Start a Locksmith Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Open a locksmith business--Nkzs

Starting a locksmithbusiness is a good business decision and can be a valuable incomeopportunity.  There are many people thatget their homes burglarized, and lock themselves out of their cars. There is noslowing down on the burglary rate and opening a locksmith business will helppeople make their homes safer.

If you have experience youcan start your business right away. If you are inexperienced you can hireexperienced locksmiths, or take some courses before starting yourbusiness.  Take vocational courses thatfocus on lock installation and maintenance, master-keying, security systems, andsecurity systems repair.

Check with your city becauseyou may need to apply for a license bond as well as a city license. The bondwill cost $100 per year.  You will need areseller’s tax ID number. Register your business name. Starting a locksmithbusiness as a sole proprietorship you have to file a “fictitious name” or“Doing Business As” (DBA) registration form. In some states, you have toregister a DBA with the state government or the county clerk’s office. You willneed your driver’s license or state ID card with your application. If you aregoing to hire employees as a sole proprietorship you need to use the (EIN)Employee Identification Number.  Fill-outthe necessary forms and send them back to the federal government and they willreturn it to you with your EIN number.

Purchase a van or a truckfor your business with a sign for your business name.  Buy tools, equipment, and computer withfinance software.

Market your business bydirect mail, passing out flyers, cold calling, office managers, apartmentcomplexes, and builders. Get a website and business cards. Some people may callyou at 3 am, because they have locked themselves out of their car or home,especially if you have a 24 hour service.

Reference:

Business Ideas: Starting aLocksmith Business with Ease; Clay Collins’

Locksmith Buzz: 6 EssentialTips When Starting a Locksmith Business

All Experts: The Possibilityon Living on a Locksmith’s Salary; James; 2003

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How to Write a Marketing Brochure

By Lanee’ Blunt

A successful marketingbrochure has to do more than look good. It has to be a focal point to selling your product or your service.  They are easy to make. Create your brochure witha desktop publishing program it will take you a while to learn the program butit is worth the effort. Once you have decided what content you want to includepick a design and use the templates in the program.

Write a strong headline onthe cover of the brochure. Many people will only read the first page. Gain theirinterest in what you are selling with the headline. “The cover of a brochureworks like the headline of a print advertisement. State your position orpromise a benefit to the reader,” according to Kenneth Roman, Jane Mass, andMartin Nisenholtz, in their book, How toAdvertise.

Give facts. Tell thecustomer everything that they need to know about your product, write about thefeatures, what is included—hours range of products or services, thespecifications and the performance.

Keep your paragraphs short. Writea strong call to action.  Use bulletedlist for eye appeal. Create a call to action that tells the reader to pick upthe phone and call now. If the product is sold by mail ask them to send for acatalog.

Save your brochure in a PDFfile if you want to put it online.  Takethe PDF file to a printer and have the brochures printed.

Reference:

Kenneth Roman, Jane Mass& Martin Nisenholtz; How to Advertise; Thomas Dunne Bnoks

What are the Benefits of Using Marketing Letters?

By Lanee’ Blunt

A marketing letter is apowerful piece of your direct mail package. A sales letter will out pull apackage that does not have a sales letter. If the sales message is what itshould be a percentage of readers on your mailing list will respond about theadvertised product or service.  When youwrite your direct mail package it requires that you know your audience.

The sales letter will helpyou to keep in touch with your prospects and will keep your company in theirmind, so when they are ready to make a purchase they will think of yourcompany. A sales letter will help you keep in touch with former customers too.

Before you invest your timeand your money in a direct mail program you should test your sales letter.  A great benefit of using a sales letter isthat it can be tested to see how well it will do. You have to know if theletter will pull a response.  You can usea small sample of one hundred letters, mail them and test your response.  If the letter is not strong enough and youreceive no response then you must revise your letter. If the letter received asufficient response then you have a winner mail it to everyone on your mailinglist.

You should carefully examineyour product or service.  Think about howuseful your product or service is and how it will help the consumer.  Carefully examine the market.  What is your key consumer benefit?  Answer all of the questions before you writeyour sales letter.

How to Make a Consultant Marketing Brochure

By Lanee’ Blunt

A consultant can benefitfrom having a marketing brochure. Having a brochure on your service will helpyou stand out from the competition. The brochure offers prospects a detailedlook at your service. Make your brochure more than just a good looking piece bymaking it sell your service.

Sells Message

Use a headline on the coverof the brochure. This helps people that only skim the brochure by pulling theminto your content. “The cover of a brochure works like the headline of a printadvertisement. State your position or promise a benefit to the reader,”according to Kenneth Roman, Jane Mass, and Martin Nisenholtz, in their book,How to Advertise. Include your contact information, your name, company logo anda visual on the cover.

Short Sections

Use headings that aredescriptive. Your brochure should be divided into sections that are easy tounderstand. Use headlines and subheads that break down the information and makethe copy easy to read.  Use a desktoppublishing software program that gives the brochure a professional look, breaksthe copy down into sections of text which are easy to read and look good in thebrochure.

Information

Brochures should beinformative. Give a lot of information here and explain your service, how itworks, how to hire you, website, prices, and testimonials of other clients thathired you.

Reference:

Kenneth Roman, Jane Mass,and Martin Nisenholtz; How to Advertise; 2003

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Advantages of Using Samples for Marketing Your New Product

By Lanee’ Blunt

Free samples have alwaysbeen an effective benefit in marketing. Using samples is a marketing tool thatwill help to build consumer awareness about your product. Giving out samplescan help you get repeat business and create brand loyalty. There are severaladvantages to using samples.

Referrals

Giving a prospect a freesample to give you a referral is an excellent incentive to get referrals fromcustomers. Another benefit is allowing the customer to send a complimentarygift to a friend.

The sample program createstrust from one friend to another. From the referral of a friend the prospecttrust the company or salesperson. As a result the prospects usually listenclosely to the sales message and buy at a higher rate than other sources thatdon’t offer a sample.

Lead Generation

Free sample offers allowsusers to collect the names and addresses of people that are interested in theproduct. Your company will get high quality leads that can be converted byusing other marketing campaigns.

Samples can create brandloyalty by helping to increase product awareness. Online businesses shouldconsider running a free sample campaign. Target the free sample ads around yourwebsite that get the most attention, and put it on all of the pages on yoursite. Capture all your prospects with an email marketing promotion.

Reference:

Learning From Big Boys; YogiTea; Isabel Isidro; 2010


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How to Open a Plumbing Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Starting a plumbing businesscan be lucrative. You will not have to worry about being laid off or yourcompany downsizing. When starting a new business most people take theirexperience in employment and apply it to their business. If you have a plumbingbackground and considering starting a business there are things you have toconsider.

Training

Starting out you will needtraining as a plumber if you don’t have experience. There are schools availablethat you can go to that offer plumbing training, community colleges andvocational schools. These schools will offer training and after you graduateyou can become a full time plumber. Take plumbing courses online if you alreadyhave a busy schedule.

Determine Legal Ownership

You must set up yourbusiness as a legal entity. Decide which form of ownership is best for yourparticular business: sole proprietorship, partnership, Limited LiabilityCompany (LLC), corporation, or S corporation.  Starting a plumbing business as a soleproprietorship you have to file a “fictitious name” or “Doing Business As”(DBA) registration form. In some states, you have to register a DBA with thestate government or the county clerk’s office. You will need your driver’slicense or state ID card with your application. If you are going to hire employeesas a sole proprietorship you need to use the (EIN) Employee IdentificationNumber.  Fill-out the necessary forms andsend them back to the federal government and they will return it to you withyour EIN number.

Purchase Equipment

Buy the equipment you need.Purchase a van or truck for your business. Find a building that will haveenough room for all of your equipment. Advertise and market your business. Getbusiness cards printed and build a website.

Reference:

SBA: 5 Steps to Registeringyour Business

Plumbing Training Courses:How to Open and Run a Plumbing Business; Joshua; 2011

Businessrise: How to Start aPlumbing Business; Gianna Lazarou

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How to Create a Company Logo

By Lanee’ Blunt

Creating a business logo iseasy with graphic design. A business logo can build loyalty between yourcustomers and your company, builds brand awareness, and provides a professionalappeal. The logo must represent your business, so you don’t want one that isjust thrown together without any thought.

Decide how you will use thelogo. Will it be used for a product or a service? Is the logo going to be agraphic and name, a Font type logo, or just a graphic? Consider how IBM andAllstate “good hands“ uses a font-based logo.

Typeface

The typeface of the logoshould be easily legible. Use Old English for a traditional look, and a moremodern look choose Optima.

Size

Consider a legible size forthe logo because it has to be suitable on the page. Test the legibility beshrinking it to the smallest size.

Color

Price is important with logodesign. Choosing a four or five color logo design may be beautiful on paper,but can be expensive when you go to the printer each time you have to get thelogo printed. Try to keep the color down to a minimum of three colors becauseit is cost effective, and it will work in mediums that won’t allow that manycolor combinations.

Reference

Entrepreneur: How to Createa Logo

Startups: How to Create YourOwn Company Logo


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How to Get Leads for a New Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

New businesses oftenstruggle to get leads for their business when they are starting up. Gettingleads for your business should be cost effective and profitable. A lead must befollowed up on by a salesperson and treated seriously with all efforts ofconverting the lead into a buyer.

Ads

Ads that generate leads tryto appeal to buyers to ask for a response for more information. Some itemscannot be sold directly for example, insurance, products that are sold tobusiness or industry and require a salesperson to make a sales call and give apresentation. “Ads that generate leads may give a lot of information or alittle, but they never give the full story. To get complete information, thereader must respond to the ad by writing, phoning, or mailing in a coupon,”according to Robert W. Bly.

List of prospectr

Advertise that you will sendto interested persons a booklet of valuable information for example, taxinformation if you are a broker or CPA. The purpose of this offer is to getsales leads names and addresses of persons interested in future offerings. Manysoftware companies offer free trial offers on their software programs tointerested prospects. If the prospect is interested in their program they areencouraged to register and get the full program download.

Reference:

Robert W. Bly; TheCopywriter’s Handbook; Owl Books

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How to Write a Marketing Letter: Sell Products by Mail

By Lanee’ Blunt

Write a sales letter--
GlennPeb

Write marketing lettersfor your small business that get attention. Here are some tips on creating sales letters.

There are many advantages ofusing direct mail that will help you market your small business. Don’t shy awayfrom proven methods of advertising because you may not understand how they canwork for your business. Advertising is a challenge and you need to do itwithout breaking your bank.

Defined exactly what youwant your prospect to do after they have read your letter?  Would you like your prospect to ask forinformation? Suggest that they send for your information package.  You may want to give the prospect a homevisit if this is the case, you can suggest that you’ll call them to set up anappointment.

Your product is important tothe consumer in the following ways, what are the benefits that they get forusing it?  The offer is very important inyour sales letter.  What is your primaryoffer, many product sales letters are not productive because they fail to givean offer.  Tell the prospect that youwill ship the product for free, or you have a free special bonus offer. Youdon’t always have to give a free gift you can give a money back guarantee.

You must have a call toaction, which tells the reader to pick up the phone and call now. If theproduct is sold by mail ask them to send for more informatiion. Make yourprospect take action and make it easy for them to do so.

How to Start a Janitorial Service Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Open your janitorial business--
nazreth

Starting a janitorialservice is a good business decision and can be a valuable income opportunity. Youhave an excellent chance for success when you start a janitorial servicebusiness. The start-up cost is low and there is always a demand for yourservice.

You must set up yourbusiness as a legal entity. Decide which form of ownership is best for yourparticular business: sole proprietorship, partnership, Limited LiabilityCompany (LLC), corporation, or S corporation. You can operate your business under your own name or get a fictitiousname DBA and operate as a sole proprietorship. Get all the necessary permitsyou need to operate your janitorial business. Obtain liability insurance foryour cleaning business because it will protect you, your employees and yourcustomers in case there is an injury or damaged property.

Purchase the equipment youneed. When you are just starting your business and you don’t have any employeesyou can use your own house cleaning equipment and your car. Buy cleaningsupplies mops, brooms, a vacuum cleaner, bleach, floor cleaner, paper towels,and window cleaner.

Write a cleaning servicecontract that outlines your terms and services and prices.  Set up a business checking account, printbusiness cards, and stationary, Start a website that you can direct clients towith your contact information. Make it easy for prospects to get in touch withyou on your website by setting up an email account in case they want to hireyou for a project.

Reference:

SBA: 5 Steps to Registeringyour Business

Start a Janitorial business:How to Start a Janitorial Services Business

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How to Make a Flyer

By Lanee’ Blunt

Having a flyer is a good wayto sell your product, get new business, or advertise your service. Fliers arean easy method of advertising and can be handed out at trade shows or posted inneighborhood bulletin boards.

Difficulty: Easy

Things you’ll need:

Layout and design program

Put your flyer on collegebulletin boards, retail stores, and local businesses.  Insert flyers in newspapers or localadvertising that distribute to homes in your community. Call the local newspaperand inquire about distributing a flyer inside the newspapers when they aredelivered.  Distribute flyers in localcafé’s, retail parking lots, and colleges.

Create a strong sellingmessage. List the benefits of using your product or business. A description ofyour small business or your product should be written with your target audiencein mind.

Add graphics to the flyer. Avisual that is related to your business for example, a résumé service can add apicture of a keyboard or a contractor can add a graphic of a home.

Provide sufficientinformation on your business to let prospects know what your product or serviceis.  Provide all of your contactinformation.

Get the flyer printed. Theprinter offers a variety of high quality full color flyers that can be createdfor your business.

Reference:

Ubscure:Cheap Yet Effective Advertising With Flyers


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How to Get a Small Business Grant

By Lanee’ Blunt

An entrepreneur seeking a small businessgrant must do his homework. The Federal government does not provide grants forstarting a new business. Federal grants are given to non-profit organizations, largebusinesses in government-sponsored scientific research and local and stategovernments. There are minority programs that assist new businesses, and smallbusiness grants for businesses engaged in scientific research and development(R&D).

The SBA.gov provides a search tool forfinding a broad range of financial assistance programs that your business mightqualify for. The National Minority Supply and Diversity Council (NMSDC) is agreat source because it provides a direct link between minority business andcorporations that want to purchase goods and services from minorities. Somegrants are not free and usually require the business to match funds or it mayrequire that the company get a business loan to accompany the grant.

Apply for grants at the Grant.gov website. Downloada grant application and complete it offline. Write a grant proposal or hire a grantwriter to write the proposal for you. Prepare a business plan. Write all yourideas down about your business because it will make it easier when you beginyour outline. Decide what you are going to put in the business plan. Get abusiness plan template. A business plan will help you get outside funding, helpget credit from suppliers, help you market your business, and help serve as aroad map when you are starting out.

Reference:

SBA: How Do I Get a Small Business Grant or Loan?

SBA: Research Grants Small Businesses

Grants.gov: Apply for Grants

Entrepreneur: Minority Loan and Grant Programs

Starting an Internet Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Sell your products online--lotushead

Starting an Internetbusiness doesn’t require a lot of overhead, and is a business to get into withminimum upfront investment.  There aredifferent types of internet businesses that you may start; a site that sellsproducts, an e-commerce that sells products, an e-commerce business that shipsproducts to people or a service selling website or maybe you probably have onein mind.

Product

Decide what type of internetbusiness you will be going into. Is it a product or products that you areselling or are you going to sell; business to business, or sell your service?Are you going to do affiliate marketing? A sales tax license is required tocollect sales taxes. The requirements may be different, so you must check withyour own local licensing department.

Name your Internet Business

What are you going to nameyour company? A name is very important and you should give carefulconsideration before you decide on any name.

License

Some states require forwebsite owners to register for many of the same licenses that other businessowners have to register for. E-commerce website owners must comply with statetax collection, and accounting regulations. Apply for a vendor license withyour state. Each state is different and the requirements may be different forstate to state. The sba.gov will let you know where you can get a vendor’slicense in your particular state. Type your state, or zip code and vendor andpeddler license in the required field and the site navigates to your specificstate where you can find out your contact information or you can apply. Thevendor license can be obtained at your state office of department of finance.

Set Up Online Site

Get a domain name andregister it. Get a web host. You can find a web host that is inexpensive andeffective. Make sure you use a web host that offers features that makethird-party scripts like a shopping cart a one click system.  Look for free shopping cart scripts. Most webhost will offer the open source osCommerce script as a quick install, but thereare others you can download. Install payment modules Paypal, 2Checkout, andothers. For accepting credit cards select a credit card processor.

Prepare a business plan foryour new internet business.  Market yournew business. Set up a checking accountfor your internet company.  Printbusiness cards.

Reference:

Start a Online BusinessInfo: Starting an Internet Business

Emarketingman: Start anInternet Business

How to Start a Home Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Starting a home basedbusiness can be very rewarding. You won’t have the long commute, rush hourtraffic, work in your pajamas, and take a long coffee break. Be your own bossand you won’t have to worry about being laid-off. Home businesses are becomingmore popular today as people turn their extra time into profit.

The Home Office

You probably have an idea orthe product that you want to sell. Where in your home will your office belocated? If you are going to sell products you need enough room to store theinventory. If you are selling merchandise you will need to display them whereyour customers can see them. Keep your business and your family life separatebecause your family will need their privacy.

Apply for Licenses

You must set up yourbusiness as a legal entity. Decide which form of ownership is best for yourparticular business: sole proprietorship, partnership, Limited LiabilityCompany (LLC), corporation, or S corporation. A sole proprietorship is abusiness owned by a single individual. Start a home business by operating as asole proprietorship the start up cost is low; no employees are required andbegin working right away with minimum overhead.  Check zoning ordinances, buy insurance, andsee your city clerk about special licensing you may need for your particularbusiness.

Reference:

SBA: Home Based Business

University of Maine: Starting a Home Business

How to Advertise Your Business Affordably

By Lanee’ Blunt

Most companies want toadvertise and are looking for the most cost effective way to advertise. Most smallbusinesses are on a budget and must make their money go further, and make theirads work harder. There are several cheap ways to advertise that give you avariety of options to choose from when you are on a budget.

Car Door Magnetic Signs

Car door signs are aninexpensive way to advertise your business and are very affordable. The cost isoften less than $100.00. You are advertising while you drive your car and havethe option to remove the sign when you don’t want to advertise.

Email Your Newsletter

Newsletters help you stay intouch with potential customers by keeping your name in front of them. Creatingan email newsletter can be time consuming, but it is worth the effort becauseit promotes your small business.

“You can distribute yournewsletter using your email program or have people subscribe on your websitedirectly to a list-server,” according to Ralph F. Wilson’s book, Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy.   The newsletter can be sent to potentialcustomers using your Microsoft Outlook email program.  If you don’t have Microsoft Outlook then sendit with your regular email program, but you will have to send the newsletter asan attachment.

Flyer

Fliers are inexpensive perpiece to produce.  You can use your colorprinter or just use a black printer with color paper stock.  The flier tells what you are offering andexplains how the customer can contact you. 

Door Hangers

Door hangers are anotherinexpensive way to advertise your business they are affordable and effective.You are able to write your own ad on them and target the market that you want.For example, if you have a landscaping business you might want to target ahigh-end housing district.

Reference:

Ralph F. Wilson’s book;Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy;Wiley; 2002

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How to Make a Service Brochure

By Lanee’ Blunt

Every business should have abrochure. Creating a new business brochure is more than adding a list of yourservices to your favorite desktop publishing program. You must give enoughinformation so that people will know about your service.

Know Your Audience

The brochure has to bewritten with your audience in mind.  Whatdo they want from your company? This is not the opportunity to go on and onabout how great your company is. Look at it from the prospective of; what dothey want from you?

Be Informative

Have enough information inyour business brochure to inform your customers about your business. When aprospect asks for your brochure you must keep in mind, that they are interestedin reading about your service. This is the time to write and include all of theinformation about your service, website, price, testimonial information, andyou should be descriptive.

Service Description

Explain completely what yourservice is about.  What do you offer theclient that is different from your competition? What are the types of accountsyou handle?

All of the services offeredby your firm should be written in detail descriptions explaining how theservice works. This is not the time to brag about your company, but explain howyour firm helps the client.

Reference:

Kenneth Roman, Jane Mass& Martin Nisenholtz; How to Advertise; Thomas Dunne Books

How to Create a Newsletter

By Lanee’ Blunt

Creating a companynewsletter will build future business, brand awareness, and helps to generatetrust from your prospects.  It is a greatway to promote your small business.

Any typical desktoppublishing program will do the job. Some programs are easy to learn and are inexpensive.  A full color newsletter can be created onyour computer and printed with a laser or regular color printer.  It might take you several issues before youproduce the finished product with ease. Your desktop publishing skills willimprove with every issue that you produce. 

Determine how often you willproduce your newsletter, weekly, biweekly, quarterly, or annually. Take intoconsideration, the time it takes to write, the artwork, and printing becauseyou will have other duties in your small business. Most newsletters areproduced every other month or every quarter.

Produce your newsletter on agood laser printer using glossy paper. You can also just print your newsletter on color stock and use a regularblack printer.

Get your newsletter printerprofessionally by saving your work on a PDF file and take it to a professionalprinting company.

Newsletters tell us when thenext meeting will be, who made partner, they give us financial planninginformation, and they give us great diet tips, and tell us how to remodel ourkitchen.  If your company has informationto offer you should consider writing a newsletter

Reference:

Loriann Oberlin-Hoff; Writingfor Money; Writer’s Digest Books

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How to Write a Newsletter

By Lanee’ Blunt

Writing a company newsletteris a big commitment and requires a lot of time by publishing it weekly,monthly, or quarterly but it’s one of the best ways to keep in touch with yourprospects. It will build future business, brand awareness, and helps togenerate trust from your prospects.

Determine your page lengthand size. Most newsletters are at least four pages but some are longer betweeneight and sixteen pages. If you don’t have a lot of time to spend writing thenewsletter, don’t choose a sixteen page newsletter, because you may be tooambitious. The size should depend on the amount of information you want toinclude.

Decide what content toinclude in the newsletter by knowing your audience. What articles would be ofinterest to them. There are three or four feature articles and the text shouldbe in three columns. Try to give the reader information that is interesting andtips that they can use. For example, an accountant can write an article about “5Tips for Receiving a Bigger Refund”, or a neighborhood supermarket may write,“Healthy Foods that Aren’t Fattening.” You can also write about general advice,how to information, or employee news.

Reference:

Ralph F. Wilson; PlanningYour Internet Marketing Strategy; Wiley; 2002

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Ideas for How Contractors Can Use Direct Mail

By Lanee’ Blunt

A contractor can benefitfrom using direct mail for their particular business.  Marketing letters are a great way to getsales leads and can help you market your service with direct mail.  Direct mail is not just for largecorporations, if it is written correctly, it will be to your advantage to use.Direct mail is ideal for contractors because it can completely give thebenefits of using your service.

Get More Customers

Direct mail can be used bycontractors to get more qualified leads. No cold calling is required and when you call the prospect they willexpect to hear from you.

Follow Up

Contractors may use directmail as a follow up to a direct marketing campaign.  The follow-up marketing letter is used tokeep your business name in front of your customers.

Reach Your Target Market

Target your direct mailtoward a specific group of people and write the package just for that group tointerest them in your contracting service. “Direct mail is the only mass mediumthat can be directed toward target groups or prospects. The message may behighly personalized and can also be designed as an effective market researchtool,” according to B. Charles Ames and James D. Hlavacek, in their book, Managerial Marketing for Industrial Firms.

Inexpensive Advertising

It depends on how manyletters you are planning to send, and where you plan to get your mailing listfrom. The package is inexpensive and cost effective with only the cost forenvelopes, paper, and postage.

Reference:

B. Charles Ames & JamesD. Hlavacek; Managerial Marketing for Industrial Firms, Random House

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How to Start a Consulting Business

By Lanee' Blunt

Set up your
consulting company--
Surely

Starting your own consultingcompany can be a rewarding experience. What separates a good consultant from a badone is the passion that one brings to the job. As a consultant you should havea lot of experience in your field and be very knowledgeable about the subjectyou are consulting in. Consulting gives you the opportunity to meet potentialclients, establish credibility, and set your own fees.  

Difficulty

Moderate

Things You’ll Need

Business cards

Website

Brochure

Business license

Step 1

Work from Home. Starting abusiness from home when you are just starting out requires less investment thanoperating out of a leased office, or owned business property.  Set up a home office in a spare room.

Step 2

Get your client base.Network by passing out business cards, brochures and join twitter and socialnetworking sites. Ask for referrals from your clients or offer incentives forgetting them. Ask for pro bono work when you are first starting out because itmay produce future business.

Step 3

Get Noticed. Send pressreleases to the local newspaper to get notoriety. Write articles and sendqueries to trade journals and business publications. Writing articles helps toget your name in front of your audience and is a form of public relations.

Step 4

Get Licensing. Depending onyour business you may need certification or a license before you start yourbusiness.

Step 5

Acquire a “Doing BusinessAs,” DBA. Register a legal name for your business if you are going to use aname other than your own name. Apply for the DBA with a registration form withyour state and local government. Apply for an Employer Identification Number(EIN) from the US Internal Revenue Service if you have hired employees.

Step 6

Set up a checking accountfor your new consulting company.  Printbusiness cards. Get business letterhead printed with your company name andcontact information. Start a website that you can direct clients to with your contactinformation. Make it easy for prospects to get in touch with you on yourwebsite by setting up an email account in case they want to hire you.

Tips

Join your local Chamber ofCommerce.

Reference

Inc; How to Promote YourConsulting Btsiness; Lou Dubois; 2011

Entrepreneur; How to Start aConsulting Business

SBA: 5 Steps to RegisteringYour Business

SBA: Taking the Plunge;Caron Beesley; 2010

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How to Write a Janitorial Service Proposal

By Lanee' Blunt

Writing your proposal
doesn't have to be hard--
raflowers

Writing a proposal for ajanitorial service requires careful preparing before you write it.  A cleaning proposal is different from acleaning bid because it requires you to present a packet of information aboutyour company that consists of information about your company, service, and thebid price. Start with an outline this will help you organize your thoughts andhelp you prepare the information that needs to go into the proposal.

Difficulty

Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need

Brochures

Business cards

Report cover

Insurance certificate

Service agreement

Write the “Executive summary” section. Start this section of the proposal with why theevaluators should use your company. Give them an excellent reason why theyshould choose your company over the competition. Provide a straight forwardprecise description of your ability to meet the requirements of the requestedwork.

Write the “Resume and qualifications” section. Write about your qualifications and your experiencewith similar jobs. Tell the evaluators the responsibilities of key personneland subcontractors. Give the qualifications of your staff profile and thenumber of hourly, part-time employees, and supervisors employed by the business.

Start the third section “Price for the project” and explain your proposed price based on the budgetdetail.  Provide a Cleaning bid sheet with the price youare proposing.

Address topics in the request for proposal (RFP) in the forth section. Answer the topics in thesame sequence that they are in the RFP. Answer all of the “major topicquestions” in essay form.  Give yourcomplete description of  your ability to meet the requirements in theRFP. Remember, you’re not trying to write an academic paper with slow dullreading, but this is persuasive expository prose. Answer the topics of the RFPby keeping your sentences and your paragraphs short. Create a lot of whitespace with frequent paragraphing.

Provide a copy of yourdocumented Quality Control Plan. Provide a copy of your Hazard CommunicationPlan when asked. 

Proofread the proposal for typos and errors.  Avoidmistakes that may cause your proposal to be turned down with careless errors.

Tips

Professionally package theproposal with a glossy cover and use a letterhead with good quality paper.

Gather the brochures and yourbusiness cards that need to be submitted with the proposal make sure that youhave all of the information needed before your deadline. Keep your writingdirect and avoid a lot of unnecessary adjectives.

Reference

Fedmarket: How Are Winning Proposals Written

Onvia: First Steps to aWinning Proposal

Findfrp: How to WriteProposal

Clean Outlook: Creating aCleaning Proposal

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Tips on How to Write a Business Proposal

What is the Marketing Mix?

By Lanee’ Blunt

The Four P's of Marketing--
svilen001

Marketing is very importantfor your business because it helps you attract new customers and keepsformer customers coming for repeat business. The marketing mix helps youdetermine how to satisfy your customers, and it can be planned, controlled andadjusted until you get the results that are best for your company.

Marketers use the marketingmix to create a value for their product. The elements in the marketing mix areproduct, place, price and promotion. The four-elements of the marketing mix areused and adjusted until the marketer gets the results that he wants. Forexample, pricing decisions are used in the form of cash discounts whichconvince customers to buy.

The product is analyzed forits ability to compete better than your competition. For example, quality andsafety can be used as a benefit. Price includes decisions that you would maketo price your product competitively. Place includes the distribution decisionfor example, how to reach your customers in what geographic location. Promotiondecisions are strategies that you will use to get more customers, such ascoupons and sales.

Reference:

Business Dictionary:Marketing Mix

Net MBA: The Marketing Mix

What Content is Included in the Finance Section of a Business Plan

By Lanee’ Blunt

Include your Financial Section--
lustfish

A financial section shouldalways be included with your business plan. A business plan is a written descriptionof your business and what you plan to do and how you are going to do it.  They are used by entrepreneurs that areseeking financing, firms that are trying to hire key personnel, firms trying toget investors.

The finance section of thebusiness plan should include your cash flow statements, of each year you havebeen in business—up to three to five years, company income statements, balancesheets and other financial ratios, such as a break-even analysis. You mayrequire help from your accountant or a good spreadsheet software program.

Reference:

Entrepreneur:  An Introduction to Business Plans

SBA: Writing a BusinessPlan: Financials