Growing, growing ...

We are constantly looking for unique products to promote in USA. I flew to Charlotte NC on Saturday January 12th to meet with a new European vendor - they make unique dataloggers designed especially for vehicle manufacturers, with 1 - 8 channels of autoranging 16-bit monitoring of current consumption. Using 'smart' precision shunts, they can detect mA to kA continuously - perfect for measuring starting currents and stationary currents in vehicles for up to 700 hours. In fact, when this company showed the loggers to GM, they wouldn't let the devices go, saying we want this NOW - we'll send a PO soon! Used in Europe by VW, Audi, Mercedes, Daimler, we'll promote them in USA as soon as we have a signed agreement (soon!) Details later ...

Sales growth

How do you grow sales? It's like sowing and reaping for a farmer - you have to keep distributing seed in order to expect a harvest later. So we've issued 32 press releases this year (http://www.saelig.com/press_releases.htm), highlighting new products we've found. I spend a lot of time looking for useful components and products that our target customer could find useful, priced at the lowest prices we can.

I hope you like the products we find for you! You've helped us grow by about 10% in sales volume this year - thank you!

Time Value

It's tricky to know the value of advertising - SOOOO expensive, yet it's free if sales profits cover the expense.

A concept often overlooked is the so-called Time Value of a Customer: this is an approximate average of how much a new customer will spend with your company over the next few year's. Divide total sales in, say, the last five years, by the number of customers you have and calculate the average customer sale. Let's say you have 1000 customers and $1M in sales - then a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation is that each customer is worth $1000 in sales. So it's worth spending $1000 x P (where P is your overall profit margin) to get a new customer. We ask customers where they saw our ads to track which ads are working and which aren't. Why not tell us where you saw our ads? Please email marketingATsaelig.com - thanks! We'll send you a gift in return!

In our case, however, it's not all about sales - it's also very much about getting our customers the best products that will help their work go easier - "happy, prosperous and blessed"!

More Eyeballs

There is no such thing as bad publicity, they say. I disagree. My viewpoint is that your name - or your company's name - is worth more than gold (Proverbs 22.1: A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.) So it's important to me to keep our name and reputation clean and customers happy - even to letting them know what our company principles are. I tried to convey this in a recent article that our local newspaper did about us (http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070924/BUSINESS/709240334). Our company philosophy is encapsulated in "about us" on our front page (http://www.saelig.com/).

Eyeballs

Success in business is all about how many people see your products (location, location, location). If x% will buy what you sell then all you have to do is increase viewing numbers to increase sales. We send out press releases to over 200 technical editors when we have an exciting new product to announce (see http://www.saelig.com/press_releases.htm; Google "saelig" and you'll find a wide selection of issued releases we have written). This is a free service for our suppliers and adds value to our service for them, in addition to our prompt sales and tech support. Here's how to write a good press release: http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp

Resources

People sometimes ask me what resources and tools I use to keep up the entrepreneurial spirit and help the company grow. Here's a list of some inspiring sites and magazines which you might find useful too: Entrepreneur Magazine (www.entrepreneur.com), Inc Magazine (www.inc.com), CCH Business Owner's Toolkit (http://www.toolkit.com/), Amex (https://home.americanexpress.com/home/open.shtml), and I also read all the electronics tech press I can lay my hands on.

I've also just returned from a conference in Harrisburg, PA featuring Lance Wallnau - he's extremely motivational (http://www.lancelearning.net/business.html) and has coached even at the United Nations - a tough crowd!

Awards - Rewards

Our local newspaper just announced that we are No. 93 on their Top100 private companies in Rochester NY.
Cause to celebrate here - not just that we are growing, but as a recognition of hard work put in during the year by our staff. I view business a bit like a carousel. You have to keep putting things on the carousel, so that when it comes round again you get get things back. We have to keep creating press releases and advertising in order to get "eyeballs" and hence sales, maybe three months later. It's all in the numbers. A certain percentage of people who see our products will need them. Therefore, the more people who are aware of our goods, the larger our sales. Getting an award like the Top100 increases local awareness - but even better are awards in our target audience, like Product of the Week in a technical magazine, read by engineers.