Newsletter 12-13-11 (3rd of 3!)

Posted by Jim Brown 
on Dec 13, 2011
 
 

Rotary Club of Needham

December 13, 2011

Newsletter

 

Bill led us in the pledge of allegiance, with George leading us through America the Beautiful and Rev. Darrell led us in prayer.

 

Announcements:

·        Gift Cards: The Needham Community Council is still looking for local area gift cards with a value of $20 or more.  Get to Karen ASAP!

·        The Needham Opportunity Volunteer Fair was held last Thursday at the Library.

·        Salvation Army Bell ringing at Sudbury farms. We had a total of 17 people who rang the bells from 8 am till 7pm. We raised $600, which is down from last year. However, all the money will be put to good use, and everyone had a great time! Thanks to all!!!

·        Holiday party is being  postponed until January due to low sign up. Stay tuned….

·        Ken let us know he has tickets for the Boston Bruins Rotary Night on Tuesday February 10th. Plus, he is hoping to get tickets for the Celtics. See Ken for details..

·        Uganda update from Natalie Sarna who is teaching music to war orphans in Uganda.  Rotary made a donation to help fund this program

 

Birthdays:  Charles Nelson and Gary Donelan. Congrats!!!

 

Guests: Charles Heberly, a visiting Rotarian from Lakewood WA. Attorney Melissa Jacoby, a prospective Needham Rotarian.

 

Happy $$$:  Doug George for 34 year wedding anniversary; Tom for picking up his son at the airport for college break;  Karen for being at a great District event; Ken for being at a different District event; Ted for a Gift of Life BOD meeting on Thursday; Scott for Ron’s 65th wedding anniversary (again); lots of Happy to be here.

 

50:50: George Hoffmeister had the winning ticket, but not the winning card. Better luck next time!

 

 Guest Speaker: We were so pleased to be able to welcome Doug Masters, owner of ‘Masters Touch’, general contractors located in Medfield. What attracted Doug to us to speak is his marketing. He is very disciplined in his marketing, as we have seen newspaper articles all over the Metrowest area that Doug has authored.

 

He shared a number of tips with us about how to market, saying he first started by placing hand made yard signs in yards he is doing work in. this coupled with post cards he has sent out, ahs created a business with lots of employees, and a Design Center building in Medfield.

 

Doug has built his business on customer service and customer retention. Plus, he likes doing business with people who he likes and are kind of cut out of the same cloth.

 

He is very analytical about his sales and marketing analysis. At the end of the year, he gets a report showing him where his business came from ( by lead source and town),  and how profitable it was by each category as well.

 

He made the point to analyze how much a customer is worth over the life of the relationship. The first sale is only the first sale.

 

While marketing has changed dramatically over the time since he started his business in 1997, the basics have not: you have to market! Today, one should have:

 

  1. A web site.
  2. Be on Twitter
  3. Have a Facebook page.
  4. Have a blog.
  5. Have video content on your web site.

 

The Yellow pages are of questionable value today, but newspaper articles with his picture have proven to be quite useful.

 

Doug has a web site  www.masterstouchweb.com/ which is quite good, but he is updating it again.

 

Our thanks to Doug for a great timely presentation!

 

NOTE: We have two club members, Doug George and Dan Tibma, who are also both general contactors. See Doug’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/George-Associates-Construction/190389371000500

And Dan’s Web Site at www.tibmadesignbuild.com for more info,