April 19, 2010Is your glass half empty, or half full? In the wake of the devastating floods in Rhode Island, many small businesses might be tempted to answer the question as half empty. But for April Williams McCrory, president and founder at North Star Marketing Inc., in North Kingstown, seeing the glass as half full is a critical first step in recovery from the current dismal economic environment.
At an April 8 business seminar sponsored by the Rhode Island Small Business Development Center at Johnson & Wales University and Cox Business, McCrory shared success stories from numerous small businesses in Rhode Island who have thrived by following some important business traits.
The theme of half full or half empty was front-and-center for all participants: it was a choice to check on name tags, and the seating was divided into two sections, depending on your selection. “Optimism,” McCrory said, “is the disposition or tendency to be on the more favorable side of events or conditions and expect the most favorable outcome.”
McCrory said that leaders of small businesses in Rhode Island need to focus on and improve their abilities to lead, choose direction and increase communication. Leadership, she continued, includes vision, the ability to empower, teamwork, creating a network of support, and having fun.
To have direction, McCrory said, requires a clear mission, the development of a niche in the marketplace, the willingness to create a “big, hairy, audacious goal” and the ability to keep the company on track. With communications, she said, it’s important to set up a hierarchy that begins with employees, moving to clients, referral sources and prospects.
As an example of improved communications, she cited the innovative campaign that Cox Business developed to increase its ability to get sales meetings with top prospects, which had problems getting past the front door. The company launched a campaign in which they sent chocolate cakes from Gregg’s Restaurants to prospective clients. The results: a 31 percent response rate, and a buzz, which had prospective clients calling and asking, “Where’s my cake?” she said.
Similarly, Providence-based Semper Home Loans (a North Star client) created an innovative campaign, to hire 50 new people in 50 days, and built an advertising campaign around it, saying “We are adding 50 of these to the economy.”
DiPrete Engineering (former North Star client) in Cranston, McCrory said, built its referrals by including all of its employees in networking.
The Patriot Financial Group, an Odyssey Companies practice with an office in Warwick, McCrory said, created its own niche by adding a life coach to its succession-planning niche, to assist corporate leaders deal with transitional issues of giving up control of the company.
She also cited the efforts by Whole Foods markets, which created a goal of engaging with customers no matter where they spend their time, which resulted local stores in Providence and Craston developing Twitter accounts.
Seven Stars Bakery, which opened a new store in East Providence in 2009, is an example of a small business that was “driving the bus” on a steady path towards success, and despite many temptations to expand the services offered, maintained its focus on its core business – breads and pastries, McCrory said.
And, VIBCO Vibrators Inc. in Richmond empowered employees to help speed up the process of switching jobs on a machine from 2.5 hours to 6.5 hours, increasing the number of jobs performed on that machine from 80 to 260 jobs a month, and enabling the customer base to grow 16 percent in the current economy, she said.
For Laura Mottl, who runs a jewelry-design business, Mottl Industry, in East Providence, she said she attended the seminar because of McCrory. Mottl said that she met McCrory 14 years earlier in a workshop setting, and ever since then, she has been getting a regular e-mail each week with suggestions and insights.
“I always find that I can learn something from what April says,” she explained.
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