X-CUBE: Empowering Small, Minority, and Women-Owned Firms in the A/E/C Industry

X-CUBE 051800v.1.i.1

Marketing Know-how: Three marketing tips

Leveling the Playing Field: Useful sites for small, women and minority
owned firms to visit

Food for thought: an article on getting press from your local paper

Cyber scene: three technology venues

Industry Events

Non-Industry Events

1.

Be selective about which project types you specialize in. In an age
of branding and «niche» marketing, it is important to stay
focused. Pick three project or client types that you want to target and
direct your time and energy towards developing those markets. You will be a
happier practitioner if you pick areas that you have a special interest in
or that you have extensive experience with.

2.

Study your clients and become a specialist on their issues. Visit
their web sites, attend their industry events, read the publications they
read. Your clients will respond to your presentation or pitch if you
understand the factors that impact their business. A benefit of immerse
yourself in the realm of your clients is that you will hear about project
leads before they hit the street. You will place yourself ahead of the
competition.

3.

Service. Service. Service. Service your clients by building
relationships with them (people hire people, not companies). Service
your clients by always giving them more than what you promised them. Service
your clients by asking them how they think you are doing — no matter how
scary it might be. Service your clients and they will remember you above
your competitors.

http://www.ameny.org – The Association
of Minority Enterprises in New York. This organization has our best
interests at heart. AMENY is a non-profit organization that works with New
York City agencies to make sure that minority-owned businesses get a portion
of the contracts associated with large public projects. AMENY watches the
affirmative action legislature at the State level and is always lobbying for
w/mbe set-asides in the construction industry. Amen!

http://www.sba.gov/textonly/regions/states/ny/nynewy.html
– The Small Business Association, New York Area.

http://www.mbda.gov
– Minority Business Development Agency

http://www.onlinewbc.org
– Women’s Business Center

httP:/wwwedgeonline.com –
Entrepreneurial Edge

Pressing The Press Craving more coverage from your local newspaper?
Our Public Relations Expert has a few attention-grabbing tips. By Joan
Stewart April 10, 2000

Q: My competitor, the owner of a gourmet catering service, has had
four stories written about her in the past year in various sections of our
local metropolitan newspaper. I’m beginning to think she’s paying them
off. What should I do to get the same kind of coverage she’s getting? Or
should I assume the newspaper isn’t interested in me since they haven’t
called?

A: It sounds as if your competitor has mastered the fine art of
tooting her own horn. From where you’re sitting, it probably looks as if
the newspaper is playing favorites. But I’ll bet your competitor is busy
cooking up story ideas about her business, keeping in touch with the food
editor and piggybacking her ideas off holidays and seasonal events. It’s
time for you to create your own recipe for publicity success. The most
important thing you can do is place the media’s needs first. Help them do
their jobs by giving them timely, compelling story ideas or photo
opportunities. Don’t assume they aren’t interested if they haven’t
called. Reporters don’t like to keep writing about the same people or
quoting the same sources. Here are nine strategies you and other
small-business owners can adopt to claim your share of news space:

1. Introduce yourself. Start by calling the reporter who covers your
industry and inviting him or her for coffee or to tour your business. In
your case, that would be the food editor, a food columnist or reporter, or
the small-business reporter. Let this person know the areas in which
you’re an expert. Encourage him or her to call on you for background,
commentary or story ideas about the food industry and catering.

2. Get to know local freelancers who write about food and small business.
If you’re not sure who they are, call the publication you want to get into
and ask.

3. Find out what your media contacts need, ask them, and then provide it,
whether it’s a source for another story or a suggestion for Web sites
where reporters can find statistics about your industry. Position yourself
as such a valuable source that the next time the reporter is looking for a
story, your name will come to mind.

4. Tell the reporter about a trend you’re seeing. Are more customers
calling on caterers to prepare and serve family dinners during the week
because of hectic lifestyles? Are people hiring you for their children’s
birthday parties?

5. Suggest yourself as the local angle to a national story. If the price
of fresh tuna has skyrocketed, for example, and you’ve created recipes
that help make tuna go farther, let the media know. Be sure to share the
recipes.

6. Piggyback on a holiday. Are people hiring you to serve mom breakfast
in bed on Mother’s Day? If the newspaper doesn’t want the story, they
still might want a photo.

7. Talk about your business problems and how you solve them. For example,
if you use clever recruiting strategies to find employees during a labor
shortage, share them.

8. Discuss your mistakes and what you’ve learned. Reporters crave
sources willing to share free advice that will help their readers avoid the
same mistakes.

9. Write letters to the editor and opinion columns. When I worked as a
newspaper editor, I often assigned reporters to cover stories that were
brought to my attention through a letter to the editor. Now get going.
Somewhere out there is a reporter who’s just waiting for your call.

The A/E/C industry is hot for dot.com firms. We want a piece of the pie
before it is all gone, don’t we? Educate yourself about the dot.com scene by
registering with the following sites or contacting the listed sources:

http://www.alleyevent.com
– Visit AlleyEvent.com for new and updated event information during
the week, as well as to use the site to automatically forward event
information to colleagues, access Silicon Alley resources and event webcasts.
The AlleyEvent.com calendar and weekly newsletter provides a forum for
announcing events for the internet community. If there are organizations or
events you want to see which are not published on AlleyEvent.com, please
contact them at info@alleyevent.com. They are working to provide the events
you want to know about.

http://www.nynma.org/events/ – NYNMA
Mission Statement «to serve the entrepreneur, creative, and
business professional, and promote the industry as it grows in New
York.» NYNMA is a not-for-profit industry association founded in 1994
to support and promote the new media industry in New York. Since then our
membership has reached almost 7000 individuals representing nearly 2500
companies. NYNMA members exemplify all the talent, resources and energy to
be found in the new media industry. They work in such diverse fields as
broadcasting and publishing, web site development, design, entertainment,
education, and professional and financial services. They run one person
shops, are employed in small agencies and in divisions of some of the
world’s largest companies. NYNMA has helped promote Silicon Alley as a
leading global center of this emerging industry, and is well positioned to
target its most influential decision-makers and pioneers.

New York Downtown Alliance: Lisa M. Novitt, Director of Information
Technology District
Lisa is an excellent source of information on the new media scene in New
York City. If you email her, she’ll put you on her distribution list.
lnovitt@DowntownNY.com

Learn how the e-wave will affect your design or construction business.
A/E/C SYSTEMS International is sponsoring A/E/C Systems 2000 at the
Washington Convention Center in Washington DC, June 5 – 8. A/E/C SYSTEMS
International is your information resource for the latest design and
construction technologies including Internet, CAD, CAE, GIS, EDM/PDM, ERP,
and more. See and test hot new software, hardware and more at our
interactive conferences and exhibits. For more information visit: http://www.aecsystems.com/aec2000/

The Society for Marketing Professional Services is hosting their
fourth annual Honor Awards Gala on June 21st. Due to the organization’s goal
to diversify itself, minority professionals can attend NY Chapter events at
membership rates. For more information about these events visit the SMPS NY
Area Chapter web site: http://www.http://www.smpsny.org/framepage.html
To register at membership rates, contact Elizabeth Geary-Archer at
212.726.8512.

Association of Minority Enterprises of New York, Inc. is having
another one of their stellar events on June 5th. The local Congressman and
Chamber of Commerce President will be presenting. Call AMENY for more
details: 718.291.1641

Blacklines Magazine will continue its intriguing networking/seminar
series in June with a forum on «Hip Hop Architecture» call
718.703.8000 for more information or visit their web site at http://www.blacklines.net

Reinvent your design career: apply for The James Marston Fitch
Charitable Foundation Mid-Career Grants of up to $10,000 deadline
September (212) 777-7800

The American Woman’s Economic Development Corporation & Women In
The Black will co-host their 2nd annual «Who’s the Boss»
Conference on business development. Saturday, June 3, 2000. Harlem State
Office Building, 125th Street. 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. $75 for non-members. For
more information call: 212.631.1022. (AWED has an amazing Summer seminar
schedule with fantastic topics–some of which are free…visit their web
site at www.womanconnect.com)

The National Alliance of Business Developers hosts Marketing Mondays
every 2nd Monday of the month at the MetLife building in Harlem, 7th Avenue
and 125th Street, 6:00 p.m. The (organized) networking that goes on at these
meetings is intense! NAMD is a tight group of powerful professionals who are
making things happen, locally and globally.

Network Journal Magazine is hosting The
Millionaire’s Club: How To Start And Run Your Own Investment Club And Make
Your Money Grow, as part of its POWER BREAKFAST SERIES. June 20th, 2000 –
7:30a.m – 10:30a.m. Location: Roosevelt Hotel – New York City to register
for the event online go to: http://www.tnj.com/articless/tnjevent/eventnjbe.htm

We hope you’ve enjoyed the first issue of X-CUBE and have found the
content useful. If you have any comments, suggestions, or if you have an
events that you would like us to include in X-CUBE, please email Elizabeth
Geary-Archer at ega@outoftheboxmarketing.net

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