well, what a Super Bowl for North Texas. I'm not gonna scrutinize the weather like everyone else is doing. I am going to reflect the effect. First of all, it was all it was cracked up to be. Super Bowl is truly a corporate crowd. I had more Black Amex cards this weekend than I normally have all year. But the weekend itself was good for us. When vehicles were booked early in December and the majority of the early bookings were trucks, we got smart and overloaded on trucks. SUVs to be exact. That was the rage for superbowl. The crowd is definitely a money crowd, but the emphasis is more on spending the money on entertainment as opposed to spending money on something to make you look good. Now a few exotics hit the streets on Saturday when the streets were better but overall, Escalade ruled this town

So why does it matter to me who plays in the Super Bowl. Well I have to pay attention to the cities that play in the super bowl because of my product. Certain cities bring more luxury spenders. Thats what i have to pay attention to. For example, Seattle is a city of green, energy conscious, frugal. and thats just my opinion. Now compared to Atlanta, do I need to say more. They don't call it "hot lanta" for nothing. So my concern is solely based economically. Now dont get me wrong, We will still do well because of the market we serve. But if you have additional fans who spend and go to the games then you get a bigger impact. 
    What are your thoughts?

So, is there anticipation before the game. I would say so. But its really more curiosity for me than anything. Is the spending going to be as good as anticipated. Besides the fact of obvious supply and demand as far as " rental cars", will there be a demand from the high end market? Superbowl to me is personified as strongly a corporate demographic client. Now I do serve a strong corporate base ongoing, but will they spend in order to exceed my supply. I have acquired what I hope to be able to sell out completely for those 4 days.
If I am able to sell all that I have pledged to me, then anything else is complete excess. Its literalll like shooting fish in a barrell

So it's been awhile since i've posted, and i should have really kept up online because its been an incredible ride.
    The recession has touched just about everyone, but the key is were you in the position to adjust quickly to the change. Take my company for instance; it was setup initially to run lean because I had no money, so that made it run lean. I had a chosen demographic that I directed my marketing toward. That demographic is the first to spend once the recession settled in and starting leveling.The last year slowed spending of the middle class. I was not marketing to the middle class but i would definitely enjoy the business when it came. Well now my customer base is becoming the exact demographic i want and need. The wealthy have always been and are now becoming more aware and particular as to whom they spend their mooney with. For example, you could run a 3 year old luxury sedan with low miles and commnand top dollar cost to drive this vehicle. Reason why because the middel class would reach for the high price and the wealthy pay the high price because if its high it must be good. Well if you had low miles and kept it very clean, you could do very well on that car because you bought it low and made maximum revenue. Now the rich want low miles and newer car, so the value now has to be there, which means you have to spend more upfront and still try and get maximum dollar revenue on just one demographic. Sounds easy right?

I' ve blogged about brands before. This is a topic that I feel every small business owner should pay attention to. Branding is one of the key marketing items that small business owners tend to neglect. A brand, when developed and bulit correctly can help launch a business to stratospheric heights and incredible market share. It' s something that if you nurture and protect,  your customers will  connect emotionally with what you have bulit. When you have that connection, that's what will help you to sustain as a lasting company. I am easily one of the tightest business owners when it comes spending money. But there are some things that I do not cut corners on, marketing materials


BEFORE


AFTER

NBA Allstar 2010 is turning out to be the biggest hit..or biggest flop. Everyone is throwing a party. The problem is how do you know which party is good. Do you hit 3 to 4 in a night? well if you can afford that. Some clubs are charging as much as twice the normal drink price plus cover. Diddy is said to be doing 4 parties. Then you have the lines that will be ridiculous, and the traffic as well. What do you do. Then you have the money making opportunities. Sponsorships galore, everyone theowing , but the only problem with that is what does a sponsorship do for your bottom line. how can you capitalize on that. Is there an ROI. How can you best utilize your brand to get the maximum exposure while still trying to make some money. Well thats where you have to be creative and a great salesman on how strong your brand is. I am trying to partner with an A list celebrity party so as to increase my brand awareness as well as try and capture the celebrity dollar as a client. 
    So throwing away the business side of this event you have to look at the entertainment aspect. it is going to be crazy here. come on out and have some fun. The amount of money that will be streaming through this city will be ridiculous. Dallas being situated perfectly in this region makes driving in for the parties the popular option even if you are not going to the game. Exotic cars will be the hottest game in town, my opinion. its all about how you look in valet.

This week Terry Glenn was arrested and charged with auto theft. The vehicle in question was a suburban that was rented from National Rental Car in Irving. The irony about this is that this was a former football player and just a suburban. But I have been through this before where you have to go to extreme measures in order to get your equipment back. I have had customers come in and rent vehicles to weeks at a time. You run the credit card, get the big charge and you think cool, good rental. Return date comes up and you call to verify time to return and he wants to keep a few more days, so you run the card. its declined. You call the customer and they say i wil bring you a new card to extend the dates. No show. You call again and you get the usual excuse but i will be by there to take care of the charges. Now human instinct, you think, well he is "so and so", high profile he should be good for it. But thats your mistake, you assume. Everybody has been affected by the turn in the economy. Now that may not be the case with Terry Glenn, I dont know, but the real problem is that this customer has you handcuffed because you cant rent the vehicle to another customer because you really dont have a certain date on when it will be returned. He comes in and gives you payment for the days he has used and needs more days, and will pay up when he returns. Now good business sense will tell you to confiscate the vehicle or put anther card on file in order to extend the rental period. But you want the revenue so you say no problem. BIG MISTAKE. There are stories like this throughout my industry and the limousine industry where celebrites or athletes run up the charges and you have to chase them for your money. Sometimes even file a law suit. Good saying that I use, not all money is good money. When you a re dealing with a customer and if you have even the slightest feeling thats not warm and fuzzy, dont do it.

So what is my weigh in on the Tiger Woods situation, well I have two different outlooks.
As a married man with 3 children, it's dissapointing to see the hurt done to the family and the disrespect of the wife. I mean some of the stupid things that came out in the news were reminiscent of young single almost collegiate mistakes with the texts and voice mails. Once you actually heard the despair of please take your name off the phone, i think my wife went through my phone. That was really pitiful.
My second though was on Tiger as the brand.It came out today that Accenture has dropped him as a spokesman. Thats a huge blow to your bottom line. As a business owner as well, these creates an interesting dilema, how long do you stay away as a money making machine? I mean, family is first, anyone who knows me, knows where my priorites lie with my family, but as you see that the empire you built is crumbling because the products that endorse you have said your actions no longer represent what we stand for, what do you do? Nike is a different story, their decision will be the most compelling. TW golf generates 800 million. But, will people still buy and adorn products that a proven adulterer with numerous women represents. Isnt a majority of the demographic buying TW golf apparel middle aged married men? im just sayin

So the holidays are wuickly upon us. In fact so quick, I am still trying to get my marketing together. This year I think I blew my marketing opportunities. Not to say that I lost, I just did not capitalize. I mean according to most marketing calendars, I need to be planning opportunites and marketing strategies at least a full quarter ahead of schedule. It is something I struggle with, but next year will not be the same. I am looking into adding streaming video to my site as part of my marketing plan next year. I also plan to utilize the marquee board that I own on my property as well. what are some other ideas you have that you are going to incorporate next year.

so this Bugatti in the water is all over the internet and the news. Some guy traveling down I45 looking at real estate and a bird swooped in low causing him to swerve and drop his cell phone and into the lake he goes. First of all, that was his personal car. There is not a car rental facility in the US that has a Bugatti as a rental car. But to make the situatuion even more crazy is that someone got it on youtube. That shows how crazy attention these cars get. People pull up all the time and grab their phones to record and take pictures of these cars when their traveling down the road. Whats cool about this video is they just happen to come across this car and you can hear the guys talking about driving this car someday. The power of video is amazing