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View Full Version : Well that kind of sucked...



Patrysha
10-23-2009, 10:41 PM
I had so many good moments this week, but all in all...it really didn't go that well on the surface. Very few people took our sponsors up on the coffees (most of the places had trouble promoting it, which did not help), very few people took us up on the seminars. Nobody wanted the books, certificates...attendance at the AGM was like 12 people (food was ordered for 40)...the President's Gala was postponed...

Not that I had anything to do with the Gala, other than including it in the flyer we sent out for the week's activities.

We did everything we could to get it out there...direct mail to 400 business owners (bulk tho), newspaper ads, radio publicity...everything we could do with a budget of $300.

It feels a bit disheartening to know that I totally misjudged what small business owners would find worth coming out for...

And to be honest, I just don't get it.

Dan Furman
10-23-2009, 11:25 PM
everything we could do with a budget of $300.


There's your problem.

vangogh
10-23-2009, 11:29 PM
Sorry to hear it didn't go as well as you'd hoped Patrysha. I guess all you can do is learn what you can from the experience for next time. Not everything turns out to be a winner no matter how hard we try.

The low budget probably didn't help, but sometimes you can still do most everything right and it doesn't work. You might not have misjudged things as much as you think. There could be many reasons why this didn't work out.

Just learn what you can from it and move on to the next thing.

Patrysha
10-23-2009, 11:32 PM
There's your problem.

That's what it was allocated by the Chamber...I was simply a volunteer trying to do my best with what I was given to work with.

Steve B
10-24-2009, 06:52 AM
Direct mail to 400 should have eaten up the entire $300. How did you have any left for newspaper or radio?

I'm not really sure what you are talking about - I must have missed the post if you told us about this event, but I can't imagine having a successful anything with a $300 budget.

Spider
10-24-2009, 09:11 AM
...And to be honest, I just don't get it.Was this just a comment or a request for solutions? (Can't be too sure - see "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus")



I had so many good moments this week...So, tell us about the good things.

Patrysha
10-24-2009, 10:23 AM
It wasn't direct mail...it was bulk mail. To business addresses in town at the post office ($55 for 400 boxes) - there were also emails to all the existing members...

I don't think there are any solutions to this one. It's over and I am off the directorship (didn't run again at the elections on Wednesday night).

The good things...got word back on a proposal I wrote for a provincial professional association who wants to go ahead with the work outlined in the proposal and also wants to book me for a speaking engagement for their next conference in September of next year, had a great follow up session with one of the participants who did show up on Tuesday, laughed a lot during the feature speaker despite the low turnout, learned how to use Ustream, got myself on video despite my fears and vanity and didn't erase them right away even though I wanted to. When I was feeling a bit low on Friday I logged into Facebook and someone had commented that they admire me...that was a huge boost to my mood.

Steve B
10-24-2009, 12:10 PM
You must have gotten free printing, free labels and paper for that price.

That leaves you $245 for a radio spot and a newspaper ad. That wouldn't buy you very much in my area.

What is an AGM?

Patrysha
10-24-2009, 12:33 PM
Yeah, the paper we picked up and the Chamber's photo copier took care of the colour printing. Only the mailing costs were included in the $55.

We didn't pay for radio. I sent press releases and bought coffee for both stations - news mentions and community service announcements.

AGM is the Annual General Meeting...it's the voting meeting where the directorship is chosen each year. If there'd been any less people, there wouldn't have been enough people for quorum and no votes would have been able to take place.

Harold Mansfield
10-24-2009, 03:08 PM
I had so many good moments this week, but all in all...it really didn't go that well on the surface. Very few people took our sponsors up on the coffees (most of the places had trouble promoting it, which did not help), very few people took us up on the seminars. Nobody wanted the books, certificates...attendance at the AGM was like 12 people (food was ordered for 40)...the President's Gala was postponed...

Not that I had anything to do with the Gala, other than including it in the flyer we sent out for the week's activities.

We did everything we could to get it out there...direct mail to 400 business owners (bulk tho), newspaper ads, radio publicity...everything we could do with a budget of $300.

It feels a bit disheartening to know that I totally misjudged what small business owners would find worth coming out for...

And to be honest, I just don't get it.
At this point, I hate to use or hear excuses about the economy, but it has been a rough year, and you are coming up on the time of the year when people stop going to business functions and are starting to prepare for the end of the year activities that are a little more fun and cost a significant amount of money...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, and New Years Eve.
The low budget didn't help, but, from my experience towards the end of October, people start thinking about Thanksgiving and how much that is going to cost them, especially if they have to travel...and you usually can't get them to check back into the business networking scene again until the first of the year, unless it's some kind of party with booze.

We used to host a business mixer first Friday of every month at one of the restaurants and mid October was always when things started tapering off and didn't pick up again until February.

Here in Vegas, business travel (conventions, meetings and seminars) always dry up in October, and the ones that are here are very slow. You get a boost for Halloween weekend and then that's it until the Rodeo, and New Years Eve.
It's just that time of year.

Patrysha
10-24-2009, 08:01 PM
You might have a point about the timing.

Although our Thanksgiving was two weeks ago and Small Business Week has been a national designation for 30 years, the third week in October. It's not like this was an initiative of the individual Chamber that the timing can be adjusted on.

Harold Mansfield
10-24-2009, 08:57 PM
You might have a point about the timing.

Although our Thanksgiving was two weeks ago and Small Business Week has been a national designation for 30 years, the third week in October. It's not like this was an initiative of the individual Chamber that the timing can be adjusted on.

I also forgot that you were in CA. Everything I suggested was based on American holidays, and patterns that I noticed here in the states..so in the words of Gilder Radner (playing Rosanne Rosanadana) on the Saturday Night Live Weekend Update..."Never Mind".:D

Steve B
10-24-2009, 09:21 PM
Actually it was her Emily Litella character.

YouTube - Gilda Radner Nevermind (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0)

Harold Mansfield
10-24-2009, 09:48 PM
Actually it was her Emily Litella character.

YouTube - Gilda Radner Nevermind (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0)

Oh yeah. Nice catch. Hey cut me some slack, I was like 7 years old back then:)
Man she was funny,

Patrysha
10-25-2009, 12:20 AM
But...despite the holiday differences...I can see how the trend transfers.

Plus we've got hockey to compete with. Which at the moment is frustrating me...grrr...

Oh did I mention we were also competing (on the Friday at least) with the premier of the province visiting town. I didn't find out until the Wednesday and I'd already had registrations for Friday (none of them showed) so I didn't pull the sessions.

KristineS
10-26-2009, 12:51 PM
These things happen. You had a really low budget, which always makes things more difficult, and it was the first time you'd tried this sort of thing. There could have been any number of reasons why things didn't go as well as you'd hoped.

I'd say focus on the good, make sure you take away some lessons from what happened and move on to the next thing.

Patrysha
10-26-2009, 05:24 PM
yeah I'm over it...lol

I mean there is only so much you can do with a budget that small. And only so much time one can devote to worrying about things that are past (and unlikely to occur again since I have stepped down from the Chamber directorship)...

Getting off to a great start with other efforts this morning :-)