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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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Informer
by Andrew Tellijohn
February 2005

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Expansion


Adding paint boosts
revenue at LaPrep
Wallpaper Stripping

For almost four years, Roxanne Cornell stuck to wallpaper stripping only with her business, LaPrep Wallpaper Stripping in Minneapolis. She would refer painting jobs to others.

Midway through last year, she realized how much business she was giving away and added painting services. “It’s kind of fallen into my lap,” Cornell says. “I’ve got a captive audience.”

Cornell says her company keeps busy with the wallpaper stripping, at least two people every day, five days a week.

The decision to add services was part of her business planning last year, after she brought on a new investor. “I wanted to make sure I could provide the services that I was going to sell,” Cornell says.

She says bidding the paint jobs, at first, was challenging. “Now it’s down to a science,” she says. “I just kept trying it out and trying it out. It’s working now. I can feel confident.”

She says adding painting services probably boosted by more than 5 percent her company’s revenue in 2004, before she did any marketing. This year, she plans a marketing push — especially with paint retailers such as Hirshfield’s, which comprises 38 percent of her referrals. She plans to visit the stores to promote the new services.

Roxanne Cornell, LaPrep Wallpaper Stripping & Paint: 612.816.6940

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Beth Ewen

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