I’m spending the holidays in the states. Actually hanging out with family in a midwest town of 500,000 – Wichita, KS. I’d like to tell you about my brother in law. Don’t worry this is not a deeply personal blog post but is actually about your business and adversity you might be facing in marketing your business.
My brother in law, we’ll call him Nick (his name is hard to spell and would be even harder for you to pronounce) is a chiropractor in Wichita. His business is small and growing. As I talked with ‘Nick’ I asked “has the economic crisis in the states caused his business to slow.” He said, “no, not really… but the strike at the aircraft manufacturer had cause some of the striking employees to lose their insurance and in turn they were not coming into the chiropractor.”
Currently the strike has been resolved but another aircraft plant is talking about a strike and another aircraft plant has just entered a round of layoffs. Those of you in Vancouver don’t know this but the local economy here is very heavily dependent upon aircraft manufacturing. When one of the plants goes on strike or experiences cut backs many small businesses suffer.
I scratched my head and thought about how to help Nick. If people don’t have jobs or money to pay.. how can he use this to help build his business?
Then I had one of those “Ah ha” moments. I realized that if people weren’t going to Nick’s clinic they were also not going to all of his competitor’s clinics as well. Everyone on the picket line at the strike were potential customers because during the strike all of them were without insurance and all of the ones that typically go to the chiropractor were skipping out on their chiropractic visits.This adversity is a great opportunity for him to grow his business.
What is my recommendation to my brother in law?
Offer a free chiropractic adjustment to each of client’s that are on strike and ask his client’s to invite three co-workers to come down for free adjustments as well. The strike will end. People will go back to work and will have insurance again and will be able to pay for their adjustments. I have talked to a few of my Brother-in-law’s clients and I’ve actually visited the clinic myself and know that his bed side manner and care is top notch. During this time of difficulty for his client’s offer them something to ease the pain and they will be customers for life and allow them to give something to their friends and he will win them as well.
Sorry this blog post has nothing to do with Google, or Adwords or Blogging. I just want to encourage you as you face the close of this year and make plans for 2009 to see adversity in your business as a potential opportunity to succeed. When facing adversity either offline or online, your competitors are also unsure of what to do, but if you take the adversity given to you and turn it into your friend, 2009 could be your best year yet.
Committed to Your Success,
Rodney Bartlett – Lead Instructor
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