Costco Connection - August 2009

FRESHviews

Not business as usual
Costco members use ingenuity
to meet today’s challenges

HOW ARE YOU coping with today’s current economic downturn? Are you adjusting your business strategy? We asked these questions of readers in a recent edition of The Costco Connection. The response shows that our small-business members are as creative and resilient as we expected. Here are just a few of the many ideas we received.

If you have developed new strategies for your business, we’d love to hear from you. Submit your ideas to: connection @ costco.com. Please include “save our business” in the subject line.

—Editor

Think outside the cage

PHOTODISC

OUR 30-YEAR-OLD family-owned business sells pet birds and supplies, and offers training, boarding and grooming services.

These times have really hurt our business in that people are not traveling as much—so no boarding—and fear of job loss means no adding birds to their households. We needed to rethink our business.

I have several pet birds that I have used in training classes as demos in the past, including Marvelous Mel, my sulphur-crested cockatoo, and Miranda, my scarlet macaw. With these feathered assets, I came up with the idea of converting one of my boarding rooms. The Jungle Room was born!

We began promoting on our
Web site and in e-mails to our
current customer base.
We advertised in a local
children’s publication.
We participated at the
local Costco business
show.
We now have a new
facet to our business: chil-
dren’s birthday parties with
a parrot show. Our birds get to
perform, which they love, and
children get to experience their
antics and beauty. We have
added a new source of revenue
and more traffic to our shop. Our
business has evolved once again
and we will survive this eco-
nomic crisis as we have others
in the past.
Michelle Beckley
Kookaburra Bird Shop, LLC
Carrollton, Texas
www.kookshop.com

Create your own think tank

An article in The Costco Connection on the advantages of joining Yelp (“Yelp your biz,” February 2009) prompted an idea. I made a few calls to business associates in different sectors from my own and we arranged an informal get-together as a way of exchanging ideas and information on what strategies had worked (or not) for us within our markets. We have had three very fruitful meetings since then, and every session has brought us all benefits in marketing ideas, business leads and a sounding board for brainstorming new ideas.

It is very easy for directors of small businesses to feel isolated and to assume that they are the only ones not getting the results they would like.

Whilst business books offer some solu-
tions, there is nothing to beat local knowledge.

Bill Miller

The Entertainment Company

South Queensferry, West Lothian, UK www.entertainmentcompany.com

Spruce up your attitude

I have worked for the past 24 years as a hairstylist at a successful salon in West

Garden Grove, California. At the beginning

of the year, business really slowed down.

I decided to first start with myself—to reinvent my look. I gave myself a shorter,

sassy haircut and weave. I lost some weight and updated the clothes I wore.

When my clients come in for appointments and the topic turns to the economy, I speak in a positive way and encourage my clients to update their images as well. It has been amazing to watch! My business has improved, and my clients come in one way and leave feeling energized and looking great. I am even getting follow-up phone calls from clients thanking me for the encouragement.

Not only is my business back on track, but I feel that I am contributing to the well-being of every client.

Bonnie Moore

Huntington Beach, California

Hit the road

After years of practicing in veterinary hospitals, I realized that I did not need a mil-lion-plus-dollar building to practice good medicine! The large expense of the land, building and employees all add to the cost. So I converted a 28-foot RV into a custom mobile veterinary clinic—complete with exam room, lab and surgical suite. This busi-

ness model has a low fixed-over-head cost, and the clients love the great service, convenience and mul-tiple-pet discounts. My wife is my office manager and technician, so we do not even have any employees.

Our “lean and mean” business has continued to grow. Our clients have also told us how much more affordable our services are compared to local large animal clinics that have very expensive overhead.

Now if only human doctors would start making house calls again …

Dr. Mike Thomann

Charlotte, North Carolina www.mobilevet.com

Let your light shine

To keep my business alive through the recession, I have dialed down normal marketing like magazines, radio and yellow pages, and jumped headlong into guerrilla-style marketing. One of my best successes has been nominating my business for awards. I’ve won a number of local, regional and national awards, and each one comes with free publicity.