This article was orginally written to teach my members how to get ISP clients, but you can use it for almost any business that you are in. --------------------------------------------------------- Earn With
Secret of a Well Defined Target ---------------------------------------------------------
This is
second secret to building your business. Without this you will wander without direction dispelling your energy ineffectively.
Consider
power of water. If you attempt to strip a wall of an old layer of paint by spraying water in a wide pattern, that paint will never come off. However, if you put pressure behind that water and then narrow
stream so it all comes to one tiny point, or one well defined target, then
paint starts to come off.
The water represents your energy in finding your prospects and motivating them to join your company.
So what we need to do is to take
very same amount of energy you are now using, (with perhaps a little more pressure), and point it to a well defined target so that you can increase your power to build your business by 100 fold or more.
To do this you need to make some decisions. These have to be well thought out and must be backed by a strong burning desire. So make some decisions that seem reasonable, yet challenging enough to be exciting for you.
1. What is
real reason you want an ISP business? Is it to help others, do you like working with people, do you need some money to send your children to college, do you want recognition of accomplishment, do you feel it is a important service you can provide to help others? You must find
reason that you are really doing this.
Without this reason
fire you need for building a business will never start.
2. After you understand
real reason for building your business, now you must decide what amount of money is needed to accomplish your reason.
Start with a reasonable amount, you can always make this amount larger later. The amount needs to be enough to accomplish your reason and enough to be exciting and challenging. But it must not be so much that it seems impossible to do which will put out your fire and your business before you even start.
3. After you have your reason and
amount of money you need to earn you must now decide upon
method which you will use to accomplish your goal.
It is possible you really do not know this method yet so pick what you think is
best and start witht that. As you perform your method you can adjust and change until you get
method that works just right for you.
Once you have found
method that works for you then you must repeat it over and over on a consistent basis.
Some possible methods you may use to build your business are:
A. Calling local businesses on
telephone. B. Visiting local businesses door to door in person. C. Calling business owners you already know and asking for referrals to other business owners and then repeating
process with these new prospects once you are known to
new referrals. D. Contacting friends in person or over
telephone. E. Asking for referrals from your friends and then repeating this process. F. Putting flyers on doors with your phone number. Put an offer for a free trial website or 30 day money back guarantee. G. Getting an interview in
local newspaper or on
radio or television. You will need a special twist to be newsworthy, such as a mother that left corporate america to start her own home based internet business. Be creative. H. Having business cards made up with a compelling advertisement with a call to action on
back of
business card. Give these to everyone especially anyone that may owe you a favor. I. Running a small classified advertisement in
local weekly newspaper. As a general rule
ads in
weekly newspapers give you a lot more pull then
dialy newspapers, and
price is about 1/10th as much. J. Have an announcement on your answering machine that you are running a special for hosting websites. K. Post your business card on bulletin boards where you are known, such as work, your child's pre-school your church, etc. L. Run an advertisement in your local church announcements if they do that. M. Find a busy corner and give away free lemonade with your business card. N. Put a sign in
window of your car, or even get magnetic signs for
outside of your card. O. Have t-shirts made with your advertisement and where them wherever and whenever appropiate. (Your kids little league game maybe). P. Put a compelling offer with call to action on advertising specialties such as mugs, mouse pads, etc. and give them out to quality looking people. Q. Make a professional tent shaped two sided sign and place it in
back of a pickup truck and drive around busy areas in
business district. Be sure to have a phone number, (perhaps a cell phone that you have with you), and a compelling offer with call to action. You could even say, "stop me by calling my cell phone at: " R. Put a compelling offer with call to action on small signs on sticks at busy intersections where people can read them while stopped at a traffic light.