I stumbled across a cool story yesterday in The New York Times’ You’re the Boss blog yesterday about something known as “Project Rev.” Despite its semi-obnoxious name, which seems very “Do the Dew!” to me, Project Rev might actually be pretty cool.
The project chronicles nine small businesses, who have struggled with marketing themselves and take another swing at promoting their businesses. They are provided $5,000 in marketing products and services from a company called Deluxe, which I think is one of the project’s sponsors, as well as access to “an experienced marketing advisor and a SCORE counselor for advice” (SCORE is another of the site’s sponsors it seems). The business owners’ progress is documented in a series of blogs and videos for each company, written by the owners, and is supplemented by blog posts from markets with SCORE/Deluxe and also a shared forum called “PartnerUp.”
This is an interesting chance to see nine case studies showcasing the problems and needs of small businesses trying to market themselves. Also, because of the public nature of the PartnerUp forum, by answering questions or providing your thoughts there is not only an opportunity for you to talk to the business owners participating, but more importantly to also market yourself other readers, which will hopefully include a good amount of other small-business owners looking for help.
Project Rev’s website can be found here, and the New York Times article that hipped me to the site can be read here.
Until next week!
WEEKLY MIKE FACT: Kerrick received Magnetic Buckyballs from ThinkGeek a while back, and it’s seriously one of the best things I’ve ever played with. I’m fiddling with it constantly, I’m sure driving all of my coworkers crazy.
