Our Story of Recovery: COVID

From The Small Business Owner’s 2022 Economic Relief Guide

If you haven’t read about the hard lessons I learned during the Great Recession in 2008, I greatly advise you to check it out now by viewing it here.

Because after that experience, there was NO WAY I was going to cut my marketing in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

No way. No how. Nuh uh. NEVER.

Don’t get me wrong, March 2020 was a scary time. A number of small businesses were forced to close, and uncertainty gripped the nation.

But for me, I was 100% certain about two things:

1. We weren’t going to lay anyone off.
2. We weren’t going to cut back on our marketing.

Those were the two hills I was willing to die on.

Keeping up with our outgoings wasn’t easy —

In fact, it was impossible. Our average weekly revenue fell 41% from mid-March to the end of May. We leaned hard on our reserves, but I kept BOTH promises.

We never cut our marketing. Nor did we lay off a single staff member.

And as a direct result of that, something amazing happened:

July 2020 became a new highest-ever revenue month for us — the highest in our 22-year history. Since then, we’ve broken that record probably a dozen times.

We increased our leads by 9.24% in the 6 months following May 1, 2020, averaging an extra 186 leads per week WITHOUT increasing our budget.

From there, we ended the year UP over 2019 by nearly 10%, and we added 5 new sales reps and 30 new staff overall and acquired a huge new asset — our fifth commercial printing press.

Since then, our gains have compounded.

We’ve hired an additional 70 staff, meaning we’ve added over 100 brand new jobs post-COVID. We ended 2021 with revenue up over 30%, and that’s a huge jump for us. In the previous decade, our average annual revenue growth was around 5%. (If you’re doing the math, that means we doubled that average the year of COVID and increased it six-fold the year after.)

So far this year, we’re still trending up, with our total revenue about 20% up over 2021.

Believe me when I say:

NONE of these post-COVID gains could have been possible if I had cut my marketing during the shutdowns.

And if I had laid off any staff, we wouldn’t have had staff here who were trained up and ready to hit the ground running once the country woke up and started getting back to work. If had had to hire all new staff and then train them as well, we would not have been able to capitalize on the market gains we made by out-marketing our competition — who had just lost ground because they stopped marketing.

The two promises I made in March 2020 were integral to putting us in the fast-growing position we’re in today.

I believe that in my heart of hearts!

And I would bet the survival of my business on it again and again.

My hope is that, by sharing my experiences and the real, hard data behind it, you might listen to me and keep your marketing intact through any and all hardships. You don’t even have to market with me — just keep it going!

It’s what’s best for your business in the long run.

And what’s best for small, independent American businesses is always my prerogative.

Special Offer for Small Businesses!

If there’s anything we don’t want you to do, it’s stop marketing! To help keep you going, we are offering 10% off any marketing campaign you start with us. Launching an Everywhere Small Business campaign that couples direct mail with digital ads will help you bring in leads and drive-up revenue.

To get started and claim this offer, connect with one of our expert marketing consultants at 1-800-628-1804. They will be able to tailor a marketing strategy that fits your needs and your budget.