Valentines Niche: Say It With Beer and Beef Jerky?

Valentine's Day sales don't measure up to Christmas, but for some businesses, the holiday is still pretty sweet.
On average, shoppers will spend about $126 each on loved ones this year, up 8.5 percent from 2011 and the highest amount in the past decade, according to the National Retail Federation's 2012 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. Total spending in the U.S. for the holiday is expected to reach $17.6 billion this year.
Roses and chocolate-covered anything aren't likely to cede their favored status, but some entrepreneurs are taking a chance on more unorthodox gifts -- from catering to men to creating offbeat products.
Here are three unconventional Valentine's Day bouquets and a look at their marketers:
Beef Jerky Bouquet
Jacksonville, Ore.
They say the fastest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so you probably can't go too wrong with this beef-jerky bouquet from Gary West Smoked Meats. The bouquet of one dozen long-stem steak strips sells for $39 with no shipping fees.
Owner Paul Murdoch says Christmas still reigns supreme at Gary West Smoked Meats, but Valentine's Day is a close second.
Paul Murdoch, co-owner of the meat smoker, says a "couldn't hurt" philosophy was the key ingredient to his burgeoning Valentine's Day operation. A former employee suggested the idea of making seasonal bouquets using Gary West's jerky in 2007. Though skeptical at first, Murdoch says the marketing ploy proved to be a boon for the business. Christmas still reigns supreme in seasonal sales, but Valentine's Day is a close second -- accounting for about 5 percent of annual sales, which totaled $2 million last year. "Valentine's Day has become really significant," Murdoch says. "When we introduced this jerky bouquet, I didn't think it would do nearly as well as it has."
Many people might not consider a gift of beef jerky very romantic. But the quirkiness is part of the appeal. Fox News, Cosmopolitan and other media snapped up the story, and orders surged, Murdoch says. The company's targeted use of Facebook advertising has been especially effective. After the Cosmo piece, Murdoch realized that his core customer is women in relationships with men. "We'll use Facebook primarily because you can target that demographic so accurately," he says.
Beer Bouquet
Austin, Texas
OK, giving the guy or gal in your life a six-pack surely doesn't sound very special. But what if it's his or her favorite beer and it comes in a bucket that says Happy Valentine's Day with a big red heart scrawled on the side? This six-piece beer bouquet, which comes fully loaded with peanuts, a koozie and a bottle opener, is $54.99, plus shipping.
The Valentine's Day-themed beer bouquet comes with six beers, a koozie, a bag of peanuts and a bottle opener.
After working in consumer packaging and graphics, Josh Horowitz had something of an epiphany on a rooftop in New York City. Using votive candle holders and empty beer bottles, he made his first beer bouquet. After moving to Austin, Texas, in 2009, he launched Beer Bouquet, which sells football and seasonal-themed bouquets through the mail to 46 states. "It was a no brainer," Horowitz says. "Everyone has a favorite team and everyone has a favorite beer. Plus, there was no real go-to gift for guys, other than neck ties or a flask."
Last year, Valentine's Day accounted for roughly 25 percent of Beer Bouquet's sales of $75,000. Horowitz expects sales to ramp up this year, as he creates new bouquets with more snack foods like beef jerky and pretzels. He also plans a Groupon promotion for Father's Day, when he hopes to sell 5,000 bouquets.
Dirty Rotten Flowers
Los Angeles
Dirty Rotten Flowers co-founder Roman Sacke notes that many customers send his rough-hewn bouquets to ex-flames and bosses.
While nothing says, "I love you," like a dozen red roses, Roman Sacke wondered what receiving a dozen dying roses would say. So, he started Dirty Rotten Flowers to find out. The company sells three variations of the oh-so-tragic bouquet, starting at $25, plus shipping. The Valentine's Day bouquet called "I love you not" costs $27 and includes a tattered teddy bear holding a red heart that says, "I love you."
Sacke, who hails from the Czech Republic and now lives in Los Angeles, calls the bouquets "silly" and "fun" and says they're meant in jest. "Where I'm from people have a different sense of humor. They would like it," says Sacke. He notes that many customers send the bouquets to old bosses and ex-flames.
This "I love you not" bouquet comes with a tattered, unfortunate looking bear holding a heart that says "I love you."
Dirty Rotten Flowers is actually an offshoot of Sacke's more traditional floral business. Like John D. Rockefeller who found profitable uses for the byproducts of kerosene production, Sacke has found a way to make a little money from his unsold flower inventory. "In my regular flower shop, there were always so many leftovers that would just die," he says. "We began wondering what you do with them, other than composting." Sacke declined to discuss his financial results, but he did say that last year the company sold 300 to 400 rotten bouquets for Valentine's Day, which amounts to roughly $8,000 to $11,000. Not bad for dead flowers.
Diana Ransom is deputy editor of Entrepreneur.com.
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Startups Take on the Business of Education

When it comes to opportunities for entrepreneurs, the field of education has a decidedly steep learning curve.
"Education startups certainly have unique challenges," says Ariel Diaz of Boundless, a Boston-based startup that offers free online textbook replacements for college students. "The decision-making process in education is very convoluted, slow and complex."
But that environment hasn't discouraged entrepreneurs from approaching education with a variety of products and services. Given that for-profit education-related ventures are often viewed as suspect -- online-learning organizations like the University of Phoenix have come under state and federal investigation for potentially exploitative and fraudulent practices -- the key to making a go of an education startup is identifying market inefficiencies and challenges, but with an overriding focus on doing good.
Identifying a niche market
Sometimes, doing the right thing can have surprising beneficiaries. Judy Zimet found a niche in need of attention when she began Law Student Ally to provide one-on-one guidance to law students. Her service helps them achieve higher grades, obtain internships and improve their chances of landing a job once they graduate.
"This is no longer the world of Tom Cruise in ‘The Firm,' where huge signing bonuses and luxurious gifts are showered upon law school graduates enticing them to join prestigious big law firms," says Zimet, who is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
"Today, big law firms are in a financial downturn along with the rest of the world. Consequently, although there are approximately 45,000 law school graduates a year, there are only 25,000 legal jobs available. To land a job, law students need more than a juris doctorate earned with average grades. With personal coaching, law students receive higher grades, maximize class and internship choices, and receive recognition through publicized works and awards."
Dealing with administrative challenges
Once you've found a problem to solve, you're likely to come up against another one -- the administrative element that plays a role in most any sort of educational system. Since, for instance, a school principal won't actually be using products such as study-aid software, entrepreneurs are compelled to devise particularly persuasive marketing strategies -- or try to circumvent administration altogether.
"Decision makers are often not the actual users of a particular product or service, similar to business IT decisions 10 years ago," says Boundless' Diaz. "This makes sales and distribution a significant challenge for startups who have to learn to navigate this. Some startups, including mine, are opting to go direct to students."
Getting the timing and marketing right
If you do decide to market to students directly, academic schedules can pose still more hurdles. While many products and services know no real "season," education entrepreneurs have to watch the calendar carefully to time marketing efforts and product rollouts.
"The school year is cyclical in nature," says Diaz. "It means that there are fewer opportunities to iterate on the product, and creates hard deadlines -- namely at the start of school year and semesters -- by which new releases need to be complete."
Entrepreneurs have responded with fresh marketing strategies, even for those education-related ventures that are a bit more traditional in nature. David Greenberg started Parliament Tutors three years ago. The New York-based company offers in-home and online tutoring to prepare students for all subjects, from kindergarten through high school, as well as tests like the SAT and MCAT.
Rather than advertising in education publications or making in-person pitches to students, parents and teachers, Greenberg opted to pursue a comprehensive social marketing strategy.
"Article marketing proved to be my niche,'" he says. "With each new article came more impressions, more traffic and more backlinks. We now have over 500 tutors operating in more than 20 states and 80 cities."
Ushering in the startup era of education?
Parliament Tutors' growth underscores an overriding dynamic of the education system. Some schools and taxpayers pump more money into programs and services only to see scholastic performance continue to erode. Others trim budgets and, with them, valuable programs and offerings. It's a volatile and very personal problem. Any entrepreneur with a solution that's not only cost-effective but also boosts students' grades and test scores will likely find an audience.
"Entrepreneurs love identifying the problem, innovating a solution and assessing the market opportunity," says Charles Matthews, executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Research at the University of Cincinnati. "When it comes to matters of education, however, the deliverables are focused on the patchwork of constituents that constitute the education ecosystem -- students, parents, prospective employers and politicians. The bottom line is not just profit or loss, but your impact on society."
"Right now we are seeing a boom in educational costs and a simultaneous reduction in education effectiveness," adds Diaz. "This creates a huge opportunity to leverage the prevalence of technology and the availability of open content to dramatically revolutionize education. I believe we are entering a golden age of education startups, and that education as a whole will see more change in the next 10 years than in the previous 50."
Jeff Wuorio is a veteran freelance writer and author based in southern Maine. He writes about small-business management, marketing and technology issues.
This story originally appeared on Business on Main

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