A local business is defined as the following. A store or a service company that serves the immediate township or vicinity of where you live. There has never been more buzz surrounding local businesses and I will explain why. First of all it is still an ugly climate and a bad recession so many main street businesses are failing and empty storefronts are popping up more than usual. And you can quote me on any number of posts I have written in which I have trashed the idea of buying storefronts. This is true up to a point.
However, the ones that are surviving are surviving for a reason and usually that means they are doing something right. They are also cheap. You can buy a local business for as little as nothing down and maybe $50-$100,000 over time. Of course this isn’t exactly in sync with my LBO model but then I believe my readership is interested in a broad range of strategies to make money.
Ok, what’s the big deal with local businesses? Well the marketing opportunities of the internet have made these companies more attractive than they once were. Where local advertising was once limited to local newspapers and bulletin boards, it now can be powered by many times by internet advertising. The interesting thing about internet advertising is that you never run out of ways to market to your local business. You can twitter, you can facebook, you can use Adwords you can use Yahoo, you can even use your own hometown internet newspaper. Internet newspaper? Yes they are popping up everywhere and they are gaining popularity by the minute.
Well that’s not all. If your local business carries physical products or sells a service that can be sold via the internet, you can also expand your otherwise limited product line exponentially. Ever noticed how Walmart stores are missing lots of items that can be found on their website? This is true with every retailer. And every local business can play that same game. If you own a gift store you can offer only what you can stock in the store. But then you can add a whole portfolio of products to your website, using it as an extension of your physical location. At the same time your business gets an unlimited reach and obtains sales from territories well beyond your hometown. And you can mutiply your product expertise and create a distribution channel which far surpasses your local business.
What stops most people right now from taking advantage of this phenomenon is a lack of knowledge of internet strategies and perhaps even an abject fear of technology. It doesn’t matter, there is plenty of time to learn the ropes but the beauty of today is that local businesses are no longer local and we can expand them as much as we want without even leaving town.
