Successful Blog

How to Start a Kiosk Business

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Kiosk Business Series

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Jason Phillips

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A Checklist for Starting

While perhaps not as “sexy” as other forms of small businesses, kiosks offer a viable and practical way to earn a great living, all without dealing with the substantial challenges required for many small businesses operating out of traditional brick-and-mortar storefronts.

Yet even thought kiosks offer greater flexibility and less red tape than traditional businesses, they still provide their own laundry list of steps to complete before you can get your new enterprise up and running.

  • First, you need to decide between purchasing or leasing your kiosk business. For many business owners, the seasonality of their market settles this decision for them. The more seasonal your product, the better of an option leasing appears. The more “evergreen” your product, the greater chance buying will appeal to your bottom line.

    Whether buying or leasing, keep in mind the price you pay for your kiosk depends on a variety of factors, including the time of the year and how much foot traffic your location receives. The higher the potential of your kiosk’s desired location, the more you will pay for it.

  • Determine the right size for your kiosk, and find the perfect location. When it comes to the size of your kiosk, you should select the smallest location you need to sell your products. While brick and mortar stores can make good use of extra space, kiosks benefit from a focused, efficient layout.

    Choosing a location for your kiosk seems like a no-brainer, but there’s more to profitable positioning than simply selecting the highest traffic space you can find. Heavy foot traffic passing your kiosk is good, but only if that traffic is composed of your product’s primary demographic.

  • Run the numbers. Compared with brick-and-mortar stores, kiosks require relatively low overhead, but that doesn’t mean you should approach your financial analysis and planning with a cavalier attitude. Factor in every cost associated with not just setting up your kiosk, but also running your kiosk from day-to-day. Be conservative with your cash flow estimates and then decide whether taking the plunge and establishing your new business is fiscally sound.
  • Acquire your financing. Kiosks represent a smaller financial investment than brick and mortar stores, but you still probably won’t be able to set up your business with whatever free cash you have on hand.

    Once you have the details of your kiosk in line, along with your financial projections and your anticipated expenses, you will be ready to apply for the credit you need to launch your business and keep the lights on as it establishes itself.

  • Finally, you need to round up all of the necessary paperwork, complete it, and file it. If you’re starting a kiosk business in a space that has already been highly developed and already provides a home to many kiosks, such as within a mall, then your new landlord will likely be able to help you breeze through the red tape as quickly and as easily as possible. However, if you’re trailblazing a new location, prepare yourself for a potentially frustrating bureaucratic slog.

    The volume of licenses you need to apply for depends almost entirely on what you’re selling. For example, a food kiosk needs to abide by far more legal regulations than a kiosk selling something as inert and harmless as sunglasses.

    Once you’ve acquire all of the licenses and forms of insurance you require, you will be ready to finally launch your business and move forward with this next step of your professional life!

Congratulations, now it’s time to get to work.
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Author’s Bio: Jason Phillips started with a BPO industry and now he is a market analyst. Now he is planning to become a kiosk manufacturer, he has vast experience in developing complex and custom kiosks.

Thank you, Jason!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

5 Simple Ways to Deliver Irresistible Content and Lower Your Bounce Rate

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Be Irresisible!

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If you’ve been developing a business online in the last few years, you’ve probably heard statics regarding the brief amount of time we have to get and keep the attention of first-time visitors. What was almost 20 seconds in 2005 now is being described as something between 8 seconds and 10.

Getting folks to arrive is the first step, of course. In that, an attention-grabbing, killer headline is everything.


Click image to access complete podcast at The Onion.

Whether it is something completely original and novel, ultra-specific and geared towards a niche, or just incredibly compelling, good headlines on the Web always win.

They always win, except when they don’t.

If a headline delivers traffic, but the traffic immediately bounces away, can you say the headline wins?

A killer headline will get traffic, but what keeps folks reading?
We have to deliver great content to give that headline legs or that traffic will bounce away.

5 Ways to Deliver Irresistible Content and Lower Your Bounce Rate

Strong businesses are built on strong relationships. What transforms a headline clicker into someone who hangs around? What turns first-time visitors into people who want to stick around? What makes them stay and already thinking about their return? Here are five things you can do to make it more likely they get what they came for.

Five Ways to Deliver to the Clickers Who Follow a Headline to Your Blog …

  1. Deliver content that your headline promises.
  2. Deliver content in short paragraphs using subheads surrounded by lots of white space so that people have room to think and breathe. Add a picture that supports the text and illustrates the content. First impressions count.
  3. Deliver it without making folks jump over ads or through hoops to get to the prize that the headline promises. Decide whether you want me to stay … there are other ways to get me to buy.
  4. Deliver it by responding to the people who take time to comment.
  5. Deliver it by making it easy to find more of what brought people to your site.

It’s not the visitor who never came that’s a loss. It’s the visitor who comes to find that we’re not what he or she thought. A great headline followed by something less doesn’t win. It doesn’t even finish.

The most important thing is deliver — do what we say we’re going to do.


Click image to see complete article from The Onion.

If the content you deliver is easy to access, faster to enjoy or employ, and adds value and meaning to a visitor’s life, you can bet that visitors will be glad they came and ready to come back. Easier, faster, more meaningful is irresistible. That’s a fact.

Great headline, lame blog post — who wants to deal with that? You’ve been there. What’s your response when you end up on one of those?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

See the Flowers and Every Other Good Free Thing

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about the meaning and seeing.

Every year on Memorial Day weekend my mom would put flowers on the graves of soldiers who had fought for us and were gone. Even when I was tiny,she would take me along to participate in this ritual, not that I understood what it was about. Never did she tell me about a single soldier only the story about soldiers fighting for freedom.

I’ve known people who have lived through war. I know people who have fought in them. I have heard true and personal stories of those who went to war and never came home.

At this moment I’m reminded of the flowers my mom would put on the soldiers’ graves, telling me “they fought for what we have now. The flowers say thank you and that we remember.”

None of the soldiers in the graves could see the flowers, but I could.
See the flowers and every other good free thing this weekend.
Remember the soldiers.
Value the freedom.

Be irresistible.

Liz's Signature

How Historic London Shoppers’ Markets Get Global

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Julien Renault

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The Past to the Future

Markets are a particular feature of London which gives the city something vibrant, something that you cannot feel without living it. Have you ever asked yourself where London’s oldest market is – where it all began? Let’s go down memory lane, let’s turn back the wheels of time and return to the past.

When did it start? The first London market was set up around 1680. That’s pretty dated, isn’t it? Anyway, who started it? Sir Edward Hungerford had been authorized to hold a market three days a week who then gave his name to the market calling it ‘Hungerford market’.

Where was it? It was set up at the stretch on a street called the Strand going from Trafalgar Square to the Temple Bar, near the current Charing Cross station which by the way opened in 1864. It was not an open market but a covered one, housed in two different buildings. One has to wonder if the weather in London was similar back then – did it rain in the summer – maybe it did!

What did they sell? Basically grain was sold in the market. Well, it’s not very exciting when you think of the authentic and unique items you can grab now, but there’s a first time for everything — such as the groovy vintage fashion of Oh, I’m So THEA.

The future: London had already demonstrated that she has a real flair for wares much to the delight of everyone. What’s more? Now there are about 70 markets in London – large and small, established and fledgling. Good thing is – now it can all be found in one place – myMzone. myMzone is a savvy collective who noticed our love for London’s market culture and developed it to a globally inclusive level, effectively bringing the quirky markets of Camden Market, Spitalfields, Portobello, Bricklane, Sunday Up Market and many more to our front doors.

Author’s Bio: Julien writes for different fashion blogs among which myMzone where you can learn more about events and fashion in London, but mainly about London markets as Camden, Brick Lane or Portobello. You can find him on Twitter as @Julien_Renault or @myMzone

Thank you, Julien. More small local businesses could find solutions like that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

6 Ways to Promote Your Business Online Using Green

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by Jen Thames

Green Marketing

A few days ago at a favorite deli there was a new sign. The sign said:

“We are now Powered 100% by Wind Energy,”

Unconsciously I gazed up. There aren’t any windmills around here! I thought. Yet the message stuck and it made me think: If a deli that specializes in large greasy meatball sandwiches on soft white bread is promoting Green, maybe more businesses need to start using Green marketing.

These days Green marketing thrives far beyond co-ops and solar energy companies. Other businesses need to think about adding Green to their brands. Most importantly small businesses and large companies alike can all use Green to enhance customer relations. It’s an easy way to connect to customers because the underlying message is, “We care about the same things you do,” rather than, “Buy our product or service.” Here are 6 ways to use Green marketing for a small business or a blog.

Incorporate a Green Spring Giveaway into a Mobile Smart Phone Promotion

Mobile marketing through smart phones is a fast growing online trend. According to Google, mobile searches with a local intent were up 400% between 2010 and 2011. Signing up for a location based service like Foursquare or WHERE and offering a free Green spring give away can draw customers into your store and improve your image at the same time. Make the promotion fun and tailor it your business. For example, a children’s clothing store could have a free plant your own tree promo for kids while a bakery could offer a class on decorating spring cupcakes naturally without using food coloring. Get creative!

Offer an Online Green Promotional Product on Your Website

Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream invented this idea with their Rainforest Crunch Ice Cream. A percentage of sales were set aside to help nut-shelling cooperatives in the Brazilian Rainforest. Unfortunately, the company was stretching the truth a bit and they were forced to pull the marketing from their packaging. Ben and Jerry’s is mentioned because Green claims need to be truthful with genuine intent or a promotional campaign can backfire.

Keeping Green product campaigns short is one way to get the message out, give properly and make money. In addition, time limited promotions encourage action. For example, “Buy from our website during the next two weeks and we will donate 25% of your order to Greenpeace.” A further advantage of a short Green campaign is that you can pre-advertise and post-advertise the campaign online through the press wires. Charity and giving pieces are almost always picked up quickly and spread widely. Press wires can drive online traffic for months.

Think about incorporating Green into your Business Brand

Make Green a real commitment. Then methodically publicize your Green stand online through every channel possible. There are separate marketing channels for Green Businesses like Green Tweets and Facebook Pages. Like the deli above, you don’t have to be a health food store to endorse Green and incorporate it into your brand image. Green makes people feel better about eating ice cream and 1000 calorie meatball sandwiches. Maybe it can work for your business too!

Use Green Promotional Gifts to Spread the Word

Traditional promotional gifts now come in a variety of Green alternatives. Green shopping bags and coffee carriers are an excellent way to get your brand out there while promoting a Green lifestyle.

Start a Green oriented blog, email newsletter and RSS feed to get your chosen Green message out.
The deli above chose wind energy so a blog about wind energy, clean energy and hiking (where you need to take sandwiches) would be fitting for them. Encourage customers to participate in the blog to lessen the writing work and gain fresh perspectives.

Turn Green Milestones into SMS events

Once the Green campaign is up and running use a quick messaging event to broadcast how well the campaign is doing or how well it went. This is a great soft-sell way to encourage further customer interaction and increase brand awareness and loyalty. For example, “Our store just surpassed our yearly giving goal to Greenpeace! A big Thank You to all our customer’s- we couldn’t have done it without you.”

Success often increases with giving. Green is a wonderful way to thrive and give back not only to your community but also to the world.

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Author’s Bio: Jen Thames writes about marketing and business at SixSigmaOnline. You can find her on Twitter as @SixSigmaAveta

 

Thank you, Jen. Great green ideas!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

What to do when you have Twitter block

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Rosemary O’Neill

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So you’ve decided to use Twitter as one of your content marketing tools. You’ve built up a respectable following, you engage with people, send out a steady stream of diverse original content and RTs, and you occasionally attend a Twitter chat. Everything is good, until….Twitter block!

It’s similar to writers’ block, except in 140 characters. You see, if you aren’t contributing a reasonable number of Tweets throughout the day, you won’t be seen in your followers’ streams.

The average lifespan of a Tweet is supposedly only one hour, according to ReadWriteWeb. That means you need to space out your Tweets in order to keep your voice “in the stream.” I believe that the optimum number of Tweets per day is somewhere around 5-10 for the normal user.

Here are 10 solid tips on how to stay visible without driving yourself insane.

  • It’s OK to tweet an important piece of content 2-3 times in one day, at different times; just change your Tweet wording up a bit to keep it fresh.
  • It’s OK to use a scheduling app like Buffer or Crowdbooster to space out your Tweets, as long as you are actually available to reply to people who respond to your content.
  • Look for 5 people who recently RTd you, and RT something of theirs that you think will resonate with your followers.
  • Take a pretty picture and add a relevant comment to it.
  • Find 5 people who follow you who you haven’t directly engaged with yet, read their bio and/or website, and mention them with a comment or compliment.
  • Use the “OH” tag to tweet something interesting you heard someone else say IRL.
  • Don’t resort to quotes all the time! But if you’re reading something interesting on your Kindle app, highlight a great phrase and Tweet it out using the integrated share tool.
  • Ask a question. It could be something industry specific, or as minimal as “what should I watch on Netflix next?”
  • What big project are you working on? Can you “leak” out a little tidbit of it as a teaser? People love to be on the inside, behind the scenes.
  • Do a series of Tweets that are related…Christopher Penn does “#the5” which is the five things you need to know that day. Could you do 3 tips for starting your day happy? Perhaps a series of 10 great blog links?

Where do you find great stuff to share with your connections? Have you ever felt Twitter block?

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss