The NewsletterCompass Media - Microsoft · — Tyler Gallagher, Regal Assets 4. Adapt To Sales ycles: Know your customer and adapt to cyclical sales. Dunkin' Donuts and askin-Robbins

P.O. Box 1117 | Foley, Alabama 36536 | tel: 251.943.3291 | fax: 251.943.6810 | www.southbaldwinchamber.com

The Newsletter

Compass Media

Compass Media – It takes a team! A South Baldwin County marketing leader for more than 30 years, Compass Media works side by side with local businesses and tourism organizations to share their unique stories. From our beginnings in custom publications to today’s must-haves of social media management, search engine optimization, display advertising and more, we are a resource our clients can trust, partners for today and tomorrow. Our custom publishing team is currently working on the Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Vacation Guide, the Alabama Vacation Guide, the Mobile Destination Guide, as well as guides for clients in Durham, Fayetteville and Raleigh North Carolina. Coast 360, our local tourism brand, is always in motion with a guide, in-room companion and coupon book, TV, website and social media channels. Check out Coast360.com for more information. Want to learn more about the constantly changing world of SEO and digital marketing? Compass Media’s digital campaign manager, Dianne Lindeman, will be speaking at the South Baldwin Chamber’s Lunch and Learn on December 10th. Make plans to attend this informative presentation. Compass Media is a proud member of the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce. CompassMedia.com

DIPLOMAT OF THE MONTH

WALTON M. VINES FREE ENTERPRISE

PERSON OF THE YEAR

erry A. Hand of Volkert & Associates Inc. was named the 2019 Walton M Vines Free Enterprise Person of the Year by the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce on Friday, September 20. Nominations for this prestigious award are accepted from the South Baldwin Chamber’s membership up to three months prior to the announce-ment event. Part of the criteria for the award requires the recipient to be active in promoting the principles of the free enterprise system, be active in and a major factor in the success of their business, be active in civic affairs and be committed to helping this community grow and prosper. Hand has been instrumental and influential in representing Baldwin County in his professional, political and personal life; and is a dedicated servant to both his profession and public through his leader-ship in his business and has demonstrated a commitment to the future of alternative delivery and asset management in the design, improvement, and maintenance of our nation’s infrastructure. Perry is currently the Chairman of the Board of Volkert, Inc, one of the nation’s leading infrastructure engineering and design firms. He has been with Volkert since 1993. He previously served Volkert as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Marketing Officer.

For more than forty years the South Baldwin Chamber of Commerce has cele-brated the spirit of the Free Enterprise system. We would like to say a special thank you to the group of former recipients and past chairmen for supporting the event as the Presenting Sponsor as well as Vulcan, Inc., Riviera Utilities, City of Foley, Baldwin EMC, Johnson, Slaughter, Driver & North-cutt, PA, Collins Aerospace, Adams and Reese, Global Marketing Solutions, Wolf Bay Restaurants, and Sunny 105.7 for sponsoring this wonderful event.

P Cover Story . . .

MAXIMIZING REVENUE FROM SEASONAL SALES: 12 PROVEN STRATEGIES

easonal sales are easy to predict because they arrive like clockwork every year. Even though these regular annual sales offer a great opportunity for businesses to grow their revenue, there may be ways to create a more efficient use of company resources and maximize the seasonal sales cycles to achieve your full potential. By leveraging the company's avail-able resources effectively, yearly sales revenue could be far higher than what

the business may expect. To help enter-prises gain a better grasp of the con-cepts crucial to increasing annual sales revenue, 12 associates of Forbes Fi-nance Council offer their best tips for the practical management of seasonal sales cycles. 1. Diversify Sales: Many businesses hinge on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and seasonal sales. Those are the most active times but customers are always hunting for deals. Integrating more frequent but creative sales initiatives helps reduce sales variability and risk. Businesses can also run exclusive sales with major affiliate partners to keep

money flowing in without causing cus-tomers to tune out. — Carlo Cisco, SELECT 2. Review, Revise And Augment Your Plans: Take the time to prepare for the remainder of the year by starting with performance reviews relative to annual/medium-term plans and budget. Revise the plan for tactical deployment of product and sales teams. Visit ex-isting customers and channels to en-sure retention and to gain market and competitive insights. Finally, take the time to upskill your teams through training and coaching for the next round of battle. — Rohit Bassi, Corridor Capital 3. Provide The Best Customer Ser-

vice: Like a five-star hotel or a Michelin Star restaurant, customer service is everything. Having waters or candies for your clients goes a long way. It is a small gesture but a huge investment. When your clients feel like you care, everything changes from there. When a client or potential client feels at home they will not only purchase your goods but be a client for life because of the

small things you do. — Tyler Gallagher, Regal Assets 4. Adapt To Sales Cycles: Know your customer and adapt to cyclical sales. Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins worked together to keep stores busy all day. Lawn mower and snow blower repair shops are common for a reason. Understand the reason for your business cycles and adapt to it. Establish partnerships, run special discount promotions or offer additional value for free during down periods. — Sean Brown, YCharts 5. Communicate And Plan With Your Partners: The best tip for managing seasonal sales cycles is to communicate and plan with both internal and exter-

nal partners. Understand trends in your historical data and plan accordingly for safety inventory, bulk purchases which entitle you to discounts or improved rates and schedule timely deliveries. Most importantly, organize your human capital accordingly (temporary staff, etc.) to support these seasonal cycles. — Geanette Rodriguez-Ojeda

S

We are now accepting nominations for the 2019

Click above for a printable form (with instructions and dates)

or stop by the Chamber!

By Expert Panel, Forbes Financial Council | SEP 2019 Successful accounting, financial planning & wealth management executives from Forbes Finance Council share trends and tips.

ALABAMA TOURISM CONTINUES By Paul DeMarco | SEP 2019

Posted by Erica Thomas, Tribune Interactive TO SUPPORT STATE ECONOMY

Alabama’s success in attracting new manufacturing plants is the envy of other states around the Nation. When you look at all of the auto plants in the state and their suppliers, that alone has driven Alabama’s economy in the positive direction. When you add aviation, the defense industry and technology sector jobs to the equation, Alabama is a hot place to do business right now. Yet, Alabama continues to make waves in another arena — tourism. For the sixth time in 13 years, Alabama has won an award from the National Council of State Tourism Directors. It does not hurt that our state topography includes everything from the base of the Appalachian

PREPARING YOUR WORKPLACE FOR DISABILITY INCLUSION According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 in 4 Americans is impacted by disability in some way. Building a workplace organizational structure that supports disability inclusion is the first step toward successful recruitment as well as retention.

Practices that maximize this possibility:

• Senior Leadership Commitment — When companies have strong senior management committed to hiring people with disabilities, they were approximately five times more likely to have hired a person with a disability (Erickson, von Schrader; 2014)

• Effective Communication — Communicating the company’s disability inclusion initiative both internal and external to the organization is also essential.

• Diversity Integration — Recognizing individuals with disabilities as part of the diversity and inclusion initiative is as important as race, gender, and sexual orientation.

• Ability to Self-Identify — Critical to building a disability inclusive workplace is creating a culture where people are comfortable being able to self-identify as a person with a disability.

• Data Collection — The organization must put metrics and analytics in place that assist the organization to monitor its related efforts across the employment process.

Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives.

Mountains to the white sandy beaches on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Alabama is recognized as having one of the country’s best tourism programs in the country. Dollars generated by tourism grew by 8.5% last year and increased to over $15 billion. in 2018. This amounts to almost a billion dollars in state and local taxes that support everything from education to public safety. The state will maintain its strong position to be a draw for the manufacturing companies. Thus, Alabama leaders need to continue to support one of the other shining stars for the state — it’s tourism industry.

The Gateway Team is busy adding business

engagement and continuous improvement

strategies to their program offerings. In this and

future Chamber newsletters, we will be offering

information to improve your business. We will

focus on a different industry cluster each month.

In our Workforce Development circles in Baldwin County, we often discuss the need for qualified and skilled employees for the hospitality and tourism industry. We focus on restaurants, lodging, entertainment and attractions and the services they provide our valued guests. In this writing we would like to discuss the workforce development needs of a vital part of the Coastal experience —

—Recreational Boating.

At a recent National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) meeting we learned the following about Recreational Boating in Alabama:

Annual Economic Impact is $2 Billion

Supports 10,661 Jobs

Annual Retail Sales = $582 Million

We also learned that there are more than 31,000 open jobs in the U.S. Marine Industry.

• 21% are unfilled retail positions

• 59% unfilled in boating service

• 88% of available service jobs are for marine technicians

The Gateway Initiative is heavily engaged in the local community assessment that will determine how educators spend equipment and training dollars in 2020 and beyond. With the recreational boating industry facing a critical shortfall of qualified workers in manufacturing, technicians, and service repairs the NMMA is asking that local leaders advocate for:

1. Secure funding for education programs in marine technology, specifically gas and diesel engine repair, hydraulics, HVAC, and electrical systems.

2. Expand PELL grant eligibility to short-term post-secondary certificates in demand-

driven non-credit programs such as Marine Technology.

3. Inclusion of this vital industry in the local community assessment used to secure Perkins dollars (for training equipment) and WIOA funding to support the economically disadvantaged, veterans, disabled persons, and displaced workers in pursuing a secure career in recreational boating.

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G & J TILE AND FLOOR COVERING — FOLEY, AL Congratulations to G & J Tile and Floor Covering — our Business of the Month for October! Mike Graham and Tony Joellenbeck, owners of this quality Foley business, have been making an impact on residential homes from the “ground up” for quite some time now. The showroom has been open for over eight years and the two owners have twenty-seven years of combined flooring experience. G & J Tile and Floor Covering can meet any flooring need you might have, including remodels or brand new builds. Give them a call today!

Location: 1351 S. McKenzie St., Foley, Alabama 36535 Phone: 251.971.8453 | Website: www.gandjfloorcovering.com

BUSINESS OF THE MONTH

[…] MAXIMIZING REVENUE FROM SEASONAL SALES: 12 PROVEN STRATEGIES

6. Enhance Total Quality Management: Bringing back the concept of total quality management (TQM), but en-hanced with modern business analytics, would yield greater insights into inven-tory churn on a weekly, monthly, yearly or seasonal basis. Understanding true

variation, middle office can cut waste and forecasts better downstream (or upstream). Also, sharing intel with partners in your value chain will help brace for economic surprises. — Franklin Tsung, BlackCrown Inc. 7. Look At Your Off-Season Like A Pro Sports Team: Seasonal sales cycles provide a great opportunity to strengthen your team’s capabilities ahead of the next "season." When things are slower, invest in sales train-ing. Spend the time and effort to up-grade sales tools like presentations. Have sales personnel cross-train so they understand the business better and spend time with product managers to pass on feedback from the field. — Robert Roley, SS&C 8. Hire Seasonal Employees: Everyone knows industries like retail can get hectic depending on the sea-son. A great way to meet the demands of these business cycles is to hire sea-sonal, part-time or temporary employ-ees. These new hires can be a great addition to your team during certain seasons. They’re hired understanding that they likely will only be working for that season, but not past that time.

— Gregory Keleshian, Crestmont Capital LLC 9. Create A Solid Dynamic Forecast: When attempting to maximize potential

revenue with a seasonal sales cycle, it’s extremely important to have a solid dynamic forecast in place. A forecast allows you to determine your monthly sales and more importantly, cash posi-tion. A seemingly solid decision made when sales are high may have an unex-

pected adverse cash effect when sales are low, not giving you the opportunity to recover. — Jody Grunden, Summit CPA Group 10. Take Advantage Of The Gig Economy: Consider a side hustle for your business during off-season times.

Maybe that looks like promoting repair work, how-to classes, catering or in-creased online sales for off-season merchandise. Consider renting out your business space for special events. — Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital

11. Review Year-Over-Year Perfor-mance: It’s important to keep track of year-over-year performance, not just month-to-month data. This helps en-

sure you are on pace with projections and gives you the ability to make cor-rections well ahead of the season— whether you need to boost spend in marketing, add employee coverage, or increase inventory purchasing. — Ben Gold, QuickBridge Funding

12. Save Aggressively At The Peak: Many businesses are prone to business cycles with seasonal ebbs and flows. Plan ahead for slow season by saving aggressively. During the slow months it can become difficult to break even on cash flow without taking out a

business loan. Combat this by saving wisely during the peak months. Alt-hough profits are high during the peak, you need to look at the year in its en-tirety and plan accordingly. —Jared Weitz, U. C. Source Inc.

By Expert Panel, Forbes Financial Council | SEP 2019 Successful accounting, financial planning & wealth management executives from Forbes Finance Council share trends and tips.

Photo: thedigitaltransformationpeople.com

*See your participating independent American Standard Dealer for complete program eligibility, dates, details and restrictions. Special rebates from $75 up

to $500. All sales must be to homeowners in the United States. Void where prohibited. Valid on Qualifying Equipment only. Offer expires 11/15/2019.

OCT 24

OCT 17

OCT 18

LOCATION: Wolf Bay Restaurant • Foley

TIME: 8:30 am - 9:30 am

LOCATION: N. Chicago St., Foley

TIME: 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

LOCATION: Hampton Inn • Gulf Shores

TIME: 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

UPCOMING CHAMBER EVENTS

Visit SouthBaldwinChamber.com for tickets and information.

OCT 22 LEADERSHIP SERIES

LOCATION: Foley Civic Center

TIME: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

Cody Williamson, President/CEO

Creek Indian Enterprises Dev. Authority

CHICAGO STREET SUPPER CLUB

AM CONNECTIONS

BUSINESS AFTER HOURS

Sponsored by:

Grant, Sanders and Taylor, P.C.

Sponsored by:

Caldwell, Wenzel & Asthana, P.C.