Happy Holidays!

Since my last post, we've been very busy and have had some good things happen with the business.

First, we were covered by our several newspapers here in Arkansas, including being the lead story in the Entertainment section of our largest newspaper in the Thanksgiving Weekend paper. This led to being invited to talk about our programs on local rock station The Point, 94.1.

We also were able to raise 505lbs of food for our holiday food drive, which helped us promote the business again.

All in all, this PR has led to a huge increase in new students coming into the studio...

Lucky, huh?

Not really.

This all started last October when I realized we had a unique service that would make for interesting press. Add to it the charity drive we had planned for the event (the food drive) and I knew that the local press/radio/TV would likely cover us.

So, I hit Google, found the email addresses to the appropriate editors of the papers and the program directors of the radio and TV stations and sent them an email telling them about the programs, which included a video of our rehearsals.

A week later, the phone started ringing and the rest is history.

In your business, look at what you do and see if there is something unique to your product or service. If there is, push your information to the local media and you'll have a chance to get some free PR, which is much better than advertising. As the old saying goes, "you can't buy advertising like that".

And if you don't have something unique to offer, then figure out how to stand out from your competitors. If you don't stand out in some way, why would a customer choose your services over someone else? Luck of the draw? The phone was busy at the other business when they called? Do you really want to rely on getting customers that way? I would think not.

Well, that's all I have for now. Sorry for the length between posts. I'll make it a point to post more often in 2009.

Until then, holiday wishes to all of you, have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!