JoAnn Laing's Blog - All About Small Business

Whatever stage of your company’s growth, attending trade shows should be included in expansion efforts. 

Image by Freepik

If you’re just starting out, trade shows are an excellent path to growth.  At these shows, people are actively attending to find new ideas, products or services. More importantly, they will stop and listen if you have effectively announced your offerings.  The key to this, booth designers believe, is to tell any passersby how your offerings can help them.  Don’t emphasize its originality or uniqueness, but rather how it can save attendees money, time, or labor.  Your booth need not be large, just inviting and tells your story quickly at eye level to passing individuals. 

If your company is in its growth trajectory growth period, trade, industry, or specialty shows offer an excellent path to expand your reach.  At these shows, attendees are, in the main, searching for ways to grow their own enterprises.  As a growing company, you have established that your products can help others.  At these meetings, your aim is to identify yourself to new customers; highlight your offerings, and gather leads.  Your booth should invite people in to learn more and every staff member should be thoroughly conversant with your offerings.  A senior executive should always be present ready to answer any and all questions and to make post-show appointments. 

Whatever stage of your company’s growth, attending trade shows should be included in expansion efforts. If you’re just starting out, trade shows are an excellent path to growth.  At these shows, people are actively attending to find new ideas, products or services. More importantly, they will stop and listen if you have effectively announced your offerings.  The key to this, booth designers believe, is to tell any passersby how your offerings can help them.  Don’t emphasize its originality or uniqueness, but rather how it can save attendees money, time, or labor.  Your booth need not be large, just inviting and tells your story quickly at eye level to passing individuals. 

Image by Freepik

If your company is in its growth trajectory growth period, trade, industry, or specialty shows offer an excellent path to expand your reach.  At these shows, attendees are, in the main, searching for ways to grow their own enterprises.  As a growing company, you have established that your products can help others.  At these meetings, your aim is to identify yourself to new customers; highlight your offerings, and gather leads.  Your booth should invite people in to learn more and every staff member should be thoroughly conversant with your offerings.  A senior executive should always be present ready to answer any and all questions and to make post-show appointments. 

If your company is an industry leader and is well known, shows are an excellent time to meet with current customers and reward them for their business.  Social gatherings, bestowing of awards and rebates, and renewal of contracts should be times of celebrations carefully slotted so they do not interfere with the show program.  Using show participation in this way will magnify your overall marketing effort.  Your clients will act as your sales agents to others as these events unfold. 

Three things to keep in mind about shows, they tend to allow attendees to look at their requirements in differ ways; let them unwind; and give them an opportunity to look at new opportunities.  For marketers and sales people, this is a fertile field to plow, especially for small business leaders who have limited resources. 

We want to add one more suggestion.  The best show floor salesman we ever knew was Tony Piro, who sold seeds as a sales incentive premium.  His secret to get individuals passing his booth during a show was to ask one simple question: “Why are you at this show?” 

This question often started a conversation and eventually a sale. 

When you go to a show, think of the individual walking in the aisle.  He or she is there for a reason.  Find the reason and you may have your next sale. 

 Image by pikisuperstar on Freepik

Remember To Follow Up

Last, but very important: you have put considerable time, money and effort into being at the a trade show; it only makes sense to follow-up with everyone you have come in contact with, especially those who have left you their contact information.

Every successful small business leader has regrets.  During two recent focus groups of owners led by Small Business Digest, they were asked if they harbored any regrets from their early years as entrepreneurs.  This question opened a floodgate of responses.  With the passage of time, these feelings had moderated but all participants offered examples in the hope their identification of woes would help others.

Here are the top five regrets offered by these successful small business leaders.

1. Not having an exit plan for themselves.  While some leaders had a plan for the company they hadn’t thought of ways they could profitably leave should that become a priority.  Many found themselves in a situation where by, if they left the company would suffer or worse, there were no provisions for their departure with viable financial compensation.
2. Not spending enough time with the family during the company’s early years.  Often younger entrepreneurs have small children and spouses.  Growing a small company often requires 24/7 commitment from founders.  But this commitment is often at the expense of family (friendships, too).  Many successful leaders report estrangement from their children.  They also report second marriages and another set of children often occur.
3. Not having partnership agreements or specific employee rewards program for early contributors.  No one sues if a company fails.  Many litigate if a company is successful.  Legal issues arise when companies are about to be sold; partners diverge in vision; or employees feel promises were not kept. Get as much as possible in writing but above all recognize early who contributed what to the company’s success.
4. Not identifying financial obstacles early in the company’s history.  Assuming financial needs at the outset is important and having prepared for them is essential.  Equally important is having some way of raising emergency capital.  Every one of the focus group participants said they needed to overcome a financial emergency.  Several said their initial foray into business had ended in disaster because of unavailable funds.
5. Not accepting help when offered.  Perhaps the greatest regret expressed was that of refusing help.  Proffered aid included financial, advisory, inventory, material resources, and operating space.  Many of the participants said they initially operated on the idea they could succeed by themselves.  They failed to recognize how outside help is sometimes critical to success.  Believing you do not need to bring others on board might leave you with 100 percent of nothing.

There were other regrets mentioned in the focus groups but these five stood out as the most far reaching.  Do you have any regrets?

Learn from others to minimize or eliminate your business regrets.

Today with the emphasis towards online information gathering, communications, and sales, small businesses leaders often neglect to fully understand the importance of physical location to the success of any business.   

While experts estimate one out of three new ventures focus on being online only, they along with many businesses with brick and mortar needs, view the physical location as an afterthought.  For reasons to be discussed below, location (formation and brick-and-mortar) should be ranked third after financial strength and product or service appeal in importance. 

First and often overlooked, it is important to consider location when a company is being formed.  Experts estimate most small businesses are formed within three miles of the founder’s home.  This factoid is not a surprising given a majority of ventures often begin within the founder’s home. 

INCORPORATION

At the basest level, where a company is incorporated or obtains its legal authority should be based on which states, like Nevada, have tax rates that are low or non-existent for smaller enterprises.  These states are also flexible as to physical location for the headquarters so that using a local mailbox center will often suffice.   

Finding the right state for incorporation can save small companies thousands of dollars in its first years.  There are also professional incorporation providers available to ease the process.  Whether the company is a C, sub-chapter S, partnership (LLP), or LLC should be the recommendation of your accountant.  Moreover, it is important for new business people to put themselves behind some legal entity to protect their assets. 

Second, once the legal incorporation is in progress, the next step is deciding if a brick-and-mortar location is necessary.  Leasing an office, shared space, using your kitchen table, converting your garage, are all available alternatives.  The key to these choices is not over committing to more than the company needs in its initial efforts.  Above all, seek to conserve as many liquid funds as possible to stretch out your runway to profitability. 

For products in need of a retail operation, choosing a location is critical to success.  Some of the factors to consider are: 

Type of business location (retail, mobile, commercial, industrial, etc.)

Consider your brand

Foot and car traffic offers ability to generate sales. 
What is the mix of nearby stores and are they complementary 
Rent amount; find out if it can it be kept smaller in the beginning 
Structure lease requirements to give the company grow or contract
Find locations that reduce the cost of build out 
Explore all equipment costs, lease alternatives 
Examine the local labor pool characteristics
Easy to connect with vendors and suppliers

Insure space availability for delivery services 
Determine adequate parking availability for customers 
Evaluate crime statistics involving nearby retail outlets 

Checkout common charges, escalations, extraordinary expenses associated with the location

A recent study by Small Business Digest determined many companies entering their fifth year begin to consider purchasing their first physical property.  For professional services firms, this point occurs about three years later.  For retail stores and distributive companies, these considerations usually revolve around needing extra space.  

Real estate experts are split on the advisability given the high interest rates but the availability of existing buildings often well-suited to the company’s needs at attractive prices make for compelling arguments to purchase.  A rule-of-thumb one real estate expert suggests is to double current square footage needed in choosing new location to allow for expansion in later years. 

In today’s market, with the advent of work-at-home hybrid efforts, office planners suggest waiting until 2026 before purchasing office space.  Also, they point out there is a glut of office space available today that will be augmented by new buildings coming online.  Many will combine in work and living developments which may offer attractive work-life opportunities. 

LOCATION, LOCATION

This has been a necessarily brief overview to a very important small business consideration, location.  There is much more to discussion necessary but small business leaders should keep thinking about location in all of their planning.