My Franchise Journey…We have a customer!
Note: Post #25. Imagine being 60 years old with a Ph. D. and 35+ years of non-profit administration experience, most as Vice President or Assistant Vice President of Institutional Advancement in colleges and universities. Now you are buying a franchise and becoming a small business owner. This is my story.
A lot has been happening in the past two weeks since my last post. Here are the highlights.
The last post mentions that I made my first hire. In this post I’m happy to report that he started working! The job offer stated that he would start “no later than April 1.” We had a verbal agreement that he could start earlier if at least some of the marketing material arrived before the 1st. Fortunately, my shipment of door hangers (more on that in a minute) did arrive prior to April 1 and we held our first employee orientation meeting on March 24. One of the “new-to-me” quirks of small, home-based business is dealing with having no office space. Finding a suitable place to meet employees and others is an interesting challenge. I’ve landed, at least for now, on a local Panera Bread. It is large enough to have enough space that I don’t feel I’m monopolizing a spot when I am there for a couple of hours. The coffee is decent and you can always grab a light meal or snack if you’d like. At the very least I’ll have a cup of coffee every time I’m there and usually something more. It’s the least I can do for taking up space and using their Wi-Fi.
Anyway, our Field Tech/Marketing Assistant is working a hybrid job description. In the early days of our start-up his focus is on our local, “guerilla” marketing efforts as we seek to raise brand awareness and generate new customers. As we develop a customer base his focus will shift towards providing mosquito, flea, and tick control services for our clients. The technician work will eventually become most, if not all, of what he does. For now, he is busy distributing door hangers and lawn signs (see below). The door hangers are placed on the front door knobs of homes in our territory and the lawn signs are placed in high traffic intersections. The concept is pretty straight forward — execute many and varied activity that will get the Mosquito Hunters brand in front of potential clients. The brand is fun and eye-catching using bright orange, brown, and tan, and incorporating brand mascot Gunther the mosquito hunter. As previously mentioned, the company service vehicle is a billboard on wheels and utilizing Gunther at events and meet/greet opportunities are all ways to develop strong brand identity (see pics in post #24). Couple these efforts with a robust digital presence, direct mail, and community involvement and you have a powerful approach to building one’s business.
In addition to our local efforts, digital marketing strategy was implemented April 1. As a seasonal business, our “power window” for signing up new customers exists in a 10+-week period that begins April 1 and extending through the end of June/early July. New customers will be added after that period, but this is the critical time. Digital efforts are dominated by Google pay-per-clics and Facebook ads. Paying for digital real estate and doing everything we can to stay atop the unpaid listing is the focus. Thus, on-line reviews (see post #23) and web content/activity are important.
Other efforts include local networking and event exposure — some with, some without Gunther. I am attending my first BNI meeting this week. BNI is new to me and exists to introduce business people to other business folks and generate referrals. I am exploring cross-promotional opportunities to bring Gunther to another place of business, take photos, greet customers, distribute information, and cross-post on both company’s social media platforms. An ad on a local diner’s placement will generate more exposure and hopefully open the door to a cross-promotional opportunity. I am also looking for community events to support with Gunther and our display booth — non-profit fundraising events, local street fairs, food truck events, etc.
Hiring is an on-going focus. It is clear that we need more help to distribute the number of door hangers we want to get out. Thus, I’m looking for ways to identify and attract high school students to work over a handful of Saturdays to help with this effort. I continue to look for a Marketing Intern; ideally a college student studying business, marketing, or communications who would like first hand experience in starting and promoting a small business. My hoped-for hire took a job closer to home and I’m still looking. Three more interviews are set up for this week as well as a couple of phone interviews. I’m hopeful one of these will work out. This person will start in early May which I anticipate will be perfect timing. They can pick up the marketing efforts while my Field Tech is getting busier providing control services for clients.
Speaking of clients…I’ve buried the lead of this post on purpose so I can end on a celebratory note. We have signed our first customer!!! One day after the digital marketing effort started a person located in my territory saw our information on-line and inquired. Our sales center made the sale and I followed up to welcome the person to our services and set a general date for our first treatment (around April 15, weather permitting). I’m also in conversation with a couple of other folks who have requested quotes.
We are on our way!!!