Over the last year and a half or more, I've had to market the moving business with almost no money to do so. When you're broke, you don't buy radio spots. Or TV. Hell, buying ad space in a cash-strapped newspaper is prohibitively expensive. So, I had to figure out alternative methods of promoting MyTruckBuddy.com.
Do you know how many low-cost ways there are to promote a small business? How many free ways? Hundreds. And if you're a little creative, you can modify those basic things thousands of other ways. Want to move your Website up in the rankings? Easy (relatively speaking). There's no one, single silver bullet, and there's no super secret cyber lever you pull, but with a patchwork of efforts, you can get your site noticed fairly easily.
A lot of it is just common sense. For example, how you answer the phone can determine whether you get a new client. Some are more high-tech: weaving keywords into the copy on your website.
Anyway, after doing this for awhile, I realized that I was developing marketable skills. Why not teach other small businesses (not moving businesses, obviously, heh) for a small fee? (Small for now, that is). If I -- someone with almost no technical skills -- can get a website up and running, optimize it for search engines, and implement a bunch of online and offline marketing strategies, then anyone can do it. Like everything else, though, a lot of small businesses just don't know where to start.
I'm not doing anything new or different here. All the information is out there, and a lot of it is just pure crap. I think small businesses would love it if someone could just step in and say "do this, do this, and do this."
A couple of months ago I visited the DC Home & Garden Show. I pushed out of my comfort zone and got a little "schmoozy," walking away with three new clients for a business I hadn't even created yet. After I sent my first newsletter, I got three or four more. I was right -- small businesses, especially businesses with crappy websites they made in 1998 with an old version of FrontPage, are desperate to make their marketing dollars stretch farther.
Last week I had an initial meeting with one of my clients. She's a moving customer of mine, and she runs a hair salon here in Old Town. She wanted to 1) develop a newsletter marketing system, and 2) optimize her website for search engines. So, I did some research, threw together some ideas, and showed her some options on her work computer. This is what she wrote about an hour after we met:
I just want to tell you I am so impressed with you!! you gave so much of your time and did so much research for us without a commitment !! you will go very far with this excellent customer service skill of yours.
I am looking forward to doing buisiness with you!!
I also wanted to explain that I am willing to spend a lot more each month once I see results coming in. One hair cut is 65.00 so doing the math the more business we get the more we can spend , the more you can make!!
I wish we had you here on staff!
Of course, now I'm scared poopless. I HAVE TO DELIVER.
No problem, though. I'm not trying to do anything fancy. All I need to do is what I've been doing for my own business, right?
The pay for this first gig won't be much, but it's a welcome start. I have about six more people ready to go right now, and that means I have a ton of things to do. For example, I'm supposed to be writing a proposal for the above client. What the hell am I blogging for?
1 comment:
Congratulations, Christopher.
Go get 'em tiger!
Post a Comment