Educating Business Owners

When $5 billion/245,000-member Teachers Federal Credit Union, Hauppauge, N.Y., held a breakfast seminar for local business owners, the event was at capacity (with 50 attendees) despite horrid weather. Local business owners were drawn to the session titled “Secrets to Building Your Business on Long Island,” which was the first installation of the CU’s TFCUniversity Business Clinic.

“What small business owners really need is information, guidance and help, and we know enough people in the industry that we can provide that resource,” says Lynne Viccaro O’Leary, VP/marketing. We wanted to be a true resource.”

The event featured keynote speaker Susan Axelrod, founder of Love & Quiches, the highly successful company she started in the kitchen of her Long Island home 40 years ago. In addition, a panel of Long Island business owners, including David Jacobson, CEO of GrooveCar, spoke about their experience owning a business and answered questions.

Topics included how demographics matter to business, how to use Long Island’s unique geography in the business’s favor, how to create a loyal community of ambassadors to further promote products or services, how to hire the right people who understand the market, and how to diversify and create multiple streams of revenue.

The event was a success, with an average nine out of 10 on the evaluations. The credit union is planning its next seminar (and plans to hold them quarterly) on January 22.

“We asked people what do they want for the next one and heard an overwhelming response about marketing,” says O’Leary. Therefore, she is planning a fun session to present 30 marketing ideas in 60 minutes. Six speakers representing different areas of marketing, (including media and advertising, public relations, direct marketing, branding, digital marketing, and design) and they will have two minutes each to present five low- to no-cost marketing ideas.

The CU is advertising the seminars on its website with a homepage banner and a dedicated landing page. In addition, the CU advertised the event in its October Business Matters newsletter. Plus, O’Leary got the word out on social media, including Facebook and Twitter; sent media alerts and press releases (one of which made it into the local daily newspaper, Newsday). She also placed ads in Newsday and Long Island Business News. The credit union also filmed a video during the first seminar and made it available on its YouTube channel.

But email blasts were the most effective, she says. The CU emailed business owners in its membership, members who lived in the area and nearby businesses.

The majority of attendees were members. But “we did have a small but significant portion of nonmembers who also came,” says O’Leary.

The CU supported its line of business products and services with an information table at the seminar. But, “we did not sell at all. It was about the information,” O’Leary says.

“By the nature of doing these things, we associate TFCU with business. You don’t need a hard sell approach. I prefer a more organic approach.”

In addition, on the event registration page, attendees were asked if they wanted more information about specific products, loans, even auto loans, mortgages, etc. “We had a good percentage of people fill that out and we followed up,” says O’Leary.

She is excited about the seminars because “it gives these small businesses access to people they normally would not have direct access to. It’s about fostering relationships and giving that access.”

Theresa Witham is a CUES senior editor.