For Women Ready to Start Their Business@Home!

Small Business On the Phone

I know this is an Old Idea, really out of step with Internet times, but it does work. Today, I'll be picking up the phone, maybe not a red one, to initiate contact with some local, potential clients. My fear is not the call or the receptionist, but getting stuck when it comes to a short conversation.

I subscribe to a daily service, CanDoGo. Today's offering was entitled:

Telephone Prospecting: Conversation Technique

I learned some tips and was reminded of some things I can really use today to move my business forward even if it seems like using the phone as a small business marketing tool is a step backwards.

What's Your Small Business Client's Style?

Nothings for Everybody - It’s a Matter of Style.

When it comes to marketing to your target market you must know their style. Case in point, as I develop and roll out the next level of The Profit Puzzle Start-Up Success System, I find myself needing to define the “style” of the style of the ideal user in my target market.

There’s no question, at least in my mind, of the need for the system. But, not everybody is willing to take a systemic approach to learning the basics, creating a plan, tracking progress and sharing success.

I keep forgetting I’m not developing sales copy and designing a web page for everybody. I hate to lose a potential sale. But, I must remind myself that what I offer is a particular approach to solving a problem: avoiding failure and ensuring start-up success.

I have validated to need for The Profit Puzzle System, but I must market it to those whose style it fits.

Small Business Start-Up Opt-In "Wizard of Oz"

In the classic movie "Wizard of Oz" we discover the person behind the curtain differed greatly from the persona of the Wizard. Does the image portrayed by your small business start-up differ from or match you as a person?

If you operate online you either have or will create an "Opt-In Offering" to build your list. Up till now there was no easy way to quickly "step out from behind the curtain" and reveal your true personality. Today, thanks to Social Networking, its fast and easy to reveal more about you and your small business.

Today, I won't debate the consequences of your image and your reality not matching up or whether that should be a concern. Much of how close a match there is is subjective away. Instead, I'll just offer my Social Networking links and let you decide whether The Daily Profit - Don Osborne Persona and the Social Networking bio, tweets, wall posts and links at Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn match up with The Profit Puzzle Website.

8 Tweets for Small Business Success

This set of small business @home tips focused on one Tweet for each of the small business basics. Can you identify the "Basic" for each tweet?

1. "A clear set of business objectives can free up your time and explode your small business profits."
2. "Quick reports are a mandatory small business management tool if you want to boost your profits."
3. "Do you know how much it will cost to finance the small business project you just started?"
4. "Don't take your small business personnel issues too personally - it won't get the job done."
5. "Small business Marketing Match Game : Problem + Customer + Product = Purchase."
6. "Equipment with the right ROI can save your small business operations time and money."
7. "Are your true production costs built into your small business pricing?"
8. "Are your products and services valuable resources used by other small business owners?"

A "Take Action" sheet is available to help you explore each Business Basic Piece and act on those small business pieces you need to work on to optimize your success and profit.

Don't Try This at Home

Ever think, what big businesses do to be successful doesn’t apply to your small home based business success. After all, they are in business. You’re just trying to make a few extra dollars.

Certainly, things like identifying the customers your products are suited to and figuring how to market to them and solve their problems is only big business stuff. Nothing you should attempt for your home based business.

After all, why shouldn’t people buy from you anyway? You’re just trying to make and few bucks from home and they like you, right? 

Why Do They Buy?

Do you know why your customers buy? Without that knowledge, you're missing sales opportunities. More importantly, you're missing marketing opportunities. When you know why your customers buy you can sell them more and find more just like them to buy from you.

You probably have a gut feeling. But, have you written it down and tracked your customer comments and behaviors. If not, there's a good chance you may be focused on the wrong reasons for why they buy. Maybe you think it all about price. What if it were all about convenience or selection? Lowering your prices won't have the impact you might have hoped for because that's not why they buy from you.

If you want to increase your sales revenue make sure you know why they buy. Knowing WHY will also make your marketing activities more effective. So, why do your customers buy?

Does Your USP Deliver Like UPS?

Judy & Sam knew how well UPS delivered. They had used United Parcel Service to deliver their first small business order. As a start up business, they counted on UPS to deliver on time, at a fair price and provide business management tools to help them grow their small start up business.

Judy's role as marketing manager of their small business was a "learn as you go" experience. USP (Unique Selling Proposition) was a new term to her. She became aware of the concept and initials "UPS" while reading an article she found on the Duct Tape Marketing website by John Jantsch. According to the article:

"A simple strategy for positioning your firm or product deeply in your target market's mind is a tool called a USP. The term USP has been around for a long time. The letters stand for Unique Selling Proposition.

The idea here is to identify and then communicate a concise statement of your firm's most compelling offer and benefit in a way that the potential client can automatically answer the what's in if for me question. That's all a USP is."

As Judy learned more from the article, she was inspired to develop a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) to help deliver more customers and sales to their start up business just as well and reliably as UPS was delivering their small business packages.

21 Places to Network Your Start Up

A major marketing challenge for most small business start up is getting the word out. Word-of-mouth marketing is one typically low-cost marketing method you can use to network your start up into greater visibility within a targeted community of potential clients.

According to PowerCore - Build Your Business Naturally, there are 21 types of business networking associations you could use to develop awareness of your business. The 21 Association Types chart published by PowerCore includes the Association Type, Frequency, Examples and Purpose of each networking association.

To take advantage of one or more of the association types listed print out the web page and check off which types of business networking associations are available to you. Also, note which types would most likely include people or businesses within your small business start up target markets.

You're going to spend your time some place promoting your start up. You might as well pick the best places to network your small business start up.

Free Samples Boost Start Up Success

Just getting started with customer development for your small business start up? Here's one idea for providing a taste of what you have to offer suggested by Wendy Maynard, the Marketing Maven, in her article "Tiny-Spoon Marketing: Give 'Em a Free Taste and They'll Come Back for More!".

The Marketing Maven outlines 9 ideas you can use to wet a prospective or current customer's appetite for purchasing your products or services. She covers both online and offline ideas that are easy to understand and implement. You know from personal experience how the power a small taste of something can develop a big appetite for more of the same, but in bigger quantities.

In-depth Start Up Customer Targeting

Surface knowledge of your start up target customers is not sufficient. If you want long term success for your new small business, you'll need to dig below the surface of basic customer data descriptions.

Just describing your customers in general terms such as "women over 40" is not enough. Adding more depth to that description gives you a better chance of matching your products and services with a marketing message that resonates. Is that "women over 40" married or single, have children, working outside of the home, etc?

Most products and services you could offer to your target market are available through other vendors. In order to capture a percentage of an existing market place you must communicate with your target customers in a way that conveys your understanding of their needs and interests. That requires an in-depth understanding that surface descriptions can't give you.