Fantasy Football season is upon us again, and I hate it.

The point of this section of the magazine though, is not to rant about Fantasy Football. Rather, it’s to introduce you to a new connect feature — Fantasy Marketing! We’ve got a better name for it of course, but that’s essentially what it is.

The readers of this magazine (you) are a bunch of really smart people. Many of you are experts in PR, marketing, e-commerce and the emerging Web 2.0. We’ve got seasoned and energetic entrepreneurs and businessfolk with experience and interests all across the spectrum. We want to leverage your brilliance.

So, each month, this connect readers marketing challenge will feature a local business’ marketing and/or advertising woes. The reader that submits the best idea will win free stuff and have his or her idea published in a future issue of connect.

This month we’re focusing on local Indian restaurant chain, Bombay House. Read up on its history, visit its Web site, try out the restaurant and enjoy a great meal! Then let us know what you think it should do. If your idea is the best, you’ll get a $50 gift certificate to Bombay House.

There are a few criteria that we’ll be using to judge your suggestion(s):1. Is it practical? Most businesses could sell more if their products were free. But that’s not going to win you any awards.

2. How effectively does it use technology? Blogs and RSS are cool, but real people don’t care about RSS for its own sake. When technology actually advances human purposes, that’s when it gets really cool.

3. Is it innovative? The answers don’t have to involve technology — the simplest ideas are often the best. But if you can come up with something really creative, think of how impressed all your peers will be.

Armchair marketers, get your game on. Stretch your knowledge and share your ideas. This is, after all, connect. Let’s connect!

The Setting

Visitors of the Bombay House restaurant will probably be greeted by an Indian man wearing a turban.

The lights are dim, the walls covered in murals of serene palaces and dancing gods. The furniture is lush and the colors are vibrant. Instrumental music plays softly in the background, but it’s not the light jazz you’d find in almost any other restaurant. Sitars and tablas resonate and soothe. The mixed scents of mint and curry bring home the feeling that, when you enter a Bombay House, you’ve stepped far outside your typical environment.

Daniel Shanthakumar, a graduate of BYU Hawaii and native of Madras, India, founded the restaurant in 1993 to bring a taste of his homeland to Utah. The first location in Provo has grown steadily and the newer location in Salt Lake was an instant success.

Between City Weekly, Utah Valley Magazine, and Salt Lake Magazine, Bombay House has been voted Best Indian Dining in Utah on a regular basis for the last eight years.

The Challenge

Bombay House is currently marketing in the Yellow Pages, a few local newspapers, and one magazine. Word of mouth has always been Shanthakumar’s most effective source of new customers. However, in his words, “If 100 people leave happy, they will probably tell 10 people about it. But if one person leaves unhappy, that person will probably tell 100 people about it.”

A few other considerations: growth is slowing, weeknights are underutilized, and seasonality is high. The Web site (www.bombayhouse.com) provides a menu and some other basic information, but no commerce functionality like reservations or take-out ordering — two features that have been requested by customers. The original design of the site was contracted out several years ago and there is no one on staff to develop it further.

Take Action

What should Bombay House do? E-mail your suggestions to tom@connect-utah.com or leave a comment on the Marketing From the Masses blog (www.connectblogs.com/marketing-from-the-masses).

The winner of this month’s challenge will receive a $50 gift certificate to the Bombay House.

Watch the blog for updates and results. The winning idea will also be published in a future connect issue.

If you’ve got an idea for a business with a marketing challenge you’d like to see featured here, let us know about that too. Send your ideas/comments to tom@connect-utah.com.

Boy that was a tough couple of days. I’ve been working on a hosting switch away from the former Provo Labs servers and it hasn’t been an easy road! Thanks Jordy for helping me get back online!

I am currently working on a project that requires a very good, if not perfect, example of a business plan. If you think you have the right plan and don’t mind having that plan exposed to the public as an example of a perfect business plan, then please contact me.

What a great week. I met Phillip Chipping of Shieldzone on Monday. If you are tired of your portable devices getting all scratched up head over to shieldzone and buy their clear cover protection system. Its really cool! Phillip has an amazing entrepreneurial story and I look forward to seeing huge things come out of this company. Judd Bagley and I met again this week to discuss some future plans. I guess its probably ok to announce here that in the coming weeks we’ll be launching our own podcast on Podango and Rocky Mountain Voices. Thanks, Cydni for lunch and for your support!  I blogged about Funding Universe teaching my class on Monday night. Again, if you are looking to raise capital you need to check out Funding Universe. I had lunch with Connect Magazine on Wednesday. Next year, I’ll be writing for Connect and the new Launch publication by Grow Utah Ventures coming out next month. I’m really looking forward to this! Speaking of Connect, one of their writers called me to get my thoughts on incubators for a story he’s working on. Let me summarize here: Grow Utah Ventures does it right.   The Republicans had their butts handed to them on a silver platter this week. 10 years ago I would have been on the verge of suicide but since the Republican party has abandoned their once conservative principles, I probably couldn’t care less. About two years ago I officially left the party and now walk the earth as a political cynic. Don’t take that as an endorsement of the Democratic win. I’ll vote for a Democrat when h*** freezes over. See more commentary here.  When you need a little humor in your life head over to Fark for great stories and comic relief. Here’s a couple of sample headlines from this week’s Fark: Drunk woman discovers her golf cart is unable to outrun a squad car.  One of my high school buddies, Rob Kelleher, found this out the hard way when we were 17 years old. After a long night of riding around the neighborhood drunk in his dads golf cart the police (with the help of a helicopter and K-9 unit) finally cornered him on the 18th hole at the Tualatin Country Club. He was arrested and charged with a DUI. Britain is wide open to alien invasion according to the former Ministry of Defense UFO X-Files guy.      Frat boys are suing Borat after claiming he destroyed their reputations. Unlikely. A lot of people hate that Borat guy but I think he’s hilarious! Have a great weekend!  

This is the best example of a bad press release I’ve seen in a long time.  If ExpoSoft Solutions had a PR firm write this release I would advice them to find a new PR firm. Read the release and tell me what this company does. Something in the events management space? Who knows? They didn’t even include an “About ExpoSoft” paragraph that should give a simple and strait forward explanation of what this company actually does.  I think they must have been in some kind of sick contest to see how many times they could squeeze the words “solutions”, “innovative”, “customized”, “model” and “unique” into four poorly written paragraphs. No matter how hard the Utah Office of Tourism and their consultants and PR firms try to spin it the ”Utah - Life Elevated” campaign is a dismal failure - at least so far. Don’t worry; they’ll keep spending your tax dollars until they have a full view of their traditional failed approach. Here’s how the crack journalist at the Salt Lake Tribune describe the campaign: “pretty well, but not great“. I died laughing when I read that line.  Here’s another great line from their marketing consultant: “I’ve seen more efficient advertising buys. But this was your first effort,” Strategic Marketing vice president Dennis Miller told the Utah Office of Tourism Board last week. “To shift attitudes will take long. Advertising over two or three years could produce significant changes.” More efficient ad buys? You mean to tell me that the Utah of of Tourism has never done an ad buy before? I find that hard to believe. Maybe I’m missing someting here? Sounds like Mr. Miller secured himself a couple of more years of Utah tax payer money to try to “produce significant changes”. Way to go Strategic Marketing and Research, Inc. Way to go! You could almost make a good joke out of this. What do you get when you put a government bureaucrat, an over paid consultant and a lousy PR firm in one room?  Utah-Life Elevated.   

What is the real rate of small business failure in the United States? Over the years I have heard many different numbers. Just the other night in my class a guest speaker said that nine out of ten small businesses will fail in the first five years. Of those that make it past the five year mark, only ten percent will make it to the ten year mark. Seems reasonable.

I use the number given in the book The E-Myth, which states that eighty percent of all businesses fail. Interesting to note that The E-Myth also claims that 80% of all franchises succeed.

I was reading through the book Start Up Nation By Rich and Jeff Sloan. They claim that the eighty percent number is wrong. They reference research done by Bruce Kirchoff, the former chief economist for the SBA. Bruce was perplexed by the data given on small business failure and simply did not believe the numbers.  So he spent years combing through millions of pieces of data to see if he could come up with more accurate information. He concluded that forty percent of all business are still in business six years after they start. He also found that only eighteen percent of businesses from the same sample group actually filed for bankruptcy.

We shouldn’t be surprised that the data provided by the government is inaccurate. Bruce found that people who simply retired and closed their businesses, companies that changed their names or locations and companies that had been acquired or merged and had a name change were all lumped into a “failure” category at the SBA.

If you have any additional data on small business failure I would like to see it for a project I am working on.

I just got back from voting. What a disappointing group of candidates we have here in Utah. I stood there staring at the shiny new Diebold voting machine for five minutes before I cast my first vote. It was for the United States Senate. I wrote in my own name and cast my ballot.

VOTE FOR KNUDSEN!!! VIVA LA REVOLUCION!!!

I had the privilege of having Brock Blake and Jeff Jordan of Funding Universe come teach my class last night on the principles of angel financing.

We had a couple of technical problems and lost some time getting the presentation up but they gave us fantastic information. Check out Jeff’s blog on the class.

If you are considering angel financing you need to talk to Funding Universe. These guys know their stuff! If you have a great plan then they can get you in front of angels. If you don’t have a great plan then they will help you get yours in shape so you can get in front of angels. Check them out…

Thanks Brock and Jeff! Keep up the great work!

I want to tip my hat to a couple of Utah business bloggers who are producing valuable content on a continual basis. I know there are plenty of good Utah business bloggers but these people made my list because of the consistency and value of their content. Here they are…

Blake Snow of Griffio Consulting is a professional blogger. Not only does he blog on SmoothHarold but Blake is also a writer for Weblogs, Inc. If you want tips on how to be a good blogger then follow Blake’s blog.

Josh Steimle has a must read blog. Josh is the CEO of MWI, a design firm based in Draper. He’s been in the design, branding and Web programming business for years. Josh frequently blogs on the ups and downs of entrepreneurship - and he knows from experience. His posts on entrepreneurship are personal and brilliant.

Janet Mieners is one of Utah’s up and coming woman entrepreneurs. She posts great content on SEO, affiliate marketing and PR. Janet’s blog is widely read and for good reason: her content is always high value. Janet is a true “ideas person” and her blog shows it. If you ever need advice on Internet marketing, Janet is the person to consult with!

Devin Thorpe of Thorpe Capital has a great blog on the KnowMoreMedia network. Devin frequently blogs on business financing issues and current events inside the Utah business community. His posts are great - I read him daily. If you ever get a chance to have breakfast with Devin, don’t pass it up. You can learn more from Devin over one hour of breakfast than you can learn from reading most people’s blogs over a lifetime. 

Russell Page is one of Utah’s up and coming PR gurus. I first met Russ several months ago when he was still with Politis Communications and I’ve been impressed with him ever since then. Russ’s blog provides great information on Utah business and PR community. Someday soon, Russ will be considered one of Utah’s top PR professionals. Stay tuned…

Pete Abilla is the brain behind the Shmula blog. I don’t think a day goes by where Pete and I don’t ping each other on Google Chat about something. Pete is doing an amazing job at MyFamily.com - he is one of the key influencers that is helping to turn that business around. Pete’s blog can be technical at times but what do you expect from a PhD drop out? The guy is flat out brilliant and so is his content. Check him out! 

Thanks to all of you for pumping out such valuable consistent content that educates and enriches those around you. I look forward to reading your blogs for years to come. 

If you have a favorite Utah business blog you think I should be reading please tell me about it in the comments.

What another amazing week!

I was in Seattle for sales consultancy training with Scott Bourne on Wednesday and Thursday. I have to say that was one of the most powerful trainings I have been through in my entire career. In the eight hours of training I scratched out 12 pages of notes. I just got done reviewing those notes and can’t believe the gem I have in my hands. I’ll blog in more detail on the training next week.

I’ve received a ton of requests to meet for lunch based off this blog post. Please be patient, I’ll get to you today with a proposed time to meet.  

I missed Fight Club this week. Looks like they had a great meet up. Hope to see you guys next month.

Check out the MontanaMainStreetBlog. My brother-in-law, Jon Bennion, has started a blog for the state of Montana’s chamber of commerce. I got him fired up about blogging a couple of months ago and he’s taken to it like a fish to water. I’m excited about the blog because I know how hard it is for government to cheaply and effectively communicate with citizens. In a small state like Montana a blog like this can have the power to persuade many people. Its going to be exciting to see this blog grow and help change things for the better in Montana business and politics. Way to go, Jon!

Cammon Randle of CopperRain Productions has made the Newsweek’s top 25 under 25. I met Cammon several months ago when he pitched his video production services to 10Speed Media. Nice guy. Congratulations to Cammon and Lorri on their success.

Speaking of production companies, Dave Biesinger, our former Chief Experience Officer at 10Speed Media, has started a new production company called DNA-Films. Dave is a very talented videographer. I was always impressed with his creativity. If one good thing comes out of 10Speed Media it might be DNA Films. Good luck, Dave! Drop him a line at Dave “at” DNA-Films.com of you need quality video services. 

Maybe Dave and Cammon can get together and work on something? They ought to have lunch and talk it over. Let me know if I can give you guys an introduction.