Bucks County Reinvention Success
A little planning and an owner invested in making the change work are the two key ingredients for a small business reinvention success. Tony Rodgers, one such invested small business owner transformed his old business with a new image and name — Creative Mechanisms, Inc. With the help of the SEWN program, Tony received cost-free guidance with developing his reinvention plan. Applying his own passion and knowledge from years in the product prototyping industry, he implemented the basic ingredients of in-bound marketing to foster the new image reflected in his company’s new name.
Almost overnight, many of the small model-making companies in Bucks County suffered significant business losses to foreign competition. In order to survive in a much smaller market place, these companies had to find new customers quickly. When Tony called SEWN, he was committed to making his life’s work successful once again. The analysis of his business strengths revealed technical expertise, proven service and support success and great market awareness - just no customers!
More importantly, as with most small businesses, the real key to the business is the owner. The core ingredient for the reinvention plan was Tony’s passion for the business. He willingly committed to the changes that reflected this new way of working. One of SEWN’s core services is sales/marketing planning and new business development. SEWN helped Tony get financial assistance for marketing from the Mid Atlantic Trade Adjustment Assistance Center. (MATAAC)
The image change sprang from Tony’s determined commitment to the strategies of inbound marketing. He is reaching new customers through a new, interactive web site, and he is keeping them interested in the site through blogging. Creating and writing blog posts about timely topics that would interest potential customers, responding to their questions and following up on their comments can seem daunting. As Tony has shown, though, it also creates strong new customer relationships and new market opportunities.
In future articles, we will explore in-bound marketing further, For now, please click on Tony’s website, www.creativemechanisms.com and review his blogging series on product development. If you would like to talk about
new marketing strategies for your stressed business, please contact SEWN at sewnse@steelvalley.org or 215-458-7580.