By:  Jan May, FACHE, MHA

You have made the decision to go out on your own and start a new company.  This has been your dream for years and finally you have enough money in the bank to help finance your business.  You write your business plan, hold a strategy planning session, organize your operations to streamline business processes, set up your website with search engine optimization, logo is designed, and collateral materials are printed.  You have trained your staff (or yourself) on customer service and attended workshops on starting your own business.  You are ready to go.  After months of cold calling and asking friends for referrals, you have a few customers, but you are not growing like you want to.  What should you do?  Get involved in your local community;  it is essential to your company's growth.

What is community involvement you ask?  It is anything that you do to represent your company to others in the community you serve.  Join the chamber of commerce, join service organizations, volunteer for 501c3 organizations, get involved at your child's school, sponsor a 2 miles stretch of a highway to pick up trash for the highway department (do you know how many people drive by those highway trash signs everyday?), etc.  The list is endless.  The more you get your company name in front of people, the better.  This is not an overnight solution, but it is a long term solution for building your business.

Marketing Specific, Inc. has followed this exact strategy and it has made all the difference in their business' growth even during a recession.  Cliff Hand, president, and Jan May, vice president, joined the local chamber and are both Ambassadors with the Rowlett Chamber of Commerce.  This involvement includes many opportunities to meet a vast amount of business owners and leaders that may need our marketing services now or down the road.  Marketing Specific, Inc. has also joined the Dallas Chamber of Commerce for the same opportunities. Both Mr. Hand and Ms. May are co-chairs of the American Cancer Society Relay For Life in Rowlett, Texas and have met many leaders in the community through this effort and support a great cause to boot.  Individually, both Mr. Hand and Ms. May have been involved in church activities for years and now see the fruits of their labor.  You just never know who you will come in contact with through community involvement efforts that just might need your business expertise so keep pushing forward on joining organizations and volunteering in the community you serve.

Jan May, FACHE, MHA is Vice President and Marketing Consultant with Marketing Specific, Inc. specializing in helping small to medium size businesses grow through branding, logo design, video, photography, practice consulting, marketing strategies, and project management.  If you are interested in learning more about their services, please visit www.marketingspecific.com.