I officially launched my current business in 2021 and went full speed when my other smoothie/vitamin shop biz was in financial decline after the bridge building company, Skanska, left their construction barges/equipment in the bay during a hurricane. The bridge to get to the island we were on got demolished and the only way to get through to the area was by taking a 1.5 to 2 hour long detour through the other side of the island.
Smoothie shop opened in end of February 2020 and surprisingly we were crushing it at the start of the covid shutdown because people didn't have many options of places to go. We strategically hired local kids in the smoothie shop who were very familiar with the community and did lots of social media posting of drinks and stuff. We did giveaways and partnered with the community of local business friends.
However, after the bridge collapsed about 6 months after the pandemic started, we lost 85% of revenue overnight. It took a year to rebuild the bridge and get the traffic and commute situation back to normal. But after that, people didn't want to stop in for smoothies and vitamins on their commutes. Everyone was traumatized from the traffic nightmare. And the nail in the coffin happened when my biz partner made a fatal mistake of hiring a guy to manage the place who didn't vibe with the customer base, culture or community too well.
With the new studio and audio service business it took about a year to build up a solid customer base for my recording studio and audio production business. I work as a producer and audio engineer in various sectors or the entertainment and travel industry (music, film, tv, hotels and resorts). After about a year of doing lead generation and hitting the phones and inboxes with heavy sales calls and follow ups, I collected a decent book of clients. Those clients turned into repeat business and I would alway ask for referrals.
Covid Quarantine era was huge growth period for the entertainment industry, specifically the music industry. Record breaking performance of music streaming, which i think finally surpassed the record performance of sold CDS. Remember those lol? Lots of people wanted to make music, content, and stay entertained.
Now, podcasts are super popular and is a very lucrative lead generation and growth channel for businesses of all sizes. I'm working with some really cool companies that use podcasts to leverage an extremely engaged, educated, and financially stable audience of podcast listeners for business growth.
Social Media never made me money with the studio and audio biz so I never spend much time there. For my business, the leads I generate from social media account for less than 1 percent of my actual paying clients. I'm not 100% sure why that is, but I'll eventually invest some energy into finding out some answers. I target local clients so what was important to me was that my company website had the proper SEO to get people calling in or booking services. I make blog content that targets local audiences with SEO, and I try to update google maps listing with new content. That generates most of my new client acquisition. Once i get email leads, I just use that email list to stay top of mind by sending valuable content, updates, and sales offers
I'm planning on switching gears soon and switching my biz model to do more remote based work so I can travel and enjoy life more without being tethered to one location. That'll be a fun experiment! Business is hard, it's alway changing, is never certain and is never easy. I just try to remember that smooth seas don't make great sailors.
