Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have been in businees for 18 months and have received some great success with our online menu service. We want to take our success to the next level, which could include; highering a consultant, outsourcing or revenue sharing. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has experience in ideas or advice on how to grow a business to acheive the next level of sucess.
Please visit our website: www.relishrelish.com for more detailed information and our latest press release and media attention.

Thanks,
Karen


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Karen Hutcherson
Relish! Time. Food. Life.
www.relishrelish.com

Here`s one idea for you.  Provide different menu style options e.g. lowfat, lowcarb, Kosher. 

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Norton R. Townsley
Patent Attorney/Professional Engineer
The above message is provided for general information purposes only and is not to be construed as legal advice.

Is the next level of success you`re talking about financial? If it is, you may want to take a look at the way you handle your finances, both personally and financially. I`ll pass on what a business mentor passed on to us 3 years ago. My husband and I have been able to totally restructure and handle our finances in a different way. The outcome for us has been retirement and the ablility to be full time parents, which was our main goal. You can personalize the -education to meet your needs. 2 resources to look at www.questweb.cc and 618-355-1600 options #1, #2 and #3. Hope this is helpful. It`s meant the world to us. Have a fantastic week!

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Hi Karen,

Congratulations on the success thus far. The site looks good … and inviting…and delicious! It also looks like you’re making good headway with the media, and you’ve certainly got no shortage of nice testimonials.

 

One quick suggestion – When I read your bio, the “all it takes from you is 30 minutes at the grocery store and 30 minutes each night” jumped out. Add some version of that idea as a bullet on the home page.

 

Re: growth and the “next level” – It seems that ideally you want to be partnered with or in affiliate marketing relationships with major magazines and maybe cable networks. This could also include things like writing a regular column and having a short regular segment on food and lifestyle cable shows.

 

One of the keys to accomplishing this is giving the brand a visible face or faces – in this case not to be a world-class chef, but rather to be the embodiment of your tag line. Someone who is “out there” talking and writing about how it is possible to improve the balance of the various pressures in our lives and manage to have both wonderful dinners and family dinners. Perhaps it could be both you and Ann together – kind of like the Too (Two) Hot Tamales.  

 

Anyway, that’s my off-the-cuff two cents.  

Michael

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Michael Zucker - Strategic Planning, Marketing & Communications info@zuckerconsulting.com · www.zuckerconsulting.com “Helping You Over The Hurdles – Keeping You Focused On The Finish Line”

Karen,

Great idea! Site looks nice. Maybe I missed it, but I did not see a link ot the Press Release or the press you mentioned - probably me.

IMHO - you`re very close to "nailing" your business. I think all you need is more exposure. You can probably get this through a good PR person or firm that has expertise in your field (food, health, family, etc.) A good PR person ranks up there with a good accountant, lawyer or banker in a small business. You need to be on Oprah, the morning shows, the cooking shows, etc. Local TV shows. Maybe a radio show or podcast. Many options a seasoned pro in your field can help you with.

I saw where you guarantee your service. However, it doesn`t "jump" out on the website. People LOVE a Money-Back Guarantee and very few people take advantage of the gaurantee. Do it! Money-Back Guarantee. Of course, you have to write the conditions - 3-month refund or whatever. Makes no difference - it probably will never be claimed.

ZMAN above makes some great suggestions. He has some excellent points. Heed them.

Another suggestion. Whenever you list an email contact, always make it a name. You had listed on the guarantee page as you can email us at: contactus@relishrelish.com. I would use one of the principals names. This is a personal business - make it as personal as possible. Whether you are the one that anwers the emails or not (as you grow bigger), it appears you do. People like to talk to the owners. And with many of your customers (men do cook, too - maybe create a menu selection for batchelors with a special "date night" meal), it is woman-to-woman and this is a great thing for you and your business.

Rock n` Roll - you have a winner! I look forward to updates here at SuN.

R@

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Richard Arnold · Key Concept Writers · Business Communication: The "Key" To Success· Law of Attraction Blog · Life Ain`t Brain Surgery Blog

Hi Karen:

I liked your site and your message but noted no inferred credibility or professional accredidations on your home page... Testimonials and associated pages are fine but the idea is once the public gets to that page there is enough ther for them to want to do business or find out more... Perhaps zman`s & Richard`s suggestions are enough for you to change the impact of the home page,  I think they may do so but be very selective as to the content you add as it will either add or detract from YOUR message... I also did not see low-fat, diet, lactose-free, kosher or vegan designations for a desired menu, but I did note that many of the recipes and the trial menu used lowfat entrees.  Perhaps that IS an area that provides a potential subscriber with some measure of confidence that you CAN meet their special needs... Food is a very personal subject to most people and the way your site treats each "special need" may speak volumes to a each potential subscriber with their own allergies, diet needs, wants, etc.  Inclusion of a meat/beef/seafood lovers menu might not be a bad thing as there are those individuals as well. 

Hey you asked... All kidding aside, I hope this was helpful.      

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Jose Acosta
from the Chesapeake Bay
-the Land of Pleasant Living-

Jose - excellent comments!

R@

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Richard Arnold · Key Concept Writers · Business Communication: The "Key" To Success· Law of Attraction Blog · Life Ain`t Brain Surgery Blog

Strongly concur with R@’s take on the value of a good PR pro to your situation. Finding the right PR resource and implementing a targeted campaign is likely to be the most important tactic/tool in ramping up your business significantly.

My advice would be to take a little time to assess your situation and clarify your strategic goals for the next phase, before launching a PR effort -- i.e. what do you want the "next level" and levels after that to look like. You want to ensure that the PR campaign serves and delivers those goals, rather than setting its own goals and agenda. A good PR campaign will be about not only getting you all kinds of exposure, but more importantly about getting you the right kind of exposure in the right places – exposure that positions you and your brand in the right ways, and furthers your overall strategic goals.

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Michael Zucker - Strategic Planning, Marketing & Communications info@zuckerconsulting.com · www.zuckerconsulting.com “Helping You Over The Hurdles – Keeping You Focused On The Finish Line”

Both Jose and r@ make excellent suggestions about the strength of developing personal, one-on-one relationships with your potential customers. And both, along with Norman, suggest expanded and specialized menu options. Definitely important to tailor your product offerings to the needs of your customers. Seems like in your business it should be pretty easy to roll out and test varied product extensions.

 

At the same time, it’s important that you stay focused on building the brand. While today your business may be primarily an online menu service, your brand is really about lifestyle (and if PR does its job, the brand will be about you and your partner as well.) As you move forward, you may find relish! evolving into a much broader product mix.

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Michael Zucker - Strategic Planning, Marketing & Communications info@zuckerconsulting.com · www.zuckerconsulting.com “Helping You Over The Hurdles – Keeping You Focused On The Finish Line”

Hi Karen,

I was thinking sort of 2 part. If you could do something immediate like tweak a few things and do some direct low cost advertising to bring in passive residual type revenue streams and increase amount of visitors to your site and at the same time explore partnerships and teaming agreements where you pay 30-35% for referrals so that you get people that are serious about sending you leads. And also maybe look into  hiring a business coach or join one of those mastermind groups where you pay $100 or few hundred dollars a month and then you talk with other business entrepreneurs who are all sharing business ideas, concepts and experiences etc. My immediate direct low cost marketing ideas are below.  Be advised I am by no means a marketing expert, I just noted a few things I do in my company that have been successful for me.  Obviously the experience is subject to change for every individual

As a few others said above, I missed the press release you mentioned as well??? The other thing I noticed after the fact is that your free trial has your email sign up on there. A way to grab more attention perhaps may be to separate that part on your home page and instead of wording it `Free Trial` which then makes the user assume they are going to be `sold` something, you can create something like submit your email address and receive `the recipe of the week` or get 10 recipes you can create in under 30 minutes for under 30 bucks or maybe something like submit your email addy and get the secret to how you can feed a family of 4 in 30 minutes for $5 a person. I don`t know, you will have to get a little creative here. And as you build up your email subscriber list you can send out your monthly ezine and include a link in there for special of the month where they can buy whatever you are trying to sell.

The other marketing idea I had was if you can niche your niche. So maybe you can sell mini books on line for like $5 each. And in the mini books you can do something like lifestyles:

25 fast recipes for working women, for single women, for single moms

25 fast and easy recipes for single dads, single men

25 fast and easy recipes for your week at the beach

25 great recipes for raising a vegetarian child, a healthy child, a child with allergies...

There are hundreds of lifestyle books you could probably create (may have to make a formula and outsource through some place like www.guru.com and have someone create the books for you). Books would be under 20 pages and would retail for something like $5 each. I don`t know your industry and audience that well so I am just rambling off the top of my head.  Also you could probably do something like video blog because you know when people think of cooking they tend to think of cooking shows!!! So if you could do some mini spin off, 3-5 min clip or something. I am not sure.

You should also try writing freelance articles for your hometown newspaper since healthy eating is a common topic among American media.

The other thing I was thinking of is if you can find companies that deal with time management as another way to market your services. Think a bit out the box like something along the lines of Daytimer or Franklin Covey. If you can do some kind of marketing piece to their target audience. I am not sure how you could do that but I am sure you can think of something `creative`...I saw your website, which btw is fantastic. Very nice job.

Well I wish I could offer you more suggestions...I am all tapped out for now. But I certainly hope that at the least it will spark some new ideas for you.

Wishing you continued success,

Shonika