I don’t care about “no stinking recession,” it’s hands down one of the best times to start a business because on the back side of any recession sits growth, be there for the upward growth path. Do it by advertising, marketing,promoting and selling your product or service aggressively during the rough times. You’ll benefit from this outside the box thinking and effort. 

“PR Pros Offer Recession Strategies for Independent Business Owners,” appearing in Advertising Industry Newswire written by Carly Z. I wish, I could say something more than Carly wrote but I think she sums it up pretty well.

With job losses at alarming levels, marketing and public relations pro’s Melanie Goetz and Esty Atlas, of Hughes & Stuart Marketing, have combined four decades of experience, insight, strategic techniques, affordable public outreach ideas, and business branding concepts into their newly released book, “Roadrunner Marketing: Strategic Secrets You Wish You Knew”

Says co-author and four-time Emmy award winning creative producer Esty Atlas, “There are approximately 32 million small-business owners in the United States and Canada, and every day, another 2,500 people decide to go into business for themselves.” She added, “With such a high number of corporate layoffs today, come more people trying to start a business, but research shows 66 percent of new businesses will fail in the first four years, in large measure due to poor marketing and only five percent will ever reach 1 million dollars in revenues.”

To help inspire and educate new entrepreneurs, this grassroots marketing book is filled with immediate things every business owner should already be doing, and can easily do, to help increase their visibility, affordably, within their own consumer marketplace. The strategies and easy-to-grasp concepts cover the essentials of building one’s presence and loyalty in the minds of consumers.

“Costly business mistakes can easily be avoided if people just understand the basic philosophies that motivate consumers,” said Atlas.

Co-author Goetz was inspired to write a book after being interviewed on a national TV program, Heartbeat of America, and asked if she would consider putting decades of client work into an easy user guide. “After seeing what’s already been written on this topic, we felt there was a missing element that directly addressed smaller business owners who would benefit from the encouragement and in-depth profiles of everyday self-made entrepreneurs - names people may not recognize, but can identify with who have successfully built their businesses,” said agency president Melanie Goetz.

Founder of Panera Bread Company explains why he quit the clothing business and how he built a multi-million dollar business while admittedly knowing nothing, at first, about its core product. Profiles comparable to this are showcased throughout the book and the similarities of these very different people point toward similar internal characteristics more than external education. And what does mega-star actor William Shatner have to do with this book? Inspiration comes from surprising sources as author Melanie Goetz learned when she encountered a star-ship surprise of their own.

Each of the 26 chapters is designed to help independent businesses build awareness, get positive publicity, attract customers, reduce advertising expenses, ‘beep the competition’, and create effective ‘word-of-mouse’ interest through easy to follow step-by-step instructions. The book is available through Amazon.com. For more on Roadrunner Marketing visit www.hughesstuart.com.

Author Melanie Goetz

President of Hughes & Stuart Marketing since 1980, Melanie serves as the senior account executive for the company. Melanie’s MBA degree and tactical marketing experience are complemented with genuine common sense intuition that serves clients on many levels. Melanie, Esty, and the Hughes & Stuart creative team develop public relations and outreach programs for businesses as well as non-profits and government. As an independent businesswoman who has served on multiple boards, a champion of causes for non-profit fundraising, and marketing consultant, Melanie’s thirty years of expertise and account management skills have effectively enhanced the communication efforts and public outreach for people and companies in many industries and trade associations.

Author Esty Atlas

Sixteen years of public relations, marketing, and creative services in television news-driven stations led Esty to work with a diverse client base independently to improve their public outreach efforts. Esty believes marketing takes an intuitive understanding of the characteristics that attract the desired consumers to create a positive public image through effective communication techniques. Esty is a four-time Emmy-award winning writer/creative producer who has also been honored with eight Colorado Broadcasters Association awards, by the Public Relations Society of America, New York Film Festival, and Promax Marketing Executives. She has also won five national Telly awards.

After 25 years working in all kinds of businesses and starting four successful businesses myself, the one mistake that most new business owners make is to - “hide away in the closet.” What I mean, by hide away in the closet, is that instead of advertising and marketing their business, they initially put in the effort but quickly lose the incentive when the results don’t appear. The secret, don’t give up, be creative and keep working until something clicks, it will come, it just takes some thinking.

See you on the other side of the recession. I can’t wait to hear your success story.

MikeToots_working everyday to develop my business toward my vision.

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