1. What first spurred you to get involved with social media for your business?

Well, the office supplies business is one that is rooted in old school methodology…from top to bottom, and as a result, I thought the sales process was a bit primitive…cold calling or canvassing door to door, trying to get your giant catalog in the hands of buyers, it works if you put enough numbers into the funnel, but it is also very hard to differentiate yourself from your competition…so I thought social media might present an opportunity to better leverage my sales efforts, since I am a small company, and get my message to more people than I could otherwise, in a way that the competition maybe had not caught on to yet.

2. Tell us about your online strategy. What online tools are you using now to grow your customer base?

I blog about office supplies at execdeals.com, I use email marketing, and I have an e-commerce site for my local office supplies business. And I use social media like Twitter, of course. I spend a good deal of time trying to tie all of it together and get them working for each other, so to speak. I am starting to try out some other things, like a Facebook fan page, some video…but the whole strategy is in constant flux..I am always trying new things, backing off others that don’t seem to be working.

Also, fairly recently we developed this idea of creating ‘niche’ e-commerce sites. By niche I mean sites focusing on one product line within the office products world. With the 100,000 item universe of office products, it’s a way we feel we can get the most SEO bang for our buck, as well as do really well with our customers in terms of price and service. We just launched the first one…it specializes in paper shredders.

3. What’s the ‘one thing’ that social media has taught you about your business?

That I can’t use it to directly sell office supplies, actually…they are a commodity item people can and will buy from anywhere as long as it is cheap, and they don’t really spend a lot of time worrying about them…which is very different from selling something handmade or unique. At the end of the day, you can get the same Sharpies at the same price anywhere you go. I can compete with the chains on price, but I also realized I can not afford to ‘out-discount’ or out-market them to get my new customers, and people don’t want to hear about the price of my sharpies anyway. What I can do is to use social media to develop relationships, let people get to know me, get to know them, further my network, be informative, etc.

Social media has taught me that my best customers buy from me because they like dealing with me, or they like my delivery driver, or they like that I know their order history and they can call and ask for ‘those yellow things’ they got two orders ago and I will know what they mean…they see that as a value. They know my copy paper will be at least close to Sam’s price…but they also know my driver will bring it into their office and put it where they want it…so, maybe if it’s a dollar more a case, that is actually cheaper. People that want to call 10 places and check the prices of everything they need, or scan a bunch of websites…I probably don’t present as much value to them.  Problem is, there is probably more of the latter, so like I said, we are trying to find a balance, and it is all very much a work in progress.

4. What was your biggest marketing tactic success in 2009?  Your worst?

The tactic I was most successful with was putting my focus on SEO. learning about SEO and getting found online is where I am going to see the biggest return on my investment, so just starting to embrace that idea was my biggest success. Your seminar, Will, was a big part of realizing that.

Worst? lots of little things did not go over as well as I hoped, but I think I avoided any big disasters for the most part.

5. What was your biggest marketing blunder? How did it affect your business?

I think my biggest blunder was being ‘spammy’. I don’t really know that it affected my business, other than maybe some lost opportunities, but it finally hit me that it is better to engage and be informative, even educational, but not pushy. The odds that somebody cares about, much less needs, the office supply I was touting at any given moment is slim…but being helpful, engaging, informative and maybe even developing a relationship, …well, hopefully that gets you remembered when the need does arise.

6. How do you compete against the bigger names in your industry?

Exec partners with a distributor that is a huge publicly traded company. They deal only with other independents like me, all over the country, and use their enormous buying power to keep me on an even playing field price-wise. They use state of the art fulfillment and shipping equipment and they also help out with the marketing..,they provide lots of materials to send out. They also maintain the electronic catalog of over 100,000 items.

7. Are there any new tools that you’re playing with that haven’t caught on to the mainstream, but are working well for you?

I wish I was…but I don’t think I am. However, within my industry, as best I can tell, there are not many other companies like mine blogging and using Facebook and things like that to educate and inform their customers, so in that sense, even though mine versions are still new and fledgling a bit, I feel like those things are slowly starting to gain traction for me.

8. What is your favorite part of what you do? Your least favorite?

My favorite part is working with my customers, especially when we can save the day for them by getting them something for a deadline or that they otherwise did not think was possible. If they succeed and look good, then so does Exec…my least favorite part is probably the same as everyone’s: all the administrative stuff…the paperwork, it is a necessary evil, but I feel like it takes me away from the stuff I really enjoy

9. Greg, I know you are also the main force behind the St. Louis Social Media & Tech Report.  Keeping up with the latest SM events, news and happenings must take a lot of time.  Where do you get your information for the site?

Yep, that is me too…back when I started trying to incorporate social media into my company I thought I could document that process in a blog and help others with doing the same thing, but trying to do a ‘how-to’ blog just was not for me…I am not that technical of a writer. However, I enjoy blogging and there was (and still is) a lot of interest in social networking events around town, and people in St. Louis coming together and interacting with each other…so after a few early attempts at the how-to aspect, I had the idea for the St. Louis Social Media Report, and it has just kind of gone from there. It remains a work in progress, and just a hobby, but honestly, it has also been a good networking tool for me as well, I have met some good people through that blog and the events it talks about.

As for getting the information, at this point, I still go out and find almost all the news and events myself, which does take a lot of time…although I have set up lots of twitter searches and google alerts that get passed into my RSS reader that tip me off to most of them. I am trying to develop a network of ‘tipsters’ to send me stuff, that and asking for a little more input from others is a goal for 2010, but so far, it is almost all me.

It does take a lot of time, but I enjoy it and the response has been real nice. I have a few interesting ideas for it too, so I am excited to see where it leads next year.

10. Do you recommend any books or blogs that have influenced you or helped your business grow?

Actually, it just occurred to me the other day that there are a ton of great books out there that I want to read, but I have not been reading actual books enough lately, mostly because I read a ton of blogs and other stuff online.

So I guess let me point out a few blogs I like:
Duct Tape Marketing this one helps a lot with ideas for marketing my business
Lifehacker – always cool information on there
ReadWriteWeb – a solid web 2.0 blog
Ribeezie.com – a little more obscure maybe than those others, but a good take on social networking.

1. Chris, thanks for taking a few minutes to answer my questions.  What first spurred you to get involved with social media for your business?
   Two things – I truly enjoy interacting with people, and a lack of money.
   First, people: I am obviously, at the base of it, nothing more than a new-age salesperson. I mean, in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I have a funny t shirt company, and I’d be psyched if you bought a shirt or two from me! For selfish, capitalistic reasons, Social Media is a great place for me to be. But beyond that, I love being with people. It used to be that interacting with people meant gathering in the same physical meeting spot, i.e. coffee shop, pub, etc. To a lesser degree, you could talk on the phone with someone, but that was usually 1-on-1 interaction (a really underrated kind of interaction, I might add, but I digress). Today, you can join Twitter and Facebook, gather a following, make friends with who you want, and develop nothing less than meaningful relationships. There are those that don’t understand how an eRelationship could possibly be meaningful (older generations, perhaps). But 350 million people on Facebook can’t be wrong. And Twitter is a *real* gathering place – it feels as real to me as any coffee shop or pub. So I love hanging with my eFriends and making new ones, and the t-shirts sorta just sell themselves in the process. Honestly, if being on Twitter is work, then I love work! Second, money: I have very limited funds at this time – it took a whole bunch of cash to get Rizzo Tees off the ground, and right now I don’t have the money to advertise. Social Media is a wonderful way to get the word out about my tees, and the only investment is time.
2. Tell us about Rizzo Tees´ online strategy. What online tools are you using now to grow your customer base?
   You don’t have enough room on your blog for my online strategy – I’m not kidding. I have an Excel file outlining a huge plan for 2010 – the trick is staying awake and alert enough to execute it by night while I try not to get fired from my day job. I am a serial thinker and planner, and as thoughts occur  to me, I use Reqall.com to leave myself voicemails that get transcribed and emailed to me. Alternatively, I use the Notes feature on my iPhone to keep track of what needs doing. The trick is executing on all of it, and it’s a matter of time and *will*. I will simply have to make the time. Being a serial planner and thinker is great, but I need to get better at being a serial doer.
   In short, 2010 is going to bring more Shareasale affiliate efforts, more video, more Twitter lists, more Facebook fan page work, more email marketing, more SEO, more interaction all across the board.
3. What´s the `one thing´ that social media has taught you about your business?
   That truly interacting with your customers is key, and that social media makes it easier than ever to do that.
4. What was your biggest social media blunder? How did it affect your business?
   I’m not sure if it’s a blunder, but I still feel like a big idiot. I met all three of my female models through Twitter. Jaime, Heather, and Ronda are awesome – I owe each of them so much – I have unlimited gratitude for them.
   In the case of Jaime, I’ve never met her – we spoke via Twitter, she said she’d take pics for me, so I sent her the tees. She found a professional photographer, she took the pics, and they were just awesome (see Bacon tee page for how awesome she really is). However, there was another girl on Twitter that I approached about modeling. She’s been on an E! reality show, on MTV, etc – very cute girl. She agreed to take pics – she was downright excited about it. I sent her three tees, and she did nothing with them. I emailed her, tweeted her, DMed her, tried not to be a defacto stalker…. she just took the tees and ran.
   I’m sure she’s busy with her TV baloney and all, but she said she’d do the pics. Finally, I just asked her to send them back, and she asked for my address. I thought I was going to get the tees back. After I gave her my address, nothing…. no tees. So in the end, you just kinda feel like a moron. What I DID do well, I think, is contain my feelings. I didn’t call her out publicly, and didn’t send her an angry final email telling her how it was …. I just let it go. What it taught me was to try to establish local modeling relationships when possible.
5. How do you measure and evaluate the results of your online efforts?
   For me, it’s pretty simple. I want and need to make sales. I can honestly say I’d be on Twitter and Facebook anyway, even if Rizzo Tees didn’t exist – I’d be on Social Media, making friends and sharing info, just like I do now.
   Two goals I have for Social Media – helping others, and spreading the word about my tees — if I do those things, the rest falls into place.
6. Are there any new tools that you´re playing with that haven´t caught on to the mainstream, but are working well for you?
   I’m pretty heavily weighted on Twitter and Facebook, with 2010 plans to leverage LinkedIn. Most often, I’m a late adopter of new Social Media tools. One tool (that’s not a Social Media tool) that I mentioned earlier in the interview is Reqall.com. The iPhone has a Voice Memo app, but what I like about Reqall is that what I say gets transcribed and emailed to me – that is the *reminder* I need to do it. The email is the reminder. Voice Memos I leave for myself could stay in that app, to be unlistened to forever! I plan to use Tubemogul in 2010 to upload videos across multiple video platforms.
7. What is your favorite part of social media? Your least favorite?
   My favorite part is the people. I have made real friends on Social Media – my dad doesn’t understand how this works, but the people I’ve met on Social Media – they’re as real to me as any long-time “in the flesh” friends I have. On top of that, I’ve met many eFriends in the flesh, and that is a truly unique, sometimes mindblowing experience. What’s funny….. I’ll often meet someone in person and say “Hi, I’m Chris,” and they’re cordial. Then I say, “I’m RizzoTees on Twitter,” and their face almost lights up. That sounds douchey, and I don’t mean it to be – when you make friends online, and you hang out for months, or years, and you finally meet someone in person, putting a face and a voice to that name and all of that interaction you’ve had …. it’s mighty powerful. For me, Social Media has more utility when you make an effort to meet people face to face. My 2010 goal is to take my wife to Boston for a weekend to hang with Julio Varela and his wife – someday, my friend!
   My least favorite part – the haters. On the whole, Twitter is a place of kindness, in my opinion, so you don’t see it much there. But if you venture over to YouTube, or to the Fark forums, be prepared to get punched about the head. And that’s fine, you just know what you’re getting yourself into, depending on which platform you’re visiting. I guess the most disappointing thing is when it *does* happen on Twitter. I’ve had several people just attack me unprovoked, name calling, accusing me of stealing designs, etc. As a business, it’s probably a bad idea to respond in kind, so I just try to let it die down. If someone persists, I’ll block them – and that’s only happened maybe twice.
   Ahhh, this reminds me. I had a fellow t-shirt entrepreneur feature me as part of #FollowFriday, and then six days later, he unfollowed and *blocked*me. I had even been retweeted by him once just two days before getting blocked. Completely bizarre, the details are here. It’s by far the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me on Twitter. His strange email response to me was really disappointing, but I just moved on – it’s hard to care about knuckleheads sometimes!
8. What are some good tips for a small business that wants to get into SM but aren´t sure how?
   It’s two things – listen, and care. These are not unique concepts that I just came up with, so props to everyone before me that have advocated for listening and caring. So why the hell don’t more companies do these two things? You, I, and all of your blog’s readers deal with this every day – customer service sucks!!! The best businesses, whether they use Social Media or not, will listen to their customers, and then they’ll care about them. Social Media is just a tool to help you listen and care, and you should use it because you have alot of customers that are on Social Media. Listen, if none of your customers have phones, would you set up a bank of operators ready to take customer phone calls? Conversely, if you had a ton of customers complaining about the fast food burger they just tried to eat, wouldn’t you have a bank of people on computers, ready to respond to their complaining tweets? So it’s not a question of “How can we sell stuff using Social Media?” I couldn’t care less about ROI – I’m building a community of people that believe in what I’m doing. If I ship the wrong size tee and someone tweets about it, I’ll be there. When someone compliments my fast shipping, I publicly thank them back. Be where your customers are, listen to them, and care about them.
9. Do you recommend any books or blogs that have helped your business grow?
   I am a Gary Vaynerchuk fan. Full disclosure: when it comes to the “gurus” of social media and marketing, I have my radar up BIG TIME – for all of their good ideas about how to achieve success, what they’re selling you is their system. They’re selling their 4-DVD set on how to use Adwords, or how to convert leads, or how to become rich selling mail order diet supplements, or whatever bullshit. And it’s $1,500 worth of stuff, all for the low, low price of $299. So I always think to myself, “If this magic elixir of yours is so damn good, why aren’t you using it yourself to build a real business, to sell something real? The answer, of course, is that their how-to product never delivers as advertised, they sucker in a large chunk of buyers, then they start counting their money, and then they move on to the next “system.” Gary knows he comes across as obnoxious to some people, and while I think it secretly bothers him, it *never* stops him from being himself. And the key, of course, is that he has already lived what he preaches, and he’s using it *now.* He talks about building your personal brand, about caring, about outworking the competition. And yes, he did write a book about it (that I can recommend), but he’s putting it into practice – Cinderella Wine, Gourmet Library, PleaseDress.Me – these are real businesses that he’s building. So whether or not you like him, I feel he’s a great example of what you can do with hustle and caring for others. He even cared about little me one time- can you outcare this guy? Have a decent product and act like this, and your business will grow.

Also: Read last week’s interview with Russ Henneberry

Russ Henneberry writes and speaks about Content Marketing Strategy and how tiny businesses can make mighty profits using a personal computer, a little imagination and a few well-placed dollars.

1. What first spurred you to get involved with social media for your business?
   I started a business in 2004 that was a massive failure. The most critical take-away from that failure was that I needed to be more connected to colleagues, customers, and prospects. I realized that going it alone was not a good strategy and that social media was a great way for me to grow my support network.
2. Tell us about T&M’s online strategy. What online tools are you using now to grow your customer base?
   I use a WordPress blog as a hub from which to consistently broadcast valuable and timely content that would be beneficial to my market. I use video sharing sites (YouTube, etc), Email Marketing through aWeber, and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
3. What’s the ‘one thing’ that social media has taught you about your business?
   Social Media has taught me how useful my business can be to others. I try to be as helpful as possible through my Twitter and Facebook account and I find that others reciprocate by helping me.
4. What was your biggest marketing tactic success in 2009? Your worst?
   The single most powerful decision I made this year was publishing to my blog daily. It has resulted in tremendous growth for my business. In terms of failures, my video podcast was started prematurely and didn’t follow the same branding strategy that I used across the rest of my content. I plan to resurrect this tactic in 2010.
5. What was your biggest social media blunder? How did it affect your business?
   My social media blunder was in the way that I originally approached Twitter. I automated a lot of my content and didn’t truly engage with my followers. Although much of that automation remains, I have committed to real discussion on Twitter and it has been a fantastic experience.
6. How do you measure and evaluate the results of your online efforts?
   I use, of course, Google Analytics to measure referrals, etc. However, I concentrate on the quality of the contacts I make through my online efforts and this is more difficult to quantify. In the end, I look at the source of sales, referrals, email sign-ups, etc to determine whether I should continue with any particular tactic.
7. Are there any new tools that you’re playing with that haven’t caught on to the mainstream, but are working well for you?
   There are three tools that I would recommend that may not be in the mainstream. The first two are video related:
   • Animoto – Animoto is a powerful and easy slide show video program that will take still images and short video clips and turn them into amazing video. – www.animoto.com
   • TubeMogul – Tube Mogul allows you to upload your video to ~10 video sharing sites at once, including YouTube. – www.tubemogul.com
   • Meet Up – MeetUp.com is a great place to find networking events in nearly every niche. – www.meetup.com
8. What is your favorite part of what you do? Your least favorite?
   I love the ever changing landscape of Internet Marketing and the power that it brings to tiny business owners like myself. I dislike (although I am admittedly intrigued by) the “shady” side of Internet Marketing such as link buying, etc.
9. What are some good tips for a small business that wants to get into content marketing but aren’t sure how?
   Start with a self hosted WordPress blog. Listen to your market through social media channels like Twitter and then build content that addresses the needs of that market and establishes you and your website as the authority in your industry.
10. Do you recommend any books or blogs that have helped your business grow?
    Books:
    Tribes by Seth Godin
    The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann
    Blogs:
    WebInkNow by David Meerman Scott — http://www.webinknow.com/
    Junta 42 by Joe Pulizzi — http://blog.junta42.com

Russ, thanks for your time and keep up all the great work!  I should also mention that Russ will be speaking on content marketing at the MarketSTL conference in April.  Tickets are still available.

If you’d like to do an interview with me, drop me a dm on Twitter @TechLH or email me will at willhanke dot com

As many of you know, I’m the moving force behind Market Saint Louis, a twice-a-year business conference that focuses on teaching local St Louis businesses the ways of online optimization, advertising and more.  Speakers from around the country fly in to share their expertise on various subjects, from SEO to Pay per Click and Analytics.  2010 is going to be even bigger, with the conferences featuring two separate tracks – one for beginners and one for businesses that are already in the game to some level.

The event isn’t cheap (although the pre-agenda tickets aren’t very expensive) and some small businesses may have a hard time shelling out several hundred dollars in this economy just to learn how to spend more time and money on the Internet.  But it’s crucial for every business to be online now.

To help quell the fears of those business owners, I’ve partnered up with the Jefferson County Library to teach a series of free classes (yes, I said free) on Online Marketing, Social Media and more.  This series of classes will run January through March, and will be very limited both in amount as well as seating.

If you’re wondering just how your competition gets their website to the top of Google searches for items you sell, you’ll learn. If you know your business needs to be on Twitter or Facebook, but you don’t know how to use these tools, you’ll learn.  And if you want to grow your online sales, you’ll learn.

Scheduled Dates

Twitter Basics and Tips

Jan 14 – 9:30AM to Noon or March 4 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Learn how to set up a Twitter account and how to ‘tweet’.  You’ll learn about some great tools that will help you get more followers, find great information about your interests, and how to utilize some ‘behind the scenes’ tricks to get the most out of your new account.

Marketing Your Business Website

Feb 4 – 9:30 AM to Noon  or Mar 25 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Do you wonder why your website isn’t listed on Yahoo! or other search engines? Are you clueless about search marketing techniques that can draw customers to your site? We will cover topics such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), online advertising tips and avenues, along with ways to increase your website traffic along with other offline marketing ideas.

Social Media for Business – Leverage Community to Build Your Brand

Feb 11 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Learn how to leverage blogging, video and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to grow your business.

Download the flyer / schedule

Sign Up Now

All classes have very limited seating and will be at the Arnold branch of the Jefferson County Library.  To sign up, call 636-296-5171.

These will be the only classes offered this Spring.  For more information on the upcoming Market Saint Louis conference (and to get the cheap ticket price) visit MarketSTL.com

“Know your enemy” – Sun Tzu in The Art of War

If you use Twitter to promote your business (and you should), you are already ahead of most businesses in your industry.  Twitter is a great tool, if you can leverage it correctly.  Unfortunately, I see a lot of businesses using Twitter in ways that, while they think helps them, it’s actually hurting them.

Screwup#1: Missing Traffic Opportunities

If you’ve attended any of my seminars, you know that I’ve said blogging is by far one of the best ways to build your brand, promote your business, and increase your landing page count.  Providing quality information that people are ready to consume will automatically put you in an authoritative position in their mind.  You become the subject matter expert.

So when I see a business post a tweet that is informational about your industry, without a link back to your article, I hang my head in disgust.  Here you have a great piece of information, like a celebrity that uses your product, but you don’t link it anywhere.  You missed the target!

The real enemy here is simply missed traffic.  Twitter gets insane amounts of traffic. Ultimately, traffic back to your website means branding, which leads to sales; and that’s what we’re after.  Even if someone doesn’t need your product today, when they do need it, you want to have your logo/biz name pre-planted in their head.

It’s not enough to put posts on Twitter about interesting things.  Take all those interesting things that you find out and write a blog post about them.  Expand on them, add some great information about why this info is great, and provide it all in a way that is purely educational and not sales-y.

People aren’t stupid. If you’re talking about how blue widgets can kill mosquitos, and they happen to have a mosquito problem, they’re smart enough to click over to your blue widget page and buy.

As I hear all the time when my kids are playing Call of Duty 5, The Enemy has Taken Your Flag!  Don’t let twitter take your flag (traffic) and keep it.  You’re posting the information to help people, right? So make sure the traffic that your Twitter feed is seeing gets to your website.  Don’t drop the ball.

Screwup #2 – Posting Half of a Good Deal

Many business people understand that there’s an advantage to Twitter.  They’ve got the understanding that most people are following you because they’re interested in what you have to say/sell.  You’ve got your target audience in your hands, and they patiently await to be persuaded to buy.

So when you want to offer a deal to people because you’re nice, or because they are raving about your product, don’t post a message telling them that “for a good deal”, they need to contact you.

Why? Well, let’s go back to your audience. Many of these people are interested in what you have to say/sell, right? But they are probably passively interested.  Meaning, they aren’t interested in putting a lot of time into you (along with the thousands of other businesses clammoring for their attention).  So posting a message saying that in order to save they have to contact you, you may have just lost a sale.

Why not just post the coupon online for all to see?  The more your of your audience that sees it, the more sales you’ll get, right?

Screwup #3 – Dumping Your Followers to Competitors

While this one isn’t as big of a no-no as the others, it’s still one that makes me scratch my head when I see it.

You find a great article on something in your industry.  It’s written by a well known competitor, and (unfortunatly) you agree with what they’ve posted.  Or maybe you don’t. Either way, don’t go twitter-crazy and immediately post a link to the guy’s article, especially if you disagree.

If you agree with what was said, consider rewriting the article as your own content (careful here… you don’t want to be accused of plagiarizing or called a Johnny-come-lately) or post something on your site about how your business agrees with what was said on such and such’s site.

If you disagree, you’ve got all kinds of firepower to write up a great blog post.  Inform your readers by (politely) showing how your competitor is wrong, and how your company would do the project right.

In Saint Louis MO? Learn more about Internet Marketing at the Look at Me Seminar in June.

Today I met with a potential client who owns several Italian restaurants here in the St. Louis area.  They are (just like every other restaurant) wondering how they can tap into the search engine and social media fields to gain new clients.  With the down economy, people are being more and more select about where they spend their money for dining.  Here’s where Twitter can come to the rescue.

I don’t want to go into the whole explain-twitter-to-me thing, but here’s something cool that many people may not know – twitter can link up to your cell phone, and you can receive updates about whatever it is you choose to see updates about.  You can see what friends are saying, or you can get notified anytime someone uses a certain phrase, etc.

So let’s say I’m looking for a good Italian restaurant in St. Louis and I post a quick note to Twitter via my cell. (Just a note here – if you don’t use your cell phone to do that, don’t think others don’t.  A *lot* of people are using their phones for this and a lot more.)

Using their API and search tools, Mr. Restaurant Owner can watch for phrases like “italian food” and “st louis”, “saint louis”, etc.  Anytime one of those phrases come across twitter, Mr Restaurant Owner immediately (or through automation) sends out a coupon for a free drink at his restaurant.  Or a free appetizer.  Whatever.

Using social media, getting clients that may have otherwise never known about you will get easier and easier.  But if you don’t know how to use the social media platforms to do these things, you’re going to be stuck standing on the front porch hoping customers see your sign.