|
December 2006 — Vol. 84, No. 10
SMALL BUSINESS
It’s always time to attract
new business
Here’s how to find the time to do it
By Chris John Amorosino
Freelance writer in Unionville
Related articles:
What is the biggest challenge in maintaining and growing a small business? In a recent Visa/SCORE national survey, 35% of sole proprietors said it’s their inability to focus on generating new business. Yet attracting new business, or the process of sales and marketing, is absolutely essential to success, according to several small-business experts.
“All business is driven by sales,” says Julie Brander, chair of the New Haven Chapter of SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives). For 20 years Brander ran a successful fine-jewelry manufacturing business. “If you’re not out there getting sales, then your business isn’t going anywhere. That’s the bottom line.”
But if attracting new business is so important, why do so many small businesses fail to focus on that need?
Jim Jackson, CEO of The Essex Group, a business consulting firm in Centerbrook, believes a major reason is the feast-and-famine cycle. He says people start a business, generate a lot of work, then focus totally on delivering that work. They stop marketing and promoting. When they finish serving that initial wave of customers, they have no new work because no one has been out cultivating more prospects or raising public awareness.
Business owners can avoid this feast-and-famine cycle by selling and marketing every week — and setting aside the time to do it.
That may sound like a lot of additional work, but it doesn’t have to be. The chair of the Greater Hartford Chapter of SCORE, Richard Corr, suggests simply adding a component of marketing to existing activities. He uses the example of a computer repair technician who talks to his client during the job to convey valuable information about other services his company provides.
Corr advises sole proprietors who make sales and service calls to leave three to four business cards with the client. Business owners can directly ask clients to mention their business to other people who might need the same type of service. He also recommends following up client interactions with a postcard that makes one key point about the business.
“In my computer technician example,” Corr says, “although the technician’s primary focus may be to fix the computer, the goal might be to turn the client into a marketer for the business.”
Jackson’s experience tells him that most business owners can learn to find the time to market. By evaluating how they use time, business owners can often reduce or eliminate low-impact activities and use the “found time” to attract customers.
When she ran her jewelry business, Brander found the time to attend trade shows. Those shows enabled her to locate most of her customers. But initially she kick-started her business with free or inexpensive ways to get her product in front of her target audience. She gave away product samples and spoke to groups of potential customers.
Brander also approached businesses in related fields and convinced them to sell her jewelry for her. Established catalog and Web site businesses added her products to their product lines. She sold on the Home Shopping Network and to major mass retail stores. She also sold wholesale to people who wanted to start their own home party business. And Brander built a franchise that allowed hospitals, schools and corporations to raise funds by selling her jewelry.
The Essex Group identified and then focused on four marketing methods that work for them: networking, word-of-mouth, referral and public speaking. Jackson says the company’s marketing efforts return about $175 in revenue for each dollar invested. The company used what he calls relationship-building marketing.
The most successful business isn’t usually the one that makes the best
product or delivers the best service, according to Brander. The most successful business, she thinks, is often the one that excels at sales.
Jackson and Corr both believe in having a business plan with a marketing component that clearly defines the markets, how to reach them, what their needs are, and what they are buying. Corr says small-business owners can benefit by spending less time in their business — producing the product — and more time on their business — planning and building a marketing strategy.
[back to top]
|
