It is an incredible time to be a small business owner. Customers, now more than ever before, truly care about who they buy products and services from, and how those companies align with their values. From the shoes we wear to the dish soap we use, there are endless options for consumers to choose from. Pair that with internet access, and more power than ever before sits in the hands of the buyer.
So what does that mean for you as a business owner?
It means you have to make it possible for customers to find you.
But how do you stand out in a crowded landscape filled with landing pages?
Define your “why”
You have to start by knowing your why, and then sharing it in your brand to connect your ideal customers.
If you’re wondering what your “why” is, pause for a moment and check out this incredible TED Talk, and then keep reading.
At our core, there is always a reason why folks start a business.
Sure, some might say “I needed to make money.” but if you can get that person to dig a little deeper, they’re going to share a story of why they do what they do. It’s likely a story of passion and perseverance, and it is the reason why they stuck with their business and are willing to go the extra mile for their clients or customers.
After all, 50 percent of small businesses fail in the first year alone, so there’s got to be some reason that keeps us going.
Maybe it’s that you wanted to change the world for the better. Or maybe you help other people like you.
Use your “why” to define your target market
That was most definitely the “why” that inspired Rachel Bearbower to start her company, Small Shop Strategies in 2018. After years of serving as an executive director for different non-profits, she had recognized how challenging it was to run a small and scaling organization.
This inspired her to create a company to help other folks that would come against the same challenges she faced in the early days of running a “small shop.”
“Small Shop Strategies was designed to fill the gaps of what I always wanted as a founder and executive director. It was important that strategies shared are practical, easy to implement and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of a small shop. Time is incredibly valuable and if someone can apply some simple strategies that transform their productivity because of something I had to figure out the hard way, then that makes me pretty darn happy.”
-Rachel Bearbower, founder of Small Shop Strategies
The incredible thing about Rachel’s “why” is that it immediately helped her identify her ideal audience—her target market—and in turn, she has been able to build a brand that can speak loudly and clearly to the small shops she aims to attract.
Businesses that know their “why” can also use it to drive actions in the world that can also help to attract their ideal customers. Take, for example, Warby Parker, who set out not to just sell glasses, but “to offer designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses.” Having socially conscious business practices as part of the ethos company made it a natural for Warby Parker to then embody their “why” in action by giving back one pair of glasses to populations in need for every one sold.
Having a strong “why” will boost your value
That one move has been argued by some to be one of the driving factors for their $1.75 billion valuation in 2018. Don’t forget that Warby Parker was originally a company started by some buddies with the bold vision of disrupting the glasses industry. They are living proof that every company once starts with a great idea, and every big business begins as a small business.
So challenge yourself to also be bold. To tap into your “why” and understand how you can embody it not just through the values your company writes on paper but also in the actions you take in the world. Because customers will take notice. And when they have the choice to pick between a company that is just selling them a product, and the one that is standing up for the things they believe in, they’re going to spend their dollars with the company that shares their values every time.
Welcome back to #TrackThis! Today, Matt Rissell, CEO of T Sheets Time Tracking, and I sat down to talk about tracking your ROI of attending conferences and trade shows. It's an important question: Is it worth attending these events to get your name out there, or to have your people trained? It's hard to know necessarily, and that's why it's so important to track your ROI. People have so many questions about this topic, and we really tried here to talk through all the pros and cons to think about when you're considering attending these events. Matt is a bit more cynical about these conferences than I am, which is a completely fair view point on these oft-expensive events, but we both agree that if you're going to go, you have to go all-in. These events are typically quite expensive, and it's important to make a big splash if you're going to spend big cash!
The audio of our conversation can be found above, and the transcript of our conversation can be read below:
Matt: Hello and welcome to episode number six of #TrackThis, small business tracking tips from CEOs, specifically, Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software, and Matt Rissell, CEO of T Sheets. We'll be talking today about tracking the return on investments of attending conferences and trade shows. It's a hot topic—should you or should you not make the investment in trade shows? If you do, how do you actually track your ROI? Up first is Sabrina Parsons.
Sabrina: Thanks, Matt, really excited to do another episode of Track This with Matt and T Sheets. I think this is one of those topics that people have so many questions about. I find anything to do with marketing in general, all of us in the small business world just have a hard time sometimes figuring out should we spend the money, should we not. In the online world, you have so many tools to track your spends, if you're doing pay-per-click marketing, banner advertising. You've just got a lot of different tools that can actually show you how many people clicked, how many people buy, what they purchased, how much money they spend. It's a whole lot easier to prove your return on investment.
When you get to marketing activities like conferences and trade shows, it can be a lot harder to figure out what is actually going to be a good conference to go, how you're going to have a return on your investment, and how do you even make that decision. I love the images here. Any of you who watch the HBO "Silicon Valley" show will recognize this; if you don't watch it, you should definitely check it out. It's a very fun satirical show about startups. This is exactly what these guys face—should they go to conferences, what kind of money should they spend, and what are they going to get out of it.
We all deal with that. If you're the CEO or the president or the owner of a small business, you get bombarded by salespeople trying to sell you all kinds of things, including "come to this trade show, come to this conference." Those of us who go know that conferences and trade shows are expensive. You've got to have materials to present. You have to have things to give away. Your booth has to look well. You have travel there. You have to spend money on a hotel. It's really hard to go to a conference and spend less than thousands of dollars, usually in the $5,000 range. That's probably a cheap conference. How are you going to actually track it?
The first thing is start with SMART goals. Throughout your business, I really recommend you use SMART goals. SMART really stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. If you're going to go to that conference, you might think about putting together a special offer for only conference attendees, that has to be redeemable in a certain time period. Maybe redeem this offer in the next two weeks and then you can actually track and see did the offer get redeemed, how many people redeemed it, what did they purchase, and what is my ultimate return of investment.
Now, you may be going to a conference purely for the branding and for the awareness. If you do that, then you still have to have specific measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals. Maybe what you want is to get a certain group of thought leaders behind your products. Maybe your goals are "I want 10 quotes from these thought leaders that I can put on my website. If I can go to this conference and get these 10 quotes, all raving about my products or services, then this conference will be worthwhile." Even though these goals aren't sales and revenue, there are still goals that you can set up before you go, and then you can measure against those goals and say, "Did I get that?"
Once you put those quotes up on your website, in your brochures, in your marketing materials, track the difference from before you have those quotes. Are you selling [to] more customers? Is it easier to close deals? Did those quotes help you in the way that you thought? As long as you set things out and put the goals down and track them, you're going to be in good shape.
Matt: [laughs] Well, I don't know what conference you went to Sabrina for $5,000, but sign me up for that one.
Sabrina: [laughs] Well, exactly. I mean, it does [inaudible 04:55], we know. That's like minimum. That's probably a conference down the street.
Matt: Yeah.
Sabrina: Not the one you have to have to fly to.
Matt: Right. If you're going to travel to a conference, I mean, typically the conference just to get a booth is $5,000 to $10,000. That's for the smallest booth you can get. Let alone flying three or four people down with air fare and meals and then your booth is an extra expense. Don't forget, if you want internet, that's another $2,000 at your booth. I mean, it's just a big investment. Typically, I think the average for small businesses is to spend like $25,000 at a conference. Definitely go in with a good idea with exactly what your budget is so you don't get there and run out of money, run out of budget and go, "Oh, geez, I can't maximize this."
One specific, I love what Sabrina said [inaudible 05:44]. I tend to be on the cynical side of conferences. If I can recommend one thing to you is that I would really shy away from just doing the brand exposure conferences. What we do, it's one of my own personal rules, this is like rule number one for Matt Rissell and T Sheets for going to conferences, is that we have a call to action right there. This isn't the conference—I don't go to conferences and just collect business cards. I think that's a waste, no one wants to get those emails afterwards, but what we do every single time is we have a call to action. We try to make it digital, something that they do right there on the spot.
It doesn't have to cost them money, but it's something that they know that they took the effort to engage with your company right there. Your retention rate of that individual, after the conference, is 85 percent higher if they responded themselves versus you doing it for them. So, that would be my one recommendation. And then, if it is digital, back to the return on investment, you can track anything that you've created in revenue, in sales, relationships, that can all go back to that specific conference. That's one way, probably the most significant way that T Sheets tracks our ROI on conferences.
Sabrina: Thanks so much, Matt. I'm just going to jump in here because I think Palo Alto Software has learned a lot from seeing what T Sheets does at conferences. If you're going to go, if you're going to spend the money, and like Matt says, a $5,000 conference is probably a teeny tiny one; most of the time, you're looking at between $10,000 and $20,000 when all is said and done. One of the things T Sheets does that I think is the way everybody should go is they get a theme around which they present their booth, and everything they do is around this theme and that theme goes back to who they are as a brand and fits right in with the audience. It really gives you an impact with the people that you go to.
If you are going to go and you're going to spend money, not only should you do all this tracking, think about fun ways to stand out and drive your brand and your message home with the audience. You're already going to be there, and they don't necessarily have to be expensive things. It's as simple as the T Sheets booth had a superhero theme and all their employees that were at the booth had superhero themed outfits for everyday. It's as simple as that. You can hear the chatter amongst the accountants at the conference we were all at together about the T Sheets booth.
Start with your SMART goals, and then add in a little bit of fun that fits with your brand and gives your message out there to that audience because I think Matt is right, you want to hook people in, but you want them to respond to you. This whole "put your card in a fish bowl and you'll win something" is fine, and it's an okay way to get leads, but at the end of the day, most people putting their cards in there just want the iPad mini that you're giving away. They don't necessarily want your products and services. So, figure out a way to engage them and get them to ask for whatever it is that you're giving out, so that you know that they're engaged.
Matt: That's exactly right. I would just add one thing, is that we are big on giveaways at our booth, but we always take those opportunities and leverage them intimately into creating that desire, that interest in T Sheets or in our company in order to get them to a call to action. So, well said.
Folks, thanks for listening to this episode number six of #TrackThis. Please do us a favor, tweet your business tracking questions and comments to us. We want to respond to them, and we know that tracking things is not always the sexiest, and it's not always the funnest part of your job as an entrepreneur or a business, but it's one of if not the most important to know you're headed the right direction. Again, tweet your business tracking questions and comments to #TrackThis.
Signing off from Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Live Plan, and Matt Rissell of T Sheets, have a great day.
Sabrina: Thanks, Matt. Thanks, everybody.
Rich irony: 37Signals, a great Web app for project management, ought to know better than anybody that real business planning is a process, not a plan. After all, they do the kind of nuts and bolts management that makes that happen. Instead, however, Matt of 37Signals posted the planning fallacy last week:
If you believe 100% in some big upfront advance plan, you're just lying to yourself.
I object. Who ever said planning was "believing 100% in some big upfront plan?" Good business planning is always a process involving metrics, following up, setting steps, reviewing results, and course correction.
He goes on:
But it's not just huge organizations and the government that mess up planning. Everyone does. It's the planning fallacy. We think we can plan, but we can't. Studies show it doesn't matter whether you ask people for their realistic best guess or a hoped-for best case scenario. Either way, they give you the best case scenario.
OK that's a dream, not a plan. Matt seems to confuse the two, but good business planners don't. Any decent business planning process considers the worst case, risks, and contingencies; and then tracks results and follows up to make course corrections.
Which leads to this, another quote:
It's true on a big scale and it's true on a small scale too. We just aren't good at being realistic. We envision everything going exactly as planned. We never factor in unexpected illnesses, hard drive failures, or other Murphy's Law-type stuff.
No, but you do allow extra time for the unexpected, and then you follow up, carefully (maybe even using 37 Signals' software) to check for plan vs. actual results, changes in schedule, new assumptions, and the constant course correction. Murphy was a planner. He understood planning process, plan review, course corrections.
Matt concludes:
That messy planning stage that delays things and prevents you from getting real is, in large part, a waste of time. So skip it. If you really want to know how much time/resources a project will take, start doing it.
Really bad advice there, based on a bad premise. Sure, if you define planning as messy and preventing you from getting real, then it would be a waste of time. But is that planning?
I wonder if Matt takes his own advice. When he travels, does he book flights and hotels? Or does he skip that, and just start walking.
I was the planning consultant to Apple Computer's Latin America group from 1982 until 1991 or 1992, the end of the relationship being a bit hard to define as I was called on steadily more by Apple Japan and less by Apple Latin America.
The challenge came in the spring of 1985. The annual business plan was done every Spring, turned into management in June and then discussed and revised and resubmitted and eventually accepted in July. In April of 1985 I had been the consultant for that process for four years running when Hector Saldana, manager of the group, said:
"Tim, yes I want you to do our annual plan for us again this year. But only on two conditions: first, I want you to stop working for other computer companies. Second, I want you to take up a desk in our office, come every day, and sit here and see us implement the plan."
Happily, he also had some good news related to giving up other competing companies as clients: "And, if you agree to do this, I want to contract you for all of your hours for the next year, and at your regular billing rate."
The condition of giving up competing clients was difficult for a single person business. What if Apple had problems, or changed its policy regarding consultants? What if Hector got promoted or fired? Where would I be then, if I had given up other business relationships.
That's not the real point of the story, although it does relate to planning as you go. That certainly wasn't part of my business plan for my business, but it was a classic example of changed assumptions. We talked about it at home at length, and decided to go ahead with it. However, we also modified the plan we had going related to efforts to generate new leads and new business: we would focus that effort within Apple itself, different groups that didn't talk much to each other, to reduce risk of having two many eggs in the single Apple Latin America basket. The plan was modified for cause, to accommodate changed assumptions.
The problem of implementation, however, forced me to consider the difference between the plan and the results of the plan.
There was some history. The previous year or two had been the time of "desktop publishing" for Apple Computer. Desktop publishing, which we now take for granted, started with the first Macintosh laser printer in 1985. It was a huge advantage for Apple in competition against other personal computer systems.
Our plan for fiscal 1985 had been to emphasize desktop publishing in most of our marketing efforts. And it didn't happen. While we talked about desktop publishing in every meeting, the managers would go back to their desks, take phone calls, put out fires, and forget about it. They didn't intend to, but they'd had so much emphasis on desktop publishing that it seemed boring, old hat. Multimedia was the thing.
So, faced with the implementation challenge, I created what became the strategy pyramid to manage strategic alignment. We ended up with a relatively simple database of business activities. Collaterals (meaning brochures and such), bundle deals (software included with the hardware at special bundled prices),advertising, trade shows, meetings and events, all were tied into a system that identified what strategy point they impacted, and what tactic.
So during that year, as business went on, we were able to view actual activities, spending and effort, divided by priority. We set more budget money for desktop publishing activities than any other. During the review meetings, we compared actual spending and activities (the beginning of what I talk about as metrics) to planned spending and activities. And over time, with pie charts and bar charts to help, we were able to build strategic alignment. What was done was what the strategy dictated.
The plan-as-you-go implication was that this didn't happen just because it was in the plan. It took management. There was a plan review schedule with the meetings on the calendar way in advance, and for every meeting I was able to produce data on progress towards planned goals. The managers discussed results. Plan vs. actual metrics became important.
When things didn't go according to plan, the meetings would bring that to the surface. Managers would explain how the assumptions turned out wrong, or some unforeseen event -- we had good results as well as bad results -- and we would on occasion revise the plan.
