Before last Friday, I had never heard of the Scratch bakery. If you read Monday's blog (#381), you know that I devoured their cupcake over the weekend and was wowed. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I found out that their cakery-on-wheels was in my town for the day!
Word spread like wildfire across my blog readers on campus! I know that several people made a trip out to where the truck was parked and came home with a coveted dozen. This was nothing more than a van with fancy painting rigged up to hold racks and racks of cupcake trays. They sold cupcakes out of the side panel, rang up sales on an adapted iPhone and delighted a long line of customers.
The trend to operate a small business out of a van or truck gives a whole new meaning to mobile commerce. Our town has a food truck, cleverly named "Beauty and the Beef", that travels to sites around town selling gourmet beef sandwiches during the lunch hour. Other businesses have taken to the streets as well.
USA Today reported* that entrepreneurs are using a mobile vehicle in increasing numbers -- for hair stylists, florists, clothing stores, handbag vendors and school supplies. These businesspeople rely on social media (like Scratch did) for inexpensive promotion and the mobile unit as a way to reduce overhead costs. Customers like the convenience of having the store/service come to them.
What aspect of your organization could go mobile? A financial aid advisor or admissions office on wheels? A design truck that comes to you with all the trimmings a home builder must choose? A miniature pet store that you could enter with your pooch instead of getting them all riled up in a big box store? A pediatrician or children's dentist that could operate out of a van with a playland theme and do business in the park? A government services van that would go to the senior citizens or veterans homes instead of making the customers navigate traffic to get there?
The possibilities are endless. Next time your organization considers going mobile, don't limit your thinking to the e-commerce functions. Perhaps your real opportunities lie on wheels.
-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com
*Entrepreneurs keep on truckin' by Hadley Malcom, USA Today, June 27, 2012
This is exactly what you are talking about!! Look at this: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brush-Blush/405501576231077?directed_target_id=0 - a mobile art studio.
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