12th Grant Winner, Amanda Boom, Puts the Idea Cafe grant win to work!

Editor Note: As a rule, all Idea Cafe grant winners provide monthly reports on how their business is doing since winning Idea Cafe's Grant. Here is the first update from Amanda Bloom, the owner of The Mercurial. Enjoy reading, and don't miss out on the opportunity to be inspired by her entrepreneurial spirit and business wisdom. In a six-month period she will share thoughts on how she uses the grant money in the best possible way in order to take her business to the next level.

I've been devoting much of my time to research since The Mercurial, the Greater Danbury , Connecticut-based (web) magazine and gallery that I run, received its grant from IdeaCafe.  We won the grant with a plan to hire an advertising salesperson, and I know that $1000 is not much to offer as a salary.  I've been ruminating over how to structure this position with this limited amount of money, and now know that I'll be offering a part-time job with a small weekly salary along with an attractive commission on all advertising sales and renewals.  I know I need to be selective in the hiring process in order to use the grant money effectively, and I know that I need to create a reasonable weekly sales goal for this person in order to keep the position viable past the grant money's use. 

I've also met with SCORE ( Service Corps of Retired Executives), a non-profit organization dedicated to advising small business professionals, a few times.  I didn't get very much out of my meetings, I think mostly because the SCORE advisors are generally older.  I spent my first meeting explaining how and why people read The Mercurial to an 80+ year old man, and didn't really get to my question – how do I craft a desirable sales position and attract the right person? – until the end of our meeting.  So I scheduled another meeting, at the end of which I was referred to another advisor with expertise in marketing, who hasn't responded to my email as of yet. 

Ah, well.  Either way, explaining the position and my ideas to various people has helped me iron out the details of the job, and I did get the suggestion of advertising the position on The Mercurial itself out of my meetings with SCORE.  I thought that was a great suggestion, as I'm looking for someone who is passionate about the type of news we offer, someone who believes in the business as a whole.  I'm hoping to reach one of our devoted readers with this ad, hopefully someone with sales experience who is looking for some extra money, someone who loves to meet people, and someone who is interested in being a part of The Mercurial long-term. 

Til next month!