Guest blog post by Jillian Jackson DragonSEARCH "Why A Food Blog Should be in Your Startup or Restaurant Business Plan"

Jillian Jackson

 

BIO
Jillian Jackson is the Social Engagement Officer at DragonSearch in New York. McGraw-Hill recently published the DragonSearch Online Marketing Manual. Connect with Jillian anytime by tweeting @OneJillian or @DragonSearch. She holds a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Public Relations.

 

Food Blogs Increase Visibility and Influence

Many food blogs are by aspiring and well-established chefs, home cooks, restaurant reviewers and caterers. Some of the best food and recipe blogs out there are by award-winning chefs and restaurateurs. When you plan on entering an industry as competitive as the food business, setting yourself apart from the rest is very important. A recipe blog or cooking blog bring relevance and influence that doubles as free online marketing.

Including Online Marketing in Your Business Plan

Whether you plan to start a business as a personal chef or a franchise owner, you need to start with a unique, personalized business plan. That means some elements of a restaurant business plan will be different from those of a personal chef or even a food reviewer. Some will enter the food business to help others eat healthier, and others will want to help bring attention to the farms and co-ops where food is grown.

Planning where your product or service will be focused allows you to move into identifying your target audience – the set of people who will be interested in and/or purchase what you offer. Whatever your focus, you next step is to identify your unique value proposition. Once you’ve pinpointed your unique value proposition – or UVP, what makes your product the best choice for your target audience – you have to communicate your message!

Using restaurants as an example, restaurant marketing will probably be factored into your restaurant business plan. That’s good! Making sure online marketing is part of that mix starting with search engine optimization (SEO) in your website and blog, sets a very strong foundation for your success.

Internet Marketing Needs Ongoing Search Engine Optimization

Did you know online marketing for your startup or small business starts with your website? As a part of your marketing mix, SEO is like a root system sustaining your online marketing efforts. You can think of it that way when you hear references to “organic” traffic. In a very loose analogy, it means the delicious nutrients on your website are feeding the field of individual flowers that is your internet audience, which may convert into customers.

Here is a tip from the DragonSearch Online Marketing Manual: one of the best tools to bring attention to your skills and UVP as a personal chef or restaurant chef is to use maybe a recipe blog with videos of cooking.  If you want to bring attention to your new restaurant or franchise, an SEO optimized food blog will be a constant feedback loop for your audience.

A great thing happens after you kick off internet marketing for your business with a search engine optimized website and cooking blog. In learning to provide what your audience, you actually get to know your audience through the feedback loop your online presence provides.

Although the food industry from personal chefs to caterers, from franchises to startup restaurants, from small farms to community planting co-ops is a competitive landscape, there is a sprawling yet tight-knit community to join. As you become more connected in this online food community, the root system of your own food blog and website enhanced with proper SEO will grow, bringing more relevance to you, your brand, and your product or service.

Blogging as an entrepreneur is just a part of an effective overall online marketing strategy, but once you initiate this, you will have more confidence to take on the other elements that will bring your business idea to success.

BIO

Jillian Jackson is the Social Engagement Officer at DragonSearch in New York. McGraw-Hill recently published the DragonSearch Online Marketing Manual. Connect with Jillian anytime by tweeting @OneJillian or @DragonSearch. She holds a dual Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Public Relations.

It's About Approach, Service, Results

As a business owner, you already know that these days, it’s not enough to simply show up and offer a service or sell a product.
A focused approach is needed in order to win the attention of the discriminating consumer, that’s if you sell a product or the discerning client if your company provides a service.

How do you get focused?
• Determine what exactly are you offering?
• Does your company offer a unique spin on a common way of doing things?
• Is your product/packaging/distribution channel so unique that it distinguishes your from the competition?
• Is there some technological advancement that you can introduce to help streamline the process of either getting your product to market or introducing a service to new and existing clients?

Why is what you do needed?  What specific business problem or opportunity will your services/product address?
• Does your product or service solve a problem?
• Does it make the customer feel good physically or mentally?
• Will your service improve operational efficiencies?
• Does your company provide needs assessments for any future projects, insuring that the customer remains knowledgeable regarding your ability to manage upcoming opportunities?

How will the client/customer be better off after having worked with you?
What’s really different about your firm, its services, results or approach?
• Do you have a unique distribution channel that takes into account a diminished impact on the environment?
• Do you offer free shipping?
• Is your packaging unique, something that sets you apart from the competition?
• Are you ninja on customer service?  In an upcoming newsletter, I will talk more about ninja approach to customer service.
• Are you relentless when it comes to customer feedback, sending out surveys, calling the customer to follow-up once a project is completed or a product delivered, determining their likes/dislikes about your company?
What quantifiable benefits and results can your client/customer expect?
• Do you offer guarantees?
• Can you provide evidence of prior customer’s support for your products/services and satisfaction with what you do?
• Do you have specialized certification?
• Have you won any awards for governing your firm in a certain manner?
How will these questions help you get more customers and improve the bottomline?  If you’re not clear about your value proposition, that’s what asking these questions can help you clarify, so that you have a more precise
understanding of what you do and why a firm or consumer should buy your product/service instead of the competitors. Getting clear will help you develop a strategic approach to going after new business as well as how to retain the
customers that you have.
Use the attached worksheet to help you develop a different approach to understanding your business. 
It’s a new year, a good time to get clear about what you do and how you can achieve greater success over the next eleven months.

Caterpillar's Genius

One of the most compelling articles I have read on strategy was featured in the May 2011 issue of Fortune magazine.  The story was about Caterpillar, the equipment giant.  Several years before this country’s economic meltdown, Caterpillar’s approach was to create absolute worse case scenario’s, and figure out how they would survive the worse.  Weekly meetings were held between division managers and the CEO where disaster models were developed.  When the recession hit, Caterpillar wasn’t scattering for a line of attack. Instead, they were executing catastrophe tactics.  While other firms were running at a loss and going under, Caterpillar’s shares were up by 88%.  It’s one thing to plan when times are tough.  It’s another thing to have a well designed strategy in place when business is relatively good.  That’s what Caterpillar did; they planned for the worse when business was good.  That’s what makes for genius and forward thinking.  That’s what sets this company apart from most.  To read the article in its entirety go to http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/12/caterpillar-is-absolutely-crushing-it/

When I Teach I Learn

It only takes a minute to sign up for a free webinar, or register to take part in a networking event. In so doing, the result can be similar to opening pandora's box, a vast wealth of learning might await you revealing endless possibilities.  I, too am learning as I conduct this bonding education program through the DOT, that's the Department of Transportation partnered with the Small Business Transportation Resource Center here in NYC.  Over the course of several weekends what I have come to understand is that having access to new information and resources can indeed be powerful. The participants in the bonding program have, without candor expressed to me that the information which I am conveying is life changing. One student wrote to me in an email saying "your presentation was very thought provoking; it made me think all weekend about my company."  It's been a couple of months since I facilitated a workshop and it was a different crowd, new start-ups.  This present group of participants, they are a bit more seasoned, with more skin in the game. Perhaps they are more hungry, and perhaps that's the big difference between this group and the start-ups who I presented to previously.  No matter,  since what I've learned, what I've gained from teaching is this, exposing one's self to knew information and new ways of doing things and thinking about things is vital to an entrepreneur's success.

What To Do About Customers Who Don't Pay

In the July 2011 issue of Crain’s New York Business, there’s an article entitled, “A Braintrust for Female Business Owners”. The story profiles an event hosted by a women’s group in NYC, where the invited guest was a customer relations expert. At the gathering, a business owner wanted to know how to handle a longstanding customer who had stopped paying her. The expert advised to continue doing business with the deadbeat; she suggested an arrangement with longstanding so that every time a new order was placed, they’d have to pay on an older order.  I don’t agree with this premise. The cost associated with carrying a debt for more than 90 days doesn’t reflect well from a cash flow perspective, nor does it bode well in the accounting of one’s books.  I think it’s just plain rude to ignore a debt.  Its one thing if longstanding was to provide an explanation for the problem and offer a solution.  It’s another thing when calls, notices, and request for payment are ignored.  What do you think? 

http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/blogs/executive-inbox/2011/07/a-brain-trust-for-female-business-owners/

Is A Feasibility Study Important?

At times, entrepreneurs are so excited about getting their business off the ground, that they fail to take the time to determine if the enterprise is viable and sustainable. Before you launch your new company, it's important that you determine how much it will cost to keep the business operational for at least the first six months. That's why cash flow projections, break-even analysis and income projections are so important. That's where a feasibility study comes to play, which helps you monitor the overall health of the enterprise. If your business is the sole source of income covering both personal and business expenses, you’ll need to generate enough business to cover both of these

expenses. For example, if business expenses total $5,000.00 and your personal expenses total $3,500.00, your total monthly sales should be at least $8,500.00. This is break-even, and if company isn't breaking even you’re operating at a deficit, a loss. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions on this post regarding the importance of feasibility studies. Stay tuned. There’s more to come on this very important subject.