CCPA

CCPA recently mandated Linda Rink, from Rink Consulting, to conduct a member’s survey to understand better how its members see the association, what benefit they draw from it and what our areas of improvement are. Here are the results:

Snapshot of Respondents ( Total = 154)
(Note: these results reflect only the respondent sample, not total CCPA membership.)

64% are business or professional services.

• Retail and restaurants only 5%.

They are small businesses:

• 78% have less than 20 employees.
• 44% are sole proprietors.
• 55% have annual revenues of < $500,000.

Most are well established:  71% have been in business more than 10 years.

41% are women-owned; 17% are minority-owned.

Only half are located in Center City proper (east or west of Broad Street).

• 42% come from outside our area (e.g., suburbs and NJ)
• Our new areas of Old City, University City and South St./Queen Village were barely represented ( 1 or 2 respondents each)

Their customer base, however, is in Center City or Greater Philadelphia (62%).

Respondents belong to a wide range of other business and professional organizations.

• Out of 76 write-in responses, 19 (25%) mentioned GPCC.

CCPA Membership & Events
Most respondents heard of CCPA through another member or networking (60%).

• 10% learned of CCPA from its website.
• Less than 2% heard about CCPA through social networking.
  (Note: 85% of respondents use Linked-In; 70% use Facebook.)

“Networking” and “business development” are the most common reasons for joining, followed closely by “information about the city”.

However, over half of the respondents have not attended an event in the past 6 months.

• 25% attended 1 -2 events; another 21% attended 3 – 6 events.
• The single most common reason for not attending more events is schedule conflicts (53%), not inconvenient times or locations.

After work and midday are the most preferred times for events.

Of the suggested general event topics, marketing and sales tips were ranked highest, along with regional economic information

Write-in suggestions for topics included (in no particular order):

• Retirement plan benefits for small business
• Business incentive proposals
• Regional events/developments/politics
• Trends on different industries
• Revenue Management and Price Optimization
• Import/export, in-depth soc net series for biz, national economic forecast, national best practices, authors
• Contracting opportunities for small business and independent contractors in media / creative services
• Practical and affordable methods of energy conservation that increase productivity
• Collaborative presentations with regional groups; things pertaining to sustainability; regional networking opportunities
• Increasing Philadelphia as a business friendly city, Partnerships to increase city commerce
• City government
• Green business development, triple bottom line and sustainable business modeling
• Tax conditions and outlook
• Public relations
• Business taxes, support of business related issues
• Small Business working capital sources…sources when banks won’t provide business loan

Regarding event formats, speakers and panel discussions were rated highly, along with networking events with other organizations.

• Interestingly, the “Lunch with the City Leaders” series received top mentions for favorite event (write-ins); several mentioned “Speed Biz” and the Breakfast Club.

Other Services, Comments

• Only 18% of respondents receive health benefits through CCPA.
• About one-third were aware of the Blog.
• 41% were aware of the Ambassador program.
• 27% were aware of the recent membership contest, but lack of time (and perhaps of interest) was the cause of non-participation.
• 61% feel that CCPA has helped their business.

Selected write-ins about how CCPA has benefited them include (in no particular order):

• Networking and information about new activities in the Philadelphia market.
• Growing personal and business relationships
• Opportunity to meet many other business owners and colleagues; increase my resources.
• Given me strategic alliance and personal relationships.
• I know what the economic environment is like in the city.
• Save Money and time plus get my name out to people
• Invaluable opportunity to meet City Leaders, dine on great food, and meet energetic, vital peers in the business community. It has been terrific!
• Providing insurance benefits.
• I just feel that it is a good group of people and they have a good, honest network. While I have not gotten any new business, I have met some good people and attended some useful events.
• Helped me meet very interesting people, helped me find my voice in the city, helped me find new clients!
• The first three years were lonely because it was only me on staff.  Meeting other business owners then was important so I didn’t feel so alone.
• I can’t say that I have received additional business but I it has helped me with just keeping in touch with the city leaders and networking opportunities.
• I think it can help me get more “plugged in” to Phila, if I could attend more events.
• CCPA has brought greater awareness to my business in the Center City Community as well as the many City Leaders it has hosted at its “Lunch with City Leaders” events.
• It is great to meet other business owners in a neutral setting.
• Professional development, networking, speaking opportunities, visibility for me and my company
• Helped me grow my contacts and relationships with business and government
• As a social service business, helped me to be aware of issues and benefits affecting all small businesses.

But only 35% stated that they actually have received business from another CCPA member.

Nevertheless, 62% respondents are very likely to recommend CCPA to someone else.

Other selected comment / suggestions included (in no particular order):

• Partner more with other organizations.
• Keep the focus on being current.
• More focus on programs of interest to professional service providers (rather than retailers or restaurateurs).
• More issues-oriented panels (e.g., how to reduce cost of doing business in CC).

Last Tuesday, a few CCPA representatives: staff, board, committee and members gathered together in the office of vice-president David Carter to brainstorm on the association’s brand promise.

As everyone is working together to make CCPA a better resource to all its members, it seemed that the association definition got more and more diluted. Who is CCPA? What makes it different from other business association? What’s our “30-sec elevator speech”?

CCPA’s mission is clearly defined: “To foster communications, cooperation, education and services among the small businesses of Center City Philadelphia; and to maintain, promote and improve the commercial vitality of Center City Philadelphia.” But…

What is our Brand Promise?

Immediately, the consensus was that CCPA meets a need for smaller businesses that other business association don’t, because CCPA is about:

• Small business
• Making the right connections (accessible, approachable)
• Variety (members, functions, series…)
• Community (Greater Center City Philadelphia)
• Culture
• Networking to make your company grow
• Value (small investment)
• Involvement
• Intimacy

In summary: we promise small business owners and representative a community for growth; a place to know people instead of meet people; a place where small business is made easy.

If you want to make a cool keywords cloud like ours above, check out Wordle in CCPA’s toolbox!

Each week, CCPA will salute an article of interest found by one of the bloggers.  “Trending generations: The Pew Research Center” by Richard Becker – Copywrite, Ink.

Richard Becker is an accredited business communicator and president of Copywrite, Ink., a writing services and strategic communication firm with experience on more than 1,000 accounts.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, an independent public opinion survey research project that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues, posted the results of its Generations Online in 2009. The comparative study evaluates data between 2005 and 2008.

In keeping pace with Harris Interactive’s poll in 2007 and the Universal McCann study in 2008, Internet users range from the very young to the young at heart. Right on. The Internet is for everybody. Read more.

by Keith Scandone, 03 World

I was recently forwarded a hysterical video from one of the members of my staff, that takes the “bargaining,” “negotiating” and “compromising” that occurs every day in our world of client requests, and puts them into real world scenarios. The video is funny…obviously….because it is so damn true. The people in the video seem ridiculous in their requests. But the problem is, these are just the kind of ridiculous requests we get every day, and are expected to accommodate on a regular basis. So, with knowing that you are often lowering company morale by saying yes to the client’s constant and sometimes unrealistic demands, at what point do you say, I’ve had enough?This is certainly no easy answer to this question, especially in a service oriented business, but I feel there is at least a path you can create that makes it a little easier. And it entails standing up for yourself. This may sound pretty easy, but in my experience, it is a rare, rare thing that companies stand up for themselves. Especially in economic times like these where clients like to dangle the unspoken threat, “you should accommodate my requests, because if you don’t someone else will…” Or at least it sounds that way when you wake up in the middle of the night and think about it.

Our way of standing up for ourselves has been to create a 51%/49% partnership with our clients, where they of course are the 51% (assuming they’re paying). This scenario, in theory, creates a relationship that is supposed to be balanced and rational,  and where we are expected to be mutually respectful of one another.  We look at them as partners, not clients, and they in turn look at us like partners, not vendors. This philosophy is definitely still in beta mode, and certainly not without flaws and setbacks. But, more often than not, you’ll find that most people (since clients are people too) respect you more if you stand up for your work, your staff and for yourself. And we do quite often stand up for ourselves, quite emphatically and passionately at times when necessary.

There is certainly no clear cut solution for dealing with this, but there is one thing I know for sure. Spoiling anyone or anything too much is a bad thing. Children…spouses….plants! Even Phillies lead-off man Jimmy Rollins got put in the 6th spot in the lineup and then benched for 4 days, and he’s a former MVP! So be like Charlie Manuel…and set expectations with your players/clients, and you too may just win a World Series…in a business sense.

Please support a good cause. www.SeeO3Run.com (more…)

Each week, CCPA will salute an article of interest found by one of the bloggers. This week, presented by Audrey Julienne from Raison d’Etre, “LinkedIn: 40 Million can’t be wrong” by Robert Clay – Marketing Wizdom.

Robert Clay has been growing businesses since age 19. He started his first business with no capital, reaching #3 in his field in the U.K. within 7 years. His second business reached #3 in Europe after 3 years. After selling both businesses to one of the largest company in Europe, he played a major part to taking his business unit to #1 in the world in its field, over 4 years.

“It seems that a lot of people join LinkedIn but really don’t know why. I’ve come accross many people who poke around the site every so often and accept occasional requests to link with other members and that’s about it. It’s clear that most people don’t really understand what LinkedIn is for; how to use it; what it’s good for; or how to leverage it.” Read more.