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CC 2019-02-26 Items Rec'd at Mtg. SCORE // Serving San Luis Obispo and the Santa Maria Valley 1228 Broad Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 ge,lid ). /260tiq FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS n /41 '7, _ _ _ _ 4./4 . �: et` it = =:s. asp: ..c•:: is .. NC i si il..R! i = i it INC Mr =.s't.s si ii t i t i i a a is =Tis is lil _. s = a == = ! i iItZ it Jr t I. i si ! i_ a.n.s r a a �: s ss: r.. ---T-rt..- ,,:-,--4;, -4----,t ---„t J - bt,-TA.-- :—..,--, ' ARE YOU PREPARED? Is your business location facing upgrades? Such as street or sidewalk maintenance, new utility installations or other infrastructure improvements? Will it impact your business? SCORE IS HERE TO HELP YOU . • SCORE has prepared this booklet with over 70 ideas and actions you should consider to strengthen your business. • SCORE is a FREE service whose members are BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS. • SCORE has expanded its business hours to help you. (follow ups are at your convenience) • Call SCORE at (805) 547-0779 or email info@sloscore.org today to schedule a meeting. www.sanluisobispo.score.org SCORE // FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS Introduction Immediate Actions Recommended Business Owner Actions Marketing Email and Social Media Finance Operation Introduction: This material has been prepared by SCORE members who belong to an organization with only one goal--to help business owners be successful. During any Infrastructure Project, there will be some disruption to the normal flow of business. The project will ultimately benefit the community in the long-term, but it will likely impact the regular flow of clients to the affected businesses. There are certain actions that we recommend these business owners take to minimize this disruption. The primary goal of these recommendations is for business owners to take action proactively and thereby ensure that regular customers continue to frequent their businesses. It is intended to help your business's very survival. Some of these actions may even help business owners get more regular customers in the long-term. Several of the suggestions are activities that most business owners can be doing regularly; other activities will be unique to their particular infrastructure construction project. SCORE // FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS Our first suggestion is to be sure all business owners know SCORE mentors are available to help them, and to let them know that all SCORE support is of no cost to them. We offer SCORE's help with: • Workshops • Face to Face mentoring • Individual Consultation • On-site Visits • After hours mentoring The actions suggested are grouped into various categories to make it easier to find them. There is no recommended order of implementation suggested within the categories. Business owners need to start preparing now. Some actions described below should be implemented as early as possible. These may include email, marketing, financial planning and operational changes. Immediate actions: (*see related categories) • Step up all aspects of customer service now. *Recommended Business Owner Actions • Business owners will need the loyalty of every one of their customers during construction. *Recommended Business Owner Actions • Preview the construction process with customers and commit to keeping them informed. *Recommended Business Owner Actions • Prepare work on a marketing plan focused on special offers/events to promote customer traffic after construction begins. *Marketing • Collect and organize email addresses. *Email and Social Media • Promote social media presence or consider establishing one ASAP. *Email and Social Media • Develop a detailed financial survival plan and start executing it before the project starts. *Finance • Develop a response plan for outages of electricity, water, or gas. *Operations SCORE FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS Recommended Business Owner Actions: Customer service is key. Step up all aspects of customer service now. Owners will need the loyalty of every one of their customers during construction. Things owners can do to make their customers feel cared for: • Use newspapers to get the word out at the start. • Welcome your customers and let them know what is going on. • Provide Exceptional service to your customers. • Smile when your customers walk in. It's a basic gesture which we sometimes forget when we are busy or preoccupied. Be positive and upbeat and know your customers by their first name. It will make them feel as if they have been welcomed back as a neighbor and local. • Work with area business owners whenever possible. This might include having other owners and all their staff park on side streets. This makes parking open for their customers and your own. Also, let customers, suppliers and employees know what's going on with your business. • Make sure that your employees know the basics of the project and can communicate them to your customers. • Preview the construction process with suppliers, customers and commit to keeping them informed. • Keep clients aware as they book appointments or make plans to visit our business. • Can you increase your sales with phone order services? If so advertise it. • SMILE when you or your employees talk on the phone — it works! • Can you add delivery to your services? If so advertise it. • Can you expand hours of operation to be open before or after the daily hours of construction? Make sure your existing and potential clients know You Are Open. • Have a big "WE ARE OPEN" sign. • Show a rendering of what your block will look like after the improvement. • Continue to use the project's brand on all signage, emails and correspondence. • Put up banners or signs informing customers of construction progress, milestones, completion date and parties. • If available use the existing poles to put up banners. SCORE FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS • Ask your customers to "Like you" on Yelp. • Ask your customers to tell their friends about you. • Stay informed. Keep informed from related public agencies. Their websites may have information useful to owners during this period. Alert customers if construction may limit access. Inform them of best access route. • Convince customers and suppliers that you have a plan to manage your way through the project and that the business will be stronger and better as a result. • Get employees involved and keep them informed. Celebrate milestones. • Hold regular block or street parties to celebrate milestones. • PR is free and ribbon cuttings make good PR. Marketing: This section is targeted to encourage existing clients to keep coming to your business during the improvement period. Prepare work on a marketing plan focused on special offers/events to promote customer traffic after construction begins. How to make your business stand out-- Get a loyalty program going. • Create a special card during the construction - a cheerleader card. • Prize Drawings—every customer fills out contact information on a card and prizes are awarded once a month. (Note: This last one is especially powerful if all applicable business owners also participate). • Try BOGO's —"Buy One/Get One" free, or buy one, half off second purchase, buy 10 get one free, etc. It doesn't need to cost you a lot e.g. an extra meal doesn't cost more labor. • Full Time Discounts--on everything, or certain items/services, or—by quantity or frequency. • Special Discounts--available for limited time only, or during certain hours/days, or first X customers, by quantity or frequency, etc. • Loss Leader Pricing for specific products/services, creating foot traffic in hopes of additional purchases "Razor/ Razor Blade offers—on logical additional purchase, e.g. free shave with any haircut. sco -i'. FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS • Frequent User Rewards-5. cup of coffee free, or cash awards as customers spend $X over time. • The idea is to encourage existing customers to keep coming back during the infrastructure project. When the project is completed: • Use newspapers to get the word out when completed. • PR is free and a ribbon cutting at area parks is good PR. • Have a block party every milestone to celebrate the progress. Email and Social Media: Many business owners don't actually have either an email, a database, phone numbers or addresses where they could reach out to their customers directly. Collect/organize email addresses. • Promote social media presence or consider establishing one ASAP. • Use these methods to send your customers information, discount coupons and other material to encourage them to overlook the inconvenience and continue to do business with you. • If owners collect email addresses now, they can tell clients it is because the construction is coming and they want clients to know what is coming. • Use a calendar to keep track of what you plan to do, or have done. • Giveaway's. (See Marketing). • BOGO's "Buy One/Get One" free offers. • Add special discounts via email. • Also offer prize drawings via email. • Have a plan and be consistent. • Put the end game photo as a leader (branding) on correspondence. • Put a Logo and picture on every email. • Ask your customers to "Like You" on Yelp and to tell their friends about your business. Finance: Develop a detailed financial survival plan and start executing it before the project starts. • The longer you wait to reduce expenses, the more you will have to cut if times get tough. Uncomfortable cuts over a longer period are better than painful cuts over a short time. SCORE // FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS • Make sure you have a detailed budget and a financial forecast that will give you visibility into expenses and income to make it through the construction. • Analyze all expenses and prioritize what can be cut and what is absolutely necessary to stay in business. • Be prepared to eliminate everything that's not absolutely essential to staying in business if the time comes. • Try to get a reduction in rent. • Other items to consider include: reducing employee hours, layoffs, reducing inventory levels, salary cuts, reducing or eliminating services such as janitorial, lawn care, coffee service, bottled water, office supplies, etc. • A lot of these items will seem too small to make any difference but they add up quickly. Have a plan as to when and how much to cut based on sales levels. Know your breakeven sales and expenses. These will likely change as you know more. If possible, start building a cash reserve well before the disruptions start. The amount in the reserve should be enough to provide cash flow during the disruption. • Another alternative is to talk to a bank about setting up a line of credit so cash is available if needed. Just be aware that this will have to be paid down over time. • Cash flow will be the key to survival. Focus on it like a laser. • Do you have or can you get a line of credit to help you get through sales dips. • Develop a conservative cash flow plan and check it frequently (Daily if times are tough). • Consider reducing inventory. • Be very aggressive about collecting receivables. • Don't be afraid to call customers and ask for the cash. • Work with suppliers to extend terms and play the float to the maximum extent possible while maintaining a good supplier and customer relationship. Operations: • Coordinate with vendors/deliveries. • Plan for the impact of outages -* possible operational modifications. • Plan for electrical or other utility problems. Have water for emergencies. Consider your business appearances/condition--is it clean or dusty because of construction? Take the time to have clear signage and a clean building. SCORE // FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS Thanks to Our Sponsors Platinum Sponsors PG&E US Bank Wells Fargo Pacific Gas and bank. rj Electric Company ti Sponsors • Bank of AmericaBankofAmerica''l • City of Santa Maria Chevron • Chevron WI • DignityDignity Health. Health t4 French Hospital Medical Center PHILLIPS • City of Grover Beach (410) r; • Phillips 66 66 Ranta Mneryaria efi • City of Pismo Beach A : • Santa Maria Business BOIL. Development Center ,`t•l -4i., POWERED BY • City of San Luis Obispo ^1a;;` • Small Business ' �- Administration �A IS.Srn 1151510155 Adn:In Slydb Dr And, to our Donors Advantage Answering Plus Digital West City of Arroyo Grande Madonna Enterprises City of Morro Bay Union Bank County of San Luis Obispo Serving San Luis Obispo County Tel: and the Santa Maria Valley 805/547-0779 1228 Broad Street Web: FOR THE LIFE OF YOUR BUSINESS San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 sanluisobispo.score.org What is SCORE San Luis Obispo 2019. SCORE is a national non-profit SBA resource organization. SCORE's mission is to foster vibrant small business communities through mentoring and education. Our local SCORE chapter has 27 volunteer members who work to help and advise owners who are already in business and people that want to start a business. Score Mentors provide confidential face-to-face mentoring sessions including follow- up sessions, monthly workshops, E-mail and phone mentoring and we provide a variety of training materials on our website. SCORE is unique in a number of ways: We will mentor anyone who asks for help, we have no screening requirements. We co-mentor our clients; our early mentoring sessions are always with two mentors. We strongly believe two heads are better than one. We will mentor our clients for as long as the client needs our support. We have clients that stay with us for years. Our motto is: "For the life of your business". We give our clients our home phone numbers and email addresses so that they can get help more easily and quickly when necessary. Our Mentors each have a wide variety of business skills in areas such as finance, marketing, planning and operations, developed by owning their own businesses or managing businesses. Some have specialized skills and are brought in to help a client when that particular skill is needed. No client ever pays for a local SCORE service. SCORE Mentors are all volunteers, receiving no compensation. Every penny we receive from our sponsors goes to help support our clients. Our mentors volunteer specifically because they want to help our clients be successful. That is our reward. Why do we feel we can and will help our clients? The highest accolade SCORE National can give its chapters is the Platinum Service award. In 2018 our chapter received it's fifth consecutive such award, placing us in the top 4% of all 300 national SCORE chapters. We held 703 mentoring sessions, 87 workshops with 830 attendees, for a total of 1705 services performed. We are looking for experienced, successful businessmen and women to become SCORE Mentors (Bilingual Mentors needed). We can be reached by phone (805) 547- 0779. Our email address is info@sloscore.org and our website is WWW.sanluis obi sp o.score.org