Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

Those who read my posts regularly know that I believe that a recession is the best time to attempt to expand your business.

Durring a recession your competition:

• Will be reluctant to match your moves
• Will cut back on service to increase the bottom line
• Avoid investing in people and equipment

How Do You Expand Your Business When Your Customers are Spending Less?

The answer is pretty straight forward – you get more customers.  You take them from your competitors.

While your competitors are cutting like mad, you reach out and entice disgruntled customers into your fold.

To do this you have to increase your marketing budget, and radio auctions are a nifty tool to convert your unsold inventory or service certificates into needed advertising dollars!

How Do Radio Auctions Work?

Typically, radio stations sell air time for money.  In a tough economic climate,advertisers cut back, so stations have to get more cretive to hit their sales goals.

For example, lets say you own a website design company.  You might provide a $1,000 gift certificate to the radio station to auction on the air.  You would receive $1,000 in trade to spend on commercials, et. in exchange for your certificate.

The station would then auction the certificate on-air to its listeners who call in to make their bids.  The certificates often sell for less than their value, so the callers feel like they are getting a good deal.

You get the free commercials (not to mention a 5-minute plug during the auction its self), the customer gets a great value, and the station gets money.  Everyone is happy.

Keys to Success in a Radio Auction

There are a few things you can do to make sure your item sells for a decent amount in the auction.  Nothing is worse than getting no bids on your item!

1. Don’t assume the disc jockey knows what your product is or why it is a value.  Put this information in writing and provide it with the certificate.  You can’t sell something if you don’t know what it is!
2. Make sure the certificate has an expiration date. Make it expire in 90 days.  Light a fire under the customer to move on it quickly, or lose it all together.
3. Never provide a physical item to the station.  If you are giving away a surf board, give the station a certificate for a surf board.  This forces the customer to come to your business, learn where you are located, and establish a relationship.
4. Get Paying Customers.  If you have a service business, provide a certificate for services that ensure you are capturing a new paying customer.  Using the web site design company example, if a new website normally costs your customers $3000, providing a certificate for $1000 is gaining you a new $2,000 customer.
5. Provide multiple certificates for different things.  These auctions only happen once or twice a year – take advantage!
6. Save your marketing dollars for a single, large promotion.  Don’t spread them out over time.  If you see the most website sales in June, then save them until May and fire them all off to become top of mind just before your customers come looking for you.
7. Be a part of the auction! In some cases you can call in to help “sell” your product.  Also, listen to the other products being offered.  You might be able to save some money on needed business items by putting in some pretty low auction bids!

All About Vista

This week our show focused heavily on the the latest Vista service pack update. The update was originally scheduled to be pushed via automatic update on June 30, however Microsoft has been making it available on Windows Update now.

If the install is popping up on your computer, you need to install it ASAP. We recommend you bring your computer to Schrock Innovations for our $39.99 installation special. This way you can be assured the update has been installed correctly.

In the News

The latest virus hitting the internet is called Gumblar. This virus attacks websites you trust and infects your computer. An interesting fact is that 37% of the websites you trust actually infect your computer. The Gumblar virus is no exception. The best way to prevent this from happening to you is to stay up-to-date on your security software. As always, we recommend Norton 360.

The Key to Key Words

Have you ever searched for song lyrics or “free” stuff on the ‘net. The majority of us have and the likely hood of you getting a virus is great. Our suggestion, call your radio station and ask for the lyrics to the song and simply stop searching for free things.  Here are the most dangerous search terms on the web.

There are, however, key word searches you can type in without worrying about getting a virus. These are phrases such as things about the economic crisis and health questions. Search away about the economy and that agonizing pain in the neck-you’re safe.

Taking Your Calls at 489-1240

After much discussion about the Vista Service Pack, we moved to the phones where we had several computer questions.

.dll extensions

Mike had an issue with his Windows XP machine. When he went to boot his computer he received a message that he needed to run a .dll file. A .dll extension means that there was probably malware on his computer that was taken off by his security software, but the extension was still on the computer. To solve this problem we recommended that Mike go his start, run menu and then type in msconfig. Then he needed to uncheck the box in the Microsoft utilities window for the .dll extension and it won’t show up anymore.

Vista Service Pack and the Internet

Sharon had a question about the service pack update. Since Sharon said she never gets on the internet, the updates will not be pushed on her. However, we recommended that she updates her computer with the latest vista because it will speed up her file transfer times and also keep her battery life running longer. Keep in mind this is true for both laptops and desktop computers.

Virus Protection, Protection you should have

Ellen’s computer boots up and tells her that she needs to download an update. However, when she goes to click cancel on the update, it does not let her. This is because it is not a genuine Microsoft, meaning she has been infected with Malware. We suggested that Ellen has a maintenance checkup to get rid of her viruses and registry keys. This a $59.99 special at Schrock Innovations.

Tune In

Tune in next week for Compute This radio show, Saturday, June 7 at 10am on KFOR 1240 am. We will answer your computer questions, draw a winner for the 25 dollar gift card to Schrock Innovations and get you up-to-date on the latest computer news.

A Reminder

If you have Vista and need your computer updated with the latest service pack, stop into Schrock Innovations and get the $39.99 special. If you questions you can also contact Schrock at 423-9595 and we will be happy to answer your Vista questions!