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In 2023, Businesses Face Changing Sales Landscape, Arrival of New Technologies
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The only constant in business is change.
Businesses are beginning the year with the damaging impacts of high inflation and lingering COVID-19 supply chain woes after mixed holiday results.
Bill Aulet, Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Managing Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, said business owners should brace themselves for new challenges.
“The biggest thing for business people.. is understand change,” Aulet said on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
“When you see something new, sit down, talk to your kids, talk to somebody else and say, ‘How does this affect my business?’ And do it before the other people do it. Use change as a competitive advantage for you because you have the right mentality. You don’t fear change. You embrace change.”
In a speech once, the former IBM executive told an audience that business owners must have the “mindset of a pirate and the skillset of a Navy SEAL.” In 2023, that means learning and accepting new technologies.
Most business owners, Aulet said, can no longer deny the use of artificial intelligence just like they had to embrace payment processing software and spreadsheets. Those that didn’t are no longer in business.
“I have a son who’s based in Brooklyn, started a company, he’s doing millions and millions of dollars the first year. I said, ‘How many salespeople do you have?’ He said, ‘None.’ Why? Because they’re using technology to do that now.”
He said AI is the future for sales because it will lower customer acquisition costs.
“What happens over society is you change to new jobs. You change the customer success jobs,” said Aulet on whether AI replacing salespeople is bad for the economy.
The new types of businesses being started by young entrepreneurs are not necessarily technology companies, though.
“They’re actually solving the problem of how do we identify when COVID or Zika virus, or now, polio shows up in a city in a region with a company like Biobot Analytics,” the MIT Entrepreneurship head said. “That’s the kind of stuff that young people are starting, and it gives me great hope because we as a society face great challenges.”
Watch the full conversation with Bill Aulet on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above.
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Celebrate Christmas in NYC’s Bryant Park
Executive Produced by Carousso Enterprises, LLC.
New York, NY — Bryant Park’s Winter Village by Bank of America is one of New York’s iconic Christmas locations, featuring an ice skating rink, holiday shopping venues and food.
Rachel Fisch paid a visit to talk to New Yorkers and tourists in the holiday spirit.
NY2C’s On The Call is executive produced by Carousso Enterprises.
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1010 WINS Small Business $10K Challenge: 5 Business Owners Vie for $10,000
Produced by Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Five finalists of the 1010 WINS Small Business $10K Challenge pitch their business and growth plans to a group of judges who will decide if they will earn a $10,000 grant provided by sponsor Dime Community Bank.
Watch the challenge above!
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Less is More: How to Scale Your Business in the New Year
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Sometimes, less is more.
Jessica Spaulding, the co-founder of Harlem Chocolate Factory, learned that principle over the last seven years in business. It helped her grow the chocolatier from a small shop into a national brand.
Jessica always loved chocolate, and as a kid, it was the only sugary item allowed in her mother’s house. She went on to pursue the chocolate business while studying at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA.
“I took one semester, I took my refund check and started a chocolate company. No business plan, no sales strategy. My thought was I was just going to give away a bunch of chocolate and people were going to fall in love with it and just order it for me,” she said on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
The original business fizzled and was the first important lesson in Spaulding’s journey. Over the next several years, the chocolate-lover finished her education and learned marketing and supply chain management along the way. In 2015, she revived her dream business and opened a shop in Harlem where she was born and raised.
“When I really literally felt like I had nothing else, I was like, alright, why don’t we go back to the drawing board about this chocolate thing that I wanted, like I’ve always wanted to do, and that’s when I finally started,” said Spaulding.
Harlem Chocolate Factory quickly developed product after product. At one point, it sold 45 different chocolate products. When the pandemic hit, Spaulding realized that in order to scale, she needed to do more with less.
“It may feel like a lot to have 10 customers in your face like, ‘Where’s that product I really love?’ But when you look on the paper and you’re looking over the past like four or five years and realizing, okay, we’ve only sold $3,000 worth of this product… We were able to create an equation for how we keep products, and I think that that is probably the most valuable thing that could have ever happened to us.”
Supply chain issues forced Spaulding to innovate her packaging. She eventually found a supplier that could handle volume at scale, which helped her improve her margins.
“We used to order like stock packaging because we could just, one, between space and money, we could never just buy a shipping container worth of packaging to last us for the whole year,” she said. “So, we have to find a packaging that is good enough to kind of like display all of our luxury elements and our premium elements while at the same time being affordable enough to not put us out of business every quarter when we need to do reorders.”
Spaulding told WCBS 880 she spent years learning about different types of packaging and how it impacts sales and the quality of chocolate.
She also turned to Intuit QuickBooks to manage her business’ accounting and payroll.
“We took a real hit to our business due to supply chain and inflation, and QuickBooks’ various features and tools enable us to accurately track all of our finances and create a better path forward,” Spaulding said.
Despite being in a crowded field, the quality of Harlem Chocolate Factory stood out to several hotels that contacted the business.
“It’s always something we wanted to do, but we never felt like we were in a place operationally to handle it,” she admitted.
After performing well with the first hotel, others started calling.
“When you service one person and it goes really well, they likely have a colleague that may not be in the same business as them, but within the same industry and they will tell them about your business,” Spaulding said.
While she believes word-of-mouth has been the most effective marketing tool for Harlem Chocolate Factory, she often brings three team members to trade shows, which she grew up attending with her mother.
“One person’s there for education, one person’s there for sales, one person’s there for partnerships,” Spaudling explained, adding, “Each person has a specific task, they’re given a task, and that entire day, that’s the only task you do because it can be completely overwhelming.”
Her advice is to focus on genuine connections rather than exchanging business cards with a large quantity of people.
You can see more marketing and sales lessons and advice on the Small Business Spotlight video above.
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New Yorkers Cheer on Team USA as World Cup Takes Over the Big Apple
Executive Produced by Carousso Enterprises, LLC.
New York, NY — Team USA’s World Cup run was met with great enthusiasm in New York City where soccer is not typically the big draw at the sports bars. But, the atmosphere was electric at Legends NYC Bar & Grill where New Yorkers cheered on the home team.
Justin Joseph took the temperature of fans during a recent match for NY2C’s On The Call, executive produced by Carousso Enterprises.
