Small Biz Survival

Why you should start varnishing your customers

2012-05-14T21:09:00.000-05:00

Have you ever varnished something, the old-fashioned way, with a brush? Did you try hurrying the job by slathering on a thick coat? It makes a sticky mess, and doesn't make for a good finish. Instead, the pros do lots of thin layers, maybe dozens. And the results are much better, shiny and smooth.

First coat of varnish, photo (CC) by Dawn Peterson.

So, think of selling like varnishing. You get better results with lots of thin layers instead of one thick coat.

In selling, layering is the process of giving info in small chunks. Rather than overwhelm a prospect with the whole story and every detail, break it into bite size pieces. Offer just what they want to know right now. Later, they will come back with more questions.

Relationship tracking.
I first heard of layering for recruiting new independent sales people to join Mary Kay Cosmetics. In fact, some Mary Kay representatives use a chart to track their layering, and that's a good idea. You can feel the depth of the process in these headings from the chart:

The potential recruit:

Uses the product;
Has been a hostess;
Has a information packet;
Listened to a short explanation;
Listened to a marketing audio or video;
Attended a guest event;
Been personally interviewed; and
Given an answer.

That list guides them through the process of layering and makes sure that they know what to do next. It also means they won't get confused about who is where in the process.

Why Layering Matters
Layering is not just a process, it is also a mindset. If you think in terms of layering information, you will be more likely to give people time to think about what they've just learned.

It also gives you perspective on people's reactions. You will be less likely to be disappointed when you don't get an instant committment. You know that you have added another layer, and that is valuable even without an immediate sale. Just don't carry this so far that you never ask for the sale, or never try to close. Like most other skills, it requires a balance.

Think of it as the drying time between layers of varnish. After you've given time for one layer to dry, get ready for the next layer.

Another benefit of this mindset is a tolerance for repetition. When someone asks similar questions, or doesn't remember something you told them earlier, think to yourself that this is all part of layering. Sometimes you have to go back and fill in gaps in the varnish.

When Layering Works Best
Layering works to simplify the complex items you sell. The more there is for the customer to understand, the more it makes sense to explain it in layers.

It applies just as well to complicated ideas you are "selling" to anyone. If you want buy-in on a complicated project, layer the information.

Selling expensive products is an art form all its own. Layering is a key concept to informing without overwhelming.

Conclusion
When you talk with a customer, remember to add a new layer to their understanding. If they walk off without closing the deal, remember that you have added another layer. You may need a few more layers to finish, but it's all part of the process and the mindset.

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a from the field Brag Basket

2012-05-11T09:44:00.000-05:00

I'm in the field today, so let's do brag basket without the explanations. What's the good news from your field this week? New here? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Subscribe.

Chris Brogan, Joe Sorge and I have a Kitchen Table Talk (VIDEO)

2012-05-09T11:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I sat down with Chris Brogan and Joe Sorge for their series on small business, Kitchen Table Talks.

We talk about my many businesses, SOBCon, Small Town Rules, failures, and customer complaints.

If you don't see the video, click through to the page on Kitchen Table Talks.

There is no proof that Chris and I were headbanging to the out music. No proof at all. (Joe Sorge is disqualified from headbanging for having a shaved head.)

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Tossing Leslie into the Brag Basket

2012-05-04T01:01:00.000-05:00

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one May 4-6, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket.

Leslie McLellan is joining us in Tourism Currents!

This week, I'm proud to use the Brag Basket to announce that Leslie McLellan of Just a Small Town Girl is joining Sheila Scarborough and me in Tourism Currents. Leslie did wonderful things for tourism in Lake Arrowhead, California, on a very small (zero) budget. Her marketing expertise helped her local chamber of commerce, local small business, and many regional events.

By working with Leslie, we'll be able to offer much more in-person training in social media marketing for small towns, destinations, hospitality businesses and more. Exciting stuff for us! Read more about this over at Tourism Currents.

That's my brag. Now, time to add yours. Don't hold back because of that word, "brag." When you hold back, you hide your good news and accomplishments that might inspire others. Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing.

What can you do in the Brag Basket?

introduce yourself
share some great news from this week
congratulate a friend
laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
applaud for each other

Speak up and add yourself or another deserving soul in the comments. It lets you meet each other a bit. Reading each others' stories brings us a bit closer to being a community.

How does it work? You write a comment on this post. We all cheer, and everyone feels great.

This is not an ad. (I delete the ads.) It's a conversation with friends. So jump in. And remember to cheer for each other.

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What to do when a blog post is suddenly popular

2012-05-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

By Jon Swanson

I write blog posts five days a week. A post that I wrote three years ago, and reposted a year ago started getting a lot of traffic about three months ago. In fact, about three times as much traffic in the last three months as in the nine months before that. It's one of those posts that gets bounced around, kind of like a useful post that you might write about some topic related to your industry.

I was excited when I saw that daily traffic. I started thinking that I should direct those people to other parts of my site. So I tried adding links to other posts. It didn't make much difference.

Then one day, I was reading Christopher Penn's Almost Timely newsletter. Can't tell you what I read, but I thought "I just need to put an invitation to subscribe on that post."

See, I use Mailchimp to email those posts every day. And I know that people can look around the site to find out how to subscribe, but why make it difficult.

So I added this at the end of my post:
If you found this post helpful or challenging, subscribe to 300wordsaday.com for daily words about following Jesus.

And in the month after I made that change, my mailing list grew 20%. I even started adding that invitation to all my posts. And when I emailed Chris to tell him, he said that he puts the same kind of invitation on every post he writes.

Two lessons here:
1. It's okay to mess with old posts that suddenly get traffic.
2. It's okay to invite people to subscribe by telling them what to expect.

Next week: A welcome change that increased conversation.

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Make your destination website copy-proof

2012-05-01T07:12:00.000-05:00

Our friend Heather Thomas of Destin Florida Boat Rentals has been looking for ways to make her website "copy-proof." See, other boat rental companies can say they offer the same services or the same tours, but of course it isn't the same. How could she better show off her uncopy-able qualities?

How can you add things to your destination website
that no competitor can copy?

She started with testimonials, because we all tend to believe the word of mouth of people like us much more than we believe any marketing message.

I suggested a few other things that no one can copy:

Photos of happy guests in front of her logo or sign
Tweets from happy customers (favorite them, and then install a Twitter widget featuring your favorites)
Photos and posts on guests' Facebook profiles

Videos are one of Heather's specialties, so I encouraged her to do more!

One cool way to get customers to post photos is with a tool like a Fan Cam. We had one provided for the Small Town 140 Characters Conference, and people had a lot of fun posting photos to Facebook from it.

How could you create content for your destination website that no one could copy?

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Tap your customers' creativity

2012-04-30T10:13:00.000-05:00

Lisle Corporation makes specialty auto tools. They are tapping their customers' creativity to find new tools to make. See, auto mechanics are notorious tinkerers, so it's only natural to go to them for new ideas that Lisle can cooperate to market. This ad was on the cardboard backing on a tool Lisle sells.

How are you tapping your customers' creativity?

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Join us in the Brag Basket

2012-04-27T08:28:00.000-05:00

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one April 27-29, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket.

Basket photo (CC) by Keepps

Don't hold back because of that word, "brag." When you hold back, you hide your good news and accomplishments that might inspire others. Even though I call this the Brag Basket, it's not really about bragging. It's about sharing.

What can you do in the Brag Basket?

introduce yourself
share some great news from this week
congratulate a friend
laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
applaud for each other

Steal this small town development idea

2012-04-25T07:02:00.000-05:00

Burnet, Texas, has a neat small town development idea, to encourage building close in, instead of out on the edge in suburb-style developments.

Downtown Burnet, Texas.

They call it the Hometown Housing Program. For new houses on empty residential lots in the targeted core area, the city rebates 100% of water, sewer and electric tap fees, permit fees, and plan review fees. Simple, easy, affordable.

Why does it matter? Spreading the town out with new homes out on the edges costs everyone more in stretching new infrastructure and services out to meet them. Keeping the town more compact keeps the center of town more vibrant instead of hollowing it out. This is especially important in small towns with fewer resources to go around.

Read more about it here: Burnet Hometown Housing Program. Bonus: the city has posted their ordinance, for you to use as a template for your town, too.

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Is your website missing the #1 most used feature?

2012-04-24T12:22:00.000-05:00

"The most commonly visited section on a small brick-and-mortar business website is the store locator. Customers want to know your store locations, your hours, and your phone number," Alex Schmelkin of Alexander Interactive says.

My store's site puts
location and hours
right up top.

Here are the important implications for your small town business website:

Put your location, phone number and hours near the top on every page of your website. Why at the top? So mobile and smartphone users can find it with less scrolling and zooming.

Include the name of your town and state. If I found you by searching, I may not know what town you're in!

I throw in a photo of my store building so customers can recognize it when they are driving to find it.

Yes, this still matters in a small town. You have visitors and new residents who need to find you. So try it right now. Pull up your bricks-and-mortar's website on your smartphone, and see how easy you can find your hours and location.

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A weird retail idea to get curious customers buying

2012-04-23T07:01:00.000-05:00

Another weird retail idea from who-knows-where in my brain:

Hide an item. But hide it so people can't avoid noticing it.

Premium items in boxes and bags
beg to be opened.

In a retail store, cover an item with a cloth or box it. You can label it "open me to see the new ___." Or keep it on the counter so you can open it for customers. Treat it like a jewel.

At our liquor store, we have Crown Royal XR -- Extra Rare. It comes in a lovely red box, with a red bag inside that, and the bottle inside that. I can't even guess how many times we've opened the XR box at the request of a customer.

On Halloween, use this for an item "too scary for the general public." Play up the scary language. For example, we have Vampire wines at Halloween. We could keep them in a coffin-shaped box. Get creative!

At a trade show or high traffic event: build a carnival style "step behind the curtain" area in your booth. Make people step in to view something new. Put up carnival style, over-the-top signs. Make sure the new item is worth the build up, though. Because if it's disappointing.... it won't work.

Have you seen a store using some variation of this trick?

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The Brag Basket adds some color

2012-04-20T07:41:00.000-05:00

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one April 20-22, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket.

Add some color to your week
in the Brag Basket.
Photo (cc) by caruba on Flickr

introduce yourself
share some great news from this week
congratulate a friend
laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
applaud for each other

No, your customers do not know what you mean

2012-04-16T06:16:00.000-05:00

I saw this terrific info on Google + from my long-time Twitter friend Steven, and I just had to get permission to share it here. --Becky

Social Media Marketing Tip: Define Your Terminology

By Steven E. Streight

How often have you seen a post like "Our annual Founders Day Beacon Quest will be held on June 5. Sign up now." ?

Could you be a little
more specific?

Are you assuming that everybody knows what Beacon Quest is? Is it a formal affair? A festive occasion? Is there music or food involved? Is it a family activity? Does it cost anything to participate? Is it public or for members only?

Or how about this: "We just received a fresh shipment of lychee, rambutan, and mangosteen. Supplies are limited. Get yours today."

Even one sentence explaining how these are sweet Asian specialty fruit would be helpful and could spark a lot more interest -- and probably more sales. (Link to some good online recipes or preparation tips too).

Including a description on an item, a link to more information, or a Wikipedia article on the subject, could also be a good idea.

Often when a business participates in social media, they make the mistake of speaking in terms customers can't understand. Words and phrases are tossed around, with no definition, and customers may miss an important message or idea you wanted to convey.

For example, in the computer security realm we speak of DDoS, password sniffing, botnets, Trojans, social engineering, backdoors, buffer overflows, dictionary attacks, keystroke loggers, and phishing.

Phrases we use daily could be entirely alien and mysterious to our audience. We can still use them, but not in a stand alone manner. We should attempt to provide a brief definition and possibly an analogy from a more familiar realm.

"A keystroke logger is malware (malicious software) that acts like a spy who watches everything you type on your computer keyboard, in order to steal your passwords and possibly commit identity theft..."

"An algorithm is a set of instructions for obtaining a desired result or initiating a specific action..."

It's good to use special words, to show your expertise, or to speak with technical accuracy -- but it won't have much impact on customers if you don't explain what they mean.

You cannot assume that your entire audience comprehends your terminology. It's better to clarify what a special word or phrase means, so everybody can make sense of what you're saying.

This way, you accomplish two goals at once. You speak on the higher level of the advanced customers and peers, while you educate the less trained customers and help them grasp what you're communicating.

For example, I often use the term SEO (search engine optimization) -- always giving the words that the letters SEO stand for -- and I will also say "methods for driving traffic to a website" to help people understand more precisely what SEO means.

Keep this technique in mind as your business engages in social media. Sometimes all it takes is a parenthetical description or a sentence or two. But that little bit of extra effort will help your social media communications be far more interesting and effective.

The more your customers understand, the more they may buy.

Steven Streight is a web content developer and social media strategist. He's been blogging about blogging since May 2005. Formerly known as Vaspers the Grate. His blog is pluperfecter.blogspot.com

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The brag basket doesn't have to be big, to be important

2012-04-13T06:48:00.000-05:00

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one April 13-15, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket.

A basket doesn't have to be big, to be important.
Tiny baskets, photo (cc) by Stephanie Kilgast on Flickr

introduce yourself
share some great news from this week
congratulate a friend
laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
applaud for each other

Is my small town the only one that is this messed up?

2012-04-11T06:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, I do get asked that, and the answer is no, you are not alone. We all wonder about it. We all think we must have the most messed up small town anywhere.

Small town fights can get downright nasty.
Don't worry about this guy; he's a re-enactor
with the Dog Creek Gunfighters.

We deal with some part of the continuum of bad behavior:

pettiness
backstabbing
gossip
roadblocks
sabotage
hidden agendas
public agendas
ax grinding
illegal actions
yelling and screaming
and yes, even the occasional death threat.

My own grandmother endured death threats while teaching reading in a small town. Reading!

No, you are not alone. The truth is, no matter how bad your small town is messed up, there are others just as bad or worse. Do I really need to tell you about the towns where the new resident started an anonymous blog publishing horrific attacks on town leaders? Or the one where the mayor locked the town board members out of the town hall? Or the one where the law had to be called to attend council meetings? Or ... you get the idea. You know more examples, too. But that isn't the part that matters. What matters is the solution.

There's only one way out.

You have to go around them. You may even have to back up and try a completely different route, but you have to go around them.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

In Texas, I heard about two towns in the same county who are still harboring animosity, bordering on physical hostility, from things that happened more than 100 years ago. The local guys told me over and over how it just wasn't possible to do anything with that other town.

But... it seems there is a successful brew pub in one town, and a just-getting-started brew pub in the other town. And the two pub owners have been talking, sharing ideas with each other, and generally treating each other like human beings. Which shouldn't be possible given the town-wide animosity.

Those two brew pub owners are the example. Follow their lead.

Find other like minded people, and work together. Leave the hostile people, or the antagonistic people, or the CAVE people, to do their own thing. And you do your own thing, even if it's only a little thing at first. It will grow from there.

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Tourism grant funds: RBEG

2012-04-10T06:51:00.000-05:00

Finding funding for tourism projects is always a challenge. One set of funds that gets overlooked for tourism is the USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grants (RBEG) for towns of fewer than 50,000 people.

The Kansas Flint Hills region is working together
on tourism training. Photo (CC) by TravelKS.

RBEG funds are intended to support rural entrepreneurs and small businesses. These funds are exceptionally flexible, but the idea that caught my attention for tourism is training and technical assistance.

In Kansas, the Flint Hills Tourism Coalition received $99,900 to provide technical assistance to the coalition, which plans to enhance tourism and economic development opportunities for businesses and communities throughout the Flint Hills.

Another innovative use could include creating a revolving loan fund for local tourism businesses.

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Alternative business financing: community ownership

2012-04-09T06:42:00.000-05:00

Many small businesses can't qualify for a small business loan from a traditional local bank. A bad credit record disqualifies many. Lending standards have tightened. Some small towns are limited by local banks that don't support small business; others don't have locally-owned banks any more. The good news is that alternatives are available. We are profiling alternatives to traditional small business loans in this ongoing series on financing.

One of those alternatives is community ownership. We're used to thinking only of debt financing (loans), but there is also equity (or ownership) financing, like a corporation issuing stock to raise capital. Now, most small town businesses aren't in a position to issue stock, but some could be targets for community ownership. In most community ownership cases, the business is part of social good. And that's true of these two examples of community ownership in real small towns.

Minneola, Kansas, population 745.

Minneola, Kansas, welcome sign.
Photo (CC) by Les Stockton on Flickr

Their grocery store was closed for 2 and a half years. In March, it re-opened with community ownership.

Interested locals formed a board, then a corporation, and sold shares for $50. They raised $200,000. Volunteers came together to do the renovations and get ready for opening. (That's another common theme for community ownership: volunteers get involved, too.)

Following another of the small town rules, they diversified their income streams, adding a deli, a fresh meat department and a floral shop.

Read the news story at the Dodge City newspaper.

Lampasas, Texas, population 6,700.
Their hospital closed in 1991. The community decided to reopen it "at any cost." It's possible they were heartened by knowing community volunteers were key in establishing the hospital decades before.

Groups, businesses, and individuals got involved in raising $565,000. They contracted with a health system to manage it, and reopened it in December 1991.

It not only stayed open, it thrived. In 1997, the community sold the hospital to Adventist Health System. It remains open in the community today.

Read more from Metroplex Health System.

Your town

If your town is facing the loss of a business that is a community asset, or you are looking to establish a business that will fill a big need, consider community ownership. You'll find more detail at the national Main Street site, in their article Community-owned Businesses: How Communities Become Entrepreneurs.

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Have a beer and join in the Brag Basket

2012-04-06T13:25:00.001-05:00

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one April 6-8, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket. And have a beer.

Beer and Bread Basket.
(cc) by Master Timothy on Flickr

introduce yourself
share some great news from this week
congratulate a friend
laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
applaud for each other

Giving Your Small Town a Dash of Color

2012-04-03T06:16:00.000-05:00

This downtown art project comes from Waynoka, Oklahoma, population 927. Far from a dressy, stodgy downtown, they have a casual attitude. It's a working class town with history as a railroad community.

The wooden utility poles downtown were in bad need of a new coat of that boring silver paint. What happened instead is far more fun. The people of the community painted the poles, and they got creative. Different groups did different poles, and everyone did different designs.

It won't draw any new visitors for you, but it could be a neat way to inject some life into what your visitors see when they do come downtown.

Won't this be a pain to maintain? Sure. But the city wasn't exactly keeping the boring silver paint in top condition. Wouldn't it be more fun to see fading creative graphics than fading silver?

And the casual, fun attitude suits Waynoka just fine.

How can you let your community get together and let a little creativity out?

UPDATE: Thanks to Daria Steigman for the much improved headline! Daria has a great post on integrity, Don't Let Perks and Perceptions Define You.

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Small town business has a lot to teach big business

2012-04-02T06:31:00.000-05:00

As small town business people, we don't give ourselves enough credit. What we learn in the tough environment of small towns gives us a valuable perspective.

We know what it's like to survive an uncertain economy and through times with zero income. Just like the national economy today.

We know how to manage multiple lines of income to make a go of it. Just like experts now advise for all business.

We know how to use technology to work no matter where we are. Just like all business is finding to be an imperative today.

We know how to cope with customers communicating directly with us, and talking about us all over. Just like all business is being forced to now.

There's more. This is why Barry Moltz and I wrote Small Town Rules. We took the seven rules we think make small town businesses especially successful, and we applied them to the most urban small business and the biggest brands.

Amazingly, our first shipment sold out on Amazon in less than 24 hours. Amazon will get more hardbacks in stock by Friday, and eBooks are always in stock. You can find all the buying options here. We could also use your help in letting others know about the book. We have some easy ways to do that on the Spread the Word page.

As we've been promoting the book, we've recorded short videos. I am probably the only author with Que Publishing who shoots videos out by the barn. Here's my take on what we know about seasons that applies to all business today.

Don't see the video? Click through to the website to view it.

Thanks for all the support you've given me as I worked on this project, and for all the ideas and inspiration I've found in you.

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Can we put books in the Brag Basket?

2012-03-30T06:26:00.000-05:00

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one March 31-April 2, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket.

There's a reason for the book basket
this week...
Photo (CC) by Lauren Pressley

introduce yourself
share some great news from this week
congratulate a friend
laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
applaud for each other

Accept credit cards with PayPal Here

2012-03-27T06:07:00.000-05:00

PayPal, a huge name in accepting online payments, is jumping into the world of local small businesses accepting credit cards with PayPal Here. It's a new service, not fully rolled out yet (as of March 2012).

The PayPal Here triangle reader is sure
to remind you of the Square reader.

It strikes me as quite similar to Square, but with some very important differences. Square has been very popular with rural small businesses including farm stands and all sorts of fair and festival exhibitors. I accept credit cards with Square at my liquor store now.

Like Square's simple (and square) card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a smartphone or tablet, PayPal Here uses a simple (but triangular) card reader that plugs into the audio jack of a smartphone or tablet.

Businesses can snap a pic of a credit card to complete the transaction if the card reader isn't available or the card won't scan. It can accept checks the same way: snap a pic to deposit the check. In comparison, Square lets users key in a credit card number if a card won't scan, but it won't accept checks. On both services, the business pays a higher rate on "manual" credit card transactions (when it is captured by photo or by typing the number in).

Customers can pay without cash or cards using their PayPal account and the PayPal app on their smartphone. This is similar to the Square CardCase app, though PayPal has a much larger user base to possibly convert over to mobile payments.

Payments are deposited to the business's PayPal account. The business can use a PayPal debit card to access funds immediately at ATMs. A bank account transfer is supposed to take about 3 days. Square deposits funds into the business's bank account, usually the next day. I'm a little leery of having funds going straight to PayPal. For the volume of business our store does, going to an ATM or waiting 3 days would not be a good solution, but for smaller volume sellers, it could work.

The rate for credit card transactions is 2.70% currently, putting it slightly below Square's 2.75% rate. Both services are mercifully free of monthly fees and other similar charges common with traditional credit card processing. Checks are accepted without a fee.

The iPhone and Android apps are said to be rolling out soon, and the card reader triangles are apparently on a wait list. I checked the Google Play Store (which used to be called the Android Market), but didn't see it yet.

Bottom line: This is more bad news for traditional credit card processing and more good news for small businesses.

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Alternatives to small business loans: local grants

2012-03-26T05:15:00.000-05:00

Enid, Oklahoma is encouraging businesses to locate
or expand downtown by using small grants.

Local grants can provide business financing in place of a loan. The trick is that they are scarce and not widely known. So you have to do your homework to find out if any might work for your small business.

The granting agencies can be economic development groups, Main Street programs, Chambers of Commerce, cities and towns, even states. The targeted uses might be business expansion, appearance upgrades, or any other purpose the grantor might want to encourage.

The Enid (Oklahoma) Regional Development Alliance offered $5,000 grants to downtown Enid business owners to startup or expand.
Miami-Dade County (Florida) offers a Mom and Pop Small Business Grant Program. (Yes, I know they aren't a small town, but it is a good program.)
The City of Mangum (Oklahoma) offered $500 matching grants specifically for facade improvements.

Your task is to get out and look for these local grants. It may take a lot of research to find any in your area. Even if you find a local grant or two, there is no guarantee that they will match up with your financing needs for your business, so don't count on these to save your business.

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Today is 'Cash Mob' Day - start one in your town

2012-03-24T04:49:00.000-05:00

A "cash mob" is a group of regular people who decide to all support the same local business on the same day. Today is International Cash Mob Day. If you don't have a cash mob in your town, now is the time to organize one.

What are the rules?

All it takes are a few people willing to
spend a few dollars to support
local businesses.

There are no rules, or each community makes their own rules.

You can pick one business that has been around for decades and could use the renewed support, a group of new businesses that need help getting established, any business, whatever works for your town. I think it makes sense to pick one business at a time: concentrate your results in one place.

Then get the word out. Go online, get in the newspaper, do whatever will work to reach people in your town. The organizers of one of the first cash mobs measured success by having one person they didn't know personally show up and participate. That meant they had reached beyond just their circle of friends.

You can ask people to bring $20 to spend, or $10, or whatever amount is comfortable for most of your community. (If you're a $100 community, more power to you!)

You can make it all day long, or all at the same time, or once again, whatever works for your town. Play around! Experiment! Have fun!

If Luling can do it, you can do it

Luling's Huber Package Store got
really crowded in the first cash mob.

The Luling, Texas, Area Chamber of Commerce started a cash mob just by picking one business and asking folks to turn out at the same time, each with $20 to spend. When I spoke in Luling earlier this month, Chamber of Commerce President Ada Potts told me about the first one.

"It was at Huber Package Store – Texas' oldest package [liquor] store," Ada said. "We had about 25 folks show up, who spent $800+ in about 45 minutes. It was a hoot! The store is only a couple hundred square feet, and it was a lot of fun fitting all the “mobbers” inside."

"Our 2nd Cash Mob last Thursday was a great success! We met at the chamber office, then headed to Luling Icehouse Pottery. We had about 20 folks show up. The owners put out snacks & sangria. They had over $900 in sales & a good time was had by all!"

The second business mobbed was
the Luling Icehouse Pottery.

Now, go!
I hope you're inspired by what a small town can do. If you have a cash mob, tell us about it in the comments: how do you make it work?

If you don't have one, jump up right now and make one. Call some friends. Post it on Facebook. Text someone. And go spend $20 to keep a favorite local merchant alive and thriving.

Photos courtesy of the Luling Area Chamber of Commerce.
Disclosure: I lived in Luling as a kid, and therefore, I am a huge Luling fan. That's not really a disclosure. I just wanted to mention it. :)

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Introduce yourself in the Brag Basket

2012-03-23T06:31:00.000-05:00

The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one March 23-25, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket.

This week's basket by Darren W.

introduce yourself
share some great news from this week
congratulate a friend
laugh about something wonderful that you tried that failed
applaud for each other

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