How to get the ball rolling when starting a business

October 5th, 2006 by Cristina Favreau

Someone on an online networking group I belong to posted this question:

I’ve recently completed my website (of course, it’s a work in progress) and I just don’t know where to go from here. I feel like I’m preparing to no end; but have not had one client to date. [...] How can I really get the ball rolling? E-mail blasts, mailings, registering on the various search engines; I’m not sure which road to take.

Being that she posted on a very active list, she got some useful tips:

  1. Get out there. “I cannot say enough about networking. That is what business is all about these days. You really have to put yourself out there and get ‘face-time’ with people so they get to know you and you can build relationships. Building relationships is the main thing. You want people to be able to know you well enough to trust you and well enough to be able to connect you with confidence, to other people.” “Networking is definitely key.“
  2. Follow-up. “Implement some sort of follow-up system so people remember you and they have your contact information close by when they (a) need your services or (b) come across a referral.“
  3. Start in your own backyard. “I know your business is virtual, but to get the ‘ball rolling’ I would start locally.“
  4. Specialize. “When I first started this I was offering a ton of stuff, because I was skilled in all those areas. However, whenever someone would ask me what I do [...] I would try to explain all the stuff I could do, and 5 minutes later both myself and the person I’d be speaking with would be sleeping. [...] Eventually I had a long talk with myself and decided that was not the way to go about getting business. I then thought about the one thing I would most like to focus on and I realized that was what I want to do, and that alone. People tend to think if you do one thing, you do it well.“

Sounds to me like she’s stuck in the very first stage of the marketing cycle, filling the pipeline.

How would you have responded to this question?

mali 7alaly mp3 yajungs mp3 7ermp3 7g bgmkiss mp3 7house7l stalker mp3mp3 tiersen 7pmmp3 aljasmy 7sainmp3 7sign yngwie Map

Category Entrepreneurship, Filling the Pipeline, Starting a business | 1 Comment »

  • http://www.OwnYourBrand.com Michael Wagner

    “Start in your own backyard.”

    Great advice and something I failed to do when I started my firm.

    But in the last 4 months I have refocused on my own backyard and it has made a tremendous difference not only in my backyard but elsewhere.

    Lots of wisdom in this post – thanks for sharing with the rest of us!