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BUSINES.HOW
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The following was written by Paul and Sarah Edwards.
It lists the 5 quickest ways to get Business NOW. Numbers 2,3 & 4
are provided by The Directory On disk.
_______________________________________________________
FIVE WAYS TO GET INSTANT BUSINESS
(WORKING SMARTER DEPARTMENT, Home-Office Computing, January 1991 issue, p. 26)
How to Prime the Pump When You Need Business Immediately -- If
Not Sooner
BY PAUL AND SARAH EDWARDS
PAUL and SARAH EDWARDS are authors of Working from Home (Jeremy
P. Tarcher), cohosts of the "Home Office Show" heard Sunday
nights on Business Radio Network, and sysops of the Working from
Home Forum on CompuServe (GO WORK).
The lead time for getting business in the door can be several
weeks or several years. This is especially true if you're
working with large companies that must go through layers of
decision making. So what can you do to prime the pump when you
need business fast? Here are five stopgap ideas for getting
instant business.
1. Get on the phone. The quickest, surest way to get business
is to get on the phone and call prospective customers and
clients. Begin with your past client list. Satisfied customers
can be a good source of instant business. Then call contacts who
have expressed interest in the past, but never bought. Finally,
create a list of new names, using the yellow pages or an industry
directory. Although most people hate cold calling, it does work.
And once you get started, it's not nearly as hard as you might
think.
2. Make a special offer people can't refuse. Virtually any
season or event can serve as an opportunity to offer a special
promotion. You can have a Spring Special, a New Year's Discount,
or a free initial consultation. If, for example, you have a
word-processing service, you might offer every fourth page free,
or free page layout and design.
A newsletter publisher used a similar promotion when one of his
long-running weekly advertising accounts suddenly decided to take
a three-month vacation. He called companies that had been
hesitant to advertise and told them that he had a special
one-time, one-month opportunity and he wanted to offer it to them
first. He had three one-month specials sold in just two days.
3. Offer a pricing incentive. Some money beats no money. Offer
a special price that's so tempting that prospective clients
simply can't say no. Low-ball pricing can be one of the quickest
routes to new business. For example, a woman we know started her
business promoting restaurants on the radio with this
special-pricing strategy. She offered restaurant owners the
opportunity to promote their restaurant on her show for half the
standard rate. And she gave top-notch service for that price.
She prepared the commercials, interviewed owners, and invited
listeners to meet her at the restaurant as part of various
publicity activities. This approach enabled her to break even
immediately. Satisfied advertisers were willing to renew at the
regular price.
A photographer offered an apparently absurd service to
advertising agencies: a 30-by-40-inch color print in an hour for
$150. Obviously, if two customers took him up on it at the same
time, one customer would get his color print on time and the
other would have his print two hours later. But the photographer
knew the chances were good that no one would rush-order a
30-by-40-inch color print. The psychological impact was made
nonetheless. The idea was not to sell quick 30-by-40-inch prints
but to convince art directors that this photographer could
deliver unmatched photographic services.
4. Subcontract or take overload. Your competitors can be an
excellent source of quick business. Howard Shenson, author of
The Consulting Handbook, reports that 11 to 21 percent of new
business comes from the competition. So scout around and find
out who's busy and call to find out if they need backup or if
they've had to turn away any projects.
One instructional designer was able to get business quickly in
this way when the project she'd been working on was suddenly
canceled by a hostile takeover.
She called other instructional
designers and told them her plight. Sure enough, one designer
had just turned down a job that he didn't have the time to do.
5. Volunteer. There's nothing worse for morale than having no
work. Therefore, doing some work beats doing none at all.
Although volunteering is a last-ditch effort to create business,
any work tends to beget work. Sometimes what begins as a
volunteer effort ultimately becomes paid work.
GET STEADY BUSINESS
Ideally, you should plan your business so that you never need to
scramble to find work. When you're first starting out, line up
several clients before you leave the security of your job. Never
rely on one client as the primary source of your business. Even
if you have to subcontract business out, build a base of reliable
clients. If you must work with only one client at a time, make
sure you set aside several hours each week to market for future
business. To avoid sudden dips in business, keep your
advertising, networking, and other marketing efforts under way
during your busy times.
Provided by Home-Office Computing.
Transmitted: 92-11-04 19:21:57 EST
_________________________________________________________________________
If you give a deal featuring something free,(exp. free sample of
your product or service, free information) to attract customers fast, your
company will be listed on the FREEBIES.NFO file. This file is uploaded on all
the major on-line services, (Genie, Compuserve, America online).
Our marketing director is the moderator of the "WHAT A DEAL" topic on the
point on COMPUSERVE. Total subscription of the major online services is over
2 MILLION PEOPLE.
For more info see D.O.D. facts and figures.