanning,” says smallbusiness speaker, writer and consultant Frances McGuckin

Look at the trends, both economic and consumer, for indications on your company’s staying power. Make sure your administrative systems and management team are extraordinary-you’ll need them to get a new location up and running. Prepare a complete business plan for a new location. Determine where and how you’ll obtain financing. (See “ Got Cash? “ for financing tips.) Choose your location based on what’s best for your business, not your wallet. Offer your business as a franchise or business opportunity Bette Fetter, founder and owner of Young Rembrandts , an Elgin, Illinoisbased drawing program for children, waited 10 years to begin franchising her concept in 2001-but for Fetter and her husband, Bill, the timing was perfect. Raising four young children and keeping the business local was enough for the couple until their children grew older and they decided it was time to expand nationally. “We chose franchising as the vehicle for expansion because we wanted an operating system that would allow ownership on the part of the staff operating Young Rembrandts locations in markets outside our home territory,” says Bette. “When people have a vested interest in their work, they enjoy it more, bring more to the table and are more successful overall. Franchising is a perfect system to accomplish those goals.”

Streamlining their internal systems and marketing in nearby states helped the couple bring in their first few franchisees. With seven units and some time under their belt, they then signed on with two national franchise broker firms. Now with 30 franchisees nationwide, they’re staying true to their vision of steady growth. “Before we began franchising, we were teaching 2,500 children in the Chicago market,” says Bette. “Today we teach more than 9,000 children nationwide, and that number will continue to grow dramatically as we grow our franchise system.” Bette advises networking within the franchise community-become a member of the International Franchise Association and find a good franchise attorney as well as a mentor who’s been through the franchise process. “You need to be open to growing and expanding your vision,” Bette says, “but at the same time, be a strong leader who knows how to keep the key vision in focus at all times.” License your product This can be an effective, low-cost growth medium, particularly if you have a service product or branded product, notes Larry Bennett, director of the Larry Friedman International Center for Entrepreneurship at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. “You can receive upfront monies and royalties from the continued sales or use of your software, name brand, etc.-if it’s successful,” he says. Licensing also minimizes your risk and is low cost in comparison to the price of starting your own company to produce and sell your brand or product.

To find a licensing researching compa products or service “[But] before you s contact any compan attorney who speci property rights,” ad is the best way to of losing control product.” Form an alliance

Aligning yourself w of business can b to expand quickly

g partner, start by anies that provide es similar to yours. set up a meeting or ny, find a competent ializes in intellectual dvises Bennett. “This o minimize the risk of your service or

with a similar type be a powerful way y. Last spring, Jim

Labadie purchased a CD seminar set from a fellow fitness professional, Ryan Lee, on how to make and sell fitness information products. It was a move that proved lucrative for Labadie, who at the time was running an upscale personal training firm he’d founded in 2001. “What I learned on [Lee’s] CDs allowed me to develop my products and form alliances within the industry,” says Labadie, who now teaches business skills to fitness professionals via a series of products he created and sells on his Web site, HowToGetMoreClients.com . Seeing that Labadie had created some

well-received products of his own, Lee agreed to promote Labadie’s product to his long contact list of personal trainers. “That resulted in a decent amount of sales,” says Labadie-in fact, he’s increased sales 500 percent since he created and started selling the products in 2001. “Plus, there have been other similar alliances I’ve formed with other trainers and Web sites that sell my products for a commission.” If the thought of shelling out commissions or any of your own money for the sake of an alliance makes you uncomfortable, Labadie

advises looking at the big picture: “If you want to keep all the money to yourself, you’re really shooting yourself in the foot,” says the Tampa, Florida, entrepreneur. “You need to align with other businesses that already have lists of prospective customers. It’s the fastest way to success.”

•

Sell complementary products or services

•

Teach adult education or other types of classes

•

Import or export yours or others’ products

Diversify

•

Small-business consultant McGuckin offers several ideas for diversifying your product or service line:

“Diversifying is an excellent growth strategy, as it allows you to have multiple streams of income that can

Become a paid speaker or columnist

often fill seasonal vo increase sales and says McGuckin, wh an accounting, ta business to speak publishing.

Diversifying was al for Darien, Connect Rebecca Cutler an creators of the “rais of maternity tenn in 2002. “We had to expand into ot

voids and, of course, d profit margins,” ho diversified from ax and consulting king, writing and

lways in the works ticut, entrepreneurs nd Jennifer Krane, sing a racquet” line niswear , launched d always planned ther ‘thematic’ kits,

consistent with our philosophies of versatility, style, health and fun,” says Cutler. “Once we’d begun to establish a loyal wholesale customer base and achieve some retail brand recognition, we then broadened our product base with two line extensions, ‘raising a racquet golf’ and ‘raising a racquet yoga.’” Rolling out the new lines last year allowed the partners’ current retail outlets to carry more of their inventory. “It also broadened our target audience and increased our presence in the marketplace, giving us the credibility to approach much larger retailers,” notes Cutler, who expects to double their 2003 sales this year and further diversify the company’s product lines. “As proof, we’ve recently been selected by Bloomingdale’s, A Pea in the Pod and Mimi Maternity.” Target other markets Your current market is serving you well. Are there others? You bet. “My other markets are what make money for me,” says McGuckin. Electronic and foreign rights, entrepreneurship programs, speaking events and software offerings produce multiple revenue streams for McGuckin, from multiple markets. “If your consumer market ranges from teenagers to college students, think about where these people spend most of their time,” says McGuckin. “Could you introduce your business to schools, clubs or colleges? You could offer discounts to special-interest clubs or donate part of [your profits] to schools and associations.” Baby boomers, elderly folks, teens,

tweens...let your imagination take you where you need to be. Then take your product to the markets that need it. Win a government contract “The best way for a small business to grow is to have the federal government as a customer,” wrote Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, ranking Democratic member of the House Small Business Committee, in August 2003. (Click here to read that article.) “The U.S. government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world, with total procurement dollars reaching approximately $235 billion in 2002 alone.” Working with your local SBA and SBDC offices as well as the Service Corps of Retired Executives and your local, regional or state Economic Development Agency will help you determine the types of contracts available to you. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the SBA also have a Business Matchmaking Program designed to match entrepreneurs with buyers. “A fair amount of patience is required in working to secure most government contracts,” says Johnson & Wales University’s Bennett. “Requests for proposals usually require a significant amount of groundwork and research. If you’re not prepared to take the time to fully comply with RFP terms and conditions, you’ll only be wasting your time.” This might sound like a lot of work, but it could be worth it: “The good part about winning government contracts,” says Bennett, “is that once you’ve jumped through the hoops and win a bid, you’re generally not subject to the level of external competition of the

outside marketplaces.”

product architectures were very similar,” says Fasciano. This allowed for a smooth integration of the two technologies.

Merge with or acquire another business In 1996, when Mark Fasciano founded FatWire , a Mineola, New York, content management software company, he certainly couldn’t have predicted what would happen a few years later. Just as FatWire was gaining market momentum, the tech downturn hit hard. “We were unable to generate the growth needed to maximize the strategic partnerships we’d established with key industry players,” Fasciano says. “During this tech ‘winter,’ we concentrated on survival and servicing our clients, while searching for an opportunity to jump-start the company’s growth. That growth opportunity came last year at the expense of one of our competitors.” Scooping up the bankrupt company, divine Inc., from the auction block was the easy part; then came the integration of the two companies. “The process was intense and exhausting,” says Fasciano, who notes four keys to their success: •

Customer retention. “I personally spoke with 150 customers within the first few weeks of consummating the deal, and I met with 45 clients around the globe in the first six months,” notes Fasciano. They’ve retained 95 percent of the divine Inc. customer base.

•

Staff retention. Fasciano rehired the best and brightest of divine’s staff.

•

Melding technologies. “One of the reasons I was so confident about this acquisition was the two

•

Focus. “Maybe the biggest reason this acquisition has worked so well is the focus that FatWire has brought to a neglected product,” says Fasciano.

FatWire’s acquisition of divine in 2003 grew its customer base from 50 to 400, and the company grew 150 percent, from $6 million to $15 million. Fasciano expects no less than $25 million in sales this year. Expand globally Not only did FatWire grow in terms of customers and sales, it also experienced global growth simply as a result of integrating the best of the divine and FatWire technologies. “FatWire finally has international reach-we’ve established new offices in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, China, Japan and Singapore,” says Fasciano. This increased market share is what will allow FatWire to realize sustained growth.

representative. Trad chambers of comm States, and branc chambers of com countries are also g distributors you can

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But you don’t need to acquire another business to expand globally. You just need to prime your offering for an international market the way FatWire was primed following the integration of its technologies with divine’s.

“Bill Gates said th 2002, there will be businesses: those presence, and thos at all,” notes Sally F California, Web c “Perhaps this is ov but an effective We an integral part of b

You’ll also need a foreign distributor who’ll carry an inventory of your product and resell it in their domestic markets. You can locate foreign distributors by scouring your city or state for a foreign company with a U.S.

Landing your Web s results is key-more of traffic comes v according to Falkow more than 4 billio traffic on the Inter

de groups, foreign merce in the United ches of American mmerce in foreign good places to find n work with.

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hat by the end of e only two kinds of with an Internet se with no business Falkow a Pasadena, content strategist. verstating the case, eb site is becoming business today.”

site in search engine e than 80 percent via search engines, w. “As there are now on Web pages and rnet doubles every

100 days, making your Web site visible is vital,” she says. “You need every weapon you can get.”Design and programming are also important, but it’s your content that will draw a visitor into your site and get them to stay. Says Falkow, “Putting together a content strategy based on user behavior, measuring and tracking visitor click streams, and writing the content based on researched keywords will get you excellent search results and meet the needs of your visitors.” Got Cash? Need financing to assist with your growth strategy? Chris Lehnes, vice president of business development with CIT Small Business Lending, a provider of SBA loans, advises the following: 1. Visit the SBAonline. There are many useful small-business tools there as well as information on local SBA contacts.

Your local SBA office can provide you with a list of lenders that provide financing to small businesses. 2. Be prepared. Any lender you work with will want to be confident in your ability to manage your own expansion. Think of what your lender might ask so you’re prepared for those tough questions. 3. Be willing to put up some of your own money. Lenders will expect you to pledge personal assets and to contribute some of your own cash to your expansion. That may mean splitting the costs with the lender and taking out a second or third mortgage on your home. 

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In CaseYou Missed It/ Important Articles Written Exclusively for the Motorcoach Industry.

Data driven marketing

Time. The ultimate killer of marketing.

Big data is a big deal. Marketers around the globe have turned to data as a powerful ally in finding new customers and cross-selling to existing customers. Big data is...

For those of you who may not know, we recently wrapped up the first-ever motorcoach marketing industry survey. The survey accounted for nearly 3,500 pieces...

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Change

Let’s Raise Our Prices

Let’s face it: change sucks. It’s often scary and inconvenient, and in many cases, it means we have to stretch. Just like the rest of you, I’m familiar with the “change is good”...

Yep, you heard me…on three…go! OK. Prices raised. See you next month! If only it was that easy! I was recently asked to address a group regarding the shortage of...

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The Council’s Mission

The Key Is In The Drip

For any of you that have attended a meeting where I have been asked to speak, you can probably recite in perfect cadence our mission: to help operators sell more charters...

Erosion is a pretty strange way to start a marketing column, but let’s be honest…it’s probably not as strange as potatoes! I was recently driving from the Pacific...

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STRATEGY

Top 10 Tips for Hiring the Ri Every Time/ By SUSAN M. HEATHFIELD

Right Employee 10 Best Ways to Ensure You Find the Right Person for Your Available Job Need 10 tips for hiring an employee? Hiring the right employee is a challenging process. Hiring the wrong employee is expensive, costly to your work environment, and time-consuming. Hiring the right employee, on the other hand, pays you back in employee productivity, a successful employment relationship, and a positive impact on your total work environment. Hiring the right employee enhances your work culture and pays you back a thousand times over in high employee morale, positive forward thinking planning, and accomplishing challenging goals. It also ensures that you are making the most of the time and energy that your other employees invest in a relationship with the new employeeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a costly and emotional process, indeed. This is not a comprehensive guide to hiring, but these steps are key when you hire an employee. If you need a step-by-step process, consider using this checklist for success in hiring employees. 01 Define the Job Before Hiring an Employee Hiring the right employee starts

with a job analysis. The job analysis enables you to collect information about the duties, responsibilities, necessary skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job. The information from the job analysis is fundamental to developing the job description for the new employee. The job description assists you to plan your recruiting strategy for hiring the right employee. 02 Plan Your Employee Recruiting Strategy With the job description in hand, set up a recruiting planning meeting that involves the key employees who are hiring the new employee. The hiring manager is crucial to the planning. At this meeting, your recruiting strategy is planned and the execution begins. Teams that have worked together frequently in hiring an employee can often complete this step via email. 03 Use a Checklist for Hiring an Employee This checklist for hiring an employee will help you systematize your process for hiring an employee. Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your first employee or one of many employees you are hiring, this checklist for hiring an employee helps you keep track of your recruiting efforts. The checklist for hiring an employee keeps your recruiting efforts on track and communicates progress to interested employees and the hiring manager. 04 Recruit the Right Candidates When Hiring an Employee You can develop relationships with potential candidates long before you need them when hiring an employee. These ideas will also help you in recruiting a large

pool of candidates when you have a current position available. The more qualified candidates you can develop when hiring an employee, the more likely you are to locate a qualified potential employee. Read on to discover the best ways to develop your talent pool when hiring an employee. 05 Review Credentials and Applications Carefully The work of reviewing resumes, cover letters, job applications, and job application letters starts with a well-written job description. Your bulletted list of the most desired characteristics of the most qualified candidate was developed as part of the recruiting planning process. Screen all applicants against this list of qualifications, skills, experience, and characteristics. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be spending your time with your most qualified candidates when hiring an employee. And, that is a good use of your time. 06 Prescreen Your Candidates The most important reason to prescreen candidates when hiring an employee is to save the interviewing and selection committee time. While a candidate may look good on paper, a prescreening interview will tell you if their qualifications are truly a fit with your job. Additionally, in a prescreening interview, you can determine whether their salary expectations are congruent with your job. A skilled telephone interviewer will also obtain evidence about whether the candidate may fit within your culture - or not. 07 Ask the Right Job Interview Questions

The job interview is a powerful factor in hiring an employee. The job interview is a key tool employers utilize in hiring. The job interview questions asked are critical in magnifying the power of the job interview to help you in hiring the right employee. Interview questions that help you separate desirable candidates from average candidates are fundamental when hiring an employee. Job interview questions matter to employers. Here are sample job interview questions. 08 Check Backgrounds and References When Hiring an Employee Effective background checks are one of the most important steps when hiring an employee. You need to verify that all the presented, sterling credentials, skills, and experience are actually possessed by your candidate. The background checks must include work references, especially former supervisors, educational credentials, employment references and actual jobs held, and criminal history. Other background checks when hiring an employee, such as credit history, must be specifically related to the job for which you are hiring an employee. 09 7 Critical Factors to Consider Before Hiring an Employee When you consider hiring an employee, it’s tempting to offer the job to the candidate who is most like you. The candidate feels as comfortable as a well-worn shoe. You won’t get many surprises once you make the job offer, and your gut is comfortable that your favorite candidate can do the job. Beware, beware this practice when hiring an employee. Why does your organization need another employee just like you? Here

The work of reviewing resumes, cover letters, job applications, and job application letters starts with a well-written job description. are the seven critical factors to consider before hiring an employee and making a job offer. Extend a Job Offer The job offer letter is provided to the candidate you have selected for the position. Most frequently, the candidate and the organization have verbally negotiated the conditions of hire and the job offer letter confirms the verbal agreements about salary and benefits. The more senior the position, however, the more likely the job offer will turn into a protracted negotiation about salary, benefits, employment termination, bonus potential, severance pay, stock options, and more when hiring an employee. 10 Use Effective Employment Letters When Hiring an Employee These sample employment letters will assist you to reject job candidates, make job offers, welcome employees, and more when hiring an employee. Use these sample employment letters to develop the employment letters you use in your organization when hiring an employee. 

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STRATEGY

20 Travel Trends to Know for 2018/ By placesyoullsee.com

When you think of trendy industries, your thoughts likely first turn toward the world of fashion. What’s hot one month may be totally out the next. Sometimes what was once thought passé can come back to the fore almost unexpectedly. But, fashion isn’t the only industry that’s subject to the quick transformations brought about by trends… travel trends work the same way in travel industry! In the past year alone, the world of travel has evolved significantly, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down in the year to come. In fact, there are some big trends for 2018 that travelers, travel agents and destinations around the world are bracing for. What are they? Well, that’s what we’re going to be exploring below. On this list, we’ve pulled together what we believe will be the 20 biggest travel industry trends to mark the evolution of the travel industry in 2018. Some of these trends have already started to emerge, while some are just around the corner. Whatever the case may be, being knowledgeable about these trends can help you to do two things.

First, you’ll understand what you’re encountering the next time you head out on vacation. Second, these trends can help you to plan a trip that will meet or exceed your own expectations in the year to come. With that in mind, let’s take a look… Travel Trends Like every industry, the travel industry is in a constant state of evolution. People will always seek to travel and do so affordably and in new, exciting ways. This industry relies on travel professionals to be innovative and give their clients even more creative trips than have been booked in years past. With the rise of sectors such as eco-tourism, the travel industry is poised to take on a new type of client and the good news is this opens up different avenues to see some of the world’s great sites in a brand new way or see entirely new destinations. In the video below, the trends that are showcased are from 2017, but expect many of these trends to continue into this year and evolve accordingly.

1. Sustainable Tourism With the world getting more crowded by the day, vacationing in a sustainable manner is becoming more important. 2. Train Trips The nostalgia of rail lines is giving way to an emerging industry of train-based tourism. You might be surprised by how cool these trips can be!. 3. Extreme Vacations Travelers are becoming thrill seekers, and the tourism industry is catching up on this most exciting of travel trends, offering all manner of extreme vacation experiences. 4. Big Showers People just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take baths as often as they once did, which is why more and more hotels around the world are installing big, high-tech showers. 5. Leaving Your Comfort Zone Of the emerging travel industry trends, one of the most prominent is people thinking of travel as a means of opening their eyes, which is why theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re traveling to more exotic places wherein they can immerse themselves in an unfamiliar culture.

6. National Parks The cost of travel is definitely on the rise, which is why more and more people are looking to national park vacations than ever before. 7. The Multi-Generational Vacation Parents need a break, don’t they? That’s why the grandparent-grandchildren vacation is becoming increasingly common among emerging travel trends. 8. Glamping Want to experience the great outdoors with some (or all) of the comforts of home? Then glamping sites are definitely for you! 9. Watching the Kids Traveling internationally with the little ones? Look out for more airlines to introduce “sky nannies” in 2018 an beyond. 10. Art Retreats Art is a great way to clear the mind and to invigorate the spirit, a reason why art retreats are becoming more popular with a wider group of travelers.

Emerging Travel Industry Trends On this list, you clearly see the many different modalities that people are using to travel. Travel professionals are keenly aware of this and are designing vacations that fulfill the wishes of travelers. Often, traveling can be stressful so having greater amenities along with trips that speak to the deepseated interests of travelers is a guarantee of building relationships with new clients and strengthening bonds with existing clients. While many of these trends are easy to spot â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for example, the opening of Cuba and South Korea as the Olympics draw near, others such as vacations geared around grandparents or glamping are considerably different and have a specific type of traveler seeking out those trips. 11. Big-Budget Cruise Amenities Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an arms race brewing in the cruising industry, and that means that ships are getting outfitted with amenities once thought unimaginable. 12. River Cruises Speaking of cruises, 2018 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years yet for river cruises, particularly in Europe.

13. AirBNB Although some locations are clamping down on services like AirBNB, this service has definitely emerged as a great way to save money on vacation. Your accommodations are cheaper, and you can often cook for yourself. 14. South Korea With the Winter Olympics only a few months away now, South Korea has been emerging as one of the world’s more popular tourist destinations. 15. Cuba Likewise, the lessening of tension between the United States and Cuba means that tourism in the island nation is decidedly on the rise. 16. Medical Tourism These days, some are choosing to get their surgeries in exotic locations with first-rate medical care. Why not recover in style? Couldn’t hurt… 17. The Extended Vacation The digital workplace means that more people are now able to go on extended working vacations to some of the world’s most exotic locations.

18. Culinary Tours With more people thinking about the quality of what they eat, tours and vacations geared around culinary experiences are becoming a big thing. 19. Voluntourism Many find themselves wanting to give back to the world, which is why many are volunteering and vacationing at the same time. 20. The Wellness Vacation On the flip side, there are more and more resorts opening up that promise their guests a wellness vacation, complete with spa treatments, yoga, exercise and more. ď&#x20AC;ź

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MARKETING

HOW TO HANDLE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS/ By Amanda Herder 5 strategies that can help resolve a customer complaint in a smooth and professional manner. Complaints happen every day. When a customer complains, it is usually for a good reason or genuine concern. They usually have made a purchase that did not meet their expectationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a product, service, or maybe a combination of the two. In the customer service industry, we cannot avoid complaints. We must take care of the customer by listening to the complaint, and resolving it, to ensure a happy customer. Fewer than half of unhappy customers will bring a complaint to your attention. Those who never say anything will tell an average of 11 other people about their bad experience. It is important that we recognize complaints as opportunities, so we can sway these averages, one resolved complaint at a time. Customers want to know someone is listening and they are understood, and they are hoping you are willing to take care of the problem to their satisfaction. No matter what the situation is, when a customer brings a complaint to your attentionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even if they do it in a less-

than-desirable way—be thankful. As the old saying goes, “We can’t fix it, if we don’t know it’s broken.” Moreover, we must realize that improper handling of a customer complaint can be costly to the business. Here are five strategies that will help you handle a customer complaint in a smooth and professional manner: •

•

Stay calm. When a customer presents you with a complaint, keep in mind that the issue is not personal; he or she is not attacking you directly but rather the situation at hand. “Winning” the confrontation accomplishes nothing. A person who remains in control of his or her emotions deals from a position of strength. While it is perfectly natural to get defensive when attacked, choose to be the “professional” and keep your cool. Listen well. Let the irate customer blow off steam. Respond with phrases such as, “Hmm,” “I see,” and “Tell me more.” Do not interrupt. As the customer vents and sees you are not reacting, he or she will begin to calm down. The customer needs to get into a calm frame of mind before he or she can hear your solution—or anything you say, for that matter. Acknowledge the problem. Let the customer know you hear what he or she is saying. If you or your company made a mistake, admit it. If you did not make a mistake and it is a misunderstanding, simply explain it to the customer: “I can see how that would be incredibly frustrating for you.” You are not necessarily agreeing with what the customer is saying, but respecting how he or she perceives and feels about the situation. An excellent phrase for opening up this particular conversation would be, “So, if I understand you correctly…” After the customer responds, follow up with, “So, if I understand you correctly, we were to resolve the problem by noon today. I can see how that must be frustrating for you.” Then be quiet. Usually, the customer will

respond with “That’s right” or “Exactly.” By repeating to the customer what you think you heard, you lower his or her defenses, and win the right to be heard. •

Get the facts. After listening, take the initiative in the conversation. Now that the customer has calmed down and feels you have heard his or her side, begin asking questions. Be careful not to speak scripted replies, but use this as an opportunity to start a genuine conversation, building a trusting relationship with your customer. To help you understand the situation, get as many details as possible.

•

Offer a solution. This happens only after you have sufficient details. One thing to keep in mind: Know what you can and cannot do within your company’s guidelines. Making a promise you cannot commit to will only set you back. Remember, when offering a solution, be courteous and respectful. Let the customer know you are willing to take ownership of the issue, even if it was out of your control. Take charge of the situation and let the customer know what you are going to do to solve the problem.

A quick follow-up phone call a few days later to make sure everything is OK is icing on the cake. Even a small gesture of apology can turn this interaction from disaster to legendary. The cost could be minimal—maybe a simple upgrade on the customer’s next purchase or a small gift certificate. A simple gesture like this could result in a future referral or a positive word-ofmouth marketing recommendation. When you resolve customer complaints successfully, you will better understand their needs, retain them as loyal customers, and enhance your business. 

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In regards to the Motorcoach Marketing program, we love it. So far, we have made the 1000 postcards, and we did some full page handouts. We just got a stand up banner. When I get some time, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be making new rack cards for both offices. We made 500 church theme postcards and 500 in the safety theme. We sent out the church cards through a local mailing company to every church within 50 miles. So far, we have had a great response and 4-5 people booked trips from it. I plan on using the safety ones soon by sending them to our new customers. All of our staff and drivers love the modern design and the finished products. Only one of my staff has watched the videos so far, but we will be working on that next month. So far Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m very happy with the service. It works well and looks great!

Chris Knittel

Owner/General Manager New Mexico Texas Coaches, LLC

We Help Operators Sell More Charters To More People. Easier. Faster. Far More Effective. MotorcoachMarketing.org

STRATEGY

Overcoming Bad Press on Social Media Before it Destroys Your Business/ By Karen Rehn It happens every day. Great companies lose potential business overnight because of a social media post that is less-than flattering. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happened to the greats, most recently Taco Bell, FedEx, KFC, and Dominos, and yes, it can happen to you. This PR can occur because of misbehaving employees or even unsatisfied customers, and the bad press can make or break the company targeted. While social media can be a fantastic way to connect and engage with employees and

customers, it also has its risks. When bad press emerges, you can’t just simply ignore it and hope it goes away. Instead, you have to take the correct steps to ensure it is taken care of properly so employees and customers will trust your company once again.

minimize the risk associated with using social media to connect with employees and customers. Here’s how. •

Be a Part of the Conversation- Use social media to create a better relationship with customers and employees. Answer questions, address problems, and clear up any misunderstandings.

•

Solicit Feedback- Don’t be afraid of negative comments or reviews on social media. In fact, ask for them. Let your customers and employees know that you are always striving to become better, and if there is a problem they have with the company, you WANT to hear about it so the company can make the right changes.

•

Hire Social Media Employees- When bad press threatens your company on social media, having someone available immediately to see and address it is essential. For this reason, it is important to hire social media employees with the help of a Clearwater employment agency. The right staffing service can assist you in finding an employee that can not only navigate all social media platforms, but also one that has the skills necessary to address concerns and problems promptly.

How to Handle Bad Press on Social Media •

Respond Immediately- Don’t wait to respond to a problem via social media. Customers and employees won’t simply forget what has happened, and they most likely won’t ignore it either. Acknowledge the problem and make sure customers and employees know that you know it needs to be fixed.

•

Be sincere- Create a strategy to correct the issue and let your social media followers know exactly what that strategy is. Let them know how sorry the company is for the inconvenience and the problem, and be adamant about ensuring it never happens again.

•

Take Advantage of Help- When FedEx was threatened by a viral video of a worker handling a package inappropriately, they responded with an immediate video of apology. Because many customers and employees had long been loyal to the company, they received many positive remarks and experiences in response to the video. This was a major help to the company, assisting them in overcoming their PR nightmare.

Preventing Social Media Blowouts You can’t control everything your employees, past and present, say about your company, and you can’t please every customer. However, you can take steps to

What would you do if your company received bad press via a social media website? Would you know how to keep the problem from affecting your company’s good name? With these tips you can stay ahead of the game and ensure a fantastic end result. 

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INSPIRATION

Manage Your Mark The Face Of Your C

In 2018, 35 years after National Travel and Tourism Week was established by a congressional resolution, the industry will celebrate with a new theme: ‘Travel Then and Now.’

keting: Company/

Whether you are a businessto-consumer company or a business-to-business company, it can be advantageous to have a person who to others represents the actual face of your company. There are many reasons for this. The ability to relate your company to a person can make the business seem more human and more accessible. People feel more obligated to remember a person’s name than a company’s

By MARGIE CLAYMAN

name. Assuming the face of your company is likable, reaching out and networking on behalf of your company can become increasingly easier as time goes on. Of course, like all things in the world of business and marketing, the concept of having a “face of your company” sounds much easier on paper than it is to actually implement. Here are

some of the things that need to be considered as your company determines whether your brand can be represented by a single person. Will the face of your company evolve naturally or will you groom someone? Sometimes someone naturally situates him or herself as the face of your company. In many cases

this will be the founder of your company. This approach worked well for Wendy’s back when founder Dave Thomas was the face and spokesman in all of their ads. Orville Reddenbacher used to talk about his own popcorn in commercials. Steve Jobs was certainly the face (and the soul) of Apple. In the cases of some of our clients, the founder of the company is who people expect to see in corporate videos or at trade shows. Sometimes it is not as intuitive, however. Perhaps the founder of your company is great at business but not necessarily great at being social. Maybe the founder of the company has been gone for quite some time and someone else needs to grab the torch. In this case, your company must decide if you are going to try to push someone out there as the face of the company. This can be tricky. Not only does everyone in your company need to feel comfortable with being represented by this person, but people beyond your company walls also need to accept this person as someone with whom they can network. What happens if the face of the company parts ways with the company? As with all things, it is essential to plan for all possible scenarios when discussing the prospect of assigning a face of your company. Consider the case of Men’s

Warehouse. For years and years, George Zimmer, with his deep husky voice, assured television viewers that suits from the Men’s Warehouse were of the highest quality. “You’re going to like the way you look,” he promised. In fact, he “guaranteed it.” He was the face of the company in every sense of the word. Then, suddenly, he was fired by his own board. What occurred afterwards was a pretty ugly PR mess for the company. George Zimmer (not surprisingly) did a lot of finger pointing. A lot of dirty laundry was aired that should probably have remained within the company’s walls. What happens if the face of the company encounters problems that tarnish his or her image? This is another difficulty that companies must unfortunately weigh carefully. The face of your company, whether the founder, an employee, or a celebrity endorser, represents your brand. What happens if that person creates serious problems like those Tiger Woods experienced a few years ago? It is not just the person representing the company who can be damaged in these scenarios, whether something happens to them or whether they create the problem on their own. The company itself can be damaged. The damage can increase exponentially

depending on how the company does (or does not) deal with the situation. Is the response quick and measured or slow and evasive? Shortly after Oscar Pistorius was arrested for allegedly killing his girlfriend, I found a website that belonged to a company with whom Pistorius had been working. The company’s splash page had little guns in the background. The intent of course had been to symbolize the speed of the Olympian, but in the aftermath of the allegations against Pistorius, it was in extremely poor taste. Do you actually need a face of the company? This of course is the ultimate question. Consider Zappos. Even though Tony Hsieh, the founder, has made a name for himself, the quality work of his employees as a whole speaks just as loudly. If your marketing consists primarily of social media tactics, it might be better to have a corporate voice instead of a personal voice. As always, as a company you must settle these questions internally and determine what will be best for your brand. Does your company have a person who has become the “face” of your brand? How did you weigh the pros and cons?. 

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MARKETING

You made the leap. You’re a full-time freelancer. Each and every day belongs to you. And although you manage your schedule and your workload, you also manage your pay rate. So, how do you pay yourself?

methodology driving your pay. As long as you plan, structure, and track, you’ll be on the right path to paying yourself as a freelancer.

Do you keep those paychecks coming every other week as if you were still with your former employer? Or do you skip paychecks and take distributions each time you get paid?

When you worked for an employer, there was likely no shortage of meetings regarding revenue review and projections. While the boredom of such meetings might have been the driving factor behind you moving to full-time freelance work, you would be wise to borrow the overarching concepts of those meetings for application to your freelance business.

As with most aspects of your freelancing business, the specific answers to these questions will vary from freelancer to freelancer— but some basic principles should guide the

1. Estimate Your Freelance Revenue

How to PayYourself When Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re SelfEmployed/ By ERIC CARTER

Freelance work comes in many shapes and sizes and estimating revenue may be an easy or an almost-impossible task, depending on the nature of your revenue. For instance, if you are a consultant, and you sign multi-year contracts with a three to five clients, estimating your revenue might be an easy exercise. However, if you are a freelance blogger counting on ad clicks for revenue generation, you are likely at the opposite end of the spectrum as the consultant. To get started, you may want to set some revenue goals, and start working towards those goals, while tracking and adjusting your

revenue expectations as the year goes on. Pretty soon, you will be able to look back at your performance, and use your past earnings to better estimate future revenue. Regardless of where your freelance business falls on this spectrum, estimating revenue is key to paying yourself, because the next three steps will reduce the amount of revenue available to pay yourself with.

to determine what you need and desire from a personal income perspective.

2. Calculate Your Business Expenses

The employee side of you will want to bank as much personal income as possible. However, the business owner has the interest of the business to look after. You need to determine needs first, and then desires. Once you’ve determined your actual needs (e.g. mortgage/ rent, food, utilities, etc.), then you can tack on the desires that reasonably allow you to leave enough revenue in the business to meet your business goals.

Whether your revenue generation might vary, you should have a strong sense of your expenses month to month. Most expenses— i.e. utilities, rent, business development costs, etc.— should remain consistent over the course of a year. Additionally, you might have some one time expenses that pop up in the different stages of your freelance work. For instance, in the early days, you may have some up front capital investments, like a computer, office equipment and incorporation fees. At later stages, you may have some add-on expenses like travel costs for a conference, hiring subcontractor help or seasonal ad campaigns. Whether the costs are predictable over time or one-off expenses, you should have an expectation of the costs to run your business. It’s critical to plan for costs of all sorts and ensure that you subtract the expenses from your estimated revenue before you decide how much to pay yourself. 3. Determine How Much You Want to Get Paid The third step in paying yourself requires that you take an honest look at your personal needs and goals. You’ve already accounted for the expenses to be pulled out of your estimated revenue in steps one and two. Now, you need

In this step, it helps to divide yourself into two people: You, the business owner You, the employee

Some freelancers choose to minimize personal needs until the freelance business has grown to a particular size. Others elect to comfortably pay themselves from the get-go without ever setting a goal of growing the overall business into something larger. There’s no right or wrong answer, but answering the question, “What do I personally need from this freelance business?” is critical to finding the sweet spot. 4. Create a Reinvestment Strategy What are your goals for the business? Do you want to grow and eventually hire others, or do you want to sustain a one-person business? There’s no right or wrong answer here, other than the need to be clear about your goals. If reinvestment into your freelance business is necessary to meet your business goals, then you can’t pay yourself all the revenue that you earn. This amount you reinvest could vary largely

depending on your business. You may need to hire supplemental freelance workers. Perhaps you need to travel to more conferences to get the word out about your business. You may need to physically move to a new location that is more likely to attract new clients. There is an endless list of reinvestments that could benefit your freelance business. Just like the first three steps in planning, the key is to honestly evaluate the reinvestment needs and goals necessary to achieve your business expectations. 5. Separate Business and Personal Accounts If you have been running your freelance business for a while, this may seem like a nobrainer. But for those who are just getting started, it’s highly likely that payment from your freelance work is going straight into your personal bank account. Separating your business and personal accounts will help you in a number of ways. First, separating the two helps segment your business activity from your personal activity. Thinking back to step one, the various elements of planning are difficult to execute if your personal and business accounts are mixed. Delineating between personal expenses and business expenses is difficult to do if all of the expenses are coming out of the same account. Imagine a Saturday afternoon run to the store. Maybe you pick up some pens, paper, and other office supplies for your freelance business. But you also need to get laundry detergent and some diapers for your family. You are left with one receipt, charged to one bank account, and now you have the onerous responsibility of itemizing the receipt between personal expenses and business expenses within your accounting methods for the business. And if you decide to organize into an LLC or a corporation, there are certain rules you

must follow in order to achieve the desired separation of risk between the company and you personally. Should a court be brought in to see if you have adequately delineated your business from your personal life and assets, one of the first considerations the court will make is whether you have commingled funds of your personal and business life. With a single account for business and person use, it’s hard to argue that you haven’t commingled funds. 6. Set Up a Payment Method Now that you’ve created a separate bank account for your freelance business, and your clients are paying into that account, you need to set up the method by which you are going to pay yourself. Modern banking gives you great flexibility when it comes to the how. You could certainly go old school and cut yourself a check from your business account, drafted to you personally, but that takes time and can certainly be avoided through one of the many payment options currently available. With auto-draft, payment platforms, direct deposits, and ACH transfers, setting up an automated payment method is definitely the suggested method to minimize the operations required to pay yourself. If your freelance work doesn’t produce consistent revenue, you might not want to set up auto-payments yet. However, you can still sync up bank accounts. When it does come time to pay yourself, you can do so with the click of a button. 7. Determine the Payment Interval Once your business and personal accounts are separated, and you’ve set up your payment method, you need to determine a payment interval.

Philanthropic consultant Christian Michael, told QuickBooks that he elected to maintain a twoweek payment interval when he jumped from employee to full-time freelancer. For Christian, this ensured a consistent stream of income. However, he limited the two-week payments to the smallest amounts he could bear. After paying himself and taking care of his expenses, he was then able to pay himself a year-end bonus with some of the remaining freelance income. Christian’s strategy works for him, but there is no single recipe for success when it comes to the frequency that you will pay yourself. The key is picking a method that fits your needs, and one that adjusts with you and your freelance business. 8. Track Your Revenue and Expenses Carefully Perhaps the number one reason to track your payment activity is to ensure you can properly calculate your taxes. Whether you freelance as a sole proprietor, LLC, corporation, or some other model, the tax man will come for his portion of your freelance revenue. As we’ve mentioned before, the method by which you calculate and report taxes vary depending on your business structure. Regardless of your freelance business structure, you can’t calculate, report, and pay your taxes correctly if you don’t track your expenses and payment. If you screw up your taxes, you expose yourself to suspicion from the IRS. Tracking will also help adjust your planning and structuring. Your freelance work will not be the same next year as it is today. Your client base may grow, or shrink. You may be able to charge more in the future, or maybe you are charging too much today. Your expenses will evolve as

your business strategy evolves. Whether your freelance business is wildly successful, or requires you to make some personal sacrifices to get it up and running, you will inevitably need to adjust your plan and structure to meet both your business and personal goals. But, if you don’t track your expenses, and what you are paying yourself, there’s no effective way to adjust your plans and structure. The best way to plan for your future is to track your current. Wrapping Up Perhaps you, like many freelancers, made the leap to full-time freelance work to avoid the formality and mundane business operations associated with your former employment situation. In that case, the planning, structure, and tracking suggested in this post may be a turn off. While the steps may take a little work in the beginning, most of the time intensive work is short lived, and modern tools like QuickBooks make the ongoing work a breeze. Further, the long term business benefits your freelance business will enjoy with minimal planning, structuring and tracking should encourage you to implement such a strategy in your plan to pay yourself. 

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Chris Knittel

Owner/General Manager New Mexico Texas Coaches, LLC

We Help Operators Sell More Charters To More People. Easier. Faster. Far More Effective. MotorcoachMarketing.org

STRATEGY

This Is How To Actually Wor

rk Smarter, Not Harder/ By GWEN MORAN

We’ve found eight unexpected (and counterintuitive) ways to squeeze more out of your workday. Possibly no piece of productivity advice is more well-worn than the adage, “Work smarter, not harder.” Of course, the directive points to the fact that it’s not how many hours you put in at your desk that matters—it’s how you spend your time there. In other words, get results faster and you won’t be spending so many late nights at the office. But what does it really mean to work smarter? “It means figuring out better, faster ways to work,” says personal productivity expert and trainer Peggy Duncan. But before you enroll in a time management course or start playing “beat the clock” with your project list, consider these counterintuitive ways to get more done. DON’T DIVE RIGHT IN Most of us have warped views of how we spend our time, Duncan says. “If you don’t see it on paper staring at you in the face, you won’t realize that you spend too much time on Facebook, or that you have the same people interrupting you all the time, asking you the same questions,” she says. Spend a week keeping a time log. Write down what you’re doing, how long it’s taking you, and who is interrupting you and what they wanted. “Because the

biggest time-management mistake people make is not realizing how much time they waste. When you analyze it, you see what’s going on,” she says. And you’ll have a good data set to figure out how you can shift your time usage, minimize interruptions, and learn a few key lessons. LET SOMEONE ELSE DO IT For Tomer Yogev, cofounder of leadership and performance consultancy Tandem Spring, working smarter means focusing on the areas in which you’re strongest—and letting go of things you’re doing for other reasons. High performers tend to think it’s easier to do things themselves, but “when it comes to working smarter, we often spend a lot of effort on trying to fix the problems that we see,” he says. To be more effective, you’ve got to ask for help and enlist people who are better at certain tasks and functions than you are, he says. That requires taking a hard look at your strengths and having the humility to admit that there are some areas you’re more skilled in than others. You’re likely spending more time than is necessary on the things you’re not good at—when you can delegate those tasks, you free up time to do the work you’re best at, which you’re probably going to do faster and enjoy more, he says. WORK WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE IT It may seem like working smarter means front-loading your day so you get more done sooner. But that’s ignoring your ultradian rhythm—the 90- to 120-minute pattern found in our sleep and waking hours. By taking more breaks and carving up your day into 90-minute segments, you capitalize on the periods of focus you naturally have, which can help you get more done.

Paying attention to your energy cycles is critical to working smarter, says performance consultant Heidi Pozzo. When you’re feeling focused and energetic, you’re going to get more work done in a shorter period of time. “A lot of people are really good at high concentration work in the morning. So, if you can, block your day in a way that the first thing you work on is the most impactful,” she says. Of course, if you’re not a morning person, shift that advice to when you feel at your best. PREPARE FOR YOUR “WASTED” TIME Your day is likely filled with pockets of “wasted” time—an airport delay, those 15 minutes before your next conference call, and cancelled meetings, to name a few. Duncan recommends preparing to make the most of that time. Cloud-based tools that let you work from anywhere and a todo list that reminds you of calls that need to be made, email messages that need to be written, and work components that need to be completed keep you ready to use those pockets to get more done. READ THE MANUAL How many times have you read the instructions that come with your new phone, tablet, or other device? How much time do you spend looking up hacks and time-saving measures for the platforms you use? If you’re like most people, you dive right in and try to figure it out yourself and may never learn the true power of the technology you use, Duncan says. Investing time in reading the instruction manual and getting appropriate training can yield many hours of return on investment, she says. Macros, shortcuts, and other timesavers may not be immediately apparent,

but can simplify your work. BE MORE BUREAUCRATIC Big organizations don’t seem like the best model for time-saving, but one thing their people often do well is systematizing, Duncan says. Some excel at examining tasks that need to be done for the company to function and implement the most time, cost-, and energy-efficient ways of doing so. Process improvement has become an entire industry and specialization as more professionals try to make tasks easily repeatable with less time and effort while maintaining quality. Look at the tasks you perform on a regular basis and how you can create a more efficient way of getting them done. Are you wasting time scheduling many appointments every day? Look at automating that function with a scheduling app. Are you managing a project with many contributors and version control issues? Look at how you can create a system of capturing feedback and ensuring everyone has the most current information, perhaps with a cloud-based collaboration system that color-codes and date-stamps feedback for easy tracking. LAY OFF THE JUNK FOOD What you do outside the office has an impact on your ability to focus. If you’re tired and feeling bad because you’re not getting enough sleep, good nutrition, or exercise, that’s going to reflect in your efficiency and productivity, she says. The Centers for Disease Control call insufficient sleep a public health problem that costs the U.S. up to $411 billion per year in lost productivity. “Think about what creates energy in you versus what drains energy and come up

How many times have you read the instructions that come with your new phone, tablet, or other device? How much time do you spend looking up hacks and time-saving measures for the platforms you use? with approaches that keep you at your peak all day long,” Pozzo says. STARE AT A PHOTO Think about the reason you want to work smarter and not harder. Do you want more time for yourself to do the things you love to do? Are you just feeling burned out? Do you want more time to spend with loved ones? Whatever the reason, put a photo or group of photos that represent those reasons nearby so you can see them, Duncan suggests. This will act as a touchstone to help keep you on track when you’re procrastinating, spending too much time on social media, or otherwise undermining your efforts to get your work done in less time. 

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