BIZ. Magazine, January 2014

January 2014

DELIVERED TO BUSINESS LEADERS THROUGHOUT SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER

Spotlightof the

MONTHPage 27

BIZ. Tools Podcast‘Sound’ Business Lessons

Dave SaysHow to Handle Social Media

KEEPCALMAND

KEEPON

MARKETING

It’s Not JustAdvertisingLook Inside for GreatContent on MarketingYour Business

4Must-ReadMarketingBooks

2 Biz. Magazine • January 2014

The First Word

Irecently had the opportunity to visit with a colleague from another industry. Our discussionwas lively and informative. We talked about everything from the changing markets in ourrespective industries to the lack of branding some areas have. As the discussion went along,I made the statement, “There is just no substitute for relationship.” “You are absolutelyright,” she said.

The statement, while not intended to be profound, opened up a discussion about how relation-ships are the key to success for any business, regardless of age, economic status or market.

Relationships can take many forms. With technology today, a relationship can begin via emailor social networking. In fact, that relationship can be just as significant as any “face-to-face”one out there. The world has truly contracted to a smaller place.

That being said. There is still no better way to cultivate a relationship than “in person.” Lookingsomeone in the eye and sharing your ideas has a dramatic impact.

In sales, it is the person with the best realationship who garners the business over the longterm.

There is always a cheaper price somewhere, but not everyone has the best relationship.

When times (and budgets) get tight, it is the person with the best relationship that tends tokeep the business.

Relationships help communities move forward, attract in-dustries and survive setbacks. It is almost impossible toband together during tough times if you are the only onewho is “banding.”

As business leaders, we should take advantage of opportu-nities to cultivate relationships with one another. Whetherat a Chamber of Commerce event, non-profit advisoryboard, or lunch group, opportunities for relationships areplentiful.

The challenge is to recognize the opportunities and makethem a priority for you and your business.

Take the challenge. You will be glad you did, and we all willbenefit from it.

It’s the RelationshipMarkets may change, but there are somethings in sales and marketing that never will

David Specht Jr.President of Specht Newspapers, Inc.

Read his blog about leadership atwww.DavidASpecht.com

He may be reached via email [email protected].

January 2014 • Biz. Magazine 3


Contents

Volume 4, Number 9 | ©Copyright 2014 by Specht Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved. BIZ. is published each month by Specht Newspapers, Inc.at 4250 Viking Drive, Bossier City, LA 71111. Telephone (318) 747-7900. Information in this publication is gathered from sources considered to bereliable, but the accuracy and completeness of the information cannot be guaranteed.

20Planning Family TimeConvention & Tourist Bureau offering reunionplanning workshop.

27The Power Tools GuyFormer radio group manager now helping otherssucceed with marketing, leadership, sales.

8BIZ ToolsWe share practical tools to help you and yourbusiness succeed.

3 It’s the RelationshipMarkets may change, but there are some thingsin sales and marketing that never will

5 Creating a Win-WinMarketing’s One-on-One look at ‘the most important product’

6 Ready. Set. Sell.Motivating a sales team begins with self motivation.

11 It Is Time to Get SeriousSocial Media must be a part of anyone’s marketing mix

13 Smile. You Are on CameraBoost marketing messages with web video

24 Dave On Small BusinessHandling social media

Regulars

On the CoverMany times, when someone says “market-ing,” people think “advertising.” However, ittakes more than just ads to be a marketingsuccess. This issue of BIZ. offers a wealthof practical tools and interviews to helpbusinesses succeed in their marketing.

BIZ. News OnlineThe BIZ. website at www.bizmagsb.com is Shreveport-Bossier’s homefor business news, updated as it happens. In addition, users can signup for a free BIZ. Daily Report to keep up with BIZ. news from the com-fort of their Inbox.

Want to advertise? http://bizmagsb.com/2013-advertising-kit/

4 Biz. Magazine • January 2014 January 2014 • Biz. Magazine 5

Win-Win Powertools

Each month, BIZ publisher and creator, David Specht,recommends a topic to his columnists. This month’sis “Marketing 101”. David gives us some leeway, soI’m taking a singular look at Marketing 101 that Iemployed when I started Win-Win eleven years ago.Let’s call it “Marketing One-on-One”.

I came from the world of Radio where the product (air time)can’t be seen, held or tasted. I discovered that my clientshad to buy me first. My Radio career convinced me that“We are all in sales (and marketing) and selling all of thetime. Our #1 product is us!” As I started Win-Win, I knew Iwas in the same situation. With little money, I began thejob of marketing Jerry….not the Radio Jerry…but the Win-Win Sales Coach and Speaker Jerry.

I started my marketing challenge by going to both theShreveport and Bossier Chambers of Commerce and signedup. It was networking time. I told the chambers that I wasready to work because working was demonstrating Jerryand Win-Win. Potential clients could see how I worked and

the results I achieved.

I let all of my friends know what I was doing. I counted ontheir “Word of Mouth” marketing. I got a website andworked to make it WORK for Win-Win. I learned quicklythat prospects don’t take you seriously unless you have aWebsite Marketing plan. I also found “Social Media Evan-gelist” Amy Kinnaird. Amy rocks!

I was fortunate to become a Rotary member. I went to all ofthe meetings and worked to “Win” the room by introducingJerry. More networking! Rotary Clubs are always lookingfor speakers. I called all of the local clubs and offered tospeak without a commercial.

Speaking became a major marketing tool and I was alwaysready to speak to any size group. I ate a lot of chicken. Ichanged the name to Win-Win Power(full) Tools and beganto carry a hard-hat and power drill up to the podium. Theyremembered me.

I volunteered to write for the BIZ when it first came out.Writing is not easy for this speaker, but I knew getting anarticle in the BIZ would be effective. I was correct. Fre-quently, people comment that they have seen articles byme.

I wrote news releases on Win-Win whenever I was asked tospeak or be on a panel. I made a list of news contacts andemailed at every opportunity. A professional photo was in-cluded. I was surprised how many times it was used. PR be-came effective marketing for Jerry and Win-Win. So, Marketing 101 is Marketing One-on-One for me. Indeed,“We’re all in Sales and Marketing and we should be doing itall the time. Our product is us.”

Good Selling!Jerry

Jerry FrentressSpeaker & Coach, Win-Win Power(ful)Tools for Sales, Service and EmployeeInterviewing. Website: www.WinWin-PowerTools.com.

Business Facebook:www.Facebook.com/WinWinPower-Tools . 453-6080 / Bossier City

Tools You Can Use

When it comes to winning in Business, ithelps to have the right “tools” for the job.

Creating a Win-WinMarketing’s One-on-One look at ‘the most important product’

Happy New Year! It's a new year! Time fora booster shot for your sales efforts andyour marketing plan! At the beginning of2013, I shared some marketing planstrategies that sales managers and mar-keters should have found helpful in de-

veloping their marketing plans for the new year.

At mid-year, we did a check up to see how wellthings were going - asking questions such as:what has worked well, what has not worked sowell and what has yet to be attempted? In otherwords, what goals did you achieve, what goalseluded you and what goals did you not even getto put into the action steps process? As 2014begins, we will take a look at the same subject,but take a somewhat different approach.

True, before developing or tweaking your mar-keting plan for the new year, you must reviewwhere you are and assess both the progress youhave made and the setbacks you have encoun-tered from your last marketing plan. However, asyou are doing the review, you should ask your-self: how well do we sell our products or serv-ices? Also ask, are we properly reaching thetarget audience for our products or services? Asyou are going through your marketing plan, keep these two questions in mind. Focus andbuild your marketing plans around this concept.

Advertising and getting your message out toyour target audience should be an essentialfoundation for your marketing plan and as such,

will be the cornerstone in helping you to reachyour target audience. Analyze what traditional orsocial media format will help you best reachyour target audience. You can't get to where youwant to be by doing things as you have alwaysdone them. That is not the world in which welive today. Thanks to technology and ever chang-ing and expanding media formats, marketingstrategies must constantly change.

In short, think of your marketing plan as a living,breathing and constantly evolving plan. Theneeds and demands of both your target audi-ence and your company will exist in a state ofconstant change. This is a non-static environ-ment.

Therefore, your marketing plan must constantlychange and evolve, too. Focus on increasing andgrowing your sales in 2014. Also, focus and tunein to what your competition is doing and whatseems to be working well for them. Finally, seekout the things that both you, your team and yourcompany do really well.

For 2014, focus on these things! This will helpyou to increase your effectiveness on all levelsand will also put you a step or two (or hopefullymore) ahead of your competition!


Randy BrownAdvertising/Marketing Guru

He is the Advertising Director forBossier Newspaper Publishing Com-pany, Inc., publishers of the BossierPress-Tribune and BIZ. Magazine

Randy may be reached [email protected]

Marketing B-S (Bossier-Shreveport)

Ready. Set. Sell.New Year offers many newopportunities in marketing



Biz ToolsDo Something

The speed of business is ever increasing. The successful business leaderstays on top of the tools and information to help his company grow.

Books

Marketing for Small Business

Four Books You Should Be Reading

App of the MonthBefore you roll your eyes, consider the number of high-profile leaders that use Twitter. In fact, each of the authors in the above-mentioned books have a Twitter account.

We are recommending the social network (and its apps) not as a means of keeping up with your favorite celebrity, but to followgreat business leaders, trainers and coaches.

Many of these sources will tweet nuggets of great information, links to useful content, and even the occasional free e-book orouther resournce. In addition, many of your favorite leadership and market authors will respond to direct tweets, giving you aone-on-one resource to answer your questions and.or give guidance.

Success or failure with Twitter lies in the hands of the one using it.

Guerilla MarketingJay Levinson

When Guerrilla Marketing was first published in 1983,Jay Levinson revolutionized marketing strategies forthe small-business owner with his take-no-prisonersapproach to finding clients. Based on hundreds ofsolid ideas that really work, Levinson’s philosophyhas given birth to a new way of learning about mar-ket share and how to gain it.

PositioningAl Ries and Jack Trout

Spencer Johnson, author of "Who Moved My Cheese?"and co-author of "The One Minute Manager". '...Riesand Trout taught me everything I know about brand-ing, marketing, and product management. When Ihad the idea of creating a very large thematic com-munity on the Web, I first thought of "Positioning"...' -David Bohnett, Chairman and Founder of GeoCities.The first book to deal with the problems of communi-cating to a skeptical, media-blitzed public, "Position-ing" describes a revolutionary approach to creating a"position" in a prospective customer's mind - onethat reflects a company's own strengths and weak-nesses as well as those of its competitors..

Selling with Noble PurposeLisa Earle McLeod

Drawing on two decades of consulting with leadingsales organizations, sales leadership expert LisaEarle McLeod reveals how a Noble Sales Purpose(NSP) can drive a team to outstanding sales num-bers. Using hard data and compelling field stories,Selling with Purpose explains why salespeople whounderstand earnestly how they make a difference tocustomers outperform their more quota-drivencounterparts. This book shows executives, man-agers, and aspiring sales leaders how to find yourNSP and create a sales force of True Believers whodrive revenue and do work that makes them proud.

TribesSeth Godin

A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who areconnected to one another, a leader, and an idea. Formillions of years, humans have been seeking outtribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political,or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It?s our na-ture.

Tribes will make you think (really think) about the op-portunities in leading your fellow employees, cus-tomers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers. . .. It?s not easy, but it?s easier than you think.And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?


Books Listen Up

More Tools

Podcast of the MonthBIZ. Tools Podcast

With BIZ being focused on educating and helping businessleaders learn about their market every month, we’relaunching the BIZ Tools Podcast.

“BIZ is geared to helping business leaders do what they dobetter. And the BIZ Tools Podcast is a new component ofthat, where we couple content with that month’s edition tohelp educate business leaders with information that is rele-vant to them and the current business climate,” said BIZPresident David A. Specht.

Along with the monthly print publication, the new 30minute podcast will focus on a monthly topic and godeeper for more analysis.

No one has enough time in the day, but leaders alwayswant to be getting better. The new BIZ Tools Podcast willallow you to educate yourself at your leisure — workingout at the gym, walking the dog in the neighborhood, ordriving to and from work.

“Podcasts are great because you can listen on your time,when it is convenient for you. And they’re always there. Youcan go back and listen to each month’s podcast, like a per-sonal leadership seminar in your iPhone,” said Sean Green,BIZ Vice President.

The podcast will be made available the first of each monthfor free download on iTunes and can be streamed fromwww.bizmagsb.com.


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Will 2014 be the year you start to use so-cial media effectively to market yourbusiness? Then consider these things.Pick just a couple of social networks anddo them well. Find out where your clientsand prospects are and choose those.

Write out a plan and put systems in place. This will include whois going to handle your social media (individual, team, outsource),when and how often to post, plus how to build engagement andfollowers. Be consistent in your efforts. Most businesses get best re-sults when posting daily, if not more often. And you may need to putaside a small budget for social media ads.

Create a social media calendar. This might be a blank paper calendar withcheck boxes for each day that you are posting. Or you could use a spreadsheet. Keeptrack of holidays, events, sales, promotions, or special activities here and coordinateyour posts to support what is going on in your business during the year.

Build a list of content sources. Some of the content will be original and some will beshared content from other websites, blogs, articles, videos and graphics. These

sources will vary by business, but consider whatyour followers would find valuable, entertainingand educational.

Remember, you can’t just post “buy my widget” overand over. You should only directly promote yourbusiness and products 10—20% of the time.

Integrate all of your social media outlets. Thatmeans, put links from one network to the other, plusa link to your website. Many use social media todrive traffic to their website. Don’t forget to includelinks to your social networks in your email signatureand on your business cards.

Social media is ever-changing, and you need to staycurrent. For many, 2014 might be the year to look atPinterest as a business marketing tool. Facebook isstill best for relationship building, but Pinterest hasthe most social sharing of any network.

Rededicate yourself to effectively using socialmedia this year. Create a plan and some simple sys-tems and checklists, then build and engage your au-dience. Watch what the “experts” are doing. Modelwhat is working well and stay ahead of your compe-tition. Your consistency and efforts will berewarded as you grow your online presence.


Uncommon Sense Marketing

Amy KinnairdSocial Media Evangelist

She trains business owners and entre-preneurs how to use the latest mar-keting tools and techniques to attractand keep clients.

View Amy’s website at www.uncom-monsensemarketing.com.

It Is Timeto GetSeriousSocial Media mustbe a part of anyone’smarketing mix

www.gibslandbank.com

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One hundred hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, accordingto a news release on the video host’s website. A CNN report in Novembercited research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, saying, “Since2009, the percentage of adults watching or downloading online videos hasgone up from 69% to 78% … The most popular way of viewing clips isstreaming them through video-sharing sites such as YouTube, followed by

regular websites, apps and via social media.”

The internet continues to grow as a source where people watch videos, which meansweb video should be part of your company’s marketing strategy. If you already have aprofessionally produced, standard-length broadcast commercial, it can easily be re-formatted to be published to your company’s website and social media channels.Many freelance professionals can affordably produce video content specifically withthe web in mind.

YouTube and Vimeo are great (free!) places to post tutorials or proof-of-performancevideos for company products and services. People are more likely to watch a video ifit lasts two minutes or less, but of course each video should be tailored to its mes-sage.

Video blogs are a great way to share expertise. Cus-tomers love to be informed before making purchasesin this digital age, and if they find your video advicevaluable, your company will be the one they remem-ber when they’re ready to buy.

Facebook and Instagram are great for posting up-to-the-minute news about your company. As long as theaudio quality is bearable, these videos can be shotcheaply with your phone or tablet and posted imme-diately. Just remember to keep the videos relevantand concise (15-second limit on Instagram). YourFacebook and Instagram followers are the peoplewho already believe in your company, and they canbe turned off by lots of pushy ad videos.

Ten years ago, it seemed like if your company didn’thave a website, it was out of touch. Now the stakesare higher: if your company’s website doesn’t havevideo, it’s getting outdated. Stay current byposting content that is relevant to your cus-tomers.


Business Development

Jill MacchiavernaJill is Publicity Chair, Business Devel-opment Connection for the GreaterShreveport Chamber of Commerce.

Smile. You Are on CameraBoost marketing messages with web video


Cover Story STORY BYSean Green

TV commercials, radio spots, Facebook promotions,newspaper and magazine ads, brochures, YouTubevideos...What do these all have in common?They’re calls to action, they’re information, they’reresources, they’re entertainment, and they’repointed at you.

They’re the tools of marketing.Moreover, they’re essential for your business to make

money.Even a local giant like Willis-Knighton Health System

needs to market themselves. And that job falls to Directorof Marketing Marilyn S. Joiner, APR.

“It’s a great feeling to have a job where you can affect aperson’s life for the better with what the type of job I do at

Willis Knighton,” said Joiner.Her approach to marketing is to identify a demographic

and then target them, specifically.“You need to reach them on an emotional and rational

level,” said Joiner.She acknowledges that as a business owner, it can be

difficult to cut emotional ties to your business, but it isnecessary to remove your attachment and look at it with adiscerning eye.

“I’m not here to tell you what I like and don’t like, I’mhere to give you logical information from which you canmake a logical financial decision. Marketing is a financialdecision, you need to treat it that way and not as an emo-tional decision.”

She advises that the best marketing is one where youraudience doesn’t feel they are being marketed to, butbeing asked to be involved.

“We always want to be aware of who the consumer isand suit that person and their needs,” said Joiner.

The traditional marketing for Willis-Knighton has beenon outdoor and print, but when she came onboard, she re-alized the importance of the Internet.

“When I came to Willis-Knighton, our website was abrochure on a screen. But since then, we’ve recognized theimportance of the web. That has transformed the way peo-ple get information on health care,” said Joiner.

“We’ve tried to not just make a website that tells youservices but brings in a health library and kid’s health li-

More than AdvertisingWillis Knighton Director of Marketing explainsdemographics, tageting and connections


brary. When you have something that is written in a languagethat kids can understand, that’s target marketing,” she ex-plained.

The nature of Willis-Knighton means there are many facets,and audiences for those facets, that all must be covered. Thatleaves Joiner and her department a lot of work to do.

“A company like Willis Knighton has so many dimensions.We provide care to everyone through every stage of life fromminor illnesses to very sophisticated conditions.”

She says the way to fill this need is through product differ-entiation.

“Look at your demographic and tell them what you offerthat is different from everyone else. You want to empowerpeople, you want to make the consumer comfortable with

their choice,” Joiner said.She says, especially in her indus-

try, a plan is good, but being flexibleis a must.

“We’re always planning, but withhealth care being so fluid, we needto be able to adapt and adjust. But Ithink that’s true in any business,”Joiner said. “A plan gives you struc-ture but you need to be flexible andbe able to take bold steps.”

When asked if there are chal-lenges and opportunities presentedby the Shreveport-Bossier market,

she responded without a pause, “Every day.”“You’ve got to be adaptable to changing needs, be pre-

pared to commit budget, time, and staffing to what needs tobe done. You don’t go home until you get the job done. Wecan’t come in at 8 a.m., take an hour lunch, and go home at 5p.m. We have to expect to do more and want to do more,” saidJoiner. “Marketing people need to have financial sense andcreative ability. You’ve got to have a full breadth of people toaddress the full breadth of people you’re reaching.”

Then the question begs, where does Joiner see the futureof both Willis-Knighton, and the marketing industry as awhole, heading?

“Fifteen years ago, we never would have dreamed therewould be Facebook or mobile apps. We just have to know thatyou can’t always do things the same way you did it before. Youhave to identify where the market is going.”

Cover Story

Look at your demographic and

tell them what you offer that

is different from everyone

else. You want to empower

people, you want to make the

consumer comfortable with

their choice.

Ways to Be‘The Brand’

Make Your BrandPersonal

Believe in what you areselling and be excited aboutwhat you are doing. Exude thatenthusiasm and energy for whatyou are offering to others.

Define and ShapeYou as the Brand

Think about your imageand how you can personify abrand. Think about what makesyou different than the crowd interms of your overall attributes.

Build a Following

Talk about your brand inan effective way. Clearly

and consistently communicatewhat you stand for and why youare the best at what you do.

Saturate theMarket

Your image has to shineabove the rest as well as reachthe most people. Use online ads,social networking channels, tra-ditional media, or direct mail totell your story to a wide audi-ence.

Invest in YourBrand

Carefully manage yourbrand to increase its worth. Per-sonal interaction makes thebrand stick in the minds of yourintended audience because youhave made an impression andoffered a visual image.

1 4

52

3

5

via John Scherer, careerbright.com

16 Biz. Magazine • January 201412 Biz. Magazine • December 2013

Business newsyou can’t wait

to read.Business news is happening all the time in Shreveport-Bossier. And nothing keeps you in the loop better than theBIZ. Daily Report. Get the latest by email each day.

Sign up for FREE at bizmagsb.com.


Cover Story

Marketing likeApple ComputerWhat small companies and startup businesses can learn from the world’s most valuable brand

In 1977, Apple Computer founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were frenzied, taking or-ders for the Apple I and looking for venture capital as they developed the Apple II. The menbrought on investor Mike Markkula into the business. In addition to injecting $250,000 intothe company and becoming a third partner, Markkula penned "The Apple Marketing Philos-ophy," a three-point call to action that has served the company well. It can also be an exam-ple for other startup businesses.

Point No. 1: EmpathyApple should strive for an "intimate" connection with customers' feelings. "We will truly under-stand their needs better than any other company," Markkula wrote.

Point No. 2: FocusTo be successful, Apple should center its efforts on accomplishing its main goals, and eliminateall the "unimportant opportunities."

Point No. 3: ImputeApple should be constantly aware that companies and their products will be judged by the sig-nals they convey. "People DO judge a book by its cover," Markkula wrote. "We may have thebest product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slip-shod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professionalmanner, we will impute the desired qualities."

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/220603#ixzz2nfEgWvnY


Bossier Chamber News

Bossier Chamber Diplomatsissue awards at luncheon

Linda McCrory and Robin Williams. Robin Williams is the Marketing Representativefor Holiday Lanes in Bossier City.

Bossier Chamber Diplomat Leadership Team: (L to R) Sherry Stuckey, Debbie Thur-mond, Cindy Lubbe.

The Bossier Chamber Diplomats gathered on Wednesday, December 11, for the annualChristmas luncheon where they recognized Robin Williams of Holiday Lanes with theBossier Chamber Diplomat Outstanding Service Achievement Award and welcomednew team members. The luncheon was held at the Gibsland Bank and Trust LakeHouse at the Villaggio and hosted over 40 Bossier Chamber Diplomats. ChamberDiplomats are business professionals who volunteer their time throughout the year

and play an important role in the success of the Chamber; supporting the organization's mis-sion by helping to grow and maintain a strong membership base, through activities that pro-mote member recruitment, engagement, and retention.

The diverse group of business volunteers represents an array of business sectors from hospi-tality, sales, and real estate to non-profits, entrepreneurs and marketing executives.



NWLA Tourism

Planning to organize a family, class, ormilitary reunion in the future? If so,mark your calendar for Saturday, Feb.8, and make plans to attend theShreveport-Bossier Convention andTourist Bureau’s free Reunion Planning

Workshop. The workshop will be held, 10a.m.-1 p.m., at The Lakehouse at Villaggio inBossier City. Attendees will learn how to plana reunion itinerary, how to select a host hotel,tips for scouting event sites and more. Ap-proximately 30 vendors, including local ho-tels, restaurants and community centers whofrequently work closely with reunions, willalso be on-hand to meet with reunion plan-ners.

“When someone steps up to plan a re-union, whether it’s family, military, or a classreunion, that can really make a difference infilling up a local hotel,” said Kelly Wells, vicepresident of tourism marketing for theShreveport-Bossier Convention and TouristBureau. “We’re going to provide people withthe timeline and the tools that they need toplan and accomplish a reunion.”

The last time that this workshop was of-fered was four years ago. The workshop is

open to anyone planning to organize a re-union in the future, regardless of whetherthey have any reunion planning experience.Participants can expect a presentation on thebasics of event planning, addressing every-thing from budgeting to developing a commit-tee of organizers. There will also be ameet-and-greet session, during which eventplanners can get to know the vendors in at-tendance. Lunch will be included for partici-pants.

Kevin Flowers, reunion sales coordinatorfor the Shreveport-Bossier Convention andTourist Bureau, will also be on-hand at theFeb. 8 workshop. Flowers, who is the firstpoint of contact for individuals seeking toplan a reunion of any size in Shreveport-Bossier, says that reunion planners come tohim with a variety of requests pertaining toevents of all sizes, ranging from one-day fam-ily “get-togethers” to week-long events withbanquets and more.

“Some reunion planners are seeking assis-tance with getting room rates and availabilityfrom area hotels, and we’re able to send out alead to request that information on their be-half. Others may already have identified their

host hotel and are just looking for what wecall ‘goodie bags’ or city maps,” Flowers said.“In a lot of cases, people who contact me maybe just beginning to plan their reunion, andthey’re not sure how to get started.”

The Shreveport-Bossier Convention andTourist Bureau’s new Family Reunion PlanningFolder, a toolkit containing useful event plan-ning information, will also be distributed dur-ing the event.

While this workshop is free for event plan-ners, there is a $50 fee for vendors to partici-pate. For more information on the workshop,contact Kevin Flowers at (318) 429-0625. ToRSVP for the workshop, meeting plannersshould visitreunionplanningworkshop.eventbrite.com.Vendors wishing to participate should visit re-unionplanningworkshopvendors.eventbrite.com. Those who are unable to RSVP for theworkshop online may do so by contactingKevin Flowers by phone.

Planning Family TimeConvention & Tourist Bureau offering reunion planning workshop

STORY BYChris Jay

Find out more About the ReunionPlanning Event by scanning thisQR Code


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With the ever-changing landscape of consumers, demographics and audiences, mar-keting strategies can seem complex. The driving force behind marketing efforts isdirectly related to a business’ bottom line. There are many different ways a busi-ness can implement a marketing strategy; and hopefully your marketing strategyhas a community component built in its execution plan. Assuring a communitycomponent is a key part of your business strategy can help market your business

on multiple levels. Being involved in community conversations can help businesses under-stand complex issues pertaining to the local market, help to identify their target market is aswell as consumer behaviors and how to conduct a dialogue with them. Additional advantagesof being involved on a community level are related to the public’s perception and increasedlevel of trust associated with businesses - both large and small - who are endorsed or involvedwith membership organizations such as the chamber of commerce.

In a recent study conducted by the Schapiro Group, a sample group of 2,000 adults nationwidewere selected to help provide insight on the impact of chambers of commerce in their commu-nities. According to the study, 59% of respondents think that being active in the local cham-ber of commerce is an effective business strategy overall. However, it’s 29% more effective forcommunicating to consumers that a company uses sound business practices and is reputable.Association with the chamber of com-merce can help to influence a posi-tive image for businesses asconsumers attribute certain valuessuch as trustworthiness, and are seenas industry leaders.

So, how can the Bossier Chamberpartner for profit and purpose withyour business? As your premier “con-nection agency” dedicated to en-hancing the development ofeconomic prosperity, we are committed to providing our member base with many benefits andencourage your business to GET CONNECTED, GET EDUCATED, GET ENGAGED with the BossierChamber of Commerce!

A partnership with value, purpose and meaning – this is how the Bossier Chamber works foryou:

Relationship Building - We help our members build connections through our 38 plus eventsannually. With a variety of unique networking opportunities such as the annual gala, golf tour-nament and 5K Run, your business is sure to make meaningful, strategic contacts which helpparticipating businesses increase their visibility in the community.

Economic Development - We partner with local Economic Development Agencies to recruit andretain business in order to drive job creation.

Education - We partner across industry sectors such as technology health care and oil and gas,to provide opportunities for students that will help them grow and improve the workforcepipeline. In addition to ensuring students are prepared to fill high=-demand jobs, the Chamberseeks to educated its membership base on trending topics affecting a variety of businessesand sectors from across the region.

Legislative Advocacy - We advocate pro-business policies and legislation to help companiesgrow and prosper. Through lobbying efforts, special events, legislative updates, governmentalaffairs newsletter, and attending city meetings the Chamber is the voice of business in BossierParish.

— Ginger Collier, Director of Communications, Bossier Chamber of Commerce

Partnering forProfit and PurposeHow the Bossier Chamber works for businesses

Handling social mediaDear Dave,I own a small business, and I’m having trouble with public forum review sites. I’m sure in

some cases they’re being filtered in a way that paints my business in a negative light after I’vedeclined to advertise my restaurant with them. How would you handle this kind of problem?

Carl

Dear Carl,Restaurants get hammered a lot online, and many of these kinds of sites are losing credibil-

ity because people are using them improperly. I’m not sure if one of them is out to get you, butthere are lots of cases where competitors will leave bad reviews. And of course, there are ran-dom crazies out there who will post some pretty messed-up stuff too.

The best suggestion I can give is for you to simply make these things irrelevant with yourother marketing. Overwhelm potential customers with the quality of your food and establish-ment through your online presence. Make sure the design of your website is clean, crisp andinviting, and that your images are high-quality work. You could even post a 360-degree tour ofyour restaurant, showing that you run a nice, classy place. If you’re situated in a beautiful loca-tion, include that as a selling point too. And double-check to ensure sure that all your informa-tion, like menu prices, address and phone number, is up to date.

Accurately message your position and offerings in the most aesthetically pleasing way pos-sible, Carl. That’s my advice. I really don’t care about the kind of online reviews you’re talkingabout, because I get to my customers directly through the power of great marketing. The moreyou take control of the presentation and publicity of your business, the faster these outsideentities will lose credibility!

—Dave

A farming budget

Dear Dave,I have a 140-acre farm, and I recently began running my operation debt free. The problem is

that I have $250,000 in debt hanging on from bad decisions in the past, and the varying ex-penses in my business make it difficult to budget. Do you have any suggestions for budgetingin a volatile industry like mine?

Tyler

Dear Tyler,Obviously, you want to set up a separate budget and run a profit and loss statement. You’ll

want to estimate the income, as best you can, for the year, and you’d need to estimate your ex-penses item by item and category by category for the year. Then, you’ll want to break thatdown by month. This is called laying out a business pro forma. In other words, a businessbudget.

Next, you’ve got two goals to work toward with your profits. By profits, I mean after you’vepaid household expenses. That includes a living wage,enough to operate, keeping food on the table, the lightson and that sort of thing. After basic living expenses areout of the way, your net profit in the business should bedivided between retained earnings—which is savings—and debt reduction. The idea here is that you’re going toput the lion’s share toward paying off debt. Still, you needto have something set aside for a rainy day. In your case,that could be taken literally.

Keep in mind that in business, retained earnings areused for more than just emergencies. They’re also for buy-ing equipment, more land and anything else that will growyour operation. But you always want a pad in there for thatand other reasons. What if you have a strange year, andyour budget estimates were way off? It could be unex-pected expenditures or the fact that you simply had a badyear. In business, that’s called an emergency, and you’dtake that out of retained earnings.

Doing a budget, whether it’s in personal finance or abusiness, is something that gets easier and more accuratewith time. You won’t get everything right the first couple oftries, but over time your estimates and budgeting skillswill become more accurate because they’ll be based onexperience.

Good luck, Tyler!—Dave


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Chris JayPublic Relations and Social MediaManager, Shreveport Bossier Conven-tion and Tourist Bureau. He is amonthly contributor to Biz. Magazine.


Dave Says — On Business

Dave RamseyDave Ramsey is America’s trustedvoice on money and business. He’s au-thored four New York Times best-sell-ing books: Financial Peace, More ThanEnough, The Total Money Makeoverand EntreLeadership. The Dave Ram-sey Show is heard by more than 6 mil-lion listeners each week on more than500 radio stations. Follow Dave onTwitter at @DaveRamsey and on theweb at daveramsey.com.

Handling social mediaDear Dave,I own a small business, and I’m having trouble with public forum review sites. I’m sure in

some cases they’re being filtered in a way that paints my business in a negative light after I’vedeclined to advertise my restaurant with them. How would you handle this kind of problem?

Carl

Dear Carl,Restaurants get hammered a lot online, and many of these kinds of sites are losing credibil-

ity because people are using them improperly. I’m not sure if one of them is out to get you, butthere are lots of cases where competitors will leave bad reviews. And of course, there are ran-dom crazies out there who will post some pretty messed-up stuff too.

The best suggestion I can give is for you to simply make these things irrelevant with yourother marketing. Overwhelm potential customers with the quality of your food and establish-ment through your online presence. Make sure the design of your website is clean, crisp andinviting, and that your images are high-quality work. You could even post a 360-degree tour ofyour restaurant, showing that you run a nice, classy place. If you’re situated in a beautiful loca-tion, include that as a selling point too. And double-check to ensure sure that all your informa-tion, like menu prices, address and phone number, is up to date.

Accurately message your position and offerings in the most aesthetically pleasing way pos-sible, Carl. That’s my advice. I really don’t care about the kind of online reviews you’re talkingabout, because I get to my customers directly through the power of great marketing. The moreyou take control of the presentation and publicity of your business, the faster these outsideentities will lose credibility!

—Dave

A farming budget

Dear Dave,I have a 140-acre farm, and I recently began running my operation debt free. The problem is

that I have $250,000 in debt hanging on from bad decisions in the past, and the varying ex-penses in my business make it difficult to budget. Do you have any suggestions for budgetingin a volatile industry like mine?

Tyler

Dear Tyler,Obviously, you want to set up a separate budget and run a profit and loss statement. You’ll

want to estimate the income, as best you can, for the year, and you’d need to estimate your ex-penses item by item and category by category for the year. Then, you’ll want to break thatdown by month. This is called laying out a business pro forma. In other words, a businessbudget.

Next, you’ve got two goals to work toward with your profits. By profits, I mean after you’vepaid household expenses. That includes a living wage,enough to operate, keeping food on the table, the lightson and that sort of thing. After basic living expenses areout of the way, your net profit in the business should bedivided between retained earnings—which is savings—and debt reduction. The idea here is that you’re going toput the lion’s share toward paying off debt. Still, you needto have something set aside for a rainy day. In your case,that could be taken literally.

Keep in mind that in business, retained earnings areused for more than just emergencies. They’re also for buy-ing equipment, more land and anything else that will growyour operation. But you always want a pad in there for thatand other reasons. What if you have a strange year, andyour budget estimates were way off? It could be unex-pected expenditures or the fact that you simply had a badyear. In business, that’s called an emergency, and you’dtake that out of retained earnings.

Doing a budget, whether it’s in personal finance or abusiness, is something that gets easier and more accuratewith time. You won’t get everything right the first couple oftries, but over time your estimates and budgeting skillswill become more accurate because they’ll be based onexperience.

Good luck, Tyler!—Dave


Chris JayPublic Relations and Social MediaManager, Shreveport Bossier Conven-tion and Tourist Bureau. He is amonthly contributor to Biz. Magazine.


Lunch Break

Until I actually spent some time talking tothe folks who run the Lilah’s Bakery foodtruck, I admit that I didn’t appreciatewhat made it special. “Grown-up grilledcheeses,” I thought. “Everyone’s doinggrown-up grilled cheeses these days.”

But now that I’ve spent some time with Mr. Tikeand his team at the truck, I have a better under-standing. These guys are like grilled cheese sci-entists. You get the impression that this isn’t acasual interest. There’s probably a notepad on Mr.Tike’s nightstand, where he jots down ideas forgrilled cheese sandwiches that come to him inthe middle of the night. The young man operatingthe griddle pulled out his cell phone to show mephotos of his favorite grilled cheese sandwichesthat he’s ever made. Seriously.

So far, the menu includes about 20 different vari-

eties. The sandwiches range from commonplace(American cheese grilled on white bread, $3) tocompletely unexpected (the “Indian Melt,” agrilled cheese made on Indian naan bread withspicy chicken and Indian curry sauce, $7). Ifthere’s a way to enhance or dress up a grilledcheese, they’ve probably thought of it. You canadd bacon, grilled onions, a Parmesan cheesecrust, cream cheese or sliced tomatoes. Delicioushomemade tomato soup can be purchased by the“shot” for 50 cents, or by the cup for $3. A “shot”is just enough to dip every corner of the sand-wich in – probably, again, not a coincidence.Grilled cheese-obsessed minds are at work.

Something else that I learned about the Lilah’sBakery truck, which also struck me as kind ofwild: Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nightbeginning at 10 p.m., they park the truck near theTexas Street Bridge in downtown Shreveport and

deliver grilled cheeses all over downtown by bi-cycle. Somewhere in Shreveport, there is a manwhose job is to deliver grilled cheese sandwichesby bicycle in the dead of night. That just makesme happy.

The Lilah’s Bakery food truck is an offshoot of thestorefront location at The Outlets at LouisianaBoardwalk, which is perhaps best known for cup-cakes, Mardi Gras king cakes and custom cake or-ders. The grilled cheese menu is available at thestore as well as the food truck.

The Lilah’s Bakery food truck’s phone number is(318) 564-2831, and call-in orders are welcome.The storefront phone number is (318) 742-4595.

You Go, GrillLilah’s Bakery: Grilled Cheese Scientists at Work

Chris Jay reviews local food every Tuesday atwww.20x49.com.


While judging a competition at a local vocational school, my husband was impressedby one young man who separated from the other students, walked to the judges,and shook their hands, thanking them for their time. This young man did not winthe competition. He did win a job at my husband’s company. With marketing, weoften think of brochures, flyers, websites, and other written communications. Wehire experts to prepare these important papers and spend a lot of time and money

getting them just right. While focusing on just the right words and photos for these docu-ments, we can easily forget that people do business with other people, not paper.

YOU are your most valuable marketing tool. Or, are you? You tell people how to treat you byhow you present yourself to them. If you are in control of how people perceive you, whywouldn’t you do your best to make a positive impression for both your business success andyour personal success? Let’s compare ourselves to the marketing documents that we spendconsiderable time and money preparing.

APPEARANCE Just as you wouldn’t hand out a dirty or wrinkled brochure, you should be clean,neat, and well put together. Hair, cosmetics, and clothing should be in current styles. With allof the new medical insurance changes, would you hire an insurance agent who appears out ofdate?

WORDS Our words and the tone of our voices should be positive and friendly. Verbal mispro-nunciations are equivalent to written misspelled words;both are unprofessional and seem uneducated. Use yourbusiness voice which is clear, easily understood, and lacksslang and off-color words.

QUALITY Like the look and feel of high quality paper, doyour clothes represent your company and the quality of theproducts or services you provide? Are they the best youcan afford and tailored to fit so they hang correctly? Busi-ness clothes should be appropriate for your industry, formaland conservative for law and finance, and approachable andfriendly for social work and medicine.

BEHAVIOR While paper doesn’t actually behave, we dowant our marketing documents to have a positive influence.Does your behavior have a positive influence on people?Separate yourself from the crowd. Approach other peoplewith confidence in your marketability, shake their hand, andhave a pleasant comment to make. Be the one to winthe job!

Business Etiquette

MarketingYourselfTake the time to improve

your first impressions

Teri HaynesOwner of Business Interactions, LLCEmployee trainer and business eti-quette coachwww.BusinessInteractions.Net

After three decades of selling inradio, one local salesperson hasturned into an entrepreneur.Jerry Frentress, owner of Win-Win Powertools, empowers localbusinesses with his desire to win.

“I had long ago realized that I wasmore excited by my clients’ success thanthey were. I love to help others win! Andwhen my clients win, they help me win,”he said.

Spending 35 years in radio taught Jerryhow to sell himself, which would be verybeneficial for his future venture.

“Radio is an intangible that fliesthrough the air. My clients couldn’t see it,taste it or test drive my product. I learnedthat they ultimately bought me.”

He partnered with his wife of 45 years,Andrea, 11 years ago to begin Win-WinPower Tools.

“The roots had grown deep in both mycareer and Shreveport-Bossier, so we de-cided to stay here. My goal, as always, wasto help companies and individuals togrow their skills in sales and service,” saidFrentress.

He provides local businesses withwhat he calls Power Tools — fundamentaltools of communication that everyone canuse to grow their business and personallives.

“Power Tools are available toeveryone. All you have to do is power up,practice their use and put them to work,”he said.

Originally created to work with adver-tising clients, Jerry soon learned that“sales is sales.” His clients have varied

from the Advertising Media to Home Med-ical Supplies and from a Limousine Serv-ice to a Master Plumber.

“I love to speak on sales, service, lis-tening and communicating. I frequentlyget asked to work with organizations whowant to have fun and learn how they canpower up right now to make a differencein their lives and careers,” Jerry explained.

Jerry’s advice to local business leadersis PPP: Planning, Preparing, and Practicing.

“Develop a team that honors theprospects time. Prepare a team like pro-fessional athletes who practice, plan andprepare MORE than they play. Show theclients that you care about them…that youwant them to WIN.”

Jerry also advises to never practiceon your client, PPP every day.

“Clients and Cus-tomers believethat salespeoplewill WASTE ourtime. Time is pre-cious. We don'tthink we haveenough of it. BEthe very best youcan be., every timeyou are with aprospect. You neverknow who you aretalking to. He or shemay be you nextbiggest client.”


Get in the Spotlight

Each Month, BIZ will feature a business or entrepreneurthat is making a difference in Shreveport-Bossier. Spotlight

Jerry Frentress Is...

The PowerTools GuyFormer radio group manager now helping otherssucceed with marketing, leadership, sales


SINCE 1894, CHRISTUS HEALTH SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER has extended the healing ministry of Jesus Christ to those we serve.

TODAY, AS WE INVEST $55 MILLION to redesign and expand our services at CHRISTUS Highland Hospital, our commitment to our community and mission remains unchanged.

WE WILL ALWAYS BE HERE … AND YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE.

VIEW OFCHRISTUS Highland BERT KOUNS NORTH

www. christushealthsb. org

Documents

BIZ. Magazine, January 2014