As a small business owner, reputation means everything! It’s extremely important to establish and maintain a solid reputation in your local community. Be known as the local “Concrete Resurfacing Expert.” Know the competition in your area, and the products and services available to your potential customers. Keep up appearances, be honest, be professional and always be punctual for your appointments. Remember all the work involved to get those valuable appointments. If you must be late… call to reschedule.

Get the word out in your community about “who you are” and “what you do.” Try different things. Sponsor a Little League baseball team or become a contributing booster for local schools. Always continue to work on your reputation in the community. This will go a long way in building credibility with your customers. Another easy way to build your reputation and credibility is to speak at local public engagements. Take time to think about and research, where do local businessmen or home owners get together? What organizations are in your community? The local Chamber of Commerce will have information regarding Kiwanis Clubs, VFWs, Home Builder’s Associations, Home Owner’s Association, Garden Clubs, small business organizations, YMCA’s, etc. Join a few of your local organizations and ask to speak at more. All civic organizations need speakers for their luncheons and meetings. Most of us dread speaking in public. So, make it as easy as possible for yourself, come armed with as many visual aids as possible. Bring sample boards, portfolios, brochures, etc. Put yourself in a position to let the product sell itself. Essentially, you are building your network. Hopefully, the better your network the more credibility you will gain in your community. Remember, when speaking in public it’s okay to be nervous. Look at it as just another Home and Garden Show, but with a captive audience. Keep it simple, but make it fun!

A wise man once said, “actions speak louder than words.” So get the ball rolling and call your local Chamber of Commerce… find out who’s out there. If you don’t know who they are, they won’t know who you are!

Maybe you have a little extra time on your hands this holiday season and want to do some reading on running a business.  Below are some titles we highly recommend, they range from general information on running a business to creating a vision to specific information on marketing, sales, etc.  Enjoy the read:

• The E-Myth Revisited – Michael Gerber
• Sales for the Self Employed – Martin Edic
• The Complete Guide to Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers – Steven Finkler
• Built to Last – Jim Collins
• Good to Great – Jim Collins
• Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
• The Millionaire Mind – Thomas Stanley
• Guerilla Marketing – Jay Conrad Levinson
• The One Minute Manager – Kenneth Blanchard
• The Ultimate Sales Machine – Chet Holmes

Driving revenue is one of the pillars to a successful business. One of the main tools used by business owners is their marketing and sales model, the better an owner understands what it takes to drive the revenue needed to operate the business they want they can then work on improving the model.

An example is a typical CTi Dealership which works on the following model:

For every six leads generated by their advertising…
They will have four appointments to meet with the homeowner…
They will sell one of these four appointments on average.

As you can see, once you understand the basics you can work on improving things such as:

How can we generate those six leads for less money in advertising or
How can we generate more appointments from the leads we are currently getting or
How can we generate more sales from the appointments we are going on.

As you can see there are numerous ways to look at this model and find ways to improve it. Better marketing and sales leads to higher revenue generation and better profitability and is one of the key factors in being a successful business owner.

Our Dealers today are participating in a clinic on interior applications. Great information being shared as well as Dealers sharing information from the field with each other. Tremendous energy from this group, everyone is busy and excited about the new products.

Happy Halloween from Concrete Technology Inc.

CTi Dealers, this time of year, start marketing and speaking with customers about the various ways they can enhance the look of their home on the inside. CTi’s Acrylistain, Stone Classic, F1 Fast Floor and Reflective Flooring can all be used to beautify areas such as basements, kitchens, garage floors and the like.

On certain projects, you need the durability of a urethane topcoat but can’t have the smell that comes with a solvent based urethane. CTi introduces the Aqua Shield 365, a water based urethane that provides all the strength and durability of an industrial grade urethane without the smell or fumes.

Aqua Shield 365 is a perfect sealer for heavy use interior floors such as restaurants, retail stores and areas that get cart or vehicular use and need a tougher floor.

A shout out to David Garfield, owner of Advanced Surfaces in Connecticut. David has been providing quality installations and excellent customer service in his unique “laid back” style since 1994!

CTi Dealers are looking forward to making the transition into the cooler weather and doing interior applications. Dealers across the nation are participating in their Fall Home and Garden Shows and displaying the amazing looks they can provide a homeowner’s basement, garage or other interior floors.