Supporting Local Businesses

Hello world, I am very excited to write this blog. I was able to get the interview that I wrote about in my previous blog. If you haven’t read my previous blog I mentioned at the end that I really wanted to interview Mrs. Andrea Gottschalk, the owner of UNIKAT. Not only because I love jewelry, but also because I would like to incorporate my own jewelry into my own shop. This was my third time in her store and I enjoy looking at all her beautiful jewelry. Her store looks very classy and I thought because of that I probably wouldn’t be able to afford anything in her store, but I was wrong. Although, she has some expensive pieces, she also has many affordable pieces that are just as beautiful, but everything in her store is worth every penny.


This is just something I wanted to share with all my readers. I’ve purchased a pendant from UNIKAT that has now become my favorite necklace. In my family the girls have this tradition. The tradition is that mothers pass a favorite piece of jewelry down to their daughters when they turn sixteen. My grandma passed down a simple gold ring to my mom on her sixteenth birthday and my mom passed the same ring down to me when I turned sixteen. I would like to continue the tradition and pass on my ring (that was given to me by my mother) and my necklace (I purchased from UNIKAT) to my daughter on her sixteenth birthday because these are my favorite pieces of jewelry. I just wanted to share this because my favorite pendant is from UNIKAT and will become apart of my family tradition. Let us move on to the good stuff I was able to learn from Mrs. Gottschalk.

My first question to Mrs. Gottschalk was which internet marketing strategies she uses to promote her business. She at first said that she doesn’t use any internet marketing strategies, but after thinking about it for a moment she told me she did have something online. She doesn’t use blogs, e-mail, newsletters, or social media, but she is apart of a group that promotes their business together. She can be found online at ACD-LV.com (Arts and Culture District) under the business directory. She is apart of a bigger group that is called AMIBA (American Independent Business Alliance), and they are trying to create a site that will offer more information, than the ACD-LV.com site. Mrs. Gottschalk said that this site will be more detailed, with pictures of work and what they specialize in. The second question I asked was which internet marketing strategy works best for her. She said that radio ads, word of mouth, and yellow pages work the best for her, but especially word of mouth.



My third question was what types of strategies she uses to promote repeat business. She has stickers with her business information and they are placed on the tops of the jewelry boxes. When I bought my pendant that was the first thing I noticed about them. I’ve also noticed that she gives out her business cards. Since I’ve been in her store I’ve been given two business cards. I have one in my wallet and one in my business folder. I like the fact that she makes sure to offer her business cards to her customers instead of leaving it up to the customers to take one. As a customer, I know that I don’t think to grab business cards when they’re out on the counter, but with Mrs. Gottschalk handing them out it ensures that customers has her name and number and remember her business.


Another strategy that she uses is cross advertising in prime locations, such as Hotels. She cross advertises with other businesses by having newsletters and business cards at their locations. Mrs. Gottschalk also said that it helps if businesses have nice business cards. Cards that are cool, so customers will notice them and then read them. When I think of business cards, I think of plain white cards, so it really got my attention when I saw UNIKAT’s cards. From my perspective having cool business cards will help small businesses because customers will look at them and want to keep them because of the way they look.

When I asked about her newsletter Mrs. Gottschalk gave me one that was in her display window. I really liked the newsletter. It listed a lot of the small business that are in Las Vegas and their address, number, and a description of what each business offers. I told her that I’ve never seen any newsletters before. She said that part of the problem with the newsletters are that they are having a hard time getting them out to the people to read and the fact that they become outdated.

The fourth question I asked was if it is important for small businesses to have better customer service than bigger businesses. Mrs. Gottschalk said, “Absolutely essential in my opinion, that customer relationship and service is even better because people will always run back to Walmart.” To follow this question I asked if she had any advice for others that would like to start their own small business and she said that to have a good reputation, good customer relations, specialize in something, and offer services. She said, “Create something you can draw groups of people, while browsing your store.” For example, she not only sells jewelry, but she also repairs and makes her own jewelry. Another example that we talked about was that an art gallery in the plaza not only sells art, but they also offer lessons for children to learn how to paint.

The last subject that Mrs. Gottschalk and I talked about was educating the locals about supporting local businesses. I don’t know how we came to this subject, but I’m glad she brought it up. She said that small business are trying to educate the locals on the importance of shopping at local businesses. Supporting bigger businesses, such as, Walmart doesn’t help the community. Supporting local business keeps the money in the town and provides jobs, which will in turn ensure the vitality of the town. She basically described it as recycling money within the town. She also added that her local customers are very important to all local small businesses, compared to the tourist that pass through, because local customers are the ones that are going to do repeat business.

I would like to thank Mrs. Gottschalk for all of her help and taking time out of her busy day to sit and chat with me during lunch time. I really enjoyed talking to her and I think a lot of what she said will help me in the future. Hopefully, this blog can help the small businesses of Las Vegas by helping to spread the word of the importance of supporting local small businesses.

Thank you World for reading my fifth blog. Peace and Love.

Using Social Networks

Hello World. My last blog I wrote that I wanted to compare and contrast the success from my newsletter to my Facebook idea. I ended up not making a newsletter, but I did send out an e-mail. I simply sent out an e-mail to those who asked, letting them know that I received new rings. After discovering that Facebook could be used as a tool for my small business, it became very apparent that my customers preferred that we communicate through Facebook instead of e-mailing back and forth. A few mentioned that they are constantly on Facebook and it would just be more convenient for them if I wrote on their wall or messaged them, rather than e-mail.

Facebook has actually helped me a lot. Previously customers were texting me orders or asking questions, which is fine, but my current phone doesn’t have a lot of inbox space. I was losing orders due to the fact that my cell doesn’t show any new messages unless there is enough space for them to be accepted. Basically, I have to delete messages to get messages. Some times I would erase new messages because I thought they were old messages or not see new messages until days later. How this affected me and my business is that I wouldn’t know that customers ordered anything or I would find out too late. If a customer orders a friendship bracelet I try to finish it and get it to them within a couple of days. It is important to me that they know I’m trying hard to make the things they order in a timely fashion. Erasing orders and finding them too late was not helping me to stay organized or satisfy my customers. Facebook has helped to reduce this problem majorly.

Although, Facebook has helped in this aspect it hasn’t completely solved my problems. Most of my customers are ones that I see in my classes, activities, soccer practices, etc. They are the ones I see constantly. They still rather tell me their orders in person rather than e-mail or message me on Facebook. I would have to say that the number one way that my customers like to order or ask me something is in person, then on Facebook, and lastly via e-mail.

Since I am using a social network as a tool for my business I thought it would be good to share some of what I learned. For my last bulletin board I went on clickz.com and read an article on social networks because from other articles I read they suggested that when a business becomes established they should invest in social media marketing. The article I read for my bulletin board I was Social Marketing by Tessa Wegert. I don’t really want to recap anything that I wrote about in my bulletin board, but I would like to share some of the numbers and percentages that she offered because I think they will convince any business that social marketing is becoming an essential part of successful businesses.

The first number I would like to throw out is that 66% of marketers worldwide are expecting to invest in social networks this year. Also, a poll that was taken showed 51% of Facebook and 67% of twitter users said that, “they are more likely to buy from brands they “friend” or “follow” and 60% on facebook and 79% twitter users said that they are “ more likely to recommend those brands to others.” As a potential business owner this shows me how social networks are directly affecting sales. I would like to share the amount of time that Facebook users spend on their site because according to a site called Nielsen Wire, the time spent on Facebook has increased by 82% this year. This is basically saying that users spend an unimaginable 5.5 hours on Facebook each day. Isn’t that CRAZY?

Another tip that I read just while breezing through clickz.com, reading up on other articles related to social media marketing, is that social media marketing is not something you do half way. In order for social media marketing to really make a difference, businesses need to really incorporate it. Just like it was recommended for newsletter businesses need to make sure that just as much time and effort is put into it. It’s not something businesses can take a break from.

When I finally open my own shop I believe that social media marketing will be just as essential as it is now. Maybe even more so, I can’t say for sure. The one thing I do know is that the amount of time spent on Facebook is a good indication of where potential customers can be found. With people spending that much time on Facebook I really think it’s important for businesses to be where their customers are. I believe that social marketing will work for businesses if done properly and the right amount of time, effort, and money is invested. I know I will invest in social media marketing when I get my business started.

Lastly, I just want to mention that when I do open my own shop I will make sure to separate my personal social networks from my business social networks. From what I’ve read and seen in the past I really don’t think my personal Facebook and business Facebook should be one and the same. It’s not professional. I’m only doing it because my business is smaller than small and combining the two doesn’t create any problems for me or my customers. I just thought I’d add that, so my readers aren’t confused.

For my next blog I’m hoping to get an interview with the owner of UNIKAT. Her name is Ms. Andrea Gottschalk and she specializes in fine jewelry and repairs and her store is located in the Plaza. I’m really excited for this interview and I hope to get a lot of good information about advertising for small businesses.
Thank you World for reading my blog. Peace and Love

Getting organized

Hello World. I’ve been having some set backs with my newsletter and making my e-mail list, so I’m currently putting my newsletter on hold until spring break. My plan for my third blog was to write about if my e-mail list has grown, how I created my newsletter, and if my newsletter created any traffic. Instead I’m going to write about some of the set backs I’ve experienced due to lack of planning, organization, and business experience.

During my internet marketing class my teacher mentioned two kinds of business plans, but the one that stuck with me was “The Napkin Plan”. My teacher, Mr. Anderson described it as, “the idea that you can just jot something down on a napkin at dinner” and pretty much just wing it.

In my text book, E-Marketing, I read, “These ad hoc plans sometimes work and are sometimes even necessary given a stodgy corporate culture, but they are not recommended when substantial resources are involved. Sound planning and thoughtful implementation are needed for long-term success in business and e-business.” This is basically saying that the napkin plan sometimes work and are fine for businesses to use this type of planning, but it is not for businesses that would like long-term success and have a lot of money invested. The napkin plan stuck because that is exactly what I did. I wrote an idea down on a napkin and I just went for it, but I didn’t really plan anything out or think anything through.

I want to be successful and even though my plan is an example of the napkin plan, it needs to be organized if I want to be able to continue to sell my products and for it to be worth my time and effort. Something I really had to think about was the price of my rings, earrings, and friendship bracelets. I had some anxiety attacks on what my prices should be because I was afraid that people wouldn’t agree or think that my products aren’t worth the price they’re going to pay. The price ended up being the least of my problems with my customers. One of the things I did do was ask my friends what they thought my items were worth and it helped me come up with a reasonable price that both my customers and I could agree with.

My biggest problem has been friendship bracelets, my best seller. Believe it or not friendship bracelets are a hit. I’ve been making them since I was six years old in summer fun and I’ve never thought of selling them to make money, but when I started this whole “Flee Market Business” I thought friendship bracelets would add variety. They’ve been adding a lot of variety and causing me a lot of problems.

The PRODUCTION of friendship bracelets has become my problem. I have honestly put my newsletter on hold because I’ve been trying to keep up with all the orders of friendship bracelets. I can make about three-four bracelets each day, but the fact that none of the bracelets I make sell, has created a problem. My customers only want costume friendship bracelets, which makes it hard on me because I can’t make bracelets until they order them or else I’m wasting material. SOOOO I have to wait…This last week I have been absolutely bombarded with orders.

The variety of patterns I am able to make is also causing problems. Some patterns take longer then other patterns, but I haven’t figured out how to price them accordingly. Do I price them by how long they take? How thick they are? Are they worth the price? Am I making back the money I spent on the materials? These are all questions that have crossed my mind and I’ve have to address. Unfortunately, some of the harder patterns I’ve decided not to make because they take too long to make and they don’t make back the money it takes to make them.

Some of the ways I’m trying to fix these problems is by doing my own research. It’s called Primary Data. Primary data is data collected by ones own self. In my E-marketing book it is explained as, “information gathered for the first time to solve a particular problem.” (131). Some of the pro’s of businesses doing they’re own research is that the research is current, relevant to the specific problem, and it won’t be available to competitors. The con’s of primary data is that it is time consuming and can be expensive. In my case it is very easy to log data because I don’t have a lot of customers and I’m by no means a small or big business. I keep a spread sheet of all my data in Microsoft Excel. It helps me to stay organized and it’s easy to use. For example, I log all the different friendship patterns that I sell. It helps me to know which bracelets I should make more of and which bracelets I should make less of. Another example is ring sizes and types of rings. I like to write down the ring size a customer buys, so that I know which size rings I should order more of and which types are selling the best.

I think the research I’m doing will really go a long way. My last change that I think will help is by using my Facebook. One of the girls on my soccer team gave me the idea when she wrote a friendship bracelet order on my Facebook. Facebook is easy for me to use and easy for my customers to contact and communicate with me. My phone is really unreliable, so I’m really pushing customers to write the friendship bracelets on me Facebook, instead of texting me on my cell. Hopefully, this helps me to become more organized. By my next blog I think I’ll be able to compare and contrast my newsletter from my Facebook idea. I’ll see which one works the best for me and I’ll go from there.
Thank you World for reading my third blog. Peace and Love

Lets Play Business!!

Hello world, today I interviewed the “Fabric Lady” or Ms. Anne Seiwert. If you haven’t read my first blog then you probably don’t know what I’m talking about, but that’s okay. The short of it is the “Fabric Lady” is the first person to ever send me a newsletter. Ms. Anne Seiwert is a very nice lady that owns a charming fabric store in the Plaza called the Thread Bear. It’s a beautiful store and I recommend it to any one that needs fabric, knitting, quilting, or embroidery products. She also offers classes relating to her products. Automatically I loved her store. As soon as I walked in it felt warm and inviting and the beautiful patterns of fabric made me forget why I came to her store in the first place. After looking around for fifteen minutes and buying a bag full of fabrics, I finally asked her about internet marketing.

My purpose for coming to her store was to find out if small businesses that send out newsletters believe in what their doing. Do they believe that newsletters traffic customers into their store…?? I asked Ms. Siewert what internet marketing strategies does she use to promote her business and she told me that she sends out newsletters and e-mails to customers periodically if she knows they are interested in a certain subject. The second question I asked her was if she believed her newsletters and e-mails traffic customers to her store. Ms. Siewert told me that she definitely believes that newsletters and e-mails work.

I mentioned in my last blog that I am an example of Thread Bear’s newsletters working, but I am surprised that Thread Bear is the only small business that I’ve received newsletters or e-mails from since I came here. There are many small businesses in Las Vegas and I’ve frequented a few of them. Since writing about newsletters I’ve wondered, why haven’t any businesses sent out any newsletters or e-mails to promote their business and traffic customers to their establishment…? Hopefully, I’ll have an answer to that question in my next blog.

Although, I have read in the past and now write about marketing I’ve never really known the importance of advertising and promoting products until now. I’m always looking for ways to make money without getting a real “nine to five job”. I’m a full time mom, student, and athlete and it makes it almost impossible to find a job that will work with my schedule. My aunt gave me the opportunity to make money that would fit into my busy schedule. She sells jewelry at the flea market in Hawaii and she told me that she would send jewelry to me so I could sell stuff at the flea market here in Las Vegas. The catch is if the flea market isn’t open it’s really hard to make sales and this is when I learned the importance of marketing.

In Hawaii, the flea market (a.k.a. swap meet) is always open, but that’s because our weather stays relatively the same throughout the year. In New Mexico, bad weather means no flea market and nowhere for us to sell our goods. An important fact that me and my aunt didn’t think about until after she sent the jewelry. This made it hard to “push” our goods. As of now I am selling jewelry by word of mouth. I’ve made sales, but only because I’ve been hefting cases of rings, pendants, flowers, and earrings everywhere I went, just to get them noticed. I was pretty much a walking bill board.

A friend that read my blog had the idea that I should write a newsletter, like I talked about in my first blog, and send it out to promote my jewelry and gain more customers. I thought this was a great idea. Word of mouth and hefting loads of jewelry does make sales, but from what I’ve been reading and learning in my business classes is if a business wants to be successful they need to do whatever they can to promote their product. Everyone’s on the internet now, so it only made sense to try and reach customers or potential customers via e-mail. I am currently in the process of creating an e-mail list and making a newsletter. The e-mail list is a slow process because of the lack of exposure and the fact that I have no real location for customers to find me. I was afraid to ask at first, but now every time a person looks at or buys something from me I ask them for their e-mail address. Everyone I’ve asked was very open to the idea of me sending them a newsletter and a few girls even wrote down their cell numbers.

Since I’m trying to create an e-mail list for my jewelry, I would like to share what I’ve learned about the subject. The very first thing I read when I was researching, was that the quality of the people interested in a businesses product is more important then the number of people that is on an e-mail list. I think I have it stuck in my head that more is better, but again it’s not. It’s more important to have a “fresh” list with customers that are interested then ones who are not. Knowing that the customer’s attention isn’t being captured can help the business to know they need to try something else to recapture their customer’s attention.

Another important aspect to building a list is to never let an opportunity pass by. Whenever there is an interaction between customers or potential customers businesses should have sign-up forms ready at the checkout or event. If a business has an online website I read that they should have the “subscribe” or “sign-up” on every page of the website. I also think this is important because I know that Lina commented on the fact that she wanted to “unsubscribe” from GNC, but didn’t know where it was on the site. Having “subscribe” on every page enables customers to see where they can “subscribe”, but to also see where the can “unsubscribe” if they are no longer interested. These are just some of the things I’ve learned and I thought would be useful for anyone out there wanting to make an e-mail list.

I would like to conclude my second blog here, but if anyone has any tips for me on how to create an e-mail list or newsletter I would appreciate it. I’m very nervous about marketing online and I feel like I'm a little kid pretending to play business, but I think it would be a good way for me to apply the things I’ve learned in class to a real life experience.

Thank You World for reading my second blog. Peace and Love

Newsletters...Do they Work??

Hello world, my name is Amanda and I currently go to school and play soccer for New Mexico Highlands University. What I would like to accomplish with my first blog is introducing my blog topic, why I’m trying to get a business degree, and why I picked internet marketing for small businesses and how it ties in with my dreams of going into fashion. Then I would like to share what I’ve learned about e-mail marketing and newsletters and I will finish by telling readers why they should read my blog.

I am writing my blog on internet marketing for small businesses. I’ve been racking my brain for days now wondering why people would want to read my blog when I don’t know anything about anything, especially about internet marketing for small businesses. So why read my blog? Well, I’ll get to that later. I would first like to explain why I am in college getting a business degree. When I left high school five years ago I wanted to become a fashion designer and I still do, but it just so happened that during my senior year my dad went on a business trip and sat next to a girl that recently graduated from a fashion design school. Her advice to my dad was that if I wanted to go into fashion I needed a business degree first and he agreed. From there my plan was thrown out the window and a new course for success was set.

I picked internet marketing for small businesses because I would like to design clothing and jewelry and sell them in my own store someday. My hope for this blog is that by researching this subject I’ll be more prepared to run a successful business. The first topic I would like to write about concerning internet marketing is e-mail marketing. I don’t really know much about computers and how the internet works, so this idea came from my teacher’s lecture, but was followed up the next day by a lady that owned her own fabric store. I was standing outside of her store for five minutes arguing with my boyfriend on whether we should go in or not. Finally the lady came out and said we should come in and write down an e-mail address if we couldn’t stay and look around. She recently sent me an e-mail and I was like “wow” that’s an example of e-mail marketing.

To be more specific than e-mail marketing I would like to talk about newsletters and explain what newsletters are, how they keep customers coming back, how often to send them, and what to write in them. A newsletter is an effective way to communicate and keep in touch with customers that are interested in a business. Many times this is a marketing tool that is often overlooked, but can be very helpful in keeping customers updated on all the happenings going on in a business. They can include information anywhere from the newest products to company policies. The way that newsletters keep customers coming back is basically they will keep customers from for forgetting about a business and their products. Customers will come back to the same business simply because when a customer needs a product a business that does send out newsletters will be thought of before businesses that don’t send out newsletters. Products need to be really amazing in order to bring customers back without any marketing help.

The question that I was interested in was, how often should a business e-mail newsletters to their customers? When I saw this question, I was thinking, “ALL THE TIME!! MORE IS BETTER!! I WANT PEOPLE TO REMEMBER ME!!” Well, that’s what I thought, but as I started to read more I found that I was very wrong. Less is more in this case. If a business doesn’t want to be a nuisance to their customers a rule of thumb seems to be at least once a week. Depending on the products a business sells this rule of thumb might or might not apply. Businesses can run a trial and error test if they want to see how often to send out newsletters. For example, if a business sends a newsletter too often they will know because customers will unsubscribe and if they send a newsletter to a customer months after they visited a store then they might unsubscribe, as well. It’s all about finding what fits the businesses products and customers. Businesses need to make sure they are not abusing this marketing tool because customers that unsubscribe could be lost to the competition.

Which brings me to what to write in a newsletter…?? Another reason for customers unsubscribing to a newsletter is that what is in the newsletter doesn’t interest them. Newsletters don’t have to be long, they just have to relate to the products being sold. Some suggestions are news, personal stories, fun facts, articles, small quizzes, numerical lists, etc., but only if it relates to the product. Some tips for making a newsletter more appealing are using different formats, having a really good title and “catchy” article names, making sure to do the research, so what’s on the newsletter is credible, and keep the tone light and conversational. Newsletters should be professional, but not so much where they seem stuffy. Another good tip that will help customers differentiate between spam and legitimate newsletters is keeping the newsletters visibly familiar. Last but not least have an unsubscribe link. It will remind customers that they subscribed to the newsletter, allow customers to unsubscribe if they want, and will minimize the spam reports.

It was mentioned before that newsletters are overlooked, but they work. This is a good marketing tool for any type of business and even more so for businesses with small budgets. Plus, there are inexpensive companies that offer newsletter management packages that will accommodate any size business. These packages can help save a lot of time, therefore making it well worth the money.

As for me, I am sold. I believe in the worth of newsletters and how they can keep customers interested in a business. Newsletters might not be the businesses number one marketing tool, but why not use it anyways if it can help to make a business more successful. Plus, the newsletter the “Fabric Lady” has sent me has brought me back to her store numerous times, so I’m a example of newsletters working. The funny thing is that she could have let me pass by without writing down my e-mail and I would’ve continued to buy my fabric from Walmart and supporting the “MAN”, but because she stopped me I’ve decided to support her small business instead. And that’s a Cinderella Story, right there.

So, we’re back to why should you read my blog…You should read my blog because if you don’t know anything about internet marketing for small businesses and want to learn more, you can learn right along with me. Secondly, if you are knowledgeable about internet marketing, own your own small business, or knowledgeable about business in general you can help me by giving me advice and letting me know if the information I find and write about works, doesn’t work, is true, or just a bunch of nonsense I got off the internet. I will appreciate any advice or feedback.

Thank You World for reading my first blog. Peace and Love.