This is the middle of week two and spirits are low. Not because new client acquisition is low, but because we hardly see each other. Don't get me wrong we work well together but our offices are not necessarily right next to each others.
As we began our journey we were committed to strategically positioning ourselves against our competitors because of the one thing that we did not share with them; overhead. Our overhead is considerably lower becuase we don't occupy a physical place. This can be advantageous but also put our selves at a disadvantage.
We have bi-weekly meeting as a whole group to keep everyone accountable but when we miss a meeting or it gets rescheduled we can go up to a month without seeing each other in the physical setting most have grown accustomed to.
So as my schedule started to bog down I began checking in via email and missing the actual face to face interaction I could have had with my coworkers. As time flew by my ambitions became under fire. I lacked that spark that we all helped to keep ignited in each other.
This cannot happen, I said to myself. Calling an impromptu meeting I got the owners together to get that fire started again. Just what I needed, we can become so independent that we never allow ourselves to embrace what it is we were all here for- our clients (partners).
-- Myron Batsa
Executive Account Manager,
773.505.6589
BrownSquare
Professional Marketing Communications-
Marketing, Communications, Advertising, Design, Web
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Friends and followers listen to me...
7:15am - wake up, feed dog, read ad age.
7:30am - turn on tv watch Good Morning America (ugh)
7:45am done showering now it's time to leave
If your morning is anything like mine, you are so on schedule that you could practically be blind folded and still get ready.
So what does my morning have to do with social media. Way of life. I have become so accustomed to my daily routine that I am on auto pilot at all times.
Coincidentally, when I look online I see friends and businesses that are also on auto pilot when the post tweets, and update their status.
Those businesses and friends taught me a lesson however. The reason they have so many followers; relevant (to the viewer) information consistently.
Taditional advertising used to be what Twitter is turning into - a vehicle for your business and you to stay in the readers mind.
When I took my first principles of advertising class 6 years ago, in order for a person to recall your brand they would have to hear, see, experience your brand 3 times. But today with the availability of getting news pushed to your phone, twitter and everything else in between keeping your brand relevant and in front of people is getting easier.
That tweet you were just going to post doesn't seem so bad now does it.
-- Myron Batsa
Executive Account Manager,
773.505.6589
BrownSquare
Professional Marketing Communications-
Marketing, Communications, Advertising, Design, Web
7:30am - turn on tv watch Good Morning America (ugh)
7:45am done showering now it's time to leave
If your morning is anything like mine, you are so on schedule that you could practically be blind folded and still get ready.
So what does my morning have to do with social media. Way of life. I have become so accustomed to my daily routine that I am on auto pilot at all times.
Coincidentally, when I look online I see friends and businesses that are also on auto pilot when the post tweets, and update their status.
Those businesses and friends taught me a lesson however. The reason they have so many followers; relevant (to the viewer) information consistently.
Taditional advertising used to be what Twitter is turning into - a vehicle for your business and you to stay in the readers mind.
When I took my first principles of advertising class 6 years ago, in order for a person to recall your brand they would have to hear, see, experience your brand 3 times. But today with the availability of getting news pushed to your phone, twitter and everything else in between keeping your brand relevant and in front of people is getting easier.
That tweet you were just going to post doesn't seem so bad now does it.
-- Myron Batsa
Executive Account Manager,
773.505.6589
BrownSquare
Professional Marketing Communications-
Marketing, Communications, Advertising, Design, Web
Thursday, July 30, 2009
It's a numbers game.
This has been a interesting week for me as I have had a week of sitting around thinking about our new business, literally, because I have been home sick. Fortunately for me, I have an amazing guidance counselor, which I will talk about next week.
As I was given the blow that we did not get the bid for our first account, I was left wondering, "What next?" As I scurried about to try and book a new meeting with a potential client, I was confused as to the next steps I should take. Should I go after market B, C, or D? The deal is I have already put the company and myself 2 weeks behind because I had not realized the numbers game.
With any business that you are in, you have to understand the probability of numbers in lead generations. A good friend of mine, who is an amazing marketing and online research guru (in training), once told me, 'that in order to generate 5 complete sales, you have to think backwards.'
Here is the math he told me, and I did not understand what he meant until this very day. 25 contacts will generate 5 leads, of those 5 leads 2 may request even more information of the two, 1 may ultimately complete the sale. This means that ultimately, if you would like to get 5 complete sales a week, you need to be making at least 100 contacts a week.
Wow, the numbers are staggering, especially when you believe, as I did, that the service or product that you are selling is something that will better the business or person. However, I have learned that people are not necessarily thinking about your business that will better them; rather this is something that will cost them money.
Flash forward to today and my guidance counselor (which I promise I will talk about next time) has explained to me the same thing. I shouldn't expect business to come flocking to me, because I believe I have an honest business that can help people and other businesses.
So take my hard learned lesson that took me two years to grasp. Numbers, it's all in the numbers.
Myron Batsa
Executive Account Manager
BrownSquare
As I was given the blow that we did not get the bid for our first account, I was left wondering, "What next?" As I scurried about to try and book a new meeting with a potential client, I was confused as to the next steps I should take. Should I go after market B, C, or D? The deal is I have already put the company and myself 2 weeks behind because I had not realized the numbers game.
With any business that you are in, you have to understand the probability of numbers in lead generations. A good friend of mine, who is an amazing marketing and online research guru (in training), once told me, 'that in order to generate 5 complete sales, you have to think backwards.'
Here is the math he told me, and I did not understand what he meant until this very day. 25 contacts will generate 5 leads, of those 5 leads 2 may request even more information of the two, 1 may ultimately complete the sale. This means that ultimately, if you would like to get 5 complete sales a week, you need to be making at least 100 contacts a week.
Wow, the numbers are staggering, especially when you believe, as I did, that the service or product that you are selling is something that will better the business or person. However, I have learned that people are not necessarily thinking about your business that will better them; rather this is something that will cost them money.
Flash forward to today and my guidance counselor (which I promise I will talk about next time) has explained to me the same thing. I shouldn't expect business to come flocking to me, because I believe I have an honest business that can help people and other businesses.
So take my hard learned lesson that took me two years to grasp. Numbers, it's all in the numbers.
Myron Batsa
Executive Account Manager
BrownSquare
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The birth of the agency entrepreneur
So this is the first of many blogs that I am creating to document my struggles in starting a new agency.
But first some background:
My name is Myron Batsa. I graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications in 2007. After graduating I was on the hunt for a job in design but not having the degree in graphic design I went back to school to pursue Graphic Design at Des Moines Area Communication College. After two years I realized that, well Advertising is much more suited for my characteristic profile.
Now, I was still looking for an advertising job. But alas Des Moines s not a very large market to find an advertising job.
So I still need to jump back a year, to February 2008, 2 friends and I decided to start our own opportunity for experience in advertising, marketing, and graphic design. Once our lawyer (a good friend of ours) drew up the paperwork for our LLC, GreaterThan Advertising was born.
One week into our journey we landed our first client. A financial planner in Waukee wanted to re-brand himself and come up with some marketing material and we were just the people for the job.
You can look at the difference 9 months can make on a website.
Www.whelan-assoc.com is now www.whelanfp.com.
This was a very awesome job for us. We learned as we went through this process how to work with clients and ultimately get the desired results for the client.
But alas all good things must come to an end. One year later our group had to split up. Now we started BrownSquare and started over.
So this is where the struggles begin. I am ambitious enough to be an account manager but am I good enough. This will test all the skills that I have aquired in college and with my first business and put that all to the test.
Through this blog I will be giving advice in advertising sharing my favorite adage story and hopefully will inspire the other recent college grads to make their own way.
Myron Batsa
Executive Account Manager
BrownSquare
www.brownsquare.com
But first some background:
My name is Myron Batsa. I graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications in 2007. After graduating I was on the hunt for a job in design but not having the degree in graphic design I went back to school to pursue Graphic Design at Des Moines Area Communication College. After two years I realized that, well Advertising is much more suited for my characteristic profile.
Now, I was still looking for an advertising job. But alas Des Moines s not a very large market to find an advertising job.
So I still need to jump back a year, to February 2008, 2 friends and I decided to start our own opportunity for experience in advertising, marketing, and graphic design. Once our lawyer (a good friend of ours) drew up the paperwork for our LLC, GreaterThan Advertising was born.
One week into our journey we landed our first client. A financial planner in Waukee wanted to re-brand himself and come up with some marketing material and we were just the people for the job.
You can look at the difference 9 months can make on a website.
Www.whelan-assoc.com is now www.whelanfp.com.
This was a very awesome job for us. We learned as we went through this process how to work with clients and ultimately get the desired results for the client.
But alas all good things must come to an end. One year later our group had to split up. Now we started BrownSquare and started over.
So this is where the struggles begin. I am ambitious enough to be an account manager but am I good enough. This will test all the skills that I have aquired in college and with my first business and put that all to the test.
Through this blog I will be giving advice in advertising sharing my favorite adage story and hopefully will inspire the other recent college grads to make their own way.
Myron Batsa
Executive Account Manager
BrownSquare
www.brownsquare.com
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