SMS-4Sale Business Profile

You’ve heard the expression “you need to work on your business, not in it.”  It may sound trite, but this story, about Ron Cregier and his SMS-4Sale business, certainly proves that point.

Ron Cregier retired from the corporate world back in February 2010.  The allure of owning his own business, making his own decisions and making the big bucks sounded like the way to go.  He had an idea – to deliver mobile marketing services - and he had 35 years of IT experience he could leverage.  He thought “Everybody needs IT support.  Right?“

Well, as it turned out, not exactly.  He was confident in his technical expertise, as existing customers were pleased and other IT companies were calling him to help with projects.  His problem was that he just wasn’t building the customer base he needed to support his business.

When Ron first came to Small Business Development Center at Elgin Community College, Ron explained his business concept.  SMS-4Sale focuses on the mobile marketing environment by providing businesses with services to connect with their customers and prospects via mobile phones.  SMS-4Sale also offers a management service that allows a business to outsource their mobile marketing strategies and platform management for a monthly fee.  During this past September, SMS-4Sale launched his Mobile Marketing Club to send merchant coupons to mobile phones.

Ron’s thinking was that, unlike a mobile app that can only be used by Smartphones, the Mobile Marketing Club sends a text message with an embedded link to a mobile web page containing the coupons for download.  This approach allows the Mobile Marketing Club coupons to reach ANY mobile phone with text messaging and internet access turned on.  Conceptually, a mobile coupon is like a paper coupon, except that a mobile coupon is always available on the mobile phone, as opposed to paper coupons that are easily lost and need to be printed, cut and carried in a purse or wallet.

Ron came to the SBDC for help in sales and marketing.  Sybil Ege, Ron’s SBDC advisor, asked Ron to identify his business goals and objectives, which of course are at the heart of a business plan.  Ron had always thought it was more important to spend time being technical and staying on top of new and evolving technologies, than writing a business plan.  But as the discussions proceeded, Ron realized his technical focus was actually hurting his business, and that continuing down that path was actually one of the biggest mistakes he had made so far.  He saw that without articulating business goals and objectives, he would lose sight of what he was trying to accomplish.

These discussions were eye-opening for Ron, as it helped him look at his business from a completely different perspective.  Taking Sybil’s advice, Ron formulated his business plan.  This whole process has helped Ron better articulate what his business is all about in networking circles, and has led to increasing his customer base.  Ron is now busier than ever with 3 new clients, 3 prospects in the wings and a whole new line of businesses that has brought on 10 new clients, just in the last 6 weeks.