Starting up and expanding a business is tough. In addition to drive, ambition and a great deal of planning, starting and expanding a small business generaly requires capital. Many entrepreneurs look to personal ties to raise cash for a business that is either too new or too small to get financing elsewhere. Often, money is loaned interest free or at a low interest rate, which can be beneficial when getting started.
Think of the people who know you - more than you'd imagine could be prospective investors in your business.
Make a list
The first step to take in finding investors amongst the people you know is to simply draw up a huge list of names. Include in it your family, friends and beyond. The types of people you are searching for are the ones with whom you already have a trusting relationship with, or with whom you can build one with.
Start with the people in your inner circle - parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, close friends and neighbours. Next, look at your middle circle that includes people whom you currently and regularly have contact with - business associates, fellow volunteers, members of your church or temple, current or past co-workers, supervisors or employers. Consider potential business mentors or entrepreneurs, people who may be able to give advice and provide good information about the kind of business you're in and whom you either know or could get to know.
Finally, look at the outermost circle of people you know. This circle reaches to past contacts, friends or acquaintances you rarely see, and people you only know through someone else. These should either know your name or think highly of a mutual acquaintance. Think back to teachers, college friends, mentors, professors, coaches and anybody else who might be interested in seeing you succeed. Do you know any angel investors - an affulent individuals who provides capital for business start-up? Add their names to the list as well. Skim through your:
• address book
• e-mail database
• holiday greeting card list
• old school yearbooks
• alumni directories
• employee rosters from old jobs
• even party invitation lists
Right now consider everyone, don't reject anyone. If you think your list isn't long enough, ask a trusted friend or colleague to help you out.
The next stage is to evaluate each person on your list for the following four characteristics:
• Their trust in you
• Their ability to afford the investment
• Business experience - Entrepreneurs are most likely to invest in other businesses
• Lack of emotional baggage - Cross of anyone you feel nervous about entering into a financial relationship with.
Draw up a list of your best bets - people with at least two of these characteristics. Include columns for each person's name, a brief description of why the person appears to be a good prospect, and the best way to contact the prospect.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
TEN THINGS TO DO WHEN STARTING A NEW BUSINESS
So you've just got your new business up and running, now is not the time to take it easy and relax. Now you need to work harder than ever. Here are ten things to work on to help build up your customer base and ensure that your business is a success.
1. Ask yourself these questions:
• Is my business a reactive business?
• How can I generate more revenue over the next six months?
• How do I want my business to develop over the next year?
• What will I do to achieve that?
Set aside time each week to think about your business strategically. It might be a mid-week brunch; it may mean having a board meeting; it may involve some quiet "thinking" time. Regardless of how you do it, make some time to work on your business, rather than in it.
2. Start making contacts.
Start collecting the name, address, telephone number and email address of every single client, prospect, and friend in business you have. Now contact them all and ask, "How can we help you?"
3. Stop telling prospects what you do.
You're a "needs analyst". Ask them lots of questions about their business, and then offer solutions to their problems.
4. Build a consistent follow-up sales process.
By follow-up sales, I mean you should always have another thing ready to sell your client once you've finished their project. For instance, if you've designed a Web site for them, your follow-up sale might be Web site maintenance.
A consistent follow-up sales process is critical to your businesses success. Continuing with the Web site example, with every Web site that you work on, you make a proposal to the client for ongoing work, usually focusing on the maintenance and marketing of the site. This ongoing work can be quite profitable (and is work that almost every Web site requires).
5. Start a newsletter.
Keep clients and prospects informed about what you're doing. Make regular offers. People can't contract you for your services until you make them an offer and they accept you.
6. Send a media release to five publications.
Media coverage provides your business with enormous credibility. Here's a quick tip for your media release: people love a "Top 10" list - just like this one! (They also love survey results!)
7. Reward good clients.
Rewarded behaviour gets repeated. Send "Thank you" cards, gifts, or whatever you think is appropriate to people who refer new business to you. These people are helping you to grow your business - you need to say, "Thanks."
Sending a "Thank you" note to a client who's referred business to you is just another reason to make contact with them. Then the client gets a Christmas card. Then the quarterly newsletter. Not only will it be possible to make regular offers to the client through these communications, but they will be dealing with you on a regular basis - and getting to know you even better.
Through each communication, remind the client that you are thinking of them, and encourage them to think of you. So you're top-of-mind when they need your services.
8. Never do what you say you will.
Satisfying clients is about the worst thing you can do. I concede that having no clients would be a lot worse, and unhappy clients wouldn't be so great, either!
Studies have shown that satisfying clients simply isn't good enough. Around 80% of clients leave a business because they don't think that business cares about them enough.
Satisfied clients will not stay with you. Delighted clients will. So don't ever just do what you say you will - do more. You have to exceed your clients' wildest expectations. Start today.
9. Benchmark your business against your competition.
Check out just how you're doing, generate lots of ideas, and know what you're up against. That information is gold!
10. Practice, practice, practice.
You have to perform in front of prospects. You have to sell your services. Don't turn up na dwing it; practice makes perfect. One client may be all you need to create a successful business for years to come.
+2347057674084
email: nseng78@yahoo.com
1. Ask yourself these questions:
• Is my business a reactive business?
• How can I generate more revenue over the next six months?
• How do I want my business to develop over the next year?
• What will I do to achieve that?
Set aside time each week to think about your business strategically. It might be a mid-week brunch; it may mean having a board meeting; it may involve some quiet "thinking" time. Regardless of how you do it, make some time to work on your business, rather than in it.
2. Start making contacts.
Start collecting the name, address, telephone number and email address of every single client, prospect, and friend in business you have. Now contact them all and ask, "How can we help you?"
3. Stop telling prospects what you do.
You're a "needs analyst". Ask them lots of questions about their business, and then offer solutions to their problems.
4. Build a consistent follow-up sales process.
By follow-up sales, I mean you should always have another thing ready to sell your client once you've finished their project. For instance, if you've designed a Web site for them, your follow-up sale might be Web site maintenance.
A consistent follow-up sales process is critical to your businesses success. Continuing with the Web site example, with every Web site that you work on, you make a proposal to the client for ongoing work, usually focusing on the maintenance and marketing of the site. This ongoing work can be quite profitable (and is work that almost every Web site requires).
5. Start a newsletter.
Keep clients and prospects informed about what you're doing. Make regular offers. People can't contract you for your services until you make them an offer and they accept you.
6. Send a media release to five publications.
Media coverage provides your business with enormous credibility. Here's a quick tip for your media release: people love a "Top 10" list - just like this one! (They also love survey results!)
7. Reward good clients.
Rewarded behaviour gets repeated. Send "Thank you" cards, gifts, or whatever you think is appropriate to people who refer new business to you. These people are helping you to grow your business - you need to say, "Thanks."
Sending a "Thank you" note to a client who's referred business to you is just another reason to make contact with them. Then the client gets a Christmas card. Then the quarterly newsletter. Not only will it be possible to make regular offers to the client through these communications, but they will be dealing with you on a regular basis - and getting to know you even better.
Through each communication, remind the client that you are thinking of them, and encourage them to think of you. So you're top-of-mind when they need your services.
8. Never do what you say you will.
Satisfying clients is about the worst thing you can do. I concede that having no clients would be a lot worse, and unhappy clients wouldn't be so great, either!
Studies have shown that satisfying clients simply isn't good enough. Around 80% of clients leave a business because they don't think that business cares about them enough.
Satisfied clients will not stay with you. Delighted clients will. So don't ever just do what you say you will - do more. You have to exceed your clients' wildest expectations. Start today.
9. Benchmark your business against your competition.
Check out just how you're doing, generate lots of ideas, and know what you're up against. That information is gold!
10. Practice, practice, practice.
You have to perform in front of prospects. You have to sell your services. Don't turn up na dwing it; practice makes perfect. One client may be all you need to create a successful business for years to come.
+2347057674084
email: nseng78@yahoo.com
Building E-mail Relationships
E-mail has given marketers an unparalleled opportunity to understand and reach their customers. But its rampant abuse by spammers has also made users more cautious about sharing information and pickier about which companies they invite into their inboxes and wallets.
To earn the trust of your customers in the new world of electronic communications, you must befriend and learn about them rather than trying to sell them en masse. A great way to do this is to let them choose the types of communications they want to receive from you by offering preferences.
What are preferences?
An e-mail preference center is a Web page you create for customers who sign up for your e-mail program. Here, you give them a chance to tell you what they want by letting them choose and manage the types of messages they receive from you. While preferences can create a little bit more work for you, they improve the experience for your customers by ensuring they only receive the kinds of e-mails from you that they want.
Components of a preference page
A preference page should always include company contact and customer support information as well as a link to your privacy policy. Otherwise, it generally is comprised of two basic components: administrative and content options.
Administrative options include the following:
* A clear and easy way to change preferences and/or unsubscribe from your list.
* A password change if your e-mail program is part of an online customer relationship that requires a log-in.
* E-mail change of address. Up to one-third of the e-mail addresses on your list will "churn" every year as recipients move, change jobs or switch Internet providers. Offering an ECOA option allows customers to continue receiving your messages without having to re-subscribe, and can help minimize the number of obsolete addresses on your list.
On the content side, you can group your e-mail offerings into two overall categories:
* Advertising mailings like special discounts, partner promotions and event or sales notifications.
* Promotion-free mailings like product updates, press releases and newsletters.
So content-wise, a sample preference page of an online retail business might include an invitation to sign up for a monthly newsletter(s), product updates and press releases in one section, and a sign-up to receive e-mail special offers and promotions based on products and services subscribers choose from, in another.
People are naturally sensitive about receiving advertising messages, and will be more receptive if you give them some control over the amount and type of promotional material they receive. Many marketers resist the idea of letting recipients decline promotional e-mails. After all, they ask, isn't that the primary purpose of an e-mail program? But when you consider the alternative--recipients who decide not to sign up at all, or who unsubscribe to everything--turning off promotional messages isn't such a bad outcome.
This sensitivity is why you should also consider creating an "anchor" newsletter with recipients in mind. Let customers know that if they sign up for only one newsletter, this should be it. Make the newsletter appealing by filling it with valuable content and limiting the number of advertising and promotional messages it contains.
How much is too much?
One of the challenges of creating a preference center is figuring out how much control to give recipients while still keeping the number of preferences manageable. The most common mistake marketers make is providing too many choices. The logic that drives survey design--knowing that the number of questions is directly proportional to the drop-off rate--holds true for e-mail preferences as well. Some companies, such as Amazon.com, The New York Times or Sotheby's, offer a multitude of choices for customers with highly-specialized interests. But most marketers will want to offer a maximum of about eight to 12 options. Any more, and you risk overwhelming customers and driving them to abandon the process.
When determining what content choices to include, ask yourself the following:
* Would I want to receive this mailing?
* What is truly important to my company? Are there specific mailings that are more valuable to the company's bottom line than others?
* What are my competitors doing? Did they include something I have forgotten? A good tactic is to check various competitors' sites to see what options they are including to ensure you are not missing anything.
Marketers often ask if they should let recipients control frequency. Frequency preferences are tough to manage. If you let someone sign up to only be contacted once a month, but you have an offer you know they will want to hear about, you can't send it. It's generally better to let customers sign up for regular mailings, and for you to be mindful of over-mailing. By allowing frequency to become a byproduct of relevance, you actually reinforce your valuable e-mail relationships.
What doesn't go on a preference page
You can leave off transactional and relationship messages, receipts and e-bills. Under U.S. CAN-SPAM legislation, companies are given a fair amount of leeway to send transactional messages without explicit customer permission. Although you always want to ask for as much permission as possible, you risk creating a real problem for yourself if you give customers the preference of not receiving transactional messages. If they elect not to receive these messages, you may not be able to complete important business transactions.
The days of one-to-one service that mom-and-pop businesses were famous for decades ago may be long gone. However, we can still offer our customers a quiet oasis in a marketplace teeming with advertising messages. Preferences bring individual choice back to e-mail and make the customer an equal partner in the transaction. When you involve your customers in your marketing communications, the messages become more valuable, and your value soars in their eyes.
posted by Nse victor okon
2347057674084
nseng78@yahoo.com
culled from: http://www.inc.com/resources/ecommerce/articles/20060701/bnussey.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)