4/28/09: The Franchise Show with David Asarnow and Stan Friedman
What a great show we had today! We were joined by two great guests–both of whom are very successful in the franchise arena. David Asarnow, CEO of Clix Portrait Studios and Stan Friedman, President of Retrotax helped to break down the process of becoming a franchisee and what they, as franchisors, look for in potential business owners.
They both agreed that you must do something you are passionate about. You don’t want to own a restaurant if you hate food preparation for example. However, you don’t have to have much experience in something you know you will be passionate about. You can still be successful owning a portrait studio franchise even if you’ve never been a professional photographer. As with anything, it’s a lot of hard work and persistence. Just because you are buying a “turnkey” operation, you still have to do the leg work to find your customers, connect with the community and grow your business.
And, unlike starting a business from scratch, a franchise offers you the opportunity to be in business for yourself but not by yourself. As cliched as that might sound, it’s nice to have the support of a corporate office as well as a community of franchisees. You have a road map and systems already in place as well as operations manuals and proven methods for being a profitable franchisee. And, the franchisor can project with much more accuracy how long it will be before you will be profitable since they’ve already done it before.
For more information, listen to the podcast and let us know what you think. Thanks to both David and Stan for joining us! Have a stellar week!
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4/21/09: Small Business Strategy with Todd Schnick & Don Rigby
We love small businesses. That’s our target audience after all. But you might wonder why we like them so much. As we talked this morning with Todd Schnick of Intrepid Group and Don Rigby of Integrated Marcom, we were reminded again of the many reasons small businesses are so much fun and so much easier to work with than their larger counterparts.
Todd really likes working with small business owners because they can be, in his words, “bold and fearless.” What might take months of red tape to cut through in a large organization, a small company can accomplish in record time. They are simply more agile, more willing to change, and typically, the executives are making most of the decisions. That’s important in an ever-changing business landscape like we are in right now. His company, Intrepid, helps companies benefit from their small size by being able to have a dialogue with customers and respond accordingly.
Similarly, Don enjoys working with startups and small businesses because he believes that with a little focus, they can really differentiate themselves in this new business environment. His company, Integrated Marcom, can help them do that through the various tools and processes they use to make the small business seem larger because they can more efficiently manage their business relationships. More efficient relationship management means that they can manage more relationships.
Great advice from both Todd and Don and another great show for GFR! Have a stellar week!
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4/14/09: GFR Talks New Media + Public Relations with David Henderson and LA Campbell
GFR had a first happen today! We had our very first Emmy-award winner on our show. David Henderson, a veteran communications strategist, author, online publisher, and Emmy Award winning former on-air CBS Network News correspondent, has extensive credentials in the field of organizational leadership through communications, image and reputation management, and media outreach–including today’s online digital revolution. In his new book, The Media Savvy Leader, David discusses how the landscape has changed and why it’s more important than ever for executives to be able to articulate their company’s vision and get that message out in an authentic way. He also says that they should invest time to develop trusted media contacts so that when they have a good story to tell related to their company, they can reach out to those contacts. As for social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc), David said that executives need to get involved and learn about the new online trends. Because if you aren’t talking about your brand, rest assured other people probably are and they may not be saying what you want them to say.
Next up we were joined in person by LA Campbell, a Public Relations Consultant in Atlanta. For 13 years, Lalohni “LA” Campbell has developed award-winning marketing and PR campaigns for clients ranging from Fortune 500 consumer goods and services, to manufacturing and technology start-ups. Because of what she referred to as the “democratization of storytelling,” companies need to look at PR in an entirely different way. It is no longer effective to simply put out a press release talking about your company. As David said earlier, journalists are busy people and a press release is generally a waste of their time. In fact, many press releases end up in “spam” folders. LA said that while she still uses press releases occasionally, she would rather see companies adopt a more strategic approach to public relations. She said that PR must come from the top and be communicated to the entire organization. And, if a company uses a PR firm, then it is important to involve them in more granular communications rather than having them come in and simply try to manage a message that’s already been delivered. That way, they can be more proactive instead of reactive.
Both LA and David agreed that the biggest PR blunder of the century was the top auto execs flying in on private planes to ask for a bailout from the American taxpayers. That incident really underscored the importance of executives being more aware of how they and their companies are perceived by the public.
Thanks to David and LA for joining us! This was an awesome show so download the podcast and listen when you get a chance. Have a stellar week and we’ll see you next Tuesday!
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4/7/09: Kimberly Turner of Regator and Holly Green, Author talk to GFR
One of our favorite Atlanta-area entrepreneurs stopped by Gravity Free Radio today. Kimberly Turner, one third of the Regator Trio which includes her husband Scott and brother Chris, talked about how Regator started and how they’ve managed to build a successful following in a relatively short time (since August 2008).
Regator began as a real estate blog aggregator. That’s where the name “Regator” comes from. So the original intent was to be a place where people could come to find some of the best blogs in that industry. What they quickly realized was that there was still a need for a one-stop shop for good blogs. As Kimberly pointed out, there are over 100 million blogs out there and most aren’t that great. Her job is to find the good ones and share them with everyone via Regator’s website.
The big news is that Mashable is hosting their first ever Atlanta event on May 14 and Regator is co-hosting with them. Kimberly was even kind enough to give out two free tickets live while we were on the air. Congrats to @spence_civille who won by being the first person to Tweet the correct answer to Erik during the show.
Our second guest, Holly G. Green, was kind enough to get up early and join us via phone from San Diego, CA. Holly G. Green is the CEO of The Human Factor, Inc., an organizational & management consulting firm. Her highly anticipated book, More Than A Minute: How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager in Today’s Changing World, gives readers valuable tools and practical guidance to develop and grow as effective managers and leaders.
Holly discussed the importance of communication, listening to your employees as well as noting milestones and achievements often. And, even in a world where social media seems to be the buzz word lately, she said nothing is a replacement for good, old-fashioned face-to-face communication.
Thanks to both our guests for yet another great show! Have a stellar week and we’ll see you next Tuesday!
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Win tickets to the 5/14 Mashable Mixer in Atlanta courtesy of Regator!
Want to go to the Mashable Mixer in Atlanta on 5/14? Of course you do, everyone who has an appreciation of Atlanta’s social media scene does and tickets are scarce. But don’t despair… Kimberly Turner of Regator (Mashable’s co-sponsor for the event) is bringing two tickets to GFR this morning and we’re giving them away! Here’s how it will work…
- Read up on Regator and what they do on their web site http://regator.com
- Listen to GFR this morning at 10AM Eastern by pressing play in the column on the right
- During Kimberly’s interview we’ll ask a Regator-based trivia question
- Tweet your answer as an @reply to erikwolf by clicking here.
- First correct response wins!
- Enjoy :)
Good luck everyone!
3/31/09 Stone Payton + Scott Allen: Innovation and Social Media
This morning we were joined by Stone Payton from The Desai Group. Stone has a great deal of expertise is in Change Leadership and Innovation. He talked about the importance of managing innovation in organizations through good strategic leadership. Follow Stone on Twitter to learn more about innovation. Also, The Desai Group will be hosting an Innovation Execution Workshop this month on April 23rd. For more information, click here.
Scott Allen says “Social Media” is his middle name and unlike a lot of people who claim to be social media experts, Scott wrote one of the first books on the subject entitled The Virtual Handshake. Scott is also an entrepreneur and writes for About.com on the subject of entrepreneurs. Follow Scott on Twitter or visit his website.
Thanks to Stone and Scott for another great show! Have a stellar week everyone!
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