Doing Business In South Park L.A: A road map to thrive and build (posted by Martin Cavanaugh Porter III, CEO Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC, TomichPorter Inc-Revanchist)
Our focus as a micro-vc, biz-dev firm in partnership with an internationally renowned ecommerce/web development firm (think Puma’s website and ecommerce solution, Hewlett Packard’s website and ecommerce solution, Sprint’s website and ecommerce solution, SBC website and ecommerce solution etc…think best-of-breed) is to bring a solid, hip mix of businesses to South Park L.A. and back them with strong financing and a powerful, blended mix of marketing tools, strategies and tactics.
We’ve said it before: in three (four?) years, South Park will be stabilized. In five to six years, The Manhattan of Los Angeles.
Our goal is to be pioneering amongst affluence. Though the lease rates are low, and many spaces are left vacant, and many developers are in deep trouble, the average income of residents and their education levels, are very high. The actual client mix is very good.
In order to for existing businesses to reach stabilization (reach the point at which their burn-rate=income) or new businesses that want to open in South Park, catering to its residents, they must engage in the following: A Targeted, niched, core focused, intense, and continued multi-tiered marketing campaign backed by the finances to do so.
What does that look like?
Concretely: Bricks and Mortar, Service, Retailers, Developers, Brokers, Realtors, Lawyers, Business Centers, Consultants, the list is endless: Businesses of all types must build into their budgeting and forecasting three years of meaningful capital outlays for marketing and action the following:
- Powerful best-of-breed website
- Highly monestizable, On Line eCommerce presence (online store-whatever it is you are selling-services or products-whatever it is)
- Supported by…..
- Targeted DMC: Direct Mail Campaigns (once monthly).
- Targeted Email Mkt Campaigns: (bi-monthly).
- Google AD Sense Campaigns (ongoing).
- Multiple Feeder Blogs: Tagging and meta-tagging your business onto Google with daily postings (daily-twice, three times daily).
- Social Networking: One coffee a day, three outreach events per week, walk the blocks, shake hands, be present= the potential tipping point that is word of mouth
- Find Three Local Stake-Holder Mentors-engage them, learn from them, give them as much as you ask for-give them value as you get advice and as they act as your calling card in the community (if you don’t give value on some level-emotional, actual, some kind of deliverable, your out of the game when it comes to mentors).
All of the above must be built on the following five foundations
- Doable, monthly, year in, year out marketing budgets (supported by analytics and actual $ deliverables)
- Low (really low) fixed costs:-drive tough bargains that still create win-wins
- Multiple Stakeholders who want you to succeed.
- Consistency in Marketing- systematized, creative, calendered.
Forbes Legacy Ventures LLC/TomichPorter Inc (Revanchist) is a massive South Park L.A booster.
I live here-work here-and see phenomenal benefits in businesses relocating to SouthPark or staying and in engaging in a formalized, process-driven turn-around strategy.
BOTTOM LINE:
UNLESS YOU DO ALL OF THE ABOVE WELL, YOUR CHANCES OF TURNING THE SHORT TERM NEGATIVES OF DOING BUSINESS IN SOUTH PARK LOS ANGELES INTO HUGE LONG TERM UPSIDES ARE SLIM TO NIL. ALL OF IT, EVERY COMPONENT MUST BE ACTIONED AND EXECUTED AT THE HIGHEST STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL LEVEL.
“Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.” -Charles De Gaulle
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