Making Moves at Schrock Innovations

I haven’t been posting a lot lately because I frankly haven’t had time! Having a blog is cool because it gives me a platform to talk about the things I am doing to build and grow my businesses and the lessons I am learning along the way.

What really blows is when I am in the process of doing things and I can’t discuss them because they are IN THE PROCESS. If I talk about them and they don’t happen, I’m an ass. So without giving up the farm, here are some hints about what has been keeping me away from my WordPress admin page for nearly a week:

Schrock’s Maintenance Checkup Sale

I mention in a previous post that we launched our most popular sale year last week. We are still knee-deep in computers, but managing to keep up. We are staying open extra hours, working weekends, and using every scrap of space we can to maintenance our customers’ computers and get them back in their hands fast.

Negotiating Possible New Service Center Location

We are in the VERY preliminary stages of opening a new Service Center in Lincoln. Our current location is 750 square feet and we outgrew it long ago. Moving a brick and mortar business is a huge pain in the rear between logistics, customer confusion and capital expense.

Krueger Development is clearing a new pad site at 29th and Pine Lake Road just across the street from where we are at now. The proximity to our current location and exposure to 29th street and some of Pine Lake road make the site tempting. Its monthly price tag is a real challenge though. Pine Lake is Lincoln’s high-rent district and moving from a 750 square foot space to a 2,400 square foot space is one heck of a rent jump.

Possibly Acquiring one of our Local Competitors

At the same time, we have expressed an interest in acquiring one of our local competitors in Lincoln. This are still pretty preliminary, but the company we are looking at exemplifies the same high-service values that Schrock Innovations has built its reputation on.

If we can manage to pull it off, the price tag for the acquisition will be about $380 per customer, but Schrock would be boosting is clientele by about 20%, gaining potential businesses and web development clients, and adding an extremely qualified and respectable technician.

Acquiring this company could give Schrock the 4th Quarter pump it would need to pull off the nearly $80,000 in capital expense that a new Service Center (done right) would bring with it. The whole thing could work out nicely for everyone involved, and I am hoping to have an additional meeting with the owner of that company when I return from Denver.

Launching New Local Media Campaign

A couple weeks ago our weekly radio show was bumped a few hours later in the afternoon because Three Eagles Communications had a radio auction going on KFOR 1240 that morning.

When we did get on the air, it was really interesting to find that we were talking to an entirely different audience than we normally do on our show. It had been a while since we ran a series of radio commercials, and with the Maintenance Checkup gearing up, this was definitely a good time to promote the $10 offer to those who might be new to Schrock.

We were introduced to a new advertising rep at KFOR named Heidi and she was AMAZING. She got us in on an awesome KFOR deal as well as an irresistible offer on Lincoln’s newest radio station, The Breeze. I have always found that radio advertising gives a better ROI on computer repair services than TV, newsprint, or magazine advertising. Nothing against other mediums… Its just that none of them have ever delivered IMMEDIATE results like radio continues to do for us.

I know this doesn’t have a whole lot to do with making money online or affiliate marketing or anything like that. It does hopefully explain where I have been though. I will be heading to Denver tomorrow to get ready for the Breakaway Conference later this week. Very much looking forward to that.