Look beyond boundaries

What are the boundaries of your business? Is your business limited by geographic boundaries? Do you direct your company's sales efforts toward only a few industries or markets?

Who would think a Middletown company known for professional garment cleaning would send a van every day to places as far north as Roscoe or some 50 miles south to Saddle River, N.J.?
Gilman's Cleaners has been doing its road show of pickup and delivery for three generations. Martin Dlugatz, the company's president, says his grandfather rolled out the free service when he opened the business in 1923.

Their business model is admirable and is something other businesses can strive to accomplish: Be innovative to grow outside your natural boundaries.

Quite frankly, there's no lack of choices in selecting a dry cleaner. Consumers in every major town have multiple options. Some cleaners are content with growing solely by walk-in business from their convenient location, but in the case of Gilman's, a steady-drum beat of print advertising promotes their pickup and delivery service to potential customers not in proximity of their Dolson Avenue location.

It's not just the ads selling Gilman's mobile service. Dlugatz leverages his pickup and delivery drivers as a commission-based sales force.

"We actually have eight vehicles picking up and dropping off clothes every work day," Dlugatz said. "This makes our business very diversified and has been a big part of how we're beating the recession."

The Internet is a huge asset for companies looking to sell products or services outside their natural markets.

ReStore in Newburgh, a furniture, lighting and building materials recycling facility supporting Habitat for Humanity's Greater Newburgh chapter, regularly leverages the Internet to sell items outside its traditional boundaries. Most would assume that ReStore's biggest customers come from Newburgh's surrounding areas, but many donated items are resold to far-away customers found on places like Craigslist.

ReStore manager Chris Knasiak said, "We could just focus all our attention on marketing to the local population, as they do make up most of our sales. But many times, we find out-of-the-area buyers willing to pay top dollar for hard-to-find items. Doing so with a free listing on the Internet is a great way to expand our market — for free."

ReStore's success in selling rare items to broader audiences is a great example of tapping into a demand that exceeds your geographic boundaries.

Strategize on what demands you can meet outside your natural markets. Can you take your product to customer's doorsteps like Gilman's? Do you provide or sell a specialty service or product like ReStore that you can offer outside your current boundaries?

Ask these questions now, and continue to ask them, so as to always be thinking of new sectors of growth.

Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com or 796-3342, ext. 303.