5 Things That Fueled My Small Business to Grow in 2010

Before I get started on this post I have to say that it amazes me that I had no intentions of writing any posts in regards to “year ending” or 2010 coming to an end, yet this is probably my fourth post in as many days. I didn’t have any fuel for ideas or things I really wanted to post about heading into this final week of 2010, that was until I decided to work a relaxed schedule. Now the ideas are flowing, my stress level is down and my productivity is up.

Initially I planned on taking this entire week off to recharge my batteries and do nothing, that didn’t pan out how I planned when I lost a key associate earlier in the week and scheduled a few meetings for during the week. I was telling Mike from Daily Shot of Coffee that I really don’t ever get a full vacation in whenever I stay home, for whatever reason i guess I get sucked back in. No complaints here, it’s better then doing nothing anyway.

Earlier today I posted, “5 Things I Failed to Do as a Business Owner in 2010“. I figured by posting a few of the areas that I really blew it in it would serve as a good reminder to get things flowing in 2011, I hate leaving doors open and things unfinished it kills my OCD. Now with the learning and negative stuff addressed and behind me I can move on to posting something a little more, positive should I say. The main reason for writing this post is to help those new tanning salon owners or young entrepreneurs looking to get started out, hopefully someone learns something from what I post here today.

Here’s a few small business decisions that fueled our growth in 2010.

Things That Fueled My Small Business in 2010

1. Private Labeling

Once we made the decision to private label our own indoor tanning and sunless tanning products it was on. Private labeling is easily the thing that impacted my small business the most in 2010, adding much needed margin to the bottom line and increasing total pieces sold to a new company record. At first I was concerned that a broken relationship with a national tanning lotion brand would hurt our product sales, instead it opened doors to more control, profit, product sales and customer satisfaction.

I should send a “thank you” card to the national brand that shit on what was once a very loyal business relationship. Nah, I know they read. THANK YOU!!

2. Social Media Marketing

As many of you know I’ve become somewhat of a social media addict over the last two years, focusing almost all of my marketing campaigns on social media marketing and marketing online as a whole. I’ve had excellent success using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook thanks to another growing addiction of mine, the Facebook Fan Page. The only reason social media isn’t the number one thing on my list is because of the sheer revenue and GMROI that private labeling added to the bottom line in 2010.

Social Media Antics

• My Social Media Addiction and $15k in Social Media Giveaways helped in exposing our new products to customers
• We used social media to develop a product earlier this year, the information we gathered doing this was incredible
• I recently shared How Using Social Media Affected My Black Friday Sales in order to share the results I saw thanks to social media

3. TV Advertising

Yes, businesses still advertise effectively on TV regardless of what the internet masses might tell you. Earlier this year we had the chance to shoot the first Extreme Tan and Smoothies TV commercials, we worked with Brighthouse and unlike my Insane Limos TV commercials our Extreme Tan and Smoothies commercials were not in HD. High-definition or not, our commercials pulled in some serious foot traffic just before the indoor tanning season for 2010 came to an end in May.

Tan Naked Tv Commercial

Tan Naked TV Commercial Video

Extreme Tan and Smoothies TV Commercials

• The Perfect Tan
• The Best Spray Tan

4. Going Green

All though we made the decision to start Going Green in November of 2009 we really didn’t have a full year to dig into making Extreme Tan and Smoothies a Green company until 2010. The transition all though challenging and frustrating at times, once we started to explain why Going Green made sense the transition smoothed. Now heading into 2011 we have more big changes in store, the first major change being that we will no longer provide tanning towels on every tanning bed.

It might sound like providing tanning towels on every tanning bed wouldn’t be a big deal… well it is. Extreme Tan and Smoothies goes through thousands upon thousands of towels each year, that doesn’t include the 100′s of tubs of laundry detergent we burn through each year or the fact that 362 days a year we have 6 washers and dryers running from open to close daily. That’s somewhere around 70k hours over the course of a year.

Going Green has reduced unnecessary expense in 2010 and will do so even more in 2011, but more important is the fact that cutting out additional waste helps to save the planet. Something that is important to me as a father and small business owner.

5. Devoted Associates

Even with Extreme Tan and Smoothies, Inc. having incredible growth in 2010 it took an amazing effort amongst the most dedicated DEVOTED associates to keep Extreme moving in the right direction. In business it’s rare that you come across a group of people that you have a chance to work with that will believe in the same things you do, that will walk the same path as you… as far as that path might go or even if it goes nowhere at all. It’s even more rare that you find this type of commitment in young people in the work force today, but it does exist. I know because I see it daily.

This is an elite group of committed, dedicated, devoted and passionate young people that doesn’t include the liars, thieves, cheats and quitters. There’s something special, something that sets them apart in any weather, any climate, even in a tanning salon business.

Without a doubt the devoted associates of Extreme Tan and Smoothies are the very thing that fueled my small business to grow, without them nothing else in the list matters.

Parting Shots

Knowing the areas that we excelled in is important to me, but knowing the areas I failed in is much more important to me. I can take a few good things out of the positive things we did above and grow the branches on those trees a little longer, but focusing on the weaknesses will give me new seeds to plant for new trees and bigger, stronger branches. I’m excited about our business successes in 2010, but I look forward to really killing it in 2011.

You Go

Take a minute to share a decision that fueled your business success in 2010, you might share a golden idea that helps a young entrepreneur or small business owner looking for a new angle on things.

Tagged as: Business Ideas, Business Success 2010, entrepreneur, Fuel Your Business, small business

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