[Cody Heitschmidt posted this on Twitter, and I had to ask him to let me use it as a guest post. Thanks, Cody!]
Something just as simple as a Mariachi Band to roam around a restaurant will make your customers talk and remember. It’s not reinventing the wheel. It’s not rocket science, but in small town central Kansas town… It’s definitely memorable.
Cody Heitschmidt
http://www.twitter.com/codyks
http://www.codytalks.com
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
IT’S TIME FOR THE MOM & POPS OF THE WORLD TO UNITE!
I am just amazed at the lack of real action by Mom & Pop businesses to save themselves. If there ever was a time in my lifetime for neighborhoods of retail stores to act, it is now. IT’S Time local retailers to Plan Town Meetings among themselves and actually come up with a REAL PLAN OF ACTION so that consumers know that you care them and want them to still shop locally. Stay open till Midnight (Why the hell not?), issue a neigborhood Mom & Pop discount and /or rewards cards that consumers will carry & use (NO Brainer), chip in together a few bucks a piece & put a joint ad in the local papers promising REAL BARGAINS (recreate the holiday buying feeling). Am I thinking out of the box? NO………..I just enjoy shopping & supporting mom & pop entrepreneurs & want them to survive. I don’t want to see the day when the choice is down to Wall-Mart, Target, K Mart, or Sears.
Earl L. Sigmund CPA, President
http://www.NewBusinessLearningCenter.com
Earl, thanks for your clarion call! I’d love to hear an real world examples of small merchants working together.
This kind of stuff really pays off. Not only in the hard times, but all the time. One personal example:
I recently brought my girlfriend to a Chinese restaurant downtown for the first time on a Friday evening. We were seated at a table towards the back, where they had a Chinese Harp player strumming beautiful music. At the end of our meal, the owner came over and asked when our birthdays were. Mine having recently passed, she offered me a birthday present: a coupon for one meal free if we returned within one month.
You better believe we will be back to that restaurant. The prices were higher then I would normally like to pay on a regular outing, but I can’t see going anywhere else for Chinese. I don’t think my girlfriend would let me anyway :)
Thanks, Boots, for sharing your story. Personal service goes a long way.
Earl,
I love your call to action. I am a big Personal Responsibility guy and completely agree with you that even Mom and Pops have to do their share to “think outside the box” (or in the box in your case! lol?) I too love to shop local, but if a biz doesn’t even do enough work for me to know/remember they exist, not much I can do to help them.
Boots,
Great example… I love things that “create memories” It really is that simple for small biz owners/small towns. Just “HELP” a customer create a good memory and they will:
1. Talk about you to other folks
2. COME BACK!!!
Becky,
Thanks for sharing this! Anything that businesses can do to set themselves apart from the competition is usually a positive thing, even something as small as singing happy birthday to every customer who says it’s their birthday!