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SBDC TAP was
a pilot program from August 2001-December 2001. Today TAP is a successful
program catering to the technological needs of small to medium sized
businesses (1-300 employees.) I worked with TAP (Technical Advisory
Program) during this period, conducting research, building
websites, and justifying the "return on investment"
(see ROI article)
that a small business could see just by investing some time into
streamlining common business operations. Eg: payroll.
It was through TAP that I proved to myself and to them that a
website really could be profitable, and serve as a sustaining
medium to an entreprenuer(s). As you browse through this website,
keep
these items in mind. It has happened for other businesses, and
can happen for you.
Ramos &
Coston is a law firm in Nashville, Tennessee. They specialize
in immigration and visa law. They also offer general legal services,
including workman’s compensation, criminal matters, business law,
bankruptcy, and family law.
Ramos & Coston’s website is an e-brochure website. The site offers
information on services, the attorneys, office location, and so
on. For instance, a person with immigration law matters can go to
the website and get contact information including the company address,
a map and directions to the firm, emails, and phone numbers. They
can also read about general categories such as Immigration, Personal
Injury, Property Damage, and Wrongful Death. Each of these categories
allows the visitor to submit a case through an online form for review
by one of Ramos & Coston’s attorneys. The person receives correspondence
either by phone, mail, or email regarding his/her case.
When a client submits a case online, she receives a copy of her
form. Let’s say my cat gets hit by a car and that I need a lawyer
immediately. I fill out the form with full details about Fluffy,
I set up an appointment online, and I get a copy of what I submitted.
Two weeks later, during the office visit, I have a copy of my form
to remind me of the facts and issues.
The website also has innovative technologies that suit the law
firm’s needs. For example, there is an online office calendar that
shows available appointment times for the attorneys. A new client
can go to their website, find an open time slot that matches her
needs, submit a case form, and pay online via a web payment service.
Clients set up their own appointments.
Secondly, over half of Ramos & Coston’s clientele is Latino. Therefore,
the site is fully bilingual in English and Spanish. Using professional
translators, the site was translated into Spanish. That was a good
investment. As the only bilingual law website in Tennessee, it
captures the lion’s share of the Latino community. A website such
as RamosAndCoston.com can cost $5,000 to $30,000 to build from the
ground up, depending on the specific technologies. This is a safe
investment because a single legal case gained through the website
can easily earn $250,000.
The goal was to turn three audio cassettes of an all-day seminar
into something that could be sold nationwide through the web.
I chose to put the audio on CDs. I planned for the product to
be finalized, produced, and selling for the Christmas 2002 shopping
season. See the WriterAsPublisher website.
I talked with CD duplication/replication houses. Production included
assembly, warehousing, and shipping. After talking with a number
of companies, I found a company in Chicago that could do all of
this. Best of all, I can produce in quantities of 50, which meant
no large outlet of cash.
Meanwhile, I talked with sound engineers, musicians, and recording
studios. I researched and selected sound editing software and recording
hardware using the computer with 1.7GHz, 500 megabytes of RAM,
and 30 gigabytes of space, I converted the audio tapes from cassette
tape to digital format.
I bought software sound filters to remove the background hiss which
is common in tape recordings. The tapes were edited for content.
Pauses, background noise, and irrelevant noise were removed.
Seven hours of tapes turned into 4.5 hours of digital audio that
fits on 4 CDs. Working with technical writers and web developers,
I selected and edited the written content to produce a 62-page
book. This was outputted to 1200-dpi PostScript.
Meanwhile, I secured written permission and legal rights to the
content from all the speakers, including contracts with the various
writers, illustrators, and artists.
To sell the product on Amazon, I registered an ISBN number and
produced bar codes in EPS format.
Working with a professional illustrator in San Francisco, we produced
original artwork which appears by license on the product. I also
developed the marketing and PR strategy. This included database
collections of 8,500 people, another mailing list of 3,500 names,
and 400 names from the website. I also purchased a 10,000-name mailing
list from a list broker. I found four writers magazines for ad placement.
Working with a web developer, I repositioned the website to include
online ordering with secure credit card transactions. Using competitive
analysis, I build a site that answers users’ questions and
steers them to make a purchase. I used various free offers to collect
email addresses for further marketing.
Meanwhile I sent weekly updates to the chairman and steering committee
members and maintained relations with key people in the National
Writers Union (NWU.)
For the production we needed substantial capital. I did fundraising
to raise capitol for the production.
In short, the audio book has been a major fund-raiser for the
NWU Local 3. We are looking at further plan to advertise with Amazon.com
for further market penetration.
Duration of project – 6 months. Cost
of project- Under $5,000
and this was recupped very quickly from online sales.
Clogwild is a clog shoe store located in Palm Springs, California.
Clogwild carries Swedish Bastad clogs for men, women, and children.
Clogwild’s website is an e-commerce site. Clogwild posted
company information, such as store location, press coverage, and
contact information. They also added web pages covering the benefits
of clogs, a European clog size chart, and a product catalog featuring
close-ups of their men and women’s series, and children’s
Brakkies.
Although Clogwild is a small shop in a small town, the website
gives Clogwild a na-tionwide presence. With paid-placement at Yahoo,
Clogwild is one of the top sites in the USA for clogs. Clogwild
opened in September 2000. Within four months, it had become Bastad’s
largest reseller of clogs in the USA.
Many in-store customers come to Palm Springs on holiday, for a
convention, or to play golf, and they visit the store because they
saw it online. Some of them even come into the store carrying a
printout of the website.
The e-commerce is implemented through Clogwild’s ordering
system. By filling a simple order form, credit card payments can
be taken online. Clogwild offers many options for ordering, including
check, telephone, fax, and credit card.
Clogwild collects email addresses and sends out a monthly newsletter.
The newsletter is an email and costs nothing to send. For the
first year, Clogwild got 10-15 new sub-scribers every month.
In the second
year, as customers told others about Clogwild, the number of
subscribers increased and sales have increased as well. In
the 2001 Christmas
period, Clogwild picked up 150 subscribers. Clogwild sends out
the news-letter on the 15th of the month. This date is significant
because people get their sec-ond paycheck and thus have extra
money to spend. The clogs are under $100 and thus an impulse
buy. Clogwild
gets a strong response from the newsletter, with 2-8 sales within
2-4 days after delivery.
In terms of ROI, Clogwild spent less than $500 to build its website,
yet the site ac-counts for 90% of annual sales.
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