Don't throw money down the drain!

From a WSJ piece: Small Firms Try Out New Advertising Avenues

The foray into online advertising has affected the salon's use of other ad venues. The company has eliminated its use of radio advertising and national magazine advertising. These old-media options don't bring in the business, says Mr. Ettore, adding that he now relies largely on search advertising and some local newspaper ads.

"My ad budget has been cut," he says. "I used to spend $60,000 to $70,000 a year on marketing. Now I only spend $20,000 to $30,000."

Lessons from The Apprentice - Advantage: Small Business

What follows is a comment that I wrote on inc.com's Apprentice blog:

I think that the episode provided irony and as well as a parable for small business.

Synergy was forced to find a creative way out of the domination that they were suffering. You saw how dejected and demoralized they were becoming when they saw how Gold Rush had taken a total domination of the resources that were available. I think that had Gold Rush not done such a good job of cutting them off, Synergy would have just had a less successful event (with a couple of cheerleaders).

This is a powerful lesson to small business. Sure, big business has domination of the resources for big campaigns and services. The smaller business can actually use that disadvantage to an advantage by outfoxing the large, inflexible corporations by finding creative ways to provide better value for their customers without the sexy ad campaigns.

I'm back...

...after a bit of a hiatus.

I will be posting soon about last night's "The Apprentice", as soon as I fix my copy and paste problem on my PC.