Copperas Cove EDC holds Facebook for Business workshop

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation held a Facebook for Business Workshop for small businesses Monday evening at the Copperas Cove Independent School District Administration Building. 
Interim Executive Director Diane Drussell said that the Economic Development Corporation will resume holding workshops for local businesses, with information that is especially valuable for small businesses. 
“A lot of people look at us as the big projects in the city, but we also like to remember the small businesses, and we are very small business passionate, so we try to offer as much to the small business owners or those who are wishing to start a business, because we want you to be prepared,” Drussell said. “Everything that we can offer, we put in a class for you because we know that small businesses especially have small budgets, especially if you’re starting out. Unfortunately, a lot of people think that if it’s free, it’s not quality, but I always have outside people come in and speak because this is their forte, not mine.”
Carrie Harris, co-owner of GymKix, also specializes in Facebook advertising for local and national businesses. Harris opened GymKix 22 years ago with her sister, Stephanie Beveridge, and their mother, Trixie Bennett, in September 1999. They first started in a 2,800-square-foot subleased space and have expanded multiple times before building and opening their current location of more than 12,000 square feet, at 1352 Matthew Spicer Rd. 
“Just because we’ve been here for 22 years doesn’t mean I don’t remember the struggles of starting a new business, and let me tell you, two California girls under the age of 21 trying to start a business in the middle of boy town was not an easy prospect,” Harris said. “It was very difficult, so I had to learn a lot of things. I had to spend a lot of money, and so I’m not exaggerating what I’ve said - we’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
“One of the things that I told Diane that I’m very, very passionate about is taking all of the mistakes and money I’ve spent, invested, in ourselves, and passing that on to everybody else, so that you can hopefully get to where we got a little bit faster and without as many speed bumps and detours and things like that,” Harris added. 
Monday’s workshop focused on Facebook and how to utilize it effectively for business. 
“My whole point right now is to get you guys to understand why Facebook is important, why you need it, why you should have it, why you should invest your time in learning it, and then a little bit of overview on how to make it work for you,” Harris said. 
The workshop also included some information on basic marketing, which Harris said was important in order to use Facebook the right way. 
Harris’ presentation included statistics about the impact of social media on shopping and on businesses. She also encouraged the business owners to make sure their website or storefront are appealing to the customer. She also encouraged them to make sure they are responsive and that their website or social media pages are user-friendly and that customers are able to leave feedback. 
Trudy Perry, who owns Arrive Alive of Texas Driving Academy with her husband Shawn, attended the workshop. Perry said that she and her husband have experience with using Facebook to market their business, but she learned something new about using Facebook pixels to track whether someone was drawn to the website after seeing a Facebook ad for the business. 
“We have both a website and a Facebook page, and we know we use that to get a lot of information out to customers, but we really don’t know who all we’re reaching by name, so if we could go back to Facebook and see 10 names clicked on it and three of those people are now our students, that would be really beneficial,” Perry said. “So, I’m going to try to learn a little bit more about it.”
Perry said her business focuses a lot on educational campaigns, so a workshop on blogging and how to create blogs about distracted driving month or drunk driving would be a useful tool. 
Drussell said that she was pleased to see some of the small businesses that the EDC has helped attend the workshop. 
“We have an open-door policy, I do business counseling. People come in and talk to me about where they even need to start to start a business, and I can take you through basic from the very bottom to the brick and mortar or to online presence,” Drussell said. “I see a lot of businesses where they’re still here, which makes me feel good because again, it’s a small community. We have to support each other, and if that’s what the EDC can do right now then that’s what we’re doing.”