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Make More Money with Less Effort! Adams Media /
October 1999 Excerpts from Business Know-How: An Operational Guide for Home-Based And Micro-Sized Businesses On Limited Budgets by Janet Attard Big corporations spend millions of dollars to launch new products and keep their name in front of potential customers. Self-employed individuals and small businesses have the same need, but not the same budget. Fortunately there are many inexpensive ways to make customers aware of your products and services. In fact, all it takes to find effective, low-cost marketing opportunities for homebased and small businesses is a little ingenuity and a lot of persistence. Here are some ideas to get you started. Let everybody know you're in
business Get out into the community and spread the word, too. "Go where clients are," says Jack Slick, a CPA who's built a successful practice in Hagerstown, MD. "See them, talk to them, let them know about you and your business. Chamber of Commerce mixers, business meetings, country club events, social functions all are good places to meet business people. Try to hook up with a good lawyer or insurance agent and do cross referrals with them. Also develop clients from within by asking your current clients to refer you to others." If you've left another company to start your own competing business, look for discrete ways to let business contacts you made at that company know you've gone out on your own. Don't copy the company's client list and take it with you - that could get you sued. But do call the contacts you made. Or, tell them in person when you see them at conferences or business network meetings. If you signed a noncompete agreement at your former employer, get advice from your attorney before starting the business or soliciting clients. Avoid marketing to the wrong
prospects For instance, many people starting computer consulting businesses expect to build a good business by selling their service to homebased and small businesses. They assume these businesses will need and will pay for consulting services since they can't afford to keep a computer programmer on staff. Although that line of reasoning seems logical, it isn't. Most low-budget businesses are not a good source of business. Instead of hiring consultants, they look for free advice in books and magazine articles, from sales people, and by asking computer savvy friends or relatives for help. To avoid making the wrong assumptions about the desirability of products or services, talk to your potential customers before you start a business or introduce a new product. Besides asking prospects if they can use what you plan to sell, ask what they'd pay for it and where they would go to buy it. If the responses you get don't match your original expectations, either research a different market or look for a different product or service to sell. Target businesses that can
afford your services Don't go for broke Instead, use the low-cost and no-cost marketing techniques discussed to gradually establish a client base and positive cash flow. Wait to spend the big marketing bucks until you have your business infrastructure in place, have tested your marketing ideas on a small scale and have a cushion of profits and satisfied customers on which you can rely for steady profits. Break down big markets into
small, manageable segments That doesn't mean you should avoid big markets. The way to profit when there are many customers and many competitors is to break down the big market into small, manageable segments. Concentrate your marketing efforts on one or two of those segments. William Murrell, owner of Metroserve Computer Corp. is one of many business people who have boosted sales by focusing their marketing efforts. An ad he placed in the New England Hispanic Yellow Pages paid for itself in two months. He did equally well selling AfroCentric software in a business directory called the Black Pages of New England. You won't build sales just because you advertise to a niche market, though. Explains Murrell, "Whether the niche is African Americans, Hispanics, desktop publishers, dry cleaning establishments or sub-notebook computer buyers, each area has special needs. To succeed you have to become an expert in the niche you want to target." Dalva Brady, an insurance saleswoman from Long Island, New York quickly became one of the top sales people in her office when she began targeting prospects who spoke her native language, Portuguese. Although her clients could speak English, they preferred to discuss insurance with someone who knew their culture and could speak to them in their own language. Understand what you are selling
and market accordingly Get customers to ask for your
product by name Although the Ingalls rarely make a profit from sales at the fairs, the fairs generate name recognition among people who are likely to want homemade products when they are ready to give a gift or treat themselves to a luxury. They also find new wholesale buyers for their products this way. "When you have a brand new product, and it sits on a store shelf, no one knows what it is. Few are brave enough to buy it," says Ellyn. "We do shows to let people sample our products and educate them on the 'story' of the product. Then they go into the stores looking for our products. It is much easier to sell this way." Get referrals from competitors Give as many referrals as you
hope to get Find hundreds
more ideas to put to work in your business About the author
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