Costco Connection - August 2012

small business BIG solutions

MEDIA BAKERY

How low-cost online tools can
help small businesses succeed

By David Chalk

THERE IS A WORLD of inexpensive, and often free, online services that can do wonders for your small business. Here are some examples of how these tools have helped three businesses to thrive.

Blenz Coffee

Costco member George Moen is a huge advocate of social media marketing for his Vancouver, British Columbia–based franchise, Blenz Coffee ( www.blenz.com). The Blenz Coffee president has about 30,000 Twitter followers at his @georgemoen and @blenzcoffee sites and is active on Facebook, foursquare, You Tube, Flickr and MySpace.

One key tool, though, is his own .tel website (http://georgemoen.tel). It serves as an online business card for his 100 outlets in Canada, Japan, China and the United Arab Emirates.

These .tel sites aren’t widely known but are super for small businesses. They allow users to store and organize all their current contact information online—including email address, website, Google maps and more. The bonus is that the more information you include about yourself, the more details search engines will pick up, driving traffic to you.

Unlike a traditional domain name, the purpose of a .tel site is to help manage and exchange contact information for individuals and businesses. When you give your .tel address to contacts, they simply add it to their smartphone or address book and all the information goes with it. If you add more information, it’s automatically updated. What’s more, once you give people your .tel address, you can stay connected for life.

For small businesses, a .tel site allows you
to have an online presence without the cost
and complexity of building your own website
(although Moen has one of those too). It has
also helped Moen market his brand on the
Internet and communicate to customers and
potential franchisees without needing to
make a big advertising spend.

Velocity Five Restaurants

Former National Football League coach Jim Speros grew up in a family restaurant business, so it was no surprise to see him trade in his football cleats to establish Velocity Five ( www.velocityfiverestaurant.com), an upscale sports restaurant chain in Virginia.

To communicate special promotions and customer events, the Costco member has set up Facebook pages for each of his four locations and allows staff at each restaurant to manage and update content.

Speros has also implemented a point-of-sale (POS) system called Restaurant Manager that lets him do everything from identifying customer sales trends to producing weekly profit and loss statements, all from his laptop. The software has improved his ability to track

Connecting

; .tel is international and is managed by the Canadian domain registrar who created .ca. To register, visit www.webnames.ca/tel. ; Restaurant Manager’s point-of-sale software can be viewed at www.rmpos.com. Cost depends on the features used. ; Skype ( www.skype.com) offers video conferencing, which is a popular (and cheaper) alternative to traditional phone calls. ; Costco offers a variety of business services, including web-hosting and online payroll processing. Go to Costco.com and click on “Services” to learn more.

food costs, determine high-value items, monitor employee shifts and cut down on accounting and inventory expenses. Speros believes the reporting capabilities from an always accessible POS system were well worth his initial investment.

Thanks to the cost savings and a growing fan base of more than 3,000 people on Facebook, Velocity Five is turning sizable profits. Speros is now in discussion with major hotel chains to expand his franchise model.

Lewis Ltd.

Lewis Ltd. ( www.lewislimited.com) provides interactive online learning and training courses. Major clients include the U.S. military, for which Lewis gives online courses in cultural awareness to servicemen and women.

Although based in Maryland, company president Geoff Lewis has invested in computer technology so that his employees are able to telework from anywhere. That move allowed him to shut down his main office and become a totally virtual company.

Taking things a step further, Lewis uses Internet and Skype video calls to conduct business meetings. These online moves have allowed Lewis to save significantly on rent and staff travel and to transfer savings into more competitive rates for customers.

Getting ahead

These business visionaries provide just a few examples of the many ways you can use today’s online tools to differentiate your business, improve efficiency and put yourself ahead of the competition. C