We’ve made a decision to regroup our efforts for downtown because of the lack of businesses wanting to work together downtown for growth as a team. We had hoped that the businesses would want to participate in a joint marketing program that has worked all over the country, sadly, many businesses did not even bother to show up to the game and some of them are now gone.

A lesson to be learned for all businesses in a tight community like ours, is that you must look at your brand as a whole. A singular small business generally can not activate a surrounding city by itself, it takes working together.

Over the next few months we will be considering if we should continue our revitalization efforts for downtown Everett, or move to another city which is ready to grow and work together. Either way we know that a business community will recognize the research we’ve done which shows how revitalization can be a rapid process, then take that plan by the horns and run.

Factors in Profitability

The Three Morning Seminar series is a trio of morning seminars designed specifically for the businesses in downtown Everett to help them improve factors of profitability. The 45 minute seminars cover financial strength analysis of a small business with Jennifer Shelton, Director of Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Edmonds Community College. Derrick Davis from Profitable Business Development will discuss the importance of compounding your customer base through referral marketing, using automated customer relationship management, personal contact and online marketing techniques. Ceptara’s Chris Lindstrom, six sigma black belt and longtime entrepreneur, will discuss the impact of LEAN techniques on small business, and how to implement strategies to reduce waste for better time management and profitability.

BONUS* Businesses that come will also have the opportunity to schedule free one on one time for personal free analysis on the discussed topics as offered by each speaker.

You must RSVP for these free seminars by emailing profitablebusdev@gmail.com by Nov, 8th, please include the name of your business and the number of people who will attend.

Location: Downtown Everett at Chamber of Commerce office in Arena.
Dates – Times: 8:30 am- 9:15am
Nov 9th Strategic Techniques Through Applied LEAN Methods,
Nov 16th Compounding your Customer Base,
Nov 17th Financial Factors in Profitability

About:
Profitable Business Development the company creating the Downtown Everett Marketing Community is committed to helping speed the revitalization of cities core. They are working with downtown businesses in a comprehensive strategy to increase the customer base and activity and brand recognition of downtown Everett. You can see the strategy and contact them to join at www.profbusdev.com

The SBDC is partially funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration. SBA’s funding is not an endorsement of any products, opinions or services. SBA funded programs are extended to the public on a non-discriminatory basis and available to individuals with disabilities.

We would like to meet with your business one on one to explain to you how the Downtown Everett Marketing Community will reach it’s objectives. We’ve also provided the presentation link below for you to read through, so you can get a detailed overview of the program. 

Download Prospectus Here

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Why revitalizing quickly takes comprehensive plans.

Starting small verse’s going for the gold, that’s what I want to talk with you about today.

A friend of mine said, maybe you should do some single events so people can have a demonstration of how events make a difference. I thought about it for a while because on face value it sounded like a good idea, until I remembered the facts and reality. 

Facts are that many places downtown have good events all the time, although only benefiting their own business most of the time. That few of the events create a feeling of community, or bolster the vibe and brand of Downtown Everett as part of their objective. 

We have the 4th of July parade, we have sports events, we have the Car Show on Colby, we have symphony and the arts, bands in the bars, all of which bring people in, so what is the missing part to make it stick? COMMUNITY, CONSISTENCY and MESSAGE!  

People want authenticity for the most part which means they want to hang out in a community that gives off a vibe of partnership, relationship. An event tossed here and there won’t create that feeling genuinely. People also like to have constancy. Look at Mcdonalds and Starbucks or any successful franchise and you’ll notice that rarely are they the best around, but they are the most popular. That’s because consistency of the total experience matters to people more than many other singular benefits of a product. If what we do as a business community does not have consistency in the total experience we provide, we won’t pull off revitalization quickly and perhaps never as well as we want. 

Now message, what is that exactly? Message is more experience than words. When you go to one of the events in Leavenworth WA, you’ll experience something that etches Leavenworth into you mind. When you go to Santa Fe you’ll get a feeling that is specifically Santa Fe, when your down at Pike Place Market or the Ave, well you get the idea. Those places all have a unique identity, forming an impression that you remember, they’ll brand themselves into your memory. That’s why they call it a Brand Message. You can’t achieve a Brand Message with one off sporadic events and marketing. 

Many of you have told me how you did that advertising and this one, and none of it worked. Right, most times singular marketing attempts standing alone don’t work, because getting your message to stick takes an army’s effort to get past the tidal wave of information and advertising a person experiences each day. It takes a connection, an experience, and those in consistent repetition to break through and reach that new customer. 

This is why an event here and there won’t help downtown Everett revitalize more quickly. They’ll be cool for sure, but the impression won’t last. Especially with the heavy competition we have around our city and in it. This is why we made such an ambitious comprehensive strategy to help downtown revitalize. We must have a historic, authentic brand which is positive and classy, throws off any poor impressions of the past. Attached to that is ‘home cooked’ relationship marketing for each business, to create a real community, people working together in a positive vibe. That then needs to be exposed to the surrounding community through great consistent events, which are thoroughly advertised through multiple avenues, which will help bring new people downtown to give you the opportunity to build new relationships – customers. People in the streets folks, activity is like gravity, when you make it people will be drawn toward it.

How many people would say to themselves, “I’d like to build an apartment complex, one room at a time and I’ll stack them all on top of one another, but I don’t want to work with plans to make sure it stands up, I’ll just build on gut feeling.” Sound like a good plan to you?

I’m not buying that apartment. Same thing goes for moving our downtown economy forward. We made the strategy, it’s huge, it’s bold and it will evolve with all of us. We need you to join the team and get onboard. If you want to know how you can join us without affecting your budget we can show you how in minutes. Call us when you have a minute to talk about it and we’ll connect you with a team of downtown Everett businesses who are determined to create lasting community and prosperity. 

Thanks again for building our community. 

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Don’t let others keep you from your success. 

In discussing speeding up our revitalization of downtown, several people have mentioned being uncomfortable being the first in, because they consider that a business next door might not contribute to the effort and thus mooch off everyone else’s hard work and capitol. I’d like to address that feeling and talk about why that sentiment should not hinder any business from putting some of their marketing budget into our team effort. 

The most important thing to consider is we have a growing team of business that want to work together to help all of us become more successful. That means they want to partner with you, to help you leverage your marketing budget to help you succeed. As you put your share into in the group marketing budget and become part of the team, you’ll reap rewards that you wouldn’t have, with your individual budget. That’s going to happen regardless of the businesses on the sideline who don’t join us. 

In a business community, every business generally reaps a benefit of being near other businesses. So to an extent, the business down the street that does no marketing at all, is already relying on your marketing efforts to survive. Your already paying for customers to find them and there’s no way to make that situation fair. But, through working together as a team, we can help encourage the businesses sitting on the sidelines, to see the benefit of joining with us to move our downtown into greater prosperity. When they see more and more people walking in your business from the activities you helped pay for, and those people are walking past their business, I can tell you, they’ll get interested in our team real fast. 

Now, the branding, marketing and event designs we are bringing to the downtown area are designed to benefit the individual business participants in the team. In other words, businesses that sit on the sidelines and fail to help the downtown prosper will not benefit like you will. Although they will likely see some minor benefit from people we help bring in to downtown, we are actively working on ways to make sure the new customers we bring into town, engage with participating businesses. And we’ll show you positive ways to talk to your customers, to encourage them participate with YOUR team. 

And lets take a real honest look at our foot traffic, we all need more plain and simple.  Why would any business stay on the sidelines when greater profitability is clearly mapped out in front of them in a cohesive branding, marketing and activity plan. Who cares if a business down the street wants to sit on the sidelines, your business is going to be better off for being part of the downtown team. Your business will get more customer opportunities, more exposure and the satisfaction of being one of the forerunners who changed Everett permanently for the better. 

Let the side-liners do their thing, mooch off your customer base all they want, they already have and are, but don’t let someone else’s lack of vision and commitment to success prevent your business from being a blessing to you, your employees and your community. Lets make the commitment and all work together to grow, and when we start reaping the benefits, lets encourage the slow adopters to get on board and commit to our community. 

I’m not waiting on the sidelines, and many business owners downtown don’t want to either, but we need you to join our team so we can begin the marketing, branding and events. The sooner you join the sooner we’ll all benefit. 

Thanks again for building this community. 

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A larger unveiling will be planned for the entire downtown business community, so that all businesses benefiting from the program can see the strategy and join the with other businesses in the effort.

We would like for you to attend, please send an RSVP request to profitablebusdev@gmail.com. The location for this first meeting has limited seating, so we will be sending out evite invitations to confirm RSVP.

About the Strategy

The strategy covers 5 objectives:
1. Creates an increase in downtown activity
2. Eases the burden of some marketing management from downtown businesses
3. Provides a collective marketing effort for a unified focus benefiting the district
4. Creates a positive brand for the area that people associate with the location
5. Improves the perception of quality lifestyle for the Everett area to attract new businesses to the area.

Many of the details will be discussed in the presentation, we hope you can attend.

Sincerely,
Derrick Davis

To learn more about our company please visit the page links above or contact Derrick at:

Phone: 206-351-6404  profitablebusdev@gmail.com