Friday, September 02, 2005

Growing Your Client Base

Now that you've priced for growth, you need to get the word out. There is the expensive route: put ads in papers, print and mail fancy fliers, etc. Then there's the cheap route which I prefer. You can't beat word-of-mouth. Hand out business cards to everybody you know, leave them at banks, post them on free bulletin boards. I even drop some periodically at the QuickBooks displays at Office Depot, etc.
Of course, this means you'd better have some advertising on your business card. Aside from my biz name, my name and contact info, my cards say "We make QuickBooks work for you!" and "Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor" and "QuickBooks discounts and help guides at www.realitycheckonline.com". Go to VistaPrint.com, find a card you like and then customize it. Their quality is great and you can't beat the prices.
If you have the time, you can offer a free seminar or teach at your local community college. I did and got lots of clients and got paid for teaching! You can get an article written about you and a friend in the local paper's business section (mine was "Business Mentors Help Start-Ups"). I could go on forever, but you get the idea. There's lots of free advertising out there - Go get it!

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