Linked Local Network » Startup

Tipping the Marketing Guerilla

Segueway — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:12:22 +0000

Segueway to Success

Listen at – “Tipping the Marketing Guerilla”

Previous Archived Shows - On Demand – “Segueway to Success” talk radio podcast

By: Brent Hamachek and Tom Kuchan

Our “Segueway to Success” show, talking about our blog, airs each Wednesday at 15:00 CST. Find this week’s show and the archives on our web site: www.seguewaysolutions.com/Articles-and-Events.html

A number of years ago, we were engaged by a company in the sports nutrition industry to serve as their interim president. The company had a milk-based, sports energy & recovery protein shake that had been sold into universities for a number of years and they were looking to take the product into various retail and institutional classes of trade.

The company had a small staff and upon arriving we were introduced to the newly hired head of marketing and business development for the company, Phil Joffray. Phil, around 40 at the time, had an impressive catalog of achievements in the world of brand building having been a key player in the rise to prominence of such brands as Centrum Vitamins, Jose Cuervo tequila and Sam Adams beer. We felt as though we had just been given the opportunity to go to graduate school in marketing and brand development while being paid to attend.

The company was operating on a shoe string budget and every marketing and business development strategy had to take into account the financial constraints; there were to be no TV ad campaigns. After six months at the company, we had a board meeting and Phil came in to present where he stood in terms of penetrating the 11 different classes of trade that had been identified.

To start his presentation, Phil put on a pair of loafers, lit a cigar and pulled out a small mirror. He then started to do a simple dance and blew a puff of smoke into the mirror. The mimed metaphor was an attention grabber. He informed the board that what he was about to report, which was extraordinary, had been accomplished with smoke, mirrors and a little soft shoe routine.

Phil’s efforts had placed the company in a position to capture opportunities in virtually every class of trade. What was even more impressive is that none of those opportunities had been “bought.” They had been developed through creativity and what is now referred to as guerilla marketing tactics.

One aspect of what had been done involved getting the product placed on grocery store shelves to test its appeal with the public. Grocery store shelf space is one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the entire world of business; it comes at a premium and the better the spot, the higher the premium. The company got a small, independent Chicago-area grocery chain to let them have shelf space, demo their product in-store, and see if they could prove it would turn. The experiment went well.

One of the reasons it went well is that the company used local people to visit the health clubs near the stores. Using the principles so well illustrated by author Malcolm Gladwell in his book “The Tipping Point” (simply one of the greatest marketing and general insight books ever written), representatives sought out at each health club the members in those clubs considered to be “mavens” (looked to by others as experts regarding health and training supplements) and those considered to be “salespeople” (people who need to persuade everyone to use something they are using if they like it). Once those people were identified, they were given free samples of the product and information about its nutritional and utility advantages over other products. Then we waited to see what would happen.

Sales in the stores near those health clubs increased. The guerilla tactic worked. The right people in the right environment were influencing the decisions of others and a buzz started. The increased sales turns at the local store provided valuable evidence to the company that its product really could sell in that class of trade.

In today’s challenging economic climate spending on marketing dollars has become more and more tenuous. Companies are concerned about budgets and are very uncertain as to how to maximize the bang for their buck. While every industry is different, one unifying theme and question is “I want to maximize the awareness and exposure of my product or service to the right potential buyers. How do I do that without spending a fortune?”

Join us on Segueway to Success this coming Wednesday when our guest will be Larry Rosenthal, founder and owner of Unique Carpet, Upholstery & Rug Cleaning. Larry is a fixture in the North Shore business world of Chicago and has established an amazing brand presence. He has done so by both spending big ad dollars and now by using the kind of guerilla tactics that can create Gladwell’s Tipping Point. He will share his experience and ideas that will be valuable to any business person in any industry who wants to think about how to increase market awareness without spending a fortune.

Segueway Solutions – http://www.seguewaysolutions.com/

+1 (847) 778-9474

Brent E. Hamachek spent the first 15 years of his professional life in banking, working in 6 different sectors including audit, credit and 9 years as a commercial banker.

After commercial banking, Brent formed Segueway Solutions in 2000 in order to assist privately held companies in transition. To date, he has worked in 40 different industries and has served in the capacity of CEO, CFO & EVP Sales for clients. Brent is a sought after consultant, speaker and trainer offering national and foreign expertise to clients.

brent@SeguewaySolutions.com

Tom Kuchan is a proven leader in global business expansion and effectiveness, risk management, finance and operations with experience in both Fortune 50 and entrepreneurial environments. He has a proven record of defining strategic objectives, translating them into operational tasks, and leading their implementation in diverse geographies and cultures across the globe.

Tom has lived overseas for over twenty years, including Switzerland, Germany and the United Arab Emirates, and has worked extensively across Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

tom@SeguewaySolutions.com

Factoring as a Segueway to Success

Segueway — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:12:51 +0000

Segueway to Success

Listen at – “Factoring as a Segueway to Success”

Previous Archived Shows - On Demand – “Segueway to Success” talk radio podcast

Segueway Solutions

By: Brent Hamachek and Tom Kuchan

The recession, which began in 2007, has changed the landscape of business financing. Over the past few months, Segueway to Success has featured numerous guests from various sectors of the world of business finance. This week we tackle the growing, and often-misunderstood world of factoring.

There is evidence that over 4,000 years ago the Mesopotamians began the practice of factoring. The Roman Empire also had it as a common practice. In the United States, factoring finds its origin in England during the 14^th through 17^th centuries and the burgeoning period of world exploration and trade. Factoring is indeed as old and as practiced as is another famous human profession with a more colorful but no less tarnished image.

Factoring is actually very basic and simply involves the purchasing of an invoice from a business customer, on a discounted basis, to provide the business with immediate liquidity and to speed up its cash cycle. The factor provides a vital service to the business sector, so why does factoring enjoy a less than favorable reputation?

In part, it is a function of not understanding what factors do, how they work, and when a company is an appropriate candidate for their use. Another reason is that since they are used for business financing they are incorrectly compared to commercial banks who provide traditional account receivable financing at a lower interest rate. As banks are adverse to significant credit risk they are not typically competing for the same client as the factor who advances funds to businesses with a riskier credit profile – at least until this recession started they were not direct competitors but that has changed a bit. Finally, the idea of selling your assets for a high price to someone else to own has been glorified as the transaction between mobster and shop owner in American history, film and folklore. People tend to reflexively think of factors as gangsters.

The truth, as is often the case, is actually quite different. Factoring is necessary to make the economy run and provide “non-bankable” businesses with a way to fund their cash needs and become bankable again. When a company has faced prior period losses, or is in an industry which experiences a downturn causing banks to exit, like construction, the factor can be the only solution for survival and recovery.

Rates vary but can run from 18 percent to the mid-30 percent range depending upon the industry and the client’s circumstances. Advance rates can be as low as 50% and as high as 80-85%, again, depending upon the same conditions.

At one time, factoring carried a dark stained stigma, like a scarlet letter. In recent years that has changed as so many companies were damaged by the recession and the banking industry responded by retreating like a French soldier, that businesses everywhere are used to seeing their vendor present them with a new factoring relationship. The stigma, while not gone, has faded.

How and when to factor, and the advantages and disadvantages, need to be understood by the erstwhile business factoring prospect. Because of the rigidity of banking today, companies with profit margins that can tolerate a factor’s rate may wish to factor even if they are bankable just to avoid the capriciousness of the bank’s loan committee changing their borrowing terms midstream. Because factoring has traditionally been thought of as “something that sick companies do”, a business may pass on an opportunity that could provide significant benefit and facilitate rapid growth.

Join us on Segueway to Success this week when our guest will be Debra Wilson from Vertex Financial in Dallas, Texas. Debra has been in the factoring industry for over 30 years and has watched it pass through various phases and client perceptions. She will make a foreign topic feel domestic and perhaps enlighten one of our listeners enough to at least consider the unthinkable; factoring their assets as a choice, not as a necessity or last ditch effort.

Segueway Solutions – http://www.seguewaysolutions.com/

+1 (847) 778-9474

Brent E. Hamachek spent the first 15 years of his professional life in banking, working in 6 different sectors including audit, credit and 9 years as a commercial banker.

brent@SeguewaySolutions.com

Tom has lived overseas for over twenty years, including Switzerland, Germany and the United Arab Emirates, and has worked extensively across Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

tom@SeguewaySolutions.com

The Changing OEM Model – Made in the USA?

Segueway — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:49:10 +0000

Segueway to Success - The Changing OEM Model – Made in the USA?

By Tom Kuchan

Historically, recessions in the United States have tended to originate in the manufacturing sector. Each school of economic thought, Keynesians, Monetarists, Austrians, etc., have their own theories as to why it happens but regardless of the “why” the “where” has been fairly consistent. This last recession however was different.

Starting in the financial sector with the collapse of the mortgage market and the billions of dollars worth of mortgage backed securities attendant to it, the collapse in manufacturing became an unconventional lagging participant in the collapse. Soon, however, manufacturing found itself deeply wounded and it remains so today.

Consider some statistics. According to the US Department of Labor, manufacturing jobs are still down more than 2 million since the beginning of 2007. The U.S. Census Department has plant utilization at 73.1% through Sept. 30, 2012. The global manufacturing survey firm Markit reported just this week that U.S. manufacturing barely grew in the third quarter and showed statistically no improvement over the previous quarter. Pick 50 other measures and you will get 50 other pieces of discouraging news.

As we turn our attention to the imminent election and the changes that may, or may not, come from it, one of the concerns in manufacturing is how easy will it be for manufacturers to rebound if and when the economy starts to turn around? One of the likely consequences in having had this recession start in the financial sector and having had banks publicly blamed for causing it is that bank lending, in all forms not just residential, is unlikely to quickly return to pre-recession levels. This means that manufacturing industry access to the financial leverage needed to ramp back up will not be available the way it has been during past recoveries.

Also, foreign manufacturing competition is an ever growing factor. A recent project conducted with a high school class which Segueway principals mentor involved studying the production and sale of school desks. Research by the students determined that while numerous U.S. based companies sell desks to high schools, very few desks are actually made in the United States. China and Taiwan were the primary sources. This repeats itself across a broad spectrum of products which further hampers U.S. manufacturing.

What is the answer? One possibility lies in what we’ll call the Reeses’ Manufacturing Paradigm; sticking foreign manufacturing peanut butter in American product chocolate. U.S. manufacturers supplying component parts to larger manufacturers or assemblers can keep their OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) status, their patents and their customers while taking advantage of lower cost foreign production. In this scenario the American OEM turns into a slightly glorified reseller of its own design. The product is made overseas to the specifications of the U.S. OEM and is then transferred through that OEM to the large end-user. This approach will greatly reduce overhead costs and allow the now idle, or near idle, US company to rapidly return to the market with better margins and enhanced profitability.

To take advantage of such an opportunity the US company needs to find just the right manufacturing partner overseas. This is not as easy as one might think. Foreign business cultures are difficult to navigate absent experience and contacts. When traveling abroad, tourists often are in need of a translator. A company seeking to source foreign manufacturing needs the business equivalent of that translator.

One such company providing that service is Itasca, Illinois-based M-Wave. M-Wave has the contacts and knowledge to create the necessary foreign manufacturing alliances and minimize the risk to the U.S. company.

Join us this coming Wednesday when Jim Mayer, Director at M-Wave, shares his thoughts about the challenges facing US manufacturing today and how they can improve their chances tomorrow.

Our “Segueway to Success” show airs each Wednesday at 15:00 Central Time at

Listen in - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/linkedlocalnetwork/2012/10/31/segueway-to-success

Segueway Solutions – http://www.seguewaysolutions.com/

(847) 778-9474

Brent E. Hamachek spent the first 15 years of his professional life in banking, working in 6 different sectors including audit, credit and 9 years as a commercial banker.

brent@SeguewaySolutions.com

Tom has lived overseas for over twenty years, including Switzerland, Germany and the United Arab Emirates, and has worked extensively across Europe, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

tom@SeguewaySolutions.com

Thriving in a Global Economy in Crisis: “Capital Availability for Start-Ups and SMB’s in Today’s Market”

admin0804 — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:15:21 +0000

Thriving in a Global Economy in Crisis: “Capital Availability for Start-Ups and SMB’s in Today’s Market”

Due to the current economic landscape and the upcoming election, private equity and capital availability has been in the spotlight and often represented in a negative light.

Regardless of your political affiliation, private equity is an important vehicle for delivering capital to growing and struggling middle market companies to fuel the overall economy. Capital availability is imperative for our country to reach our fullest potential.
Come hear the leading experts in Private Equity and Banking discuss and debate “Capital Availability for Start-Ups and SMB’s in Today’s Market”

In this seminar series we bring some of the best minds to look at the processes, procedures, and skills required to initiate and maintain an upward business spiral that results in improving results in the global economy.

The 3rd seminar of this 6 part series*, moderated by Jim Treleaven, examines the topic of “Thriving in a Global Economy in Crisis: Capital Availability for Start-Ups and SMB’s in Today’s Market”.

Date & Location:
Tuesday, October 30th, 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology)
201 E Loop Rd.
Wheaton, IL 60189

Guest Panelists:

Tom Goldblatt
Monomoy Capital Partners & Ravinia Capital LLC

Tom sources potential acquisition candidates for Monomoy Capital Partners, a private equity fund. Monomoy primarily invests in companies in the manufacturing, services, distribution and consumer sectors. http://www.mcpfunds.com

Tom also runs Ravinia Capital, which helps companies obtain capital (debt, equity or an acquirer) in challenged situations (distress or growth). Ravinia uses its experience and sources of capital to provide the best possible solution. http://raviniacapitalllc.com/

Gary Schneider
Area Manager, Business Banking – City of Chicago, JP Morgan Chase Bank www.jpmorganchase.com/

For the past 8 years, Gary has led teams of business bankers as they providing credit solutions to small businesses throughout the Midwest. Currently focused on Chicago-based companies, his teams have increased business lending by over 150% in the past year alone.

Prior to joining Chase, Gary was the North American Sales manager for a unit of GE Capital, successfully leading teams that provided equipment finance throughout the United States and Canada.

Brent E. Hamachek
Segueway Solutions – http://www.seguewaysolutions.com/

Brent spent the first 15 years of his professional life in banking, working in 6 different sectors including audit, credit and 9 years as a commercial banker.

Christian Conroy
Business Banking Officer-Citibank – www.citibank.com

Christian’s specialty is business financing, focusing on small to mid-sized businesses helping manage cash flow, support lending needs, and increasing business wealth. Christian has extensive background in business lending and has experience in several different industry groups including start-up’s, professional services and information technology.

Citibank, is a major international bank, holding retail banking operations in over 150 countries offering deposit, lending, insurance, and investment products.

Media Schedule:

Listen Live to the seminar at LLN Reports Internet radio show

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/linkedlocalnetwork/2012/10/30/capital-availability-for-start-ups-smbs-in-todays-market
Watch the seminar Live at LLN Reports TV

Registration
This event is free!

Sponsors

Platinum Sponsors:
Mediavine Marketing – www.mediavinemarketing.com
I Am 4 Kids – www.iam4kids.com
ViaStrategy Group – www.viastrategygroup.com
Illinois Institute of Technology – www.iitedu
Park Street Media – www.parkstreetmedia.com

Gold Sponsors:
Mandatek LLC – www.mandatek.com
ZipBoss LLC – Create, Market, Succeed

Not For Profit Co-Host:
HandsOn Suburban Chicago – http://volunteerinfo.net/

Schedule:
5:30-6:00p – Networking
6:00-6:45p – Session 1
6:45-7:00p – Break/Networking
7:00-7:45p – Session 2
7:45-8:00p – Networking and Q & A with the Speakers

Contact Mike Boehler for sponsorship information at mboehler@linkedlocalnetwork.com or at 815-901-1802

3DCreations: The Future is… so yesterday. Or is it?

tamaraleigh — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 03:19:32 +0000

Tamara Leigh

Heidi Feemster

AT the risk of: 1) dating myself; and 2) revealing that “It’s what I don’t know”, I have to say our Guest on last week’s Trend On show, Jesse De Pinto of 3DCreations, llc both inspired and amazed me.

I remember watching reruns of those crazy Jetson’s in their futuristic world of Rosy the Robot and automated gadgets running the home front, as well as visiting Disney World’s Epcot’s Future World — a vision of a someday modern existence of domesticated technology. That Future apparently… is so yesterday.
According to Jesse, “3D printing is not new, so why are people talking about it now?”

Good Question. Even Better Answers came from Jesse in our conversation (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/linkedlocalnetwork/2012/08/15/trend-on).

Jesse is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 3D Creations–a start-up company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

3D Creations is Milwaukee’s first affordable rapid prototyping service, providing smaller companies with 3D printers, technical support, spare parts & materials. 3DCreations also provides small batch orders for just in time manufacturing.

3D printing can best be described as a machine with the capability of creating actual objects made from layer upon layer of plastic by a computer directive or downloaded image. It’s a little hard to imagine, but think of how a 2D printer puts ink on paper in layers… the 3D printer functions somewhat that same way, as Jesse explains it, only the end result is an actual 3D object, like jelly shoes, chess pieces, dental implants, or mini-architectural models. The possibilities apparently are extensive.

Jesse’s enthusiasm for his company and their product–3D Printers the size of microwave ovens for consumer, small business, and education uses, to name a few–is contagious. Admittedly, Jesse said he could talk about them all day long–& he does so at his store during hours of operation Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10 am- 2 pm or by appointment–but our Trend On show was unfortunately limited to a half hour.

In that short span of time, one of the most profound statements Jesse made was how 3D Printing will bring manufacturing back to the U.S.A.! “It’s the next big wave in consumer electronics. It’s the most disruptive technology in manufacturing since Henry Ford’s assembly line. It’s the next monumental challenge for copyright,” writes Jesse on the 3DCreations website blog (http://www.3dcreationsllc.com/2012/07/31/what-is-a-3d-printer/).

A second profound potential use of 3D Printing is in the area of actual organ replication and prosthetics — making the Bionic Woman and $6 Million Dollar Man more than fictional throwbacks. Millennial’s like Jesse know the power of such innovation and how consumerism and personal customization, especially of 3D printing, can be successfully leveraged. (They’re also too young to remember any of these pop-culture references… oh wait, they have the internet to Google them like I did. )

It’s all very energizing and exciting… & more than a little Sci-Fi reality.

3D Creations is located in the heart of Milwaukee in the Grand Avenue Mall.

Their Grand Opening is September 4th at 6pm at Innovations in Milwaukee in Grand Avenue Mall located at 161 W. Wisconsin. For more info check out their website at: www.3DCreationsllc.com

Trend On Business Minute: ERP – WHO’S in CHARGE?

tamaraleigh — Thu, 31 May 2012 19:46:58 +0000

Previously, we talked about WHY & HOW of ERP, that is,
Enterprise Resource Planning, which is a computer system and
software that helps run your company more efficiently. WHY
you should chose an EPR system and How do you choose one? We
looked at questions you should ask before settling on “Your
Final [ERP] Answer”.
This week we continue with two more questions. WHO & WHAT.
WHO’S in Charge?
As soon as you say, “Who’s in Charge?” it’s hard not to
think of the classic, & by classic I mean the epitome of
comedy, sketch, “Who’s on First?”
If you’re old enough, you’ll remember Abbott & Costello
going round and round in linguistic hilarity about Who’s on
First? If you’re young enough not to, youtube Abbott &
Costello in the greatest shtick ever as the two side-kicks
try to sort out the baseball players position and names.

Without clear direction, your ERP implementation process can
end up as confusing as “Who’s on First”. Determining “Who’s
in charge…” of managing the process to choose an ERP
solution is crucial.
Assigning One person — an outside consultant or a current
employee –is imperative.
That doesn’t mean a sole individual is the decision-maker,
on the contrary, a team should come to consensus on ERP, but
a Leader should be assigned to guide the group in the
process. You may have a whole baseball team worth of people
involved in the ERP plan, but designate one General Manager.
Now for the Next Question:
WHAT are the specific business problems you need ERP to
solve?
IF ERP is a solution, then the problem it’s meant to fix
should be clearly identified and defined. Another sports
quote fits here as well. When the time to perform has come,
the time to prepare has passed. That means that a lot of
necessary work and preparation needs to be done as to WHAT
do you need your ERP system to do for you?
For instance, do you need to shorten product lead times or
improve communications with your customers? If you want to
improve communication with customers than a CRM module will
give up to date information on customer orders, customer
invoices, ship dates. All information about a customer will
be accessable via the computer. And when a customer calls
all the information you need will be at your fingertips. Be
thorough in your need analysis…in WHAT you need your ERP
to do for you. The effort put in will pay off in the end.

Business Minute as heard on Heidi Feemster & Tamara Leigh’s “Trend On”:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/linkedlocalnetwork/2012/05/16/trend-on-national-speakers-association-nsa-with-rob-bell

Startup Live kommt nach Hamburg! 4.-6. Mai 2012

admin0804 — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:16:38 +0000

Steroids for your Ideas!

4.-6. Mai 2012 : Startup Live kommt nach Hamburg!

Ein ganzes Wochenende lang dreht sich alles um Eure Unternehmensidee. Vom Pitch bis zur ersten Umsetzung seit Ihr im Team mit Gleichgesinnten und Kreativen am Werk.

Unterstützt werdet ihr dabei von unseren Experten und Mentoren. Zum großen Finale kührt unsere Jury die Sieger des Wochenendes. Ein Wochenende im Zeichen erstklassiger Gründerteams, Networking und dem echten Startup Live Spirit.

Mehr Infos bekommt Ihr unter:
http://startuplive.in/hamburg/

Werkheim Hamburg
Planckstraße 13
22765 Hamburg
Germany
Start:
Fri, 04 May 2012, 04:00 PM Fri, 04 May 2012, 04:00 PM (local time)
Fri, 04 May 2012, 09:00 AM (your time)

End time:
Sun, 06 May 2012, 08:00 PM Sun, 06 May 2012, 08:00 PM (local time)
Sun, 06 May 2012, 01:00 PM (your time)
4.-6. May 2012 : Startup Live comes to Hamburg! (engl. Version below)

In short, people from different backgrounds come together to present ideas, listen to new thoughts, work their asses off and develop their business models.

This is steroids for your idea. Pitch, form your team, work, get feedback from startups, experts and mentors, present what you have achieved in front of about 100 people including experts from all over Europe. The process is accompanied by coaches, business angels, start-up entrepreneurs and all other participants. You get to know all these people in an informal way, usually standing there with a beer in hand hooking up with your future investors or mentors.

For more info: http://startuplive.in/hamburg/