3-3 PROMOTING THE BUSINESS

Once you have the business planned you need to allocate time for promoting (marketing) it. This may be easy at first. However, as the work increases, do not forget to continue your marketing efforts to ensure a steady flow of work.

First of all you must create a list of potential customers. It is a good idea to use a contact management system from day one. This will allow you to keep track of your contact with customers, remind yourself when to follow up opportunities and act as the basis for any direct mail.

An excellent source of companies in a particular category is the Yellow Pages. The reference section of your local library and your local chamber of commerce are other good places to look for addresses of members of local associations. The Internet is a good source of potential clients. Using one of the many search services, like Yahoo, you can look for companies and alliances in any industry or location.

You can also buy lists from list brokers. Expect to pay $100 to $200 per thousand for just the names, addresses and phone numbers of companies in a particular industry. Make sure you get lists with named people and not just titles, like the Administration Manager. Information sent to job titles and not names usually ends up in the trash bin without being read. If you also want qualifying information, like number of staff or turnover, you can pay $5 per company or more.

Now you know what your service is and who will be interested in it. How do you spread the word so they will want to talk to you? You contact them. You can do this in a number of ways:

ADVERTISING - TELEPHONE CALLS - BROCHURES - PERSONAL LETTERS - INTERNET