A Clearwater entrepreneur learned the hard way never to cut his marketing budget | Business Observer

Contractor: Joy Gendusa

Society: PostcardMania, a direct mail based in Clearwater, got its start in a 600 square foot cottage near downtown Clearwater in 1998.

In those early days, says Gendusa, 56, it was just her and three other people. The company made just over $600,000 in sales the first year.

A lot has changed in the past 22 years.

For starters, one of the four people working in the little cottage was Melissa Bradshaw, the current president of PostcardMania. On the other hand, the company, which now has 297 employees and operates out of a 66,000 square foot office and print manufacturing facility, ended 2020 with $64 million in revenue. “We’ve grown steadily year over year because we cater to the needs of small businesses and go to market all the time – 52 weeks, 365 days a year,” says Gendusa.

One of the keys to the company’s growth, she says, is its ability to adapt to changing customer needs.

“When you have a team at the top willing to put their heart and soul into creating a meaningful culture, it helps you attract and retain the right people – people who value their work and in their lives, who want to feel comfortable and confident at work, and who have the drive to perform and grow.

She says PostcardMania started as a postcard marketing company that consulted with business owners and provided a list of prospects. Then he designed a postcard that would be sent to everyone on the PostcardMania mailing list.

Over time, websites and email marketing have become more important to businesses. PostcardMania had to adapt.

“Trust me when I say I never wanted to get into website development,” says Gendusa, “but I regularly review our clients’ designs and campaigns, and in doing so I realized that many of them had websites that wouldn’t convert traffic into leads, calls or customers.

Gendusa says she couldn’t “in good conscience” let these business owners spend money on a postcard campaign designed to drive traffic to a website “only for 95% of those people to drop out. ship when accessing this website”.

“So it was important to me, in order to provide a truly valuable service, that we also started addressing other parts of the marketing equation for small business owners,” she says.

best advice: The best advice Gendusa has ever received, she says, comes from her husband Sam. That was back when PostcardMania was in its infancy – and before he was her husband.

“He told me,” she said, “to set aside 10% of earnings each week. He said, ‘Money attracts money – when you have a reserve, it will be easier and easier to add to it.”

At the time, the idea seemed impossible. She started by saving $500 a week. This amount eventually increased to $1,000 per week and then to $5,000.

“We weren’t able to do it every week, but it was, for sure, something I would never have done,” she says. “It seemed like we never had enough money for anything, ever, when we were young and needed money for growth – but I forced it and it works.”

Best decision: Hiring of Melissa Bradshaw. She held every position within the company as it grew and before Gendusa could afford more staff.

“Melissa’s help in creating and sustaining the PostcardMania culture cannot be overstated,” says Gendusa. “When you have a team at the top willing to put their heart and soul into creating a meaningful culture, it helps you attract and retain the right people – people who value their work and in their lives, who want to feel comfortable and confident at work, and who have the drive to perform and grow.”

When you have people like that, “and Melissa was the very first,” she says, you work to develop them and help them develop their skills until “they’re completely invaluable.”

The biggest mistake: “By far – the biggest mistake was made in 2008”, says Gendusa. At the time, around half of the company’s clients were in real estate, and when the market crashed, PostcardMania lost much of its customer base.

Until then, revenues had been growing year after year, then suddenly they contracted. For the first time in its history, the company lost money – $150,000.

It’s not huge, she says, but advisers have suggested the company cut costs. They “looked at the price of our weekly postcard marketing and said, ‘Wow! You could save a lot of money by narrowing this path.

“Against my better judgment,” says Gendusa, “I listened and cut our marketing.”

Therein lies the error: because PostcardMania had reduced its marketing budget, there were fewer leads coming in each week. This meant fewer customers.

Gendusa said the $150,000 quickly grew to $4.5 million – the company’s revenue was down about 15% in 2009.

“It was mathematically impossible to offset our losses with this reduced marketing budget,” she says.

She fixed the marketing budget and lead flow — and revenue — was back on track. In 2011, PostcardMania was included on the Inc. 5000 Top Companies list.

“After that debacle, I swore never to cut my marketing again,” she says. “I have stuck to these weapons during the pandemic when businesses were forced to close, and we have already rebounded from a revenue loss of around 40% at the start of 2020 to end the year up almost 10%. And so far this year, we’ve grown almost 40% over last year. I’m glad I made that promise to myself and kept it.

Nocturnal worry“I don’t have one,” said Gendusa.

“I’m so happy with where PostcardMania is now and where we’re headed. Also, I’ve learned how to manage our reserves smartly and have accumulated enough savings to see us through the tough times.

The hectic life of an entrepreneur can be infuriating, but also rewarding. Nine of the region’s best share their ups and downs in our annual Top Entrepreneurs issue. Click on the links below to find out more: