Case Study-Revamping your business development plan

May 18, 2009| Edited by Ken Beaulieu
Permalink: http://www.fuelnet.com/?p=2205

FuelNet presents a case study on how one smart growing business revamped its business development plan and grew market share by increasing its offerings.

PROBLEM: Hot Sand, a glassblowing studio on the boardwalk in Asbury Park, N.J., sells original, hand-blown works. Owners Thomas Stevens and Paul Elyseev wanted to find ways to draw more traffic to their store throughout the year as part of its business development strategy.

SOLUTION: Stevens and Elyseev came up with the idea of offering hands-on activities that incorporate sand, the main ingredient of glass, and decided on sand casting. Customers place a hand or foot, or some other object, like a fishing lure or a toy, in a box filled with sand. The impression is then filled with molten glass to make a glass cast. The QuickCast, as it’s called, can also be colored or engraved.

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As a second activity, the partners give customers a chance to actually blow glass, with their help. “People are thrilled to get this close to the medium and come away with a product that’s charming,” Stevens says. The owners came up with other ideas to bring in additional revenue, such as renting out workstations to professional glass-blowers, and giving classes and workshops in glassblowing. They even reached out to local schools to arrange class trips for glassblowing lessons. “We helped them with fundraising, so they could afford to come,” Elyseev notes. “This is our community, so it makes sense to give back.”

Open just two years, Hot Sand doubled its first-year revenue with these new initiatives. “We realized we had to diversify,” Stevens says. “This allows us to be a year-round business.”

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