Page 9 - BusinessWest December 22, 2021

ers — stories he said he could under- stand as a young person and draw inspiration from.
When, in 2008, he started his first business, Stinky Cakes, which offered practical gifts to new parents such as cakes shaped from diapers (hence the name), he would call on Kittredge, Sortino, and some of the others to talk about marketing, brand building, and much more.
“These guys were in my phone; when I had questions, I would call them,” he told BusinessWest. “And that’s why I encourage kids today to read
and to learn about entrepreneurs, and to reach out to them; truly successful people always want to find a way to help.”
As for marketing, Connolly says he’s been doing that since he was 9, when he would take some of the candy his grandmother would bring back from trips to Florida and sell it to classmates in school.
“I had flavors, like Jolly Ranchers, that the school store didn’t have,” he explained. “I didn’t know it was market-
“In month two, they started canceling graduations. So I said, ‘forget about selling ad space to businesses ... I’m just going to go celebrate all these kids that I know.’ I turned it into a graduation truck.”
ing at the time, but I started giving the candy to kids in my class. That’s how simple marketing is — showing people that would buy what you have that you have what they want.”
As a result of his success in business and marketing, Connolly was asked to do some teaching, guest lecturing, and mentoring of young entrepreneurs by groups like Valley Venture Mentors and EforAll Holyoke.
He focuses heavily on building cred- it, creating solid cash flow, and sound money management. “If you don’t know how to manage your money, none of this will ever work,” he said.
“I say, ‘you can be making $1 million a year, but it you’re spending $1.5 million ... then you’re in big trouble.’”
One course he’s taught is called the “100 Grand Plan,” which, as that name suggests, advises those taking it on how to make their first $100,000. Among the keys to doing so, and one that is often overlooked, is marketing.
“In order to make money, you have to understand marketing, but no mat- ter how much we laid it out and taught them, some of them just didn’t get it,”
he told BusinessWest. “So some of them Myke started asking me to do their marketing Connolly’s
for them.”
This led to the creation of the
Launch and Stand Out agency, he went on, adding that one of his clients want- ed to feature children on billboards across the country and hired him to do some of the buying of space on those boards.
This experience prompted him to want become part of what’s known as the ‘out-of-home’ advertising business, and, specifically, digital billboards — in this case, ones that move.
Truck
Continued on page 56
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DECEMBER 22, 2021 9
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