new business

Popz

Hey guys
Occasional poster - frequent nosey person!
Many of you probably dont know the help I've gleaned from these pages over the past year or so.
For years Ive wanted to start my own business and afer much research and hard work - I opened my doors on the 27th May. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank ye, I never posted - but I found many others were in similiar situations and I was able to look at different threads and advice or discussions were sometimes of benefit to us too.
So Thank YOu
We had a dream start and I was very happy as with the uncertain economic climate out there, I had been ultra cautious with targets and projected sales etc. For the first two months we were always there abouts.
August was a different story - I was aware that it was a quiet time for my business, but niavety or what not, I hadnt anticipated it being as quiet as it was, I resisted the urge to spend loads on advertising as talking with other businesses, it was just this way most years (maybe not as quiet as this yr) and now Im finding that slowly but surely the figures are growing again.
Ive learned and will be prepared for next yr - I guess what I wanted to know, if you could go back in time and tell yourself what you know now - what advice would you give??

Gloomtastic!

August is a dog for a lot of businesses but for every August, there's always a December.

Good luck to you.....

macl

Best of luck

For every euro you spend - you should ask yourself firmly - Will this result in an increase in sales?

Too much of the time I see people in business buying themselves a nice new office chair, or superfast DSL connections, only to find themselves short for stock, advertising and staffing costs.

As another poster said, August can be dire, get ready for December and where possible try and negotiate some of your advertising now.

byrne0f56789

Good luck. That's what we need to get the economy back on track.

Colm TMAD

Hi guys,
This is my first time posting in a Forum so bare with me! I have just started a new business called Text me a Drink. We an a web based company that allows friends to buy drinks for their friends across Facebook. The idea is very innovative and is quite new so people are not used to taking their Laser cards out of their pockets on Facebook and buying drinks for their friends.

Really wanted to see what you guys thought of our service and if any marketing people had any ideas on how to get more sales to our website and Facebook app that would be great.

IRE60

Step one is to have the app on as many phones a possible - seems an obvious thing to say, but your efforts should be to make that the first port of call.

I'd also look at the "push" scenario of the app - having somebody use the application to say 'are you buying me a drink'! Its cheeky, but would get traffic.

Then there's the social side (if people would used the check-in facility a little more), you could scan a venue to see who (on f/b) is here and bingo - more Arthur Scargill sold.

Colm TMAD

Yes thanks for the reply!
We are a facebook App and we have a mobile site we do plan to bring out an iphone app too but this is not built yet. There are probably two main areas we are stuggling with:
1) getting the traffic
2) Converting the taffic

I suppose those two points go without saying but our market is so broad (anyone 18-35 on facebook) We feel that if it is something with big potential but it is just burning slow at the moment

IRE60

Tom,

Replies are the lifeblood of this site!

I think you're (to borrow an expression form the construction industry) "p1ssing up a down pipe" without an app - to be frank. I think the model would work better if there was a measure of 'impulse' there and the app would have the element.

I do a bit with sites and their (broadly) usability - if you want me to take a look at the site and see if there is anything a fresh pair of eyes might find - please just PM me the site and i'll take a look.

C

Gloomtastic!

Colm TMAD wrote: »

Hi guys,
This is my first time posting in a Forum so bare with me! I have just started a new business called Text me a Drink. We an a web based company that allows friends to buy drinks for their friends across Facebook. The idea is very innovative and is quite new so people are not used to taking their Laser cards out of their pockets on Facebook and buying drinks for their friends.

Really wanted to see what you guys thought of our service and if any marketing people had any ideas on how to get more sales to our website and Facebook app that would be great.

Call me an old git but why would you buy your friends a drink via Facebook? Having said that, if you think it will work then apart from you, who is going to benefit from your app? The pubs and bars maybe?

Maybe you're already trying this but, do a promo with individual bars - Coppers sounds like a good place to start or go for them all through the Irish Vintners Association.

Good luck to you!

highlandseoghan

I don't see the advantage to using this service maybe I am missing something but why would I buy a drink for a friend if I am not going to be with the friend.

How are you advertising the business at the moment? Are you advertising on facebook? Have you got posters up in pubs?

StupidLikeAFox

If you were on FB and saw it was somebodys birthday/passed their driving test/passed exams/had a baby etc you could "Buy them a drink" - thats one area to focus on. You could have notifications saying "Its XXX's birthday today - buy them a drink!". If you got the vintners on board it could have some legs

But what does buying them a drink actually mean? Does money change hands? Does money go to the person is it a voucher to be redeemed at the pub?