Do you wake up in the middle of the night, scrambling to find your iPhone, in order to get that great idea for your business out of your head? For many small business owners, running their business is a 24/7 affair, and when you do have time to sleep, many times you’re still thinking about your business. In the example above, there are two catalysts at work, they are Passion & Creativity. We often write about Creativity here on this Online Marketing blog, but we’ve never gone too in depth on the subject. For this article, we are going to discuss how both Passion & Creativity go a long way towards driving growth for your small business.
Passion Drives Small Business Success
When reading books on entrepreneurship, it’s almost a lock that you’re going to be told to find something that your passionate about, and then figure out how to create a business out of it. It’s almost like the Golden Rule of Entrepreneurship. The reason why so many authors and entrepreneurs talk about finding a passion first is due to just how strenuous it is to go into business for yourself. These folks understand that there are going to be “dips”, as the leading Marketing thinker of our day, Seth Godin would call them, along your journey to running a successful business. Without passion, it’s extremely easy to let dips in the road turn into the end of the road for your business. Those small business owners who love what they do, who get up early in the morning to get a fresh start on their day, and who never stop thinking about their business, because they love it, are the ones who succeed.
I recently caught a special on TV about J. Willard Marriott, founder of the Marriott Corporation. This man embodied the term passion. It’s no wonder that he was able to take a small root beer stand and turn it into an international brand for luxury travel. Mr. Marriott thought about every aspect of his businesses, and although he had a lot of help, he never removed himself completely from the day-to-day operations of his businesses. He would frequently visit each of his root beer stands on a daily basis, inspecting every nook & cranny. The man loved what he did for a living. Except for his family, and some even debate that, there was nothing that J. Willard Marriott was more passionate about than his business.
Passion allowed J. Willard Marriott to power through the tough times, like say the Great Depression, and emerge stronger than when it began. Passion provided him with his direction for the business. He knew exactly where he wanted to go. Passion drove him on day after day. Passion acted as a road map for his business, and creativity fueled his growth.
Creativity Fuels Small Business Success
Here at Catalyst Marketers, we like to refer to Creativity as the new currency for business owners. When planning to start a business, or when deciding on a big change to an existing business, some folks begin with the question, “how are we going to pay for it?”. Other folks, perhaps those right-brainers as Dan Pink might refer to them as, start in an entirely different direction. Instead of asking how they were going to pay for what they wanted to achieve, these other entrepreneurs began by brainstorming fun & creative ways to help them achieve their goals. So in a sense, some right-brainer entrepreneurs are substituting currency for creativity, when making decisions about their small business.
If you work with us, then you know our motto: Creativity + The Right online tools & strategy = successful online marketing for your business. Today, more than any other time in history, small business owners have the ability to compete on a global level. All it takes is the right approach, plus a little creativity, and your small business could go viral in a matter of hours. If you’re always pushing the envelope, always creating, then at some point you’re going to realize success.
If passion was arguably Marriott’s biggest key to success in the early 20th century, creativity came in a close second. J. Willard Marriott opened his first nine-stool root beer stand in May of 1927. With business booming in the summer months, Marriott quickly realized that demand for root beer was going “dry up” come winter. To some, this dip would be insurmountable. Not to Marriott, as we discussed his passion led him, and he knew exactly where he wanted to take his business. It was in this dip that Marriott decided that he was going to add hot food to his small root beer stand and rebrand it The Hot Shoppe, now a family restaurant. Marriott didn’t stop there, just one year later he spotted a coming trend, the drive-in. His creativity allowed him to understand how he could capitalize on this trend for his business. He quickly evolved his business to incorporate drive-in service, and business shot through the roof.
J. Willard Marriott is a prime example of a business owner who combined passion and drive to create a successful business. Even in our current economy, the tools are out there, all it takes is a little passion, combined with some creativity, and you too can grow a successful business.
If you’d like to capitalize on OUR passion & creativity, we’d love to have you as a client. Contact us about any of your online marketing needs.
Every time I travel, and stay in a hotel, one of the most underused areas of the hotels that I stay in are the conference rooms. Most hotels have at least one to two conference rooms, and most of the time, they are not being used. So, if I’m working at a hotel, especially if I’m a decision-maker, I’m trying to find creative ways to use the conference rooms. One use of the conference rooms is to rent them out to local entrepreneurs and small business owners. There are quite a few small businesses, as well as startups, who need workspace. Workspace with internet and cable connections. Workspace that’s affordable, comfortable, and can accommodate at least 5 – 7 people. Hotel conference rooms can fill this need in the marketplace. It just takes some planning, a little creativity, and the use of the right online tools to market the new service.
Hotels can start out with with a weekly Blog Talk Radio show, whereby you can discuss upcoming events in and around your local hotel. Each week there are a ton of local events in every community. Many times, local residents don’t even know about these events, which means there are even fewer travelers who know about local events. With that said, when people are traveling to a destination, either on business or for fun, they are always looking to find out what’s going on in the local area. Your radio show can help your guests understand just what’s happening in the area while they’re in town. Even if they can’t catch the live show, you can point them to a recent archive that discusses events that are happening during their stay. Guests will find this information extremely valuable, which will entice them to spread the word about your hotel AND continue to use your services each time they are in town. Hosting a Blog Talk Radio show for your hotel is a great way to produce relevant and valuable content for your guests. Be sure to promote your radio shows in your hotel and through all of your online social tools.
In this post, we will explore 5 separate Inbound Marketing ideas for Hotels. Each idea revolves around the use of a specific online tool, such as YouTube, Twitter, foursquare, etc. With that said, many of the ideas below can be implemented using numerous tools. I simply chose the tools that I thought made the most sense for each idea. Before implementing any of these ideas, it’s best to create a Strategic Marketing Plan that lists your goals, strategies, and tactics. This way you’ll have a guide for implementing these ideas, and you’ll also have something to look back at in 3, 6, 9 months to see how you’re tracking against your goals. Without a plan, it’s easy to get lost in all of these Inbound Marketing tactics, and it’s hard to determine your level of success (or failure) if you don’t have a plan, with goals and performance measures, to look back at. 
