Suggest You - Business

Business Center: Your Ticket to Success
Many new business owners find they aren’t prepared for the decisions that have to be made at startup. Are you starting a business with a limited budget? What about your office space? Will you work from home or rent a space somewhere else? What about preparing a business plan and budget?Many new business owners are using a business concept called a business center to solve the problem. A business center is a service that provides key features of an office such as a business mailing address, phone number, fax and part-time office access. Some services even offer online tools su

nge them in your database. Doing all of this keeps your database clean.

If this seems like a full-time job, it is. But, marketing is the lifeblood of every business. And, to market, you need prospects -- to follow up with, to mail to, to ask for referrals from, etc.

4. Make Contact: Once you get a minimum of 250 verifiable contacts, send them your info (I'll explain why in tomorrow's post). If you do it by email, be careful to not to spam. To accomplish this, include a short note, eg:

"I called your office and Sarah, your administrative assistant, said you prefer to receive info via email, so I'm sending this one-time correspondence to make you aware of my services."

Make sure you have ca

Increasing Your Sphere of Influence
Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the cheapest and most effective types of advertising your company can invest in, but how do we generate this elusive type of advertising? Most experts in the area will say, “Get out and ‘network’.” So we go to a Chamber of Commerce meeting with dozens or even hundreds of other people trying to promote their company or service, and we attempt to promote our company or service as well. Very few people come to these meetings to buy things. The odds seem to be stacked against from the beginning, so is it any wonder why most of us come back from thes

If you want to freelance, but have no contacts (or very few), you can easily build a substantial database in a few weeks or months, depending on how much time you put into it, by doing the following:

1. Do Detective Work on Blind Ads: As I said in the previous article, many times the ads will be blind, but sometimes there are clues as to who the company is. Eg, take an ad that reads, "Submit resumes to hr@xyzcompany.com." What I do is go to www.xyz.com (the company's website) and hunt for a number to call someone.

2. Pick Up the Phone: After locating a number on the website (or via a Google search or Yellow Page listing), I then call and ask for the name of the appropriate party, eg, Communications Manager, Creative Director, Editorial Director, etc. (depending on the type of company, this will vary). I usually say something like:

"My name is [insert your name] and I'm a freelance copywriter. I'd like to send the appropriate party some information about my services for their files. To whom would I address this?"

3. Verify, Verify, Verify: While you have someone on the phone, verify the mailing address (which you will usually find on their company website) and any other information you feel comfortable asking for.

I usually keep my calls short and try not to ask more than 2-3 questions. Some respondents are chatty, while others can be quite brusque. I just kind of go with the flow.

The reason I think I've had such success with shorter calls -- especially on the first contact -- is that I don't badger the receiver for information.

I keep my inquiries brief, professional and to the point. The whole idea is not to get immediate business -- although some calls will definitely lead to that -- but to build your prospect list. If you scour your weekly paper -- especially if you live in a large city -- you will find that it is a full-time job just getting the leads into some type of manageable database.

Prospecting from a small town? Don't worry, as a freelance copywriter, you can work for clients nationwide. So, feel free to go online and scour any newspaper you want, eg, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, the New York Times, etcc. Prospects are EVERWHERE!

If you do this week in and week out, you will build a large, "clean" database in no time. What do I mean by clean? Clean is when the information is verified. Since you called, you know the phone number, you got the name of the hiring official, verified the address, and know the company's website.

This is more than some professional lead selling companies have. Feel accomplished! This is your business's most important asset. Continue to build it and use it.

When you do mailings and they come back, update the information as it comes in. When the contact person leaves, get the new person's name. If the phone numbers change, change them in your database. Doing all of this keeps your database clean.

If this seems like a full-time job, it is. But, marketing is the lifeblood of every business. And, to market, you need prospects -- to follow up with, to mail to, to ask for referrals from, etc.

"I called your office and Sarah, your administrative assistant, said you prefer to receive info via email, so I'm sending this one-time correspondence to make you aware of my services."

Make sure you have cal

Why I Am NOT Surprised When I Hear People Making 50 Percent Profit On a Trade - Overnight
How do I know that this can happen?Simple: It has happened to me! Let me show you the play-by-play…Summary of trade:* Name of Company: Cemex (ticker:CX).* Opening Trade: Bought 20 contracts of CX on January 31, 2005 at $2.40 a contract (March 2005 expiration, Strike: 35).* Closing Trade: Sold 20 contracts of CX, two days later, on February 2, 2005 at $4.00 a contract for a profit of $1.6 a contract, or 40%.* Between the time I bought and sold my options, the stock moved $1.32.This was my first time my options “popped” in suc

tions Manager, Creative Director, Editorial Director, etc. (depending on the type of company, this will vary). I usually say something like:

"My name is [insert your name] and I'm a freelance copywriter. I'd like to send the appropriate party some information about my services for their files. To whom would I address this?"

I usually keep my calls short and try not to ask more than 2-3 questions. Some respondents are chatty, while others can be quite brusque. I just kind of go with the flow.

The reason I think I've had such success with shorter calls -- especially on the first contact -- is that I don't badger the receiver for information.

This is more than some professional lead selling companies have. Feel accomplished! This is your business's most important asset. Continue to build it and use it.

If this seems like a full-time job, it is. But, marketing is the lifeblood of every business. And, to market, you need prospects -- to follow up with, to mail to, to ask for referrals from, etc.

"I called your office and Sarah, your administrative assistant, said you prefer to receive info via email, so I'm sending this one-time correspondence to make you aware of my services."

Make sure you have ca

Promotional Mugs - They Do The Walking And Talking For You
Every business wants to be successful. Success comes with great profit, and loyal happy customers. In order to obtain either one, your business needs to advertise effectively. A promotional mug is a great way to do that. You can design a mug with your company name or business logo that is versatile, and durable. A well-designed mug will do all the walking and the talking for your business to advertise in a very effective way.A promotional mug can speak for your business anywhere. When someone uses a promotional mug, it is as if they are seeing a commercial, or a magazine advert

The reason I think I've had such success with shorter calls -- especially on the first contact -- is that I don't badger the receiver for information.

This is more than some professional lead selling companies have. Feel accomplished! This is your business's most important asset. Continue to build it and use it.

If this seems like a full-time job, it is. But, marketing is the lifeblood of every business. And, to market, you need prospects -- to follow up with, to mail to, to ask for referrals from, etc.

"I called your office and Sarah, your administrative assistant, said you prefer to receive info via email, so I'm sending this one-time correspondence to make you aware of my services."

Make sure you have ca

Entrepreneurs – Do You Really Need A Marketing Strategy?
Do you have Marketing Strategy? Do you, like many other entrepreneurs think that you don’t need one? Or do you just not know how to write your own Marketing Strategy? No surprises that a Marketing Strategy is a key part of your business strategy. So how do you write your own Marketing Strategy?Marketing is the lifeblood of your business – without marketing, people won’t know where you are and what you are selling. Isn’t that important enough to need a strategy? After all without a good Marketing Strategy, how will you now what to do, when to do it and what basic information

cago Tribune, the LA Times, the New York Times, etcc. Prospects are EVERWHERE!

This is more than some professional lead selling companies have. Feel accomplished! This is your business's most important asset. Continue to build it and use it.

If this seems like a full-time job, it is. But, marketing is the lifeblood of every business. And, to market, you need prospects -- to follow up with, to mail to, to ask for referrals from, etc.

"I called your office and Sarah, your administrative assistant, said you prefer to receive info via email, so I'm sending this one-time correspondence to make you aware of my services."

Make sure you have ca

What Type of Advertising is Most Effective?
Word of mouth! Next question!That was the typical answer of most of my clients over a 25 year period of consulting. Why? Because it was (a) free, (b) easy, (c) obvious, (d) what their customer told them, and (e) free. Did I mention it was free? That seemed to be their criteria in choosing an effective media. What they didn’t want to hear from me was how expensive their campaign might be. But I was kind and gentle when I told them they were completely insane. No, I didn’t really say that. But I wanted to, believe me.The plain truth was that I had to

nge them in your database. Doing all of this keeps your database clean.

If this seems like a full-time job, it is. But, marketing is the lifeblood of every business. And, to market, you need prospects -- to follow up with, to mail to, to ask for referrals from, etc.

"I called your office and Sarah, your administrative assistant, said you prefer to receive info via email, so I'm sending this one-time correspondence to make you aware of my services."

Make sure you have called and when you do, record the name of the person you spoke with so when you refer back to it you make your contact more personal (more on this in tomorrow's post).

I like email because of the ease and expense. However, with spam being such a problem, unless the prospect has invited you to email, I'd still snail mail a package. I happen to know that companies keep freelancer info on file for a good bit of time. And, you just never know when your package will arrive at the perfect time.

TIP: Get some free database management help by calling local high schools and colleges to see if they have internship programs. Explain what you need an intern to do and see if they have programs where students can earn credit while working for a small business like yours.

Many approach the world of freelancing as a way of making "extra" money. While this is certainly possible, the time you put into marketing for the work you will get will make it seem like a full-time job. So, getting free help like this can add immeasurably to your bottom line.

Good luck!

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.suggestyou.com/article/26739/suggestyou-How-to-Build-a-Profitable-Freelance-Database--Quickly.html">How to Build a Profitable Freelance Database -- Quickly!</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.suggestyou.com/article/26739/suggestyou-How-to-Build-a-Profitable-Freelance-Database--Quickly.html]How to Build a Profitable Freelance Database -- Quickly![/url]

You've made it past the interview and now you've been offered the job. You may think accepting the job is the easy part. But, when it comes to accepting a new position, you need to ask yourself what you are looking for besides salary.

In this article I will discuss complexity theory and complexity science. We will also look in to the positive and negative sides of the strategic planning process from different points of views.

You can make a lot of money by writing and self-publishing your own material, if you are willing to write books, manuals, reports or newsletters that millions of people across the United States, and throughout the world for that matter, desperately want to buy.

Tags

Links

Suggest You - How to Build a Profitable Freelance Database -- Quickly!

Related Articles: