Low unemployment, a boom in housing starts, and confident consumers are propelling robust sales for New England furniture stores.

In 2019, local consumers in the Boston area spent $2.1 billion on furniture and home furnishing. This number is expected to grow.

Based on estimates developed by Furniture Today’s Strategic Insights team and Easy Analytic Software Inc. (EASI), the total furniture and bedding market is projected to expand by more than 22% by 2024.

If a New England small business owner who sells furniture, furnishings, or home decor would like to grab a larger share of this expanding market, then advertising is necessary.  By almost every key metric, advertising on local radio is a sound marketing investment.

Advertising on Boston radio stations is the best way for small business owners to reach the lucrative mother-market in New England. 

Boston area consumers will spend $110.9 billion over the next 12 months. Forbes magazine reports that its these moms who control 85% of all household purchases. Locally,  there are more than 691,000 mothers with children under the age of 18 at home.

New England small business owners need to pay special attention to these mothers and their wallets. Here's why:

• 45,956 moms are planning to buy a new house this year
• 56,942 moms are planning to go back to school this year
• 72,691 moms will buy a smartphone this year
• 79,617 moms will hire a plumber this year
• 80,232 moms are planning to purchase a car this year
• 81,770 will use a financial planner this year
• 85,744 moms will buy furniture or mattresses this year
• 168,261 will use a tax preparation service this year
• 186,926 moms are planning a major home improvement this year
• 582,488 moms will buy a restaurant meal this month

New England area small business owners need employees...desperately.

According to a report from the National Federation of Independent Business, 26% of small business owners say finding qualified workers is their number one problem. 

The report goes on to say that 88% of small business owners looking to hire new employees are finding there are no qualified candidates.

The historically low unemployment figures in the Boston area appears to be the root cause of local hiring woes. The metro area jobless rate stands at 2.1%. There are just not enough qualified workers to go around.

Most small business owners have exhausted the traditional methods of recruitment. These include online job board posts, newspaper ads, referral bonuses, and help wanted signs. All to no avail.

To successfully attract the qualified applicants they yearn for, local small business owners need to command the attention of 'passive' job seekers. The number one source for these candidates is Boston radio.

Advertising is critical to the success of every New England small business owner.  One of the most powerful elements of any advertising campaign is how many people it reaches.

Nielsen, the world's largest consumer insights company, found that advertising reach has a more significant effect on sales than branding, recency, and context.

There are many ways a local business owner can advertise. This includes traditional media like Boston radio, local TV, and newspaper. It also includes online advertising options such as Facebook, Instagram, and Pandora.

They type of customer an individual business needs to reach depends on the goods and services the company sells. For instance, a daycare operator might want to reach households with young children. On the other hand, a real estate agent could be looking for consumers in the market to purchase a new home.

There's a reason many New England small business owners target their advertising towards consumers who have completed a four-year college degree. It's because, typically, university graduates earn $29,106 more per year than those with only a high school diploma, according to The Federal Reserve.

There are, according to Nielsen, 1.7 million college graduates living in the Boston area. In total, this population generates $129 billion in annual take-home pay.

To tap into a similar pool of spending power, a marketer would need to reach 2.8 million consumers who did not go beyond high school. The problem is, this is more than double the number than actually live in the Boston area.

The number of people reached by a campaign is, generally, what determines the cost of advertising. So, for a New England small business owner operating on a tight marketing budget, spending can be kept in check by targeting those consumers with the most money to spend. In this case, college graduates.

"Advertising on Boston radio has helped to build our company's name and reputation," says Paul Kunze. "Without radio advertising, no one would know who we are."

Mr. Kunze is the Vice President/Director of Sales and Marketing for IntraSystems, a Braintree, MA. The company provides computing-infrastructure and cybersecurity solutions to mid-market and enterprise-sized companies.

The company was founded by Mr. Kunze in 1996 along with his childhood friend, Jim Hanrahan, who serves as President of IntraSystems.

"The majority of our customers are in the healthcare and financial industries," says Mr. Kunze. State and local governments are also a big part of our business."

"We work with our clients on assessment, design, product deployment, support, maintenance, and education. Few other companies can provide this depth of service."

"Our first customers came from cold-calls I was making from Jim's living room. It paid off, though, the first year we brought in $600,000 in sales."

In an attempt to accelerate growth, IntraSystems began advertising on Boston radio in 2002.