When Sara Flexer was laid off from her corporate accounting job in June, she unexpectedly joined thousands of other South Floridians looking for work in oneof the worst job markets in recent history. With a skyrocketing unemployment rate of 11 percent, Florida trumps the nation in job losses, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But Flexer, originally from Lima, didn't let that deter her.

``In this recession, I knew my job prospects were limited because there are so many people looking for work and not enough jobs to employ them,'' said Flexer. ``So I decided I needed to generate a different source of income, and I wanted to do it using the Internet.''

It wasn't until Flexer's pregnant daughter needed a little pampering that the idea for her Web business came to her. ``I wanted to spoil my daughter,'' said Flexer. ``But I didn't want to send her the traditional flowers or candy, so I decided to send her breakfast in bed.''

In August, Flexer launched www.MyBreakfastInBed.net to deliver gourmet breakfasts in bed for roughly the same price as sending a bouquet of flowers. She knew she had hit upon a novel idea, but she had one big problem -- she wasn't the world's best cook. She told friends about her dilemma and when a mutual acquaintance introduced her to Miami caterer Karl Zoisl, she knew she had found the right partner for her Web venture.

``The catering industry, like many others, took a huge hit as a result of the recession,'' said Zoisl, an Austrian native who has cooked for everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to the Bee Gees in his 18-year career. ``With revenue down 35 percent in my business, I, too, was looking for ways to use the Internet to generate extra revenue. It was a perfect match.''

SPREADING THE WORD

Working out of Zoisl's warehouse kitchen in Miami Lakes, Flexer and Zoisl planned five different breakfast menus and started getting the word out about MyBreakfastInBed through the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce, where Zoisl is a board member.

While Flexer and Zoisl had a handle on running the business, they had no idea how to promote it.

``We knew our site needed to be improved, and we had to generate some buzz about what we were doing,'' said Zoisl.

BizBytes 101 brought in Maria Perilli, online marketing director for Fort Lauderdale-based Blue Interactive Agency. Donating her time to help Flexer and Zoisl, Perilli began by analyzing their website.

``One of the big things I noticed about the MyBreakfastInBed site is that it lacked easy-to-use navigation,'' said Perilli. ``The content on the site also lacked the appropriate keywords to get it ranked with search engines. It needed to be optimized.''

Perilli suggested using words like ``weddings,'' ``birthdays'' and ``anniversaries'' so that when consumers are searching those terms, MyBreakfastInBed will pop up in the results.

``Many small business owners using their sites to generate additional revenue don't truly understand the importance of optimizing content,'' said Perilli. ``It's tremendously important. Your product or service won't be found by potential customers searching the Web without it.''

BUILDING LINKS

Perilli recommended that Flexer and Zoisl spend some time on link building to generate more visits to their site. Link building is a search engine optimization technique designed to increase the number and quality of incoming links to a website to increase the site's popularity, thereby improving its search engine ranking. Effective link building techniques include creating engaging content and linking to it via social media sites like Digg and Technorati, which rank well with search engines. You can also create a list of high-ranking sites related to your industry and then approach those sites' webmasters with requests to exchange links.

Next, Flexer and Zoisl needed help with their public relations plan. ``Because I'm on the board of the Miami Lakes Chamber of Commerce, I started there to get the word out by e-mailing the membership,'' said Zoisl. ``But I knew we needed to do something on a much larger scale.''

Volunteering to advise them on how to generate buzz for their business was Charles Jones, former vice president of Wragg & Casas and owner of Miami-based C. Jones and Associates PR. He recommended that Flexer and Zoisl work first on marketing messages.

``When you're trying to sell someone something, you have to motivate them to buy with a compelling message,'' said Jones. ``To do that, MyBreakfastInBed is going to primarily use its website to promote, so they have to focus on the convenience of it, the quality and safety of the food and how dependable the service is.''

Jones also recommended adding testimonials from satisfied customers as a way to entice potential customers. ``People need to focus on how fresh the food is, how it's prepared and delivered and what makes MyBreakfastInBed better than you just making breakfast in bed yourself.''

Jones suggested Flexer and Zoisl focus on adding value to their service. To do that, they decided to let the customer keep everything that comes with the breakfast including the tray, silverware and plates.

``We thought this would be a way to do something interesting,'' said Flexer. ``So when you get your breakfast in bed delivered, you not only get fabulous food, you get a gorgeous serving tray, cloth napkins and beautiful silverware that comes with it.''

Tasha Cunningham is a principal of the Cunningham Group.

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