3 Keys to Becoming a Destination Business: My Post-Thanksgiving Blog
This newsletter started out as a Thanksgiving post, but evolved into the 3 keys to growing a business into a Destination, a $300 discount code for owners (near the end), and a promotion that could be worth well over $1,000 for any association or community that wants to have me speak in person in 2022.
All this, in this newsletter.
But, I started with Thanksgiving in mind and began by mentioning the people I am thankful for who helped me over the years:
- I started with Karen Slevin, the Eustis Florida Main Street Director, the first Main Street Director to walk me around her downtown when I was totally clueless about downtowns.
- Then came Ronni Wood from Winter Haven Florida, the first Main Street Manager to hire me to speak to her downtown businesses.
- Then, Glenda Purkis, the Atchison, Kansas Chamber of Commerce Director who first hired me for an out-of-state speaking engagement.
And as I kept writing, I wanted to thank the owners who shared with me how they created their businesses, and though I couldn’t remember all of their names, I remembered how they unselfishly told me how they created their profitable businesses in marketplaces that often had demographic disadvantages, low population density, high unemployment, or low household income. And these owners persevered, creating many multi-million-dollar businesses there.
Which brings me to Key #1: Some of the greatest Destination Businesses operating today were created in cities and towns where a market analysis of that area said they’d never make it.
I thought about the Destination doll house maker I’d met in a struggling town in West Virginia; a Destination dry cleaner in rural Indiana that specialized in mascot costumes; a Destination heating & air conditioning company (in Kellogg cereal’s hometown); a green tea importer in Oregon; a Destination yarn retailer in Maine; and a Destination flak jacket manufacturer who created protective vests and sold them to pro rodeo riders (if you guessed Texas, you were right.)
Which brings me to Key #2: Destination Business aren’t just restaurants and entertainment venues (as one well-known consultant told hundreds at a conference). It’s any business that wants to attract more consumers.
Which brought my mind to a marketing professor from a college where I was speaking who introduced me as a speaker who specialized in business differentiation.
He was wrong, and that brings me to:
Key #3: Being different has nothing to do with becoming a Destination. Being different doesn’t cut it. Forget differentiation because Destination Businesses must be Unique and one-of-a-kind. “Existing as the only one” says Merriam and Webster, the married dictionary couple.
If you are an owner who wants to make your business Unique, this step will often mean there will be times when everyone in your industry, your neighbor in the business next door, and your family sitting at your dinner table, all might think that your ideas are illogical and impractical.
“No one does that,” they’ll say.”
That’s OK. I tell owners to trust their crazy ideas. Nearly all Destination Business owners have told me that they went in a different direction from the majority of their industry.
Here’s a simple example in an email I received last week. You’ll see what I mean:
“I want to thank you for expanding my mind to bigger ideas! I ended up with an extra 5000 copies of my holiday gift guide and decided I would send them out to towns and cities outside my area. I did an EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail), to cities that were from 60 to 110 miles away, to their highest earning routes! We are getting orders and calls like crazy! My website is on fire! Thank you! Before I met you, I would have never considered paying for towns that far away to get our catalog!
The Destination process I teach isn’t for owners who want to maintain their existing sales volume. It is designed for owners who want to get their businesses to generate a higher level of revenue that gives them the income they need, without their business consuming their lives.
That’s the trick.
So, I hope this non-Thanksgiving newsletter has been beneficial to you.
Here’s something else that might help:
Our 2022 Destination Training Schedule and Incentives
We are now taking registrations on these four (4) classes that kick off in 2022.
First, our Destination BootCamp, 3-day, online class that covers my entire 14-step Destination strategy. We have two (2) online Destination BootCamp classes scheduled in the first half of 2022:
- February 22-24, 2022 (click here for the February BootCamp class), or
- May 10-12, 2022 (click here for the May BootCamp class)
Additionally, if you register for either of these BootCamp classes by December 31, 2021, and you type in the Promotion Code SAVE2021, you will save $300.00 off the tuition fee!
Again, Promo Code SAVE2021 (all CAPS, all 1 word), and you’ll save $300 per registration.
Second, for those of you who are community leaders, Main Street Managers, Chamber Directors, SBDC Counselors, or you are a person who wants to train businesses in your community to help them generate more revenue, you might consider becoming one of our certified Facilitators of my Destination Creation Course.
The Destination Creation Course is my simplified version of my Destination process that’s taught by Facilitators all over North America. We have Facilitators in 23 States and 2 provinces in Canada.
To become a Facilitator, you must take my Train-the-Trainer class and two (2) classes are scheduled for 2022:
- January 18-20, 2022 (click here to learn more), or
- March 8-10, 2022 (click here to learn more).
Want to see where we need Facilitators? Just click here to see our map. You could become our first Facilitator in our State or Province.
Finally, If your association, organization, or community is interested in having me conduct an in-person single-day or multi-day workshop for your group in 2022, we have a year-end promotion that could save your organization tremendously. But don’t delay – this promotion ends December 31, 2021. To learn more, go to: Jonschallert.com/year-end-promotion
That’s it for my non-Thanksgiving newsletter! Let me know what you liked or disliked. Reach out at [email protected] or give me a call at my office (970) 281-2923.
Thanks!
