Top 5 trends for small business as 2011 starts

For the past 6 yrs I've been placing a Card in Hotel Rooms.

This Card saves Time of the Hotel Staff in asking a common question;

'Where's the TV Channel Guide?"

When people stay in hotel rooms away from home...the TV Channels are usually DIFFERENT. So...the click on channel 9 and....what they were expecting...is NOI there...so...they have to "click around" to find their favorite TV Channels...get frustrated and call the front desk.

The front desk tells them there SHOULD be a TV Guide in their room. Well, these Guides are usually just "Printed Sheets"....easily thrown out with other papers.

So...along comes little ol' me....with a FREE Tv Channel Guide...that has the TV Channels on one side (along with a PICTURE or a mouth-watering PIZZA and phone # to have it delivered to their room)....and...on the other side are Ads for Restaurants, Gift Shops, Real Estate...etc.

I've been doing this very successfully in over 100 hotels.

Now...enter the "Cell Phone Era". How many Tourists, these days do you think...carry a "Mobile Device"? If you said, over 90% you'd be close.

So...what if...instead of having "regular" phone numbers on the TV Channel Guides....where they have to go to the In-Room Phone....dial 9...then the number. What if they could just dial a number on their Cell....or even.... connect to the Mobile Site of the pizza place or other biz and SEE the complete Menu?

Would THIS modern-age item be of interest to Pizzerias....or other businesses interested in reaching TOURISTS?

You betcha Red Ryder.

So....along with hooking Pizza Joints and other Biznesses up with a "Mobile Site"....that allows them to be SEEN by people staying at local hotels....the Mobile-Site can also be seen by LOCALS.

Thus....a nice, monthly RESIDUAL INCOME can be had by providing this "Modern-Day" service.

Anyway....thanks for bringing up this topic. "US" old-time sales guys are STILL coming up with "Unique" marketing ideas.

Don Alm....."ol' time Marketing Guy"