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Integrated Machine Company

February 18, 2016
Success Story: Pennsylvania

Integrated-Machine-Company-logoIntegrated Machine Company was started in July 2001 by Mary Jo Light. The company prides itself in American-made products and the use of American suppliers. The initial purpose of the company was to manufacture quick disconnect fire hydrant storz. This unit has since universalized the fire hydrant connection and allows fire departments to assist one another by using the storz connection instead of a threaded adapter that was unique to each department.

Integrated saw an opportunity to solve a problem in the coupling market. They were approached by two coupling distributors in Erie to create a solution to a major problem with large diameter couplings used in the oil and gas industries, also known as the fracking industry. Many of the couplings purchased by these distributors were failing in the field due to poor quality, thus having negative effects on the environment. Integrated plans to manufacture large quality couplings that will be used with lay-flat hose fluid delivery. These products also have applications in the military, agriculture, and irrigation markets. They plan to offer products of superior quality in order to compete with Chinese imports.

Integrated-Machine-Company-quoteIn order to assist in the financing of new machinery to manufacture these couplings, Mary Jo entered the Ben Franklin Big Idea Contest in 2015. She once again came to the Gannon University SBDC for assistance with the business plan and financial projections needed to submit to the Ben Franklin Technology Partners. The SBDC reviewed the plan that she had prepared, as well as her PowerPoint presentation and projected income statements.  (more…)

5 Sure-Fire Ways to Lose Email Subscribers

February 16, 2016
GoDaddy-5-Sure-Fire-Ways-To-Lose-Email-SubscribersBy Stacey Hartman

Establishing an online presence for your small business seems like a no-brainer nowadays. So you set up your site, linked up your company social media profiles, and created an email marketing campaign. Customers are loving your weekly emails and your subscriptions (and sales) are growing. You’re good to go now, right? This is exactly what you were aiming for, after all.

Well, sort of. It’s a good start, but there are steps needed to ensure that you don’t lose the subscriber base that you worked so hard to build. Let’s take a look at a few of the major ways that you could be losing email subscribers.

1. Purchasing email lists

Your subscriber numbers are slowly growing, but they could always grow faster. And let’s face it, those email lists look pretty tempting after all the hard work you’ve done. Resist the temptation. The list is typically sold to many people, rather than just you, so those email addresses are likely already being spammed with unsolicited email. That, and some email list providers gather their email lists in sketchy ways. And, since you’re probably not the only person who bought the email list, the recipients are much more likely to mark you as spam.  (more…)

Babyation – St. Louis

February 10, 2016
How to reinvent an essential, nearly century-old product

babyation-babyWife and husband Samantha Rudolph and Jared Miller of Babyation, a firm born in Branford, Connecticut, now headquartered in St. Louis, had the sort of brainstorm serial entrepreneurs have while vacationing in Vermont. She was reading a New York Times blog about a clunky, noisy, inelegant but absolutely necessary product essentially unchanged for nearly a century.

Somewhere between three to more than five million, depending on the source, of these items are sold annually in the U.S. alone. And users, many highly productive members of the workforce, need this item so badly they will pay up to $400 for a higher-end model.

She is an experienced business development and strategic planning expert who worked for ESPN for more than eight years, he an electronics wizard who can and has built almost anything, even supervising the commentary center for the Olympics for 14 years. They asked themselves, “Why can’t this truly essential product be as smart and functional as a smartphone, quiet as a luxury car? Wouldn’t that sell? Why can’t women have an improved version of something so badly needed to juggle work and family?”  (more…)

For the Love of Small Business

February 4, 2016
By Nancy Jeng

Google-For-The-Love-Of-Small-BusinessValentine’s Day is coming up, and for many businesses this means getting ready for the fourth-largest spending holiday of the year (National Retail Foundation). To help our fellow small business owners, we’ve prepared five tips for how you can get ahead during the season of love:

1. Capitalize on trending keywords. Google Trends shows the top terms relating to Valentine’s Day are ‘gifts for him,’ ‘valentine’s gifts,’ and ‘Valentine’s Day ideas.’ Build these and other relevant keywords into your site, content and social channels.

2. Make sure your customers can find you. Update your Google listing with your hours, location and relevant Valentine’s-themed photos. If you haven’t already, visit Google My Business to claim your business listing. (more…)