Kelly Penick is a sophomore at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Kelly has been blogging about her experiences starting her business. To read more of Kelly’s blog posts go to the category cloud and look under Health and Wellness.
Promoting Now For Future Returns written by college sophomore Kelly Penick
I have been thinking about different ways to expand awareness of my name and business on campus. Since my parents have a local business, the Penick name does have familiarity and professional recognition in Watauga County. I want to take my last name and tie it in with not just a construction business, but also now an esthetics business, “All About Beauty by Kelly.†Since I am still new to the business and building in revenue, I have my business cards that I developed through Vistaprint. This is the only logo design associated with me at this time. The design is simple but I feel expresses my personality as a girly female, as well as looking fabulous with a beauty emphasis. Check out the end of this post to get a glimpse at the design!
My thinking is that if I promote a special on facials during November and December, I could get not only increased business traffic due to the significant price reduction for a treatment during this stressful end of semester/exam time, but also the potential for future clients and repeat business..
I want to specifically use my status as a student to my advantage, and promote myself through the Assoc. of Student Entrepreneur’s Club. It is a highly recognized student organization, and if I were an outsider to campus, and not affiliated with a club, I could not promote my own career here. Fortunately there are many females on ASU’s campus, all of whom I could target, ranging from the student body, faculty, and administration. Having exposure to all of these different levels would help me greatly in the way of advertising. I know several people in Boone because this is my home town, and conveniently, the same location of my university campus.
I feel that by beginning this promotion in the middle of November, I could take it on into December and promote the experience of having a European Facial, as something wonderfully relaxing at a time when everyone is moving into the hectic holiday season, and in the case of the students and professors, into the stressful time of college exams.
I intend to make this promotion known largely through mass campus-wide emails. I have to look further into that process and see if I am capable of reaching all potential females that I would like to reach by this method. When I promote myself off campus, I will make use of my business cards and flyers in local businesses. As opposed to clients paying the standard $70 for a European Facial, they would pay $35 during this promotion. Although my profit per facial would be substantially reduced, I believe the benefits to my business through the increased cliental, and hopefully, repeat business along with word of mouth advertising from satisfied clients would provide for future growth and profitability.
Right now I am taking advantage again of my own ASU email account and also facebook friends. The use of the internet is my most cost-effective tool for getting this promotion out. I have ordered 250 more business cards that I can also place in local businesses that primarily employ females.
In my next post I will have run the promotion for about a month and I will be able to share with you what the best promotion method proved to be, due to the most responses. I am interested to see where the most responses will come from: since I am targeting students, faculty, close friends and family.
