People with money seem to be on a binge to prove their status and
flaunt their wealth by staging large, catered parties. As a
matter of fact, in some circle of affluency, a party or social
get-together isn't considered an event of any significance unless
it's a catered affair.
With the same kind of reasoning, businesses of all sizes are
using catered lunches, cocktail parties and dinner meetings to
build their images and increase company sales. It's a matter of
keeping up with the competition in promoting a company and/or
product.
On a smaller, but just as busy marketing scale, more and more
working mothers are paying to have catered birthday and
graduation parties, as well as wedding receptions handled by
caterers. The reasons are simple to understand--if she's working
outside the home, today's mother just doesn't have the time or
the energy to do all the planning and staging of a memorable
party.
Besides those reasons for turning everything over to a caterer,
working mothers feel a little guilty about the time away from
their children they lose because of their jobs. Thus, they're
ready and willing to make it all to them by paying for a lavish
party the child will remember for years to come.
Caterers handle everything from birthday parties for children, to
breakfast in bed and intimate candlelight dinners for two, to
company dinner parties for 50 and wedding receptions involving a
thousand or more guests. This kind of entreprenuerial business is
definitely growing and becoming more popular with people of all
income levels.
An imaginative caterer in a large metropolitan area can easily
gross $150,000 per year, while a small part-time caterer in a
small town can count on at least $10,000 to $15,000 per year. One
small, but very ambitious caterer is reported to have grossed
$250,000 after only 2-years in the business!
You don't need special education or training to become a
successful caterer. You do need a affinity for people and a kind
of intuition as to what people enjoy in different environmental
settings.
A quick survey of successful caterers across the nation shows
that began with zero capital by working out of their homes. The
basic starting up investment would appear to be around $500, with
some big spenders capitalizing their idea with as much as $15,000
in order to get off to a fast start.
This seems to be an ideal business for an ambitious couple to
start and operate with very little capital investment required.
One person can spend his time hustling up business while the
other would do the planning, organizing and actual catering.
As with any business, your success will be directly related to
the soundness of planning and the working of that plan.
Understand exactly what your client wants, and give him what he
wants in the way of service that reflects upon the client in a
complimentary manner.
Basically, you can start with an advertisement in your local
newspapers. This advertisement need not be much more than a
simple announcement: Creative Catering-Specializing in personal
service- We can handle any party or special event from start to
finish-no idea to small or too large- Your satisfaction is always
guaranteed! We can handle everything for you.. Call us, and let
us make your parties worth remembering...
Naturally, the first thing you want from anyone calling to ask
about your services, is that anyone calling to ask about your
services, is that person's name, address and phone number. Then
you want to know what kind of party or event they have in mind.
As soon as you have this information, relax a little bit and
inquire to find out about the person or the company--the
people--sponsoring the party and their ultimate goals or reasons
for the party.
If it's to celebrate birthday, graduation, anniversary or a
wedding reception--finding out about the interests, background
and ambitious of the guest of honor will be of value to you in
your planning. Taking a few minutes to learn everything you can
about whoever the party is for, and the people giving the party,
will also make it much easire to close the sale than any sales
pitch or special persuasive tactics.
People like to talk about themselves, and they especially like to
tell everyone why they're honoring someone, even when they
pretend to keep it a secret who initiated the idea. So, it's
important that you be a good listener, that you have the ability
to get people to talk about themselves, and that you take notes
on the things they tell you.
This same principle applies to business people, regardless of
who's talking to you or the purpose of the catered affair. The
more polished and adept you can become in getting your prospects
to talk about themselves, the more information relative to their
background you can elicit, and the more you listen; the better
your parties will be, and the greater success you'll attain in
the catering business.
You take the information you glean from this first interview and
plan/organize the event on paper. This means you're going to have
to have contacts or at least working relationships with
innumerable service businesses.
If your client wants to stage a birthday party for a 12-year
old---he or she greets the guests as they arrive, makes sure
everybody knows who he is---then what about party favors---a soft
drink and a conversation leader until all the guests arrive--the
opening of presents--icecream and cake--and games to play, a
thank you gift for coming, and a reason to end the party at a
pre-determined time...
Do you greet the guests, does the mother or father, or the little
boy or girl? Where do you come up with the party favors at less
than regular retail prices? Where are you going to get the soft
drinks-your cost and the glasses or paper cups to serve them in?
What about ice? What kind of games to play? Who'll be the
conservation leader? Will there be a clown or someone special to
keep everything moving according to plan? Where do you get the
ice cream and cake? What games to play? How to get everyone
involved? And finally, a feasible and polite reason for ending
the party and sending everyone home...
All this takes planning, organization, and if you're going to
make a profit, a definite awareness of cost control. Get it all
down on paper as a proposal to the people who want to pay you to
carry it off. Figure out your costs, the time involved in putting
it all together, and then get back to your prospect.
Always leave room for changes in your proposal. In fact, expect
them--invite input and suggestions from the client--and always
have an alternate idea in your mind for each of those on your
written proposals. Discuss your proposal with the client just as
you would a script for a television show, make the suggested
changes and ask for a 50-percent advance deposit. From there,
it's just a matter of following your plan.
Regardless of size or type of party--whether your client is a
working mother or a giant corporation--the format is always the
same: initial inquiry, interview, your proposal, 2nd interview
for any changes, agreement, deposit, staging the party itself,
and your final payment. As mentioned earlier, success in this
business comes from your planning--having a lot of contacts--and
working your plan.
An important word of caution: Try not to get "boxed in" to
setting or even revealing a tentative price until you've had a
chance to listen to what the prospect wants, to study your own
capabilities, and to make a formal written proposal. If a
customer wants to know how much you charge--and if you feel it
necessary in order to eventually close the sale--you can tell him
50 to 100 dollars per hour, plus expenses, and of course,
depending on the type of event the customer wants.
As for how much the average party costs, again tell him that it
varies anywhere from 50 to 5,000 dollars.
Always keep in mind that you are a professional, and that if the
ordinary person had your knowledge, contacts and ambition to do
it himself, he wouldn't be calling you on the phone. He needs
your help for any number of reasons. You specialize in this kind
of work or service just as a doctor specializes in medicine and a
lawyer in legal matters. Therefore, you should, and do expect to
be paid accordingly.
Something else--this business thrives on word-of-mouth
advertising--referrals--and thus, is direct "freeway' to the kind
of customers where money is of no concern. However, on order to
gain access to this market, your business emphasis has to be on
service.
This means the capability of handling everything for the
customer, from having the invitations printed and sent out to
cleaning up after the last guest has left. Businesses and people
in the upper income brackets, like to pick up the phone--tell
someone they want a party on a certain date--and then forget
about it, knowing everything will be taken care of without
further worry or time involvement from them. Once you've
developed your expertise and clientele to this level, you'll have
a business in the $200,000 to $250,00 per year range.
Definitely arrange for a display ad in the yellow pages of your
telephone directory. You'll probably get 40% of your inquires
from this source alone. Generally speaking, radio and/or
television advertising will be too expensive when compared with
the immediate results. However, it is recommended that you
consider these media prior to special holidays.
Working with restaurants, supper clubs, bridal shops and
entertainment business in general. can bring in hundreds of
referrals for you. Rubbing shoulders with, and circulating as a
part of your area's civic and service clubs, should also result
in more business for you.
Keep your eyes and ears on the alert. Where ever you go, and with
whomever you associate, always be ready to promote and sell your
services, if not on the spot, at least make a note to follow up
when conditions are more in your favor. Promoting and selling
your services will require at least half your time, and that's
why two people operating catering services are so successful from
the start.
The actual selling is quite simple so long as you emphasize the
service and time-saving aspects. The more time-consuming work you
can handle for the client, the easier it's going to be for you to
close the sale.
Handing out business cards is one of the least expensive ways to
advertise, promote and sell your services. One enterprising
caterer makes arrangements with the sponsors of all his parties,
to see that each of the guests gets one of his business cards.
Another gives each of his clients a stack of his business cards,
and tells them he'll pay them $25 for each prospect they refer to
him. He tells them to write their name on the backs of the cards,
and to hand them out to their friends. And then, whenever a
person tells him that John or Jane suggested he call, and he
presents the card with John or Jane's name on the back, this very
successful caterer sends John or Jane a $25 check.
Another very successful caterer pays commissions to a group of
housewives and college students who solicit--via their home
phones--interviews for him with brides-to-be. They get their
leads from announcements, and pictures of brides-to-be in the
local papers.
Many caterers pay sales people a commission for letting them know
when they hear about a party or special event being planned by
one of their business customers.
The possibilities go on and on, and are seemingly un limited.
Time is becoming more valuable to a lot more people every day,
which means there are more and more opportunities for great
wealth and personal independence as a professional caterer. In
reality the success for just about any person entering this
field, will be limited only by his or her own imagination and
energy.
There is definite opportunity for great wealth within the
catering field. Anyone with a sense of service to others can
succeed. Very little "readycash" is needed to begin. Therefore,
the only thing standing between you and the realization of your
dreams, is the action it takes on your part to get started...
catatanmumut.blogspot.com
surat tanggapan pertanyaan kapan nikah
A new approach to serving one of the oldest and most basic
needs of even the smallest business community, a home-based
secretarial service can satisfy the entrepreneurial needs of even
the most ambitious woman!
This kind of service business with a virtually unlimited profit
potential. Third year profits for businesses of this type, in
metropolitan areas as small as 70,000 persons are reported ar
4100,000 and more. It's a new idea for a traditional job that's
growing in popularity and acceptance.
As for the future, there's no end in sight to the many and
varied kinds of work a secretary working at home can do for
business owners, managers and sales representatives. Various
surveys indicate that by the year 2,000--at least 60 percent of
all secretarial work, as we know today will be handled by women
working at home.
For most women, this is the most exciting news of things to
come since the equal rights amendment. Now is the time to get
yourself organized, start your own home-based secretarial service
and nurture it through your start-up stages to total success in
the next couple of years.
Our research indicates little or no risk involved, with most
secretarial services breaking even within 30 days, and reports of
some showing a profit after the first week! your cash investment
can be as little as $10 to $25 if you already have a modern,
electronic typewriter. You can set up at your kitchen table, make
few phone calls, and be in business tomorrow.
If you don't have a modern, office quality electric typewriter
comparable to the IBM Selectric--a portable just won't do,
because it'll break down, wear out, and fall apart after a month
of heavy use..If you're aware of this delicacy of a portable
electric, you can conceivably begin with one, but you'll
definitely have to graduate to a bigger, heavier machine as soon
as possible.
An IBM Selectric, complete with start-up supplies kit which
includes a dozen ribbons, can be purchased for less than a
thousands dollars. On the contract, this would break down about
to about $175 for down payment and monthly payments of less than
$50 per month over a 2-year period. Naturally, you'd want to
include the standard service contract which costs about $100 per
year, and means that whenever you have a problem or want your
machine serviced, you simply pick up the phone and call the
service department. They'll ask you what kind of problem you're
having, and then send some one to fix it immediately.
Shoestringers can rent an IBM Selectric for about $60 per mont,
plus a small deposit. And those of you who are really on a tight
budget, can contract an equipment leasing firm, explain your
business plan, and work out an arrangement where they buy the
machine of your choice for you, and then lease it back to you
over five or ten year period for much lower payments.
Whatever you do, get the best typewriter your money can buy.
The output of your typewriter will be your finished product, and
the better, "more perfect" your finished product, the more
clients you'll attract and keep. It's also imperative that you
have one of the modern, "ball" typewriters. Only these kinds of
typewriters give each character a clear, even and uniform
impression on your paper. Typewriters of the "arm & hammer" type
quickly become misaligned, producing a careless look on your
finished product.
As mentioned earlier, you can start almost immediately from
your kitchen table if you've got a typewriter. However, in order
to avoid fatigue and back problems, invest in a typing stand and
secretary's standard typing chair just as soon as you can afford
them. Watch for office equipment sales, especially among the
office equipment leasing firms. You should be able pick up a new,
slightly damaged, or good used typewriter stand or desk for
around $20 to $25. A comparable quality secretary's typing chair
can be purchased for $50 or less.
While you're shopping for things you'll need. be sure to pick
up a chair mat. If you don't, you may suddenly find that the
carpet on the floor of the room where your do your typing, needs
replacing due to the worn spot where the chair is located and
maneuvered in front of the typewriter. You'll also want a work
stand with place marker and a convenient box or storage for
immediate paper supply. If you plan to do a great deal of work
during the evening hours, be sure to invest in an adjustable
"long arm" office work lamp.
When buying paper, visit the various wholesale paper suppliers
in your area or in nearby large city, and buy at least a half
carton--6 reams--at a time. Buying wholesale, and in quantity,
will save you quite a bit of money. The kind to buy is ordinary
20 pound white bond. Open one ream for an immediate supply at
your typewriter, and store the rest in a closet, under your bed,
or on a shelf in your garage or basement.
In the beginning, you'll be the business--typists, salesman,
advertising department, bookkeeper and janitor, so, much will
depend on your overall business acumen. Those areas in which you
lack experience or feel weak in, buy books or tapes and enhance
your knowledge. You don't have to enjoy typing, but you should
have better than average proficiency.
Your best bet is selling your services is to do is all
yourself. Every business in your area should be regarded as a
potential customer, so it's unlikely you'll have to worry about
who to call on. Begin by making a few phone calls to former
bosses or business associates--simply explain that you're
starting a typing service and would appreciate it if they'd give
you a call whenever they have extra work that you can handle for
them. Before you end the conversation, ask them to be sure to
keep you in mind and steer your way any overload typing jobs that
they might hear about.
The next step is "in-person" calls on prospective customers.
This means dressing in an impressively professional manner, and
making sales calls on the business people in your area. For this
task, you should be armed with business cards (brochures also
help..), and an order or schedule book of some sort. All of these
things take time to design and print, so while you're waiting for
delivery, use the time to practice selling via the telephone. At
this stage, your telephone efforts will be more for the purpose
of indoctrinating you into the world of selling than actually
making sales.
Just be honest about starting a business, and sincere in asking
them to consider trying your services whenever they have a need
you can help them with. Insurance companies, attorneys and
distributors are always needing help with their typing, so start
with these kinds of businesses first.
For your business cards, consider a freelance artist to design
a logo for you. Check, and/or pass the word among the students in
the art or design classes at nearby college, art or advertising
school. Hiring a regular commercial artist will cost quite a bit
more, and generally won't satisfy your needs any better than the
work of a hungry beginner.
Be sure to browse through any Clip Art books that may be
available--at most print shops, newspaper offices, advertising
agencies, libraries and book stores. The point being, to come up
with an idea that makes your business card stand out; that can be
used on all printed materials, and makes you--your
company--unique or different from all others.
I might suggest something along the lines of a secretary with
pad in hand taking dictation; or perhaps a secretary wearing a
dictaphone headset seated in front of a typewriter. You might
want something distinctive for the first letter of the company,
or perhaps a scroll or flag as a background for your company
name.
At any rate, once you've got your logo or company design, the
next step is your local print shop. Ask them to have the
lettering you want to use, typeset in the style you like
best--show them your layout and order a least a thousand business
cards printed up.
For your layout, go with something basic. Expert typing
services, in the top left hand corner..Dictation by phone, in the
top right hand corner..Your company logo or design centered on
the card with something like, complete secretarial services,
under it...Your name in the lower left hand corner, and your
telephone number in the lower right hand corner.
Everybody that you call on in person, be sure to give one of
your business cards. And now, you're ready to start making those
in-person business sales calls.
Your best method of making sales calls would be with a business
telephone directory and a big supply of loose leaf notebook
paper. Go through the business directory and write down the
company names, addresses and telephone number. Group all of those
within one office building together, and those on the same street
in the same block. Be sure to leave a couple of spaces between
the listing of each company. And of course, start a new page for
those in different building or block. Now, simply start with the
first business in the block, or on the lowest floor in a building
and number them in consecutive order. This will enable you to
call on each business in order as you proceed along a street,
down the block, or through a building.
You'll be selling your capabilities--your talents--and charging
for your time--the time it takes you to get set up and complete
the assignment they give you. You should be organized to take
work with you on the spot, and have it back at a promised time;
arrange to pick up any work they have, and deliver it back to
them when it's completed; and handle the dictation or special
work assignments by phone. You should also emphasize your
abilities to handle everything by phone, particularly when they
have a rush job.
Establish your fees according to how long it takes you to
handle their work, plus your cost of supplies--work
space--equipment and paper--then fold in a $5 profit. In other
words, for half hour job that you pick up on a regular sales or
delivery call, you should charge $10...
Another angle to include would be copies. Establish a working
relationship with a local printer, preferably one who has a copy
machine comparable to a big Kodak 150 Extraprint. When your
clients need a sales letter or whatever plus so many copies, you
can do it all for them.
Only make copies on the very best of dry paper copying
machines, and only for 50 copies or less. More than 50 copies,
it'll be less expensive and you'll come out with a better
finished product by having them printed on a printing press. When
your furnish copies, always fold in your copying or printing
costs, plus a least a dollar or more for every 50 copies you
supply.
By starting with former employers and/or business associates,
many businesses are able to line up 40 hours of work without even
making sales call. If you're lucky enough to do this, go with it,
but-
Start lining up your friends to do the work for you--girls who
work all day at a regular job, but need more money, and
housewives with time on their hands. You tell them what kind of
equipment is needed, and the quality of work you demand. You
arrange to pay them so much per hour for each job they handle for
you--judging from the time you figure the job would take if you
were doing it, or on a percentage basis. I feel the best
arrangements is on a hourly basis according to a specified amount
of time each job normally takes.
Whenever, and as soon as you've got a supply of "workers" lined
up, you turn your current assignments over to them, and get back
to lining up more business. If you're doing well selling by
phone, and your area seems to respond especially well to selling
by phone, then you should immediately hire commission sales
people. Train them according to your own best methods and put
them to work assisting you. Your sales people can work out of
their own homes, using their telephones, provided you've got your
area's business community organized in a loose leaf notebook
style. All you do is give them so many pages from your notebook,
from which they make sales calls each week.
Even so, you should still make those in-person sales calls..If
for some reason you get bogged down, and can't or don't want to,
then hire commission sales people to do it for you..Generally,
women selling this type of service bring back the most sales. And
for all your commission sales people, the going rate should be 30
percent of the total amount of sale. Point to remember: Sooner or
later, you're going to have to hire a full-time telephone sales
person, plus another full time person to make in-person sales for
you--Eventually, you want workers to handle all the work for you,
and sales people to do all the selling for you--So the sooner you
can line up people for these jobs, the faster, your business is
going to prosper.
Later on, you'll want a sales manager to direct your sales
people and keep them on track, so try to find a "future sales
manager" when you begin looking for sales people.
Your basic advertising should be a regular quarter page ad in
the yellow pages of both your home service telephone directory
and the business yellow pages. You'll find that 50 percent of
your first time clients will come to you because they have an
immediate need and saw your ad in the yellow pages, so don't
skimp on either the size or the "eye-catching" graphics of this
ad.
A regular one column by 3-inch ad in the Sunday edition of your
area's largest newspaper would also be a good idea. Any
advertising you do via radio or television will be quite
expensive with generally very poor results, so don't even give
serious consideration to that type of advertising.
By far, your largest advertising outlays will be direct mail
efforts. You should have a regular mailing piece that you send
out to your entire business community at least once a month. This
is handled by sending out 200 to 500 letters per day. For this,
you should obtain a third class postage permit or else these
postage costs will drive you out of business.
Your mailing piece should consist of a colorful brochure that
describes your business. It should explain the many different
kinds of assignments you can handle--a notation that no job is
too small or too large--and a statement of your guarantee. Do not
quote prices in your brochure--simply ask the recipient to call
for a quotation or price estimate.
It's also a good idea to list background and experience of the
business owner, plus several business testimonials or/
compliments. You could also include a couple of pictures showing
your workers busy and actually handling secretarial assignments.
The most important part of your brochure will be your closing
statement--an invitation, indeed--a demand that the recipient
call you for further information.
All this can very easily be put together in a Z-folded, 2-sided
self mailer. Again, look for a freelance copywriter and artist to
help you put it together. Once you've got your "dummy" pretty
well set the way you want it, make copies of it, and either take
or send it to several direct mail advertising agencies. Ask them
for their suggestions of how they would improve it, and for a bid
on the cost if you were to retain them to handle it for you.
Listen to their ideas and incorporate them where-and if- you
think they would make your brochure better. And, if one of them
does come in with a cost estimate that's lower than your
independent, "do-it-yourself" costs, then think seriously about
assigning the job to them.
This is definitely the most important piece of work that will
ever come out of your office, so be sure it's the best, and
positively indicative of your business. This will be the business
image you project, so make sure it reflects the quality, style
and credibility of your business--your thinking, and your
success.
Your brochure should be on 60 pound coated paper, in at least
two colors and by a professional printer. The end result is the
Z-folded brochure--Z-folded by the printer--with your third class
mailing permit showing on the cover side. This cover side should
be flamboyant and eye-catching. You want your mailing piece to
stand out in a pile of 50 or 60 pieces of other mail received by
the recipient.
When you're ready to mail, simply take a couple of cartons of
your brochures to an addressing shop, have them run your
brochures through their addressing machine, loaded with your
mailing list, bundle them and drop them off at the post office
for you.
This takes us back to the planning on how to compile your
mailing list. I suggest that you begin with Cheshire Cards by
Xerox. You type the name of your addressee on the cards, maintain
these cards in the order of your choice, take your boxes of cards
to the addressing shop whenever you have a mailing, and there's
no further work on your part. The addressing shop loads their
machine with your cards, prints the address on your cards
directly onto your brochures, and gives the cards back to you
when the mailing is completed. A mailing of 100,000 brochures,
via this method--generally could be completed and on its way in
one 8-hour day.
In essence, you'll want to solicit business with a regular
routine of telephone selling, in-person sales calls at the
prospective client's place of business, media advertising and
direct mail efforts. All of these efforts are important and
necessary to the total success of your business--don't try to cut
corners or spare the time or expense needed to make sure you're
operating at full potential in these areas! In addition to these
specific areas, it would be wise for you to attend chamber of
commerce meetings, and join several of your area civic
clubs--you'll meet a great number of business leaders at these
meetings and through their association, you'll gain a great deal
of business--and even help in many of your needs.
Once you're organized and rolling, you can easily expand your
market nationwide with the installation of a toll free telephone
and advertising in business publications. Perhaps you can add to
your primary business with a "mailing shop" of your own--the
rental of mailing lists--specialized temporary help
services--telephone answering services--and even survey work..
The "bottom line" thing to remember in order to achieve total
success, is planning. Plan your initial operation through from
start to finish before you even think about soliciting your first
customer. Get your operational plan down on paper--itemize your
needs, estimate your costs, line up your operating capital, and
set forth milestones for growth.
Set profit figures you want to be realizing 3-months...
6-months... 1 year... 2-years... and 3-years from your
business start-up date. Learn all you can about the "support
systems" involved in operating a profitable business--planning,
advertising, selling, bookkeeping, and banking--and continue to
up-date your knowledge with a program of continuous learning. Do
your homework properly, an there's just no way you can fail with
a Home-Based Secretarial Service.
needs of even the smallest business community, a home-based
secretarial service can satisfy the entrepreneurial needs of even
the most ambitious woman!
This kind of service business with a virtually unlimited profit
potential. Third year profits for businesses of this type, in
metropolitan areas as small as 70,000 persons are reported ar
4100,000 and more. It's a new idea for a traditional job that's
growing in popularity and acceptance.
As for the future, there's no end in sight to the many and
varied kinds of work a secretary working at home can do for
business owners, managers and sales representatives. Various
surveys indicate that by the year 2,000--at least 60 percent of
all secretarial work, as we know today will be handled by women
working at home.
For most women, this is the most exciting news of things to
come since the equal rights amendment. Now is the time to get
yourself organized, start your own home-based secretarial service
and nurture it through your start-up stages to total success in
the next couple of years.
Our research indicates little or no risk involved, with most
secretarial services breaking even within 30 days, and reports of
some showing a profit after the first week! your cash investment
can be as little as $10 to $25 if you already have a modern,
electronic typewriter. You can set up at your kitchen table, make
few phone calls, and be in business tomorrow.
If you don't have a modern, office quality electric typewriter
comparable to the IBM Selectric--a portable just won't do,
because it'll break down, wear out, and fall apart after a month
of heavy use..If you're aware of this delicacy of a portable
electric, you can conceivably begin with one, but you'll
definitely have to graduate to a bigger, heavier machine as soon
as possible.
An IBM Selectric, complete with start-up supplies kit which
includes a dozen ribbons, can be purchased for less than a
thousands dollars. On the contract, this would break down about
to about $175 for down payment and monthly payments of less than
$50 per month over a 2-year period. Naturally, you'd want to
include the standard service contract which costs about $100 per
year, and means that whenever you have a problem or want your
machine serviced, you simply pick up the phone and call the
service department. They'll ask you what kind of problem you're
having, and then send some one to fix it immediately.
Shoestringers can rent an IBM Selectric for about $60 per mont,
plus a small deposit. And those of you who are really on a tight
budget, can contract an equipment leasing firm, explain your
business plan, and work out an arrangement where they buy the
machine of your choice for you, and then lease it back to you
over five or ten year period for much lower payments.
Whatever you do, get the best typewriter your money can buy.
The output of your typewriter will be your finished product, and
the better, "more perfect" your finished product, the more
clients you'll attract and keep. It's also imperative that you
have one of the modern, "ball" typewriters. Only these kinds of
typewriters give each character a clear, even and uniform
impression on your paper. Typewriters of the "arm & hammer" type
quickly become misaligned, producing a careless look on your
finished product.
As mentioned earlier, you can start almost immediately from
your kitchen table if you've got a typewriter. However, in order
to avoid fatigue and back problems, invest in a typing stand and
secretary's standard typing chair just as soon as you can afford
them. Watch for office equipment sales, especially among the
office equipment leasing firms. You should be able pick up a new,
slightly damaged, or good used typewriter stand or desk for
around $20 to $25. A comparable quality secretary's typing chair
can be purchased for $50 or less.
While you're shopping for things you'll need. be sure to pick
up a chair mat. If you don't, you may suddenly find that the
carpet on the floor of the room where your do your typing, needs
replacing due to the worn spot where the chair is located and
maneuvered in front of the typewriter. You'll also want a work
stand with place marker and a convenient box or storage for
immediate paper supply. If you plan to do a great deal of work
during the evening hours, be sure to invest in an adjustable
"long arm" office work lamp.
When buying paper, visit the various wholesale paper suppliers
in your area or in nearby large city, and buy at least a half
carton--6 reams--at a time. Buying wholesale, and in quantity,
will save you quite a bit of money. The kind to buy is ordinary
20 pound white bond. Open one ream for an immediate supply at
your typewriter, and store the rest in a closet, under your bed,
or on a shelf in your garage or basement.
In the beginning, you'll be the business--typists, salesman,
advertising department, bookkeeper and janitor, so, much will
depend on your overall business acumen. Those areas in which you
lack experience or feel weak in, buy books or tapes and enhance
your knowledge. You don't have to enjoy typing, but you should
have better than average proficiency.
Your best bet is selling your services is to do is all
yourself. Every business in your area should be regarded as a
potential customer, so it's unlikely you'll have to worry about
who to call on. Begin by making a few phone calls to former
bosses or business associates--simply explain that you're
starting a typing service and would appreciate it if they'd give
you a call whenever they have extra work that you can handle for
them. Before you end the conversation, ask them to be sure to
keep you in mind and steer your way any overload typing jobs that
they might hear about.
The next step is "in-person" calls on prospective customers.
This means dressing in an impressively professional manner, and
making sales calls on the business people in your area. For this
task, you should be armed with business cards (brochures also
help..), and an order or schedule book of some sort. All of these
things take time to design and print, so while you're waiting for
delivery, use the time to practice selling via the telephone. At
this stage, your telephone efforts will be more for the purpose
of indoctrinating you into the world of selling than actually
making sales.
Just be honest about starting a business, and sincere in asking
them to consider trying your services whenever they have a need
you can help them with. Insurance companies, attorneys and
distributors are always needing help with their typing, so start
with these kinds of businesses first.
For your business cards, consider a freelance artist to design
a logo for you. Check, and/or pass the word among the students in
the art or design classes at nearby college, art or advertising
school. Hiring a regular commercial artist will cost quite a bit
more, and generally won't satisfy your needs any better than the
work of a hungry beginner.
Be sure to browse through any Clip Art books that may be
available--at most print shops, newspaper offices, advertising
agencies, libraries and book stores. The point being, to come up
with an idea that makes your business card stand out; that can be
used on all printed materials, and makes you--your
company--unique or different from all others.
I might suggest something along the lines of a secretary with
pad in hand taking dictation; or perhaps a secretary wearing a
dictaphone headset seated in front of a typewriter. You might
want something distinctive for the first letter of the company,
or perhaps a scroll or flag as a background for your company
name.
At any rate, once you've got your logo or company design, the
next step is your local print shop. Ask them to have the
lettering you want to use, typeset in the style you like
best--show them your layout and order a least a thousand business
cards printed up.
For your layout, go with something basic. Expert typing
services, in the top left hand corner..Dictation by phone, in the
top right hand corner..Your company logo or design centered on
the card with something like, complete secretarial services,
under it...Your name in the lower left hand corner, and your
telephone number in the lower right hand corner.
Everybody that you call on in person, be sure to give one of
your business cards. And now, you're ready to start making those
in-person business sales calls.
Your best method of making sales calls would be with a business
telephone directory and a big supply of loose leaf notebook
paper. Go through the business directory and write down the
company names, addresses and telephone number. Group all of those
within one office building together, and those on the same street
in the same block. Be sure to leave a couple of spaces between
the listing of each company. And of course, start a new page for
those in different building or block. Now, simply start with the
first business in the block, or on the lowest floor in a building
and number them in consecutive order. This will enable you to
call on each business in order as you proceed along a street,
down the block, or through a building.
You'll be selling your capabilities--your talents--and charging
for your time--the time it takes you to get set up and complete
the assignment they give you. You should be organized to take
work with you on the spot, and have it back at a promised time;
arrange to pick up any work they have, and deliver it back to
them when it's completed; and handle the dictation or special
work assignments by phone. You should also emphasize your
abilities to handle everything by phone, particularly when they
have a rush job.
Establish your fees according to how long it takes you to
handle their work, plus your cost of supplies--work
space--equipment and paper--then fold in a $5 profit. In other
words, for half hour job that you pick up on a regular sales or
delivery call, you should charge $10...
Another angle to include would be copies. Establish a working
relationship with a local printer, preferably one who has a copy
machine comparable to a big Kodak 150 Extraprint. When your
clients need a sales letter or whatever plus so many copies, you
can do it all for them.
Only make copies on the very best of dry paper copying
machines, and only for 50 copies or less. More than 50 copies,
it'll be less expensive and you'll come out with a better
finished product by having them printed on a printing press. When
your furnish copies, always fold in your copying or printing
costs, plus a least a dollar or more for every 50 copies you
supply.
By starting with former employers and/or business associates,
many businesses are able to line up 40 hours of work without even
making sales call. If you're lucky enough to do this, go with it,
but-
Start lining up your friends to do the work for you--girls who
work all day at a regular job, but need more money, and
housewives with time on their hands. You tell them what kind of
equipment is needed, and the quality of work you demand. You
arrange to pay them so much per hour for each job they handle for
you--judging from the time you figure the job would take if you
were doing it, or on a percentage basis. I feel the best
arrangements is on a hourly basis according to a specified amount
of time each job normally takes.
Whenever, and as soon as you've got a supply of "workers" lined
up, you turn your current assignments over to them, and get back
to lining up more business. If you're doing well selling by
phone, and your area seems to respond especially well to selling
by phone, then you should immediately hire commission sales
people. Train them according to your own best methods and put
them to work assisting you. Your sales people can work out of
their own homes, using their telephones, provided you've got your
area's business community organized in a loose leaf notebook
style. All you do is give them so many pages from your notebook,
from which they make sales calls each week.
Even so, you should still make those in-person sales calls..If
for some reason you get bogged down, and can't or don't want to,
then hire commission sales people to do it for you..Generally,
women selling this type of service bring back the most sales. And
for all your commission sales people, the going rate should be 30
percent of the total amount of sale. Point to remember: Sooner or
later, you're going to have to hire a full-time telephone sales
person, plus another full time person to make in-person sales for
you--Eventually, you want workers to handle all the work for you,
and sales people to do all the selling for you--So the sooner you
can line up people for these jobs, the faster, your business is
going to prosper.
Later on, you'll want a sales manager to direct your sales
people and keep them on track, so try to find a "future sales
manager" when you begin looking for sales people.
Your basic advertising should be a regular quarter page ad in
the yellow pages of both your home service telephone directory
and the business yellow pages. You'll find that 50 percent of
your first time clients will come to you because they have an
immediate need and saw your ad in the yellow pages, so don't
skimp on either the size or the "eye-catching" graphics of this
ad.
A regular one column by 3-inch ad in the Sunday edition of your
area's largest newspaper would also be a good idea. Any
advertising you do via radio or television will be quite
expensive with generally very poor results, so don't even give
serious consideration to that type of advertising.
By far, your largest advertising outlays will be direct mail
efforts. You should have a regular mailing piece that you send
out to your entire business community at least once a month. This
is handled by sending out 200 to 500 letters per day. For this,
you should obtain a third class postage permit or else these
postage costs will drive you out of business.
Your mailing piece should consist of a colorful brochure that
describes your business. It should explain the many different
kinds of assignments you can handle--a notation that no job is
too small or too large--and a statement of your guarantee. Do not
quote prices in your brochure--simply ask the recipient to call
for a quotation or price estimate.
It's also a good idea to list background and experience of the
business owner, plus several business testimonials or/
compliments. You could also include a couple of pictures showing
your workers busy and actually handling secretarial assignments.
The most important part of your brochure will be your closing
statement--an invitation, indeed--a demand that the recipient
call you for further information.
All this can very easily be put together in a Z-folded, 2-sided
self mailer. Again, look for a freelance copywriter and artist to
help you put it together. Once you've got your "dummy" pretty
well set the way you want it, make copies of it, and either take
or send it to several direct mail advertising agencies. Ask them
for their suggestions of how they would improve it, and for a bid
on the cost if you were to retain them to handle it for you.
Listen to their ideas and incorporate them where-and if- you
think they would make your brochure better. And, if one of them
does come in with a cost estimate that's lower than your
independent, "do-it-yourself" costs, then think seriously about
assigning the job to them.
This is definitely the most important piece of work that will
ever come out of your office, so be sure it's the best, and
positively indicative of your business. This will be the business
image you project, so make sure it reflects the quality, style
and credibility of your business--your thinking, and your
success.
Your brochure should be on 60 pound coated paper, in at least
two colors and by a professional printer. The end result is the
Z-folded brochure--Z-folded by the printer--with your third class
mailing permit showing on the cover side. This cover side should
be flamboyant and eye-catching. You want your mailing piece to
stand out in a pile of 50 or 60 pieces of other mail received by
the recipient.
When you're ready to mail, simply take a couple of cartons of
your brochures to an addressing shop, have them run your
brochures through their addressing machine, loaded with your
mailing list, bundle them and drop them off at the post office
for you.
This takes us back to the planning on how to compile your
mailing list. I suggest that you begin with Cheshire Cards by
Xerox. You type the name of your addressee on the cards, maintain
these cards in the order of your choice, take your boxes of cards
to the addressing shop whenever you have a mailing, and there's
no further work on your part. The addressing shop loads their
machine with your cards, prints the address on your cards
directly onto your brochures, and gives the cards back to you
when the mailing is completed. A mailing of 100,000 brochures,
via this method--generally could be completed and on its way in
one 8-hour day.
In essence, you'll want to solicit business with a regular
routine of telephone selling, in-person sales calls at the
prospective client's place of business, media advertising and
direct mail efforts. All of these efforts are important and
necessary to the total success of your business--don't try to cut
corners or spare the time or expense needed to make sure you're
operating at full potential in these areas! In addition to these
specific areas, it would be wise for you to attend chamber of
commerce meetings, and join several of your area civic
clubs--you'll meet a great number of business leaders at these
meetings and through their association, you'll gain a great deal
of business--and even help in many of your needs.
Once you're organized and rolling, you can easily expand your
market nationwide with the installation of a toll free telephone
and advertising in business publications. Perhaps you can add to
your primary business with a "mailing shop" of your own--the
rental of mailing lists--specialized temporary help
services--telephone answering services--and even survey work..
The "bottom line" thing to remember in order to achieve total
success, is planning. Plan your initial operation through from
start to finish before you even think about soliciting your first
customer. Get your operational plan down on paper--itemize your
needs, estimate your costs, line up your operating capital, and
set forth milestones for growth.
Set profit figures you want to be realizing 3-months...
6-months... 1 year... 2-years... and 3-years from your
business start-up date. Learn all you can about the "support
systems" involved in operating a profitable business--planning,
advertising, selling, bookkeeping, and banking--and continue to
up-date your knowledge with a program of continuous learning. Do
your homework properly, an there's just no way you can fail with
a Home-Based Secretarial Service.
cara paling ampuh menurunkan berat badan
The "Mail Order" business is not a business of itself, but is
another way of DOING business. Mail Order is nothing more or less
than selling a product or service via advertising and the offers
you send out by mail.
Therefore, to start and succeed in mail order business of your
own, you need just as much, and in some cases, more business than
you would need in any other mode of business.
Remember too there are "good guys" in mail order, and there are
"bad guys", just like in any other business. So, your best bet
for a "proper start" with the greatest chance for success is
after a thorough investigation of the products being offered and
being sold; an analysis of the costs involved to get a fledging
mail order operation off the ground; and a good "sixth sense" of
what your potential customers will buy. You'll need a great deal
of practice, and persistence as well.
Mail Order is over saturated with plans, directories, sales
material and products that have been around for ten, fifteen,
twenty years and longer. Many of these materials were not that
good in the beginning, and yet they're still being sold as "quick
secrets to wealth and fame". This is part of the reason for the
"junk mail" reputation of mail order.
Just a little investigation on your part will show that most
successful people doing business by mail are always on the alert
for "new products" and they quickly add these products to their
own sales inventories as they become available. This is a "must
for success" rule, regardless of whether you do or don't produce
your own products.
It's almost impossible to gain much success with a single
product...report, booklet, book or manual. The best way is to
search around for a number of related products, then, after
arranging "drop shipping" deals with the suppliers of the
products you want to include in your listing along with your own
self-produced product, make up a "catalog listing". It is best if
this is a single 8x11 sheet of paper, printed on both sides,
listing the titles of the reports and/or books you have
available, including your own, with a "tear off" order coupon at
the bottom.
One of the best programs available in mail order today is offered
by Premier Publishers. This company offers you a variety of
circulars, with an order coupon on the bottom of each circular.
At present, they can provide six different circulars, listing
over 100 different low-cost reports and manuals, such as the
report you are reading now. The circulars are grouped according
to price range and subject matter of the reports described in the
circular. There is an open space on the order coupon for you to
insert your name and address. After inserting your name, you can
take or send the circular to the printer of your choice, and have
copies printed in the quantity you need. The next step is to
insert these circulars, along with one of your own product
circulars, in all your mailings. Premier Publishers allows you a
full 50% commission on each sale of items on their circulars.
They will dropship you, keeping your customer's name
confidential, and in no way encroaching upon them. In addition,
discounts up to 80% off the retail price are available to you
when you are ready to carry your own stock, and buy reports or
books in quantity.
This is what you need for a "money-making" start in this
business: a full page circular advertising your own product, plus
another full page circular listing products or titles related to
your primary offering. Premier Publishers advise you to send two
full page circulars; one advertising your own product (if you
don't have a primary product of your own, they'll furnish you a
single book circulars to feature), and another advertising a list
of related products ot titles available to your customer.
Once you start receiving orders form this mailing, you must
immediately acknowledge receipt of the orders and follow up with
other offers. The "follow-up" offer is where most beginners fail.
Either they don't have follow-up materials to send or they just
don't send out these follow-up offers. Here again, Premier
Publishers can provide the material for the follow-up. They can
supply you with a 24 page Unique Books catalog, which list 400
titles for your customer to choose from. These catalogs can be
ordered in small quantities, with your name and return address
already imprinted. To follow-up after receiving orders from your
customers, simply write a short note, thanking your customer for
his patronage, and advising him when to expect to receive his
order, and then include a follow-up offer, such as the book
catalog, in the mailing. And that's how you will build your
business, and attain success in mail order.
But, let's get back to the beginning and help you to learn what
it takes to succeed in mail order. Don't believe those ads that
tell you it doesn't take any money. First off, you are going to
need envelopes: #10 mailing envelopes with your name and return
address imprinted in the upper left corner. You'll also need a
return reply envelope with your name and address on the face of
the envelope with each #10 envelope you send out. These can be
either #6 or #9 return envelopes. Ask your printer or office
supply store to let you inspect samples.
To realize profits of any consequence, you'll need to send out at
least a thousand, preferably five thousand letters per mailing.
And back this up, you'll need a supply of envelopes for your
acknowledgement and follow-up offers. you can purchase imprinted
mailing and return reply envelopes form your local quick print
shop; but for better prices, and with the thought in mind of
keeping costs in line, it is best to shop around for the best
prices. Generally speaking, you'll find the lowest prices offered
by those printer who do business by mail. Look for "printing by
mail" advertisements in all the mail order publications you come
across. Write them for a price list and a sampling of their work.
For envelopes, we suggest you contact any of the firms listed on
the next page for their current prices.
Speedy Printers
23800 Aurora Rd
Bedford Hghts, OH 44146
Pittman Printing
1135 Merrill Ave
Potervilles, CA 93257
National Press Inc.
527 W Randolph
Chicago,IL 60606
Mahair Sales
415 Morris Bridge Rd
Zephyrhills, FL 33599
FOR EXTRA LARGE ENVELOPES
Envelope Converters, INc.
4815 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11237
Gray Arc
882 Third Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11232
FOR ORDER-MAILING ENVELOPES
New England Business Svcs
500 Main St
Groton, MA 01471
U.S. Box Corp
1298 McCarter Hwy
Newark, NJ 07104
YOU'LL ALSO NEED SHIPPING LABELS
Label Center
308 Washington
ST Louis, MO 63101
L & D Press
152 W 42nd St
New York, NY 10036
Labon of Hollywood
Box 54386
Los Angeles, CA 90054
C&J Fox & Co.
PO Box 6186
Providence, RI 02940
FOR LETTERHEAD PAPER: Try your local commercial printers first,
and then contact the following for the best prices:
National Engraving Co.
PO Box 2311
Birmingham, AL 35201
E.M Printing CO.
187 Conklin Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11236
FOR CIRCULAR PRINTING:
Stephen Gaffney
110 Ashburton Ave
Yonkers, NY 10701
White Oak Stationery
PO Box 429
Colesville, MD 20904
J.E Thomas Ent.
PO Box 253
Detroit, MI 48221
FOR TYPESETTING & GRAPHIC LAYOUT/DESIGN
Fitch Graphics
PO Box 76850
Atlanta, GA
30328
Graphics South
1348 Kings Hwy
Shreveport, LA 71103
Stern Graphics
335 Great Neck Rd.
Great Neck, NY 11021
FOR COPYWRITING HELP
Lee Howard
PO Box 1140
Clearwater, FL 33517
Grafix-One
947 Hickory RD
Hillsdale, MI 49242
FOR BOOKLET PRINTING
Champion Printing
PO Box 148
Ross, OH
45061
Speedy Printers
23800 Aurora Rd
Bedford Hghts, OH 44146
Dinner & Klien
PO Box 3814
Seattle, WA 98124
FOR HARDBACK PRINTING
Harlo Printing Co.
16721 Hamilton
Detroit, MI 48203
Automation Printing
PO Box 12201
El Cajon, CA 92022
IF YOU NEED BUSINESS CARDS
Paul K. Alexander
14504 Lanica Circle
Chantilly, VA 22021
Nancy Jo Laub
Stelle RR #1
Caberry, IL 60919
Caprice Printing
401 Cossen
Elk Grove, IL 600007
POSTERS
Ben & Sons Press
3513 W Lawrence
Chicago, IL 60625
As you can see, the mail order business is very closely tied in
with the printing business. Unless you have your own printing
plant, always shop around for the best prices and keep your
"production costs" in line.
For a complete listing of firms with products available on a
dropship basis for sale by mail, send $7 to the distributor who
supplied this report. Ask for item #629, American Dropshippers
Directory.
Once you've gotten your envelopes ready, and your circulars made
up, you'll need a potential customer list. Again, don't believe
the advertisements and "free" advice that states that all you
have to do is send your materials out to a "fresh opportunity
seekers" list. We have found that the best prospects are those
people who have purchased similar or related items.
Here again, Premier Publishers can help out. They generally
receive 2,000 new names each month. These names come from
Premier's national advertising...people who are interested in new
ways of making money...easier ways to build a mail order
business.
Certainly Premier responds to all these inquires, but they do not
offer the same items the various dealers and distributors are
offering. Premier offers their mailing lists for rental. Write
for current description of names which are available.
When selecting a supplier to work with in the mail order
business, always be sure they are quick to fill orders. Customer
complaints are the last thing you want, and poor service leads to
a dissatisfied and lost customers. Always be sure your supplier
"protects" your customer list, and always make sure he goes that
"extra mile" to work with you, and not just for his own profits.
This is the kind of service you want from your supplier.
Finally, you'll need to consider advertising the different
offerings you have for sale. We suggest that you start small with
a few experimental ads in your local paper or shopping news. Then
you can move on to the bigger publications such as GRIT, CAPPERS
WEEKLY, BUDGET ADS, FAMILY TRAVEL LOG, INSIDERS, AMERICAN
BUSINESS, SPARE TIME, MONEYSWORTH, etc.
another way of DOING business. Mail Order is nothing more or less
than selling a product or service via advertising and the offers
you send out by mail.
Therefore, to start and succeed in mail order business of your
own, you need just as much, and in some cases, more business than
you would need in any other mode of business.
Remember too there are "good guys" in mail order, and there are
"bad guys", just like in any other business. So, your best bet
for a "proper start" with the greatest chance for success is
after a thorough investigation of the products being offered and
being sold; an analysis of the costs involved to get a fledging
mail order operation off the ground; and a good "sixth sense" of
what your potential customers will buy. You'll need a great deal
of practice, and persistence as well.
Mail Order is over saturated with plans, directories, sales
material and products that have been around for ten, fifteen,
twenty years and longer. Many of these materials were not that
good in the beginning, and yet they're still being sold as "quick
secrets to wealth and fame". This is part of the reason for the
"junk mail" reputation of mail order.
Just a little investigation on your part will show that most
successful people doing business by mail are always on the alert
for "new products" and they quickly add these products to their
own sales inventories as they become available. This is a "must
for success" rule, regardless of whether you do or don't produce
your own products.
It's almost impossible to gain much success with a single
product...report, booklet, book or manual. The best way is to
search around for a number of related products, then, after
arranging "drop shipping" deals with the suppliers of the
products you want to include in your listing along with your own
self-produced product, make up a "catalog listing". It is best if
this is a single 8x11 sheet of paper, printed on both sides,
listing the titles of the reports and/or books you have
available, including your own, with a "tear off" order coupon at
the bottom.
One of the best programs available in mail order today is offered
by Premier Publishers. This company offers you a variety of
circulars, with an order coupon on the bottom of each circular.
At present, they can provide six different circulars, listing
over 100 different low-cost reports and manuals, such as the
report you are reading now. The circulars are grouped according
to price range and subject matter of the reports described in the
circular. There is an open space on the order coupon for you to
insert your name and address. After inserting your name, you can
take or send the circular to the printer of your choice, and have
copies printed in the quantity you need. The next step is to
insert these circulars, along with one of your own product
circulars, in all your mailings. Premier Publishers allows you a
full 50% commission on each sale of items on their circulars.
They will dropship you, keeping your customer's name
confidential, and in no way encroaching upon them. In addition,
discounts up to 80% off the retail price are available to you
when you are ready to carry your own stock, and buy reports or
books in quantity.
This is what you need for a "money-making" start in this
business: a full page circular advertising your own product, plus
another full page circular listing products or titles related to
your primary offering. Premier Publishers advise you to send two
full page circulars; one advertising your own product (if you
don't have a primary product of your own, they'll furnish you a
single book circulars to feature), and another advertising a list
of related products ot titles available to your customer.
Once you start receiving orders form this mailing, you must
immediately acknowledge receipt of the orders and follow up with
other offers. The "follow-up" offer is where most beginners fail.
Either they don't have follow-up materials to send or they just
don't send out these follow-up offers. Here again, Premier
Publishers can provide the material for the follow-up. They can
supply you with a 24 page Unique Books catalog, which list 400
titles for your customer to choose from. These catalogs can be
ordered in small quantities, with your name and return address
already imprinted. To follow-up after receiving orders from your
customers, simply write a short note, thanking your customer for
his patronage, and advising him when to expect to receive his
order, and then include a follow-up offer, such as the book
catalog, in the mailing. And that's how you will build your
business, and attain success in mail order.
But, let's get back to the beginning and help you to learn what
it takes to succeed in mail order. Don't believe those ads that
tell you it doesn't take any money. First off, you are going to
need envelopes: #10 mailing envelopes with your name and return
address imprinted in the upper left corner. You'll also need a
return reply envelope with your name and address on the face of
the envelope with each #10 envelope you send out. These can be
either #6 or #9 return envelopes. Ask your printer or office
supply store to let you inspect samples.
To realize profits of any consequence, you'll need to send out at
least a thousand, preferably five thousand letters per mailing.
And back this up, you'll need a supply of envelopes for your
acknowledgement and follow-up offers. you can purchase imprinted
mailing and return reply envelopes form your local quick print
shop; but for better prices, and with the thought in mind of
keeping costs in line, it is best to shop around for the best
prices. Generally speaking, you'll find the lowest prices offered
by those printer who do business by mail. Look for "printing by
mail" advertisements in all the mail order publications you come
across. Write them for a price list and a sampling of their work.
For envelopes, we suggest you contact any of the firms listed on
the next page for their current prices.
Speedy Printers
23800 Aurora Rd
Bedford Hghts, OH 44146
Pittman Printing
1135 Merrill Ave
Potervilles, CA 93257
National Press Inc.
527 W Randolph
Chicago,IL 60606
Mahair Sales
415 Morris Bridge Rd
Zephyrhills, FL 33599
FOR EXTRA LARGE ENVELOPES
Envelope Converters, INc.
4815 Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11237
Gray Arc
882 Third Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11232
FOR ORDER-MAILING ENVELOPES
New England Business Svcs
500 Main St
Groton, MA 01471
U.S. Box Corp
1298 McCarter Hwy
Newark, NJ 07104
YOU'LL ALSO NEED SHIPPING LABELS
Label Center
308 Washington
ST Louis, MO 63101
L & D Press
152 W 42nd St
New York, NY 10036
Labon of Hollywood
Box 54386
Los Angeles, CA 90054
C&J Fox & Co.
PO Box 6186
Providence, RI 02940
FOR LETTERHEAD PAPER: Try your local commercial printers first,
and then contact the following for the best prices:
National Engraving Co.
PO Box 2311
Birmingham, AL 35201
E.M Printing CO.
187 Conklin Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11236
FOR CIRCULAR PRINTING:
Stephen Gaffney
110 Ashburton Ave
Yonkers, NY 10701
White Oak Stationery
PO Box 429
Colesville, MD 20904
J.E Thomas Ent.
PO Box 253
Detroit, MI 48221
FOR TYPESETTING & GRAPHIC LAYOUT/DESIGN
Fitch Graphics
PO Box 76850
Atlanta, GA
30328
Graphics South
1348 Kings Hwy
Shreveport, LA 71103
Stern Graphics
335 Great Neck Rd.
Great Neck, NY 11021
FOR COPYWRITING HELP
Lee Howard
PO Box 1140
Clearwater, FL 33517
Grafix-One
947 Hickory RD
Hillsdale, MI 49242
FOR BOOKLET PRINTING
Champion Printing
PO Box 148
Ross, OH
45061
Speedy Printers
23800 Aurora Rd
Bedford Hghts, OH 44146
Dinner & Klien
PO Box 3814
Seattle, WA 98124
FOR HARDBACK PRINTING
Harlo Printing Co.
16721 Hamilton
Detroit, MI 48203
Automation Printing
PO Box 12201
El Cajon, CA 92022
IF YOU NEED BUSINESS CARDS
Paul K. Alexander
14504 Lanica Circle
Chantilly, VA 22021
Nancy Jo Laub
Stelle RR #1
Caberry, IL 60919
Caprice Printing
401 Cossen
Elk Grove, IL 600007
POSTERS
Ben & Sons Press
3513 W Lawrence
Chicago, IL 60625
As you can see, the mail order business is very closely tied in
with the printing business. Unless you have your own printing
plant, always shop around for the best prices and keep your
"production costs" in line.
For a complete listing of firms with products available on a
dropship basis for sale by mail, send $7 to the distributor who
supplied this report. Ask for item #629, American Dropshippers
Directory.
Once you've gotten your envelopes ready, and your circulars made
up, you'll need a potential customer list. Again, don't believe
the advertisements and "free" advice that states that all you
have to do is send your materials out to a "fresh opportunity
seekers" list. We have found that the best prospects are those
people who have purchased similar or related items.
Here again, Premier Publishers can help out. They generally
receive 2,000 new names each month. These names come from
Premier's national advertising...people who are interested in new
ways of making money...easier ways to build a mail order
business.
Certainly Premier responds to all these inquires, but they do not
offer the same items the various dealers and distributors are
offering. Premier offers their mailing lists for rental. Write
for current description of names which are available.
When selecting a supplier to work with in the mail order
business, always be sure they are quick to fill orders. Customer
complaints are the last thing you want, and poor service leads to
a dissatisfied and lost customers. Always be sure your supplier
"protects" your customer list, and always make sure he goes that
"extra mile" to work with you, and not just for his own profits.
This is the kind of service you want from your supplier.
Finally, you'll need to consider advertising the different
offerings you have for sale. We suggest that you start small with
a few experimental ads in your local paper or shopping news. Then
you can move on to the bigger publications such as GRIT, CAPPERS
WEEKLY, BUDGET ADS, FAMILY TRAVEL LOG, INSIDERS, AMERICAN
BUSINESS, SPARE TIME, MONEYSWORTH, etc.
gabut setelah lebaran
One of the easiest of all businesses to establish, publishing
shopping center papers-- CAN MAKE you very rich--almost as fast
as finding gold, or inheriting an oil well.
Revenue and profits come from two main sources: The businesses
in the shopping center your paper serves, and the people reading
the paper. It doesn't matter that there's already a "Shopper's
Paper" in your area, or that you know nothing about the
publishing business and don't own a printing press.
The first thing is to understand the specific needs of your
market. The stores, shops and businesses in the downtown area
advertise to reach all the people, and thus, they're hurting from
the competition of similar stores, shops and businesses in the
neighborhood shopping centers closer to where the people actually
live. Yet, these shopping center stores, shops and businesses
ONLY SERVE CUSTOMERS LIVING WITHIN A 5-MILE RADIUS OF THEIR
BUSINESS LOCATION!
So, the thing to do is organize a plan, and then work that
plan. Contact the store owners or managers of the stores in each
shopping center in your area.
You can include stores or shops and businesses not in the
shopping center itself, but clustered within the same immediate
area. However, it's important that your emphasis be placed on the
individuality of each shopping center.
Explain to each of these business people that you're starting a
"shoppers paper" that will carry advertising only for businesses
in that particular shopping center. With this kind of "local
advertising media," the competition, nor have to bear the
advertising costs of city-wide circulation.
The second selling point in your distribution or circulation
system. Take a section of your city street map; draw a 5-mile
circle around each shopping center; then take it to your local
quick print shop, and have him give you several printed copies
blown up to twice the original size.
Then as you're selling each business owner, show him the
shopping center location on your map with the 5-mile circle
around it. Explain that your door-to-door distributors leave a
copy at each home or apartment within that circle only. This
means you'll have to estimate how many homes or apartments are
within each shopping center's customer circle.
Getting your papers out to all of these homes and apartments
needn't be that big a problem. Simply talk with the 7th and 8th
grade counselors at the schools within the service circle.
Arrange to pay the counselors $15 per thousand papers delivered
for you. The idea is to get the counselors to line up the
students to do the delivering for you, and pay them a percentage
of the total you give him. The same plan can be worked with boy
scout and/or girl scout troops. You might even contact the youth
organizations at the churches within the service circle, and
propose your delivery operation as a fund-raising project.
At the bottom line, the businesses gathered in or near each
shopping center will buy advertising space in your paper because
your rates will be cheaper; you'll be carrying advertising for a
specific location only; and your distribution will be direct to
their customers only.
You can begin, and handle all phases of your business operation
single-handedly, but after the first couple of editions, you'll
make much more money by hiring others to do the selling for you.
Simply run an ad in your weekend newspapers, promising big
incomes to commission type advertising sales people. Word your ad
so that those interested call you on the phone.
When they call --get their name, address and phone number. Then
explain that you're looking for just a few top-notch go-getters
who can handle several thousand dollars a week in advertising
commissions from individual merchants located in neighborhood
shopping centers. Ask them to tell you a little bit about
themselves, and then invite them to get acquainted meeting in the
banquet or meeting room you've reserved in a local restaurant or
motel. Give them the time, and date, then tell them you'll see
them at the meeting.
As the meeting, show them a prototype or dummy of one of your
papers. Tell them they'll each be assigned a territory that
includes 3-shopping centers. You then explain/teach them the
reasons why there's big money in shopping center papers just as
I've explained to you.
Explain your advertising rates---$10 per column inch for a
press run/circulation of 5,000; $15 for 10,000 and/or $20 for
15,000 copies distributed---and that you pay 50% for each sale.
Each paper has room for $1,400 worth of advertising as a single
8 1/2 by 11 sheet printed on both sides; double that for an 11 by
17 sheet folded in half; or 4-times that much as two 11 by 17
sheets. Multiply the salesman's commission of &700 per paper
times three for each of them to make $2,100 per week--assuming
that you publish your papers on a weekly schedule.
Remember, your basic idea should be to create an individual
"shoppers paper" for as many different shopping centers as
possible. Because of the closeness of prospective advertisers in
a shopping center, a good salesman will be able to sign all the
stores in at least three different shopping centers in a week.
Once you've explained the marketing philosophy behind your
papers, and the money potentials available, you should have all
the eager salesmen you care to sign on. Remember, each sales
person is assigned 3-different shopping centers--you give him a
dummy of your paper for each of his shopping centers, with the
space availabilities marked--send him out to fill those spaces
with paid advertisers--and you'll both be home free!
Whenever possible, ask for and get your money up-front or at
the time of the sale. In many instances, this won't be possible,
so you'll need some sort of standard contract. A short visit to
your local community college advertising department, or your
local public library for a look at a few instruction books on how
to draw up a space advertising contract, will give you a form to
copy and use as your own. Billing your advertisers at the end of
30-days will bring in lots of sales, but it will also require a
bookkeeper/secretary and statements as well as letterhead
envelopes and postage.
Allowing your advertisers to buy now and pay later will also
require that you allow your salesmen to "draw" against the
commission they have coming. This too will present some special
problems, namely a need for operating capital. Most of the time
you'll be able to sell or factor your accounts receivable for
about 80% of the total due. When you do this, you'll be giving up
another 20% of your gross income, but you will have immediate
cash available. The thing you must do is weigh your operating
costs against the overall benefits and make your decision based
upon these factors.
The design, layout and production of your paper should be quite
simple. Visit a local stationary and/or office supplies
store---pick up a blue printers pencil, some larger transfer
(rub-on) letters (either 60-point or 72 point size should be
sufficient for your needs), and also--pick up a pad of "fade out"
graph paper and a roll or two of border tape.
Use the rub-on letters to print or write the masthead or title
of each of your shopping center's papers at the top of the graph
paper. With your border tape and razor blade, make a U-shaped
frame around the page, a half inch in from the outside edge of
the paper.
If you're getting started from your "kitchen table," and using
a typewriter, make sure your type is "elite" or the small type.
Now, measure the inside of your frame from the bottom of your
masthead to the top of your border tape at the bottom of your
frame; and from side to side, measuring from the inside edges of
your border tape along the sides. You should end up with a space
9 1/2 inches deep by 7 1/2 inches wide.
Take these measurements to your local print shop and ask them
for the dimensions of a space 30% larger. This should amount to a
space 10 3/4 by 13 1/2 inches--so ask him for some 11 by 14 inch
paper. Scrap paper that has a clean backside will do quite
nicely.
With your blue pencil, lay out a frame 10 3/4 by 13 1/2
inches--then divide the 10 3/4 width into seven equal columns.
Run the paper into your typewriter and type out the classified
ads you have set. If you have a camera ready ad that's too large
for your regular column dimensions, paste it into position on
this sheet. When you have this page all "written" or pasted up,
take it to your printer and have him reduce it to 70 % of its
current size and run off a couple of copies for you. Cut out this
reduced copy and paste it inside your master frame, add any
proper sized camera ready ads and you're ready to take your paper
to press.
Almost all shopping center papers start out as one page
circulars printed on both sides, and put together on the "kitchen
table" as I've described here. Working alone and trying to start
from scratch, you probably won't have all your available space
sold when you go to press. If this is the way it works out for
you, simply fill in the empty spaces with ads of your own.
Promotional ads inviting people to call you, for example, for
ad rate information, and to place their ads.
Also, some of your better mail order offers. In order to give
the impression of lots of ads from lots of different people,
enlist the help of your relatives and friends--allow them to
advertise a For Sale or Trade item free. It's important that you
seemingly have ads from a lot of different people with lots of
different phone numbers and/or addresses listed.
For these classified ads, you should charge $1 per line, and
hence, the name "dollar Papers." Don't forget, your second source
of income will be garnered from people who have seen or read your
paper, and place ads of their own as result.
Once you've got separate pages--a front and a back--for your
first paper ready, simply take it to your quick-print shop and
have run off the number of copies you've promised to circulate
for your advertisers. Have him print it on yellow or orange 20
pound bond, or even recycled construction paper.
Until you really get rolling, you can hire a couple of kids to
hand out your papers to everyone as they drive into the shopping
center parking lot, drop off a stack for check-out stand
giveaways at each store or shop in the shopping center, and/or
persuade a couple of newspaper carriers to include one with each
newspaper they deliver. Another fast hand-out method is to hire a
student to give one to each bus rider as he gets off the bus at
busy "park and ride" locations.
As your shopping center papers become known, you take on sales
people to do the selling for you; when you have more space to
handle the requests for advertising space, contact a larger
printer who works with web presses and news-print paper. Look
around, and you'll find one who'll handle all your typesetting,
layout, printing and even bulk delivery to your distribution
pick-up points. Expanding to tabloid production will lower your
production costs, give you greater efficiency and result in more
profits for your business.
Where there is really tough competition, many publishers of
Shopping center Papers include stories about the shopping
center---what the land was used for before it was developed as a
shopping center---profiles on the different store owners, where
they're from and what they did before opening their store or
shop---and news of community interest within the customer circle.
Many increase their incomes by running mail order opportunity ads
from dealers in all parts of the country.
Basically, shopping center paper is the same as a mail order ad
sheet. The big difference is that it serves as an advertising
showcase for a small circle of merchants in a specific area, and
is circulated among the people most likely to do their shopping
in that specific small circle of merchants; each circle has a
need for an advertising showcase of its own, and it will be to
your benefit to turn away advertising requests from merchants
outside that circle.
The only advertising you'll have to do is via the quality and
image you project with each issue or edition of your papers.
There are a number of popularity-building promotions you can, and
should run: Free ads for baby sitting and/or child care services;
$100 worth of free groceries if the shopper spots his picture or
name in your paper; and free merchandise or service for solving
picture puzzles. Don't look for much free publicity or help from
newspapers, radio and/ or TV stations in your area--at least, not
until you're very well established, because you are in direct
competition with them.
As mentioned earlier, this is an easy business to organize,
requires no special education or training, and will pretty much
perpetuate itself once you're beyond the start-up stages. The
important thing of course, is the opportunity for at least one
such paper in even the smallest communities. The profit potential
in even small to medium-sized cities is almost beyond belief...
You have an idea, and I've provided the organizational details
to make it work for you--- it's working very profitably for a lot
of entrepreneurs in a number of locations around the
country---the only thing missing now, is action on your part. get
with it, and start enjoying the fruits of your own success!
shopping center papers-- CAN MAKE you very rich--almost as fast
as finding gold, or inheriting an oil well.
Revenue and profits come from two main sources: The businesses
in the shopping center your paper serves, and the people reading
the paper. It doesn't matter that there's already a "Shopper's
Paper" in your area, or that you know nothing about the
publishing business and don't own a printing press.
The first thing is to understand the specific needs of your
market. The stores, shops and businesses in the downtown area
advertise to reach all the people, and thus, they're hurting from
the competition of similar stores, shops and businesses in the
neighborhood shopping centers closer to where the people actually
live. Yet, these shopping center stores, shops and businesses
ONLY SERVE CUSTOMERS LIVING WITHIN A 5-MILE RADIUS OF THEIR
BUSINESS LOCATION!
So, the thing to do is organize a plan, and then work that
plan. Contact the store owners or managers of the stores in each
shopping center in your area.
You can include stores or shops and businesses not in the
shopping center itself, but clustered within the same immediate
area. However, it's important that your emphasis be placed on the
individuality of each shopping center.
Explain to each of these business people that you're starting a
"shoppers paper" that will carry advertising only for businesses
in that particular shopping center. With this kind of "local
advertising media," the competition, nor have to bear the
advertising costs of city-wide circulation.
The second selling point in your distribution or circulation
system. Take a section of your city street map; draw a 5-mile
circle around each shopping center; then take it to your local
quick print shop, and have him give you several printed copies
blown up to twice the original size.
Then as you're selling each business owner, show him the
shopping center location on your map with the 5-mile circle
around it. Explain that your door-to-door distributors leave a
copy at each home or apartment within that circle only. This
means you'll have to estimate how many homes or apartments are
within each shopping center's customer circle.
Getting your papers out to all of these homes and apartments
needn't be that big a problem. Simply talk with the 7th and 8th
grade counselors at the schools within the service circle.
Arrange to pay the counselors $15 per thousand papers delivered
for you. The idea is to get the counselors to line up the
students to do the delivering for you, and pay them a percentage
of the total you give him. The same plan can be worked with boy
scout and/or girl scout troops. You might even contact the youth
organizations at the churches within the service circle, and
propose your delivery operation as a fund-raising project.
At the bottom line, the businesses gathered in or near each
shopping center will buy advertising space in your paper because
your rates will be cheaper; you'll be carrying advertising for a
specific location only; and your distribution will be direct to
their customers only.
You can begin, and handle all phases of your business operation
single-handedly, but after the first couple of editions, you'll
make much more money by hiring others to do the selling for you.
Simply run an ad in your weekend newspapers, promising big
incomes to commission type advertising sales people. Word your ad
so that those interested call you on the phone.
When they call --get their name, address and phone number. Then
explain that you're looking for just a few top-notch go-getters
who can handle several thousand dollars a week in advertising
commissions from individual merchants located in neighborhood
shopping centers. Ask them to tell you a little bit about
themselves, and then invite them to get acquainted meeting in the
banquet or meeting room you've reserved in a local restaurant or
motel. Give them the time, and date, then tell them you'll see
them at the meeting.
As the meeting, show them a prototype or dummy of one of your
papers. Tell them they'll each be assigned a territory that
includes 3-shopping centers. You then explain/teach them the
reasons why there's big money in shopping center papers just as
I've explained to you.
Explain your advertising rates---$10 per column inch for a
press run/circulation of 5,000; $15 for 10,000 and/or $20 for
15,000 copies distributed---and that you pay 50% for each sale.
Each paper has room for $1,400 worth of advertising as a single
8 1/2 by 11 sheet printed on both sides; double that for an 11 by
17 sheet folded in half; or 4-times that much as two 11 by 17
sheets. Multiply the salesman's commission of &700 per paper
times three for each of them to make $2,100 per week--assuming
that you publish your papers on a weekly schedule.
Remember, your basic idea should be to create an individual
"shoppers paper" for as many different shopping centers as
possible. Because of the closeness of prospective advertisers in
a shopping center, a good salesman will be able to sign all the
stores in at least three different shopping centers in a week.
Once you've explained the marketing philosophy behind your
papers, and the money potentials available, you should have all
the eager salesmen you care to sign on. Remember, each sales
person is assigned 3-different shopping centers--you give him a
dummy of your paper for each of his shopping centers, with the
space availabilities marked--send him out to fill those spaces
with paid advertisers--and you'll both be home free!
Whenever possible, ask for and get your money up-front or at
the time of the sale. In many instances, this won't be possible,
so you'll need some sort of standard contract. A short visit to
your local community college advertising department, or your
local public library for a look at a few instruction books on how
to draw up a space advertising contract, will give you a form to
copy and use as your own. Billing your advertisers at the end of
30-days will bring in lots of sales, but it will also require a
bookkeeper/secretary and statements as well as letterhead
envelopes and postage.
Allowing your advertisers to buy now and pay later will also
require that you allow your salesmen to "draw" against the
commission they have coming. This too will present some special
problems, namely a need for operating capital. Most of the time
you'll be able to sell or factor your accounts receivable for
about 80% of the total due. When you do this, you'll be giving up
another 20% of your gross income, but you will have immediate
cash available. The thing you must do is weigh your operating
costs against the overall benefits and make your decision based
upon these factors.
The design, layout and production of your paper should be quite
simple. Visit a local stationary and/or office supplies
store---pick up a blue printers pencil, some larger transfer
(rub-on) letters (either 60-point or 72 point size should be
sufficient for your needs), and also--pick up a pad of "fade out"
graph paper and a roll or two of border tape.
Use the rub-on letters to print or write the masthead or title
of each of your shopping center's papers at the top of the graph
paper. With your border tape and razor blade, make a U-shaped
frame around the page, a half inch in from the outside edge of
the paper.
If you're getting started from your "kitchen table," and using
a typewriter, make sure your type is "elite" or the small type.
Now, measure the inside of your frame from the bottom of your
masthead to the top of your border tape at the bottom of your
frame; and from side to side, measuring from the inside edges of
your border tape along the sides. You should end up with a space
9 1/2 inches deep by 7 1/2 inches wide.
Take these measurements to your local print shop and ask them
for the dimensions of a space 30% larger. This should amount to a
space 10 3/4 by 13 1/2 inches--so ask him for some 11 by 14 inch
paper. Scrap paper that has a clean backside will do quite
nicely.
With your blue pencil, lay out a frame 10 3/4 by 13 1/2
inches--then divide the 10 3/4 width into seven equal columns.
Run the paper into your typewriter and type out the classified
ads you have set. If you have a camera ready ad that's too large
for your regular column dimensions, paste it into position on
this sheet. When you have this page all "written" or pasted up,
take it to your printer and have him reduce it to 70 % of its
current size and run off a couple of copies for you. Cut out this
reduced copy and paste it inside your master frame, add any
proper sized camera ready ads and you're ready to take your paper
to press.
Almost all shopping center papers start out as one page
circulars printed on both sides, and put together on the "kitchen
table" as I've described here. Working alone and trying to start
from scratch, you probably won't have all your available space
sold when you go to press. If this is the way it works out for
you, simply fill in the empty spaces with ads of your own.
Promotional ads inviting people to call you, for example, for
ad rate information, and to place their ads.
Also, some of your better mail order offers. In order to give
the impression of lots of ads from lots of different people,
enlist the help of your relatives and friends--allow them to
advertise a For Sale or Trade item free. It's important that you
seemingly have ads from a lot of different people with lots of
different phone numbers and/or addresses listed.
For these classified ads, you should charge $1 per line, and
hence, the name "dollar Papers." Don't forget, your second source
of income will be garnered from people who have seen or read your
paper, and place ads of their own as result.
Once you've got separate pages--a front and a back--for your
first paper ready, simply take it to your quick-print shop and
have run off the number of copies you've promised to circulate
for your advertisers. Have him print it on yellow or orange 20
pound bond, or even recycled construction paper.
Until you really get rolling, you can hire a couple of kids to
hand out your papers to everyone as they drive into the shopping
center parking lot, drop off a stack for check-out stand
giveaways at each store or shop in the shopping center, and/or
persuade a couple of newspaper carriers to include one with each
newspaper they deliver. Another fast hand-out method is to hire a
student to give one to each bus rider as he gets off the bus at
busy "park and ride" locations.
As your shopping center papers become known, you take on sales
people to do the selling for you; when you have more space to
handle the requests for advertising space, contact a larger
printer who works with web presses and news-print paper. Look
around, and you'll find one who'll handle all your typesetting,
layout, printing and even bulk delivery to your distribution
pick-up points. Expanding to tabloid production will lower your
production costs, give you greater efficiency and result in more
profits for your business.
Where there is really tough competition, many publishers of
Shopping center Papers include stories about the shopping
center---what the land was used for before it was developed as a
shopping center---profiles on the different store owners, where
they're from and what they did before opening their store or
shop---and news of community interest within the customer circle.
Many increase their incomes by running mail order opportunity ads
from dealers in all parts of the country.
Basically, shopping center paper is the same as a mail order ad
sheet. The big difference is that it serves as an advertising
showcase for a small circle of merchants in a specific area, and
is circulated among the people most likely to do their shopping
in that specific small circle of merchants; each circle has a
need for an advertising showcase of its own, and it will be to
your benefit to turn away advertising requests from merchants
outside that circle.
The only advertising you'll have to do is via the quality and
image you project with each issue or edition of your papers.
There are a number of popularity-building promotions you can, and
should run: Free ads for baby sitting and/or child care services;
$100 worth of free groceries if the shopper spots his picture or
name in your paper; and free merchandise or service for solving
picture puzzles. Don't look for much free publicity or help from
newspapers, radio and/ or TV stations in your area--at least, not
until you're very well established, because you are in direct
competition with them.
As mentioned earlier, this is an easy business to organize,
requires no special education or training, and will pretty much
perpetuate itself once you're beyond the start-up stages. The
important thing of course, is the opportunity for at least one
such paper in even the smallest communities. The profit potential
in even small to medium-sized cities is almost beyond belief...
You have an idea, and I've provided the organizational details
to make it work for you--- it's working very profitably for a lot
of entrepreneurs in a number of locations around the
country---the only thing missing now, is action on your part. get
with it, and start enjoying the fruits of your own success!
review suka suka transformers last
Organize yourself properly. decide how much money it's going to
take for you to feel comfortably wealthy, and the reach it with
your own Telephone Answering Service.
Our research has turned up hundreds of husband and wife
entrepreneurs who, beginning with just a couple of thousand
dollars in borrowed funds, and a lot of ambition are grossing
$250,000 or more after a couple of years in business.
The exciting part is that the door is wide open for you to do the
same! The demand for telephone answering services is growing!!!
The advent of electronic answering devices in not even beginning
to slow this demand! A great many people are completely "turned
off" by the frustration of expecting to talk with a "live
person," and having to listen to a recording that advises the
caller to leave a message at the sound of the tone. Exasperation
of this kind can sometimes cost a business person thousands of
dollars in lost profit. Realizing this, today's successful
business person wants the personal touch of a friendly,
professional "secretary" answering their phones for them.
The professional answering service operator can pass along the
proper messages to the different callers, take messages, get
clarifications and even set up meetings with special customers.
In many instances, businessmen come to thick of the operators at
their telephone answering service as vital to their success, and
often reward them them with special favors or bonuses when a
particularly lucrative deal is closed because of courteous and
efficient service by the people at the answering service.
To get started properly, you'll need an initial investment of
about $10,000 for equipment and facilities, plus working capital.
In the beginning, with a 2 person operation, you can have your
operator selling by phone while you make in-person sales calls.
You might also want to add a couple of "hungry" commission sales
people to help line up a good list of accounts as fast as
possible. These efforts will take planning and coordination
because you won't want two different sales people calling on the
same prospect.
You can begin operating out of a spare bedroom or your
garage--you'll need a leased switchboard from the telephone
company--with plans to move your operation into more formal
quarters at a later date. However, it's quite expensive and
time-consuming to have a switchboard moved once it's been
installed. Our suggestion would be to locate a "beginning" small
office, and plan on being there at least 5 years from the start.
Many operations begin in a small 200 to 300 square feet economy
office location, and as their growth warrants, open a second
location with space for eventual expansion to include 3 or more
switchboards. Our research has found that you'll need an average
of 85 regular customers per switchboard in order to realize a
minimum profit after expenses.
Just about anyone with a business card will be a good prospect
for your services. People working out of their homes are a very
good prospects, especially those holding down regular jobs while
moonlighting with a part-time businesses of their own. Every
salesmen is a prospect, people who work on a 24 hour "on-call"
basis, repair service business owners such as plumers,
electricians, locksmiths, and auto mechanics...There are other
kinds of services that will be interested too, such as ambulance
companies, towing services, volunteer fire departments, survey
organizations, and customer complaint departments of virtually
every business in your area..By all means don't forget the
doctors, dentists and other professionals!
A lot of beginners start by providing service only for these
intermittent users. These people "put out the word" that if they
can't be reached at their regular number after 4 or 5 rings, the
caller should dial the number of the answering service. The
answering service, which in this case is just a housewife
answering her home phone, takes the caller's message and either
relays it to the customer or holds it until he checks in with
her. Very simple, very easy and very profitable!
Usually after such a "shoestring" operation has 15 to 20
customers. it's necessary to install a phone with multiple
incoming lines. The cost and questions of the phone company can
be allayed by purchasing your own telephone and explaining that
your have several teenagers in the family. However, once you have
35 to 50 customers it's time to expand into a commercial
operation complete with switchboard and hired operators.
The average rates to charge for your service should be about $35
per month for a specified number of calls--usually 70 to 75--with
a surcharge of 25 cents for each call beyond that number. Other
calls such as "wake-up" and reminder calls for appointments, are
usually billed on a "per call" basis at about 50 cents per call.
Most telephone answering services provide a variety of other
services to keep their operators busy during the times when there
are no incoming calls. These services range form typing, envelope
addressing, computer input services, envelope stuffing,
subscription soliciting and order fulfillment for mail order
operators to reviewing books for publishing agents. In recent
years, some have even included private post office, mail drop and
forwarding services. The important thing is to keep your
operators busy doing some kind of work that makes money for you.
When you decide to lease an office get going, complete with
switchboard--it's important that you try to get as close to the
telephone company's switching or exchange station as possible.
This is due to the mileage charges it'll cost you for landlines.
Remember too that each exchange station handles prefixes limited
to customers within a certain radius of that station. What all of
this means is that if most of the businesses in your area have a
234 and 345 prefix, you'll want to locate your answering services
offices as close to the station serving these prefixes as
possible. Basic installation and set-up of one switchboard will
cost you close to $4,000...
Generally, a metro population of 35,000 people will support a
telephone answering service hoping for $50,000 per year; 75,000
to 80,000 people will be needed for $100,000 and $150,000 people
for $200,000 per year or more. For more help and further
information, it would be wise to contact the Associated Telephone
Answering Exchange, Inc. This organization the industry's
watchdog group can up-date you on current practices and trends.
Meanwhile, in setting up your own facilities keep your costs in
line with a realistic view of your anticipated first year income.
It should't be too difficult to find low-cost rental space in an
older building not far from the telephone company's exchange
building- the telephone company is usually just as reluctant to
pay high rent as you are..Locating in an older, less than
"beautiful" building should not detract from your business
because few of your customers will ever actually see your
offices. Most will sign up for your services either thru your
in-person sales calls on them, or your telephone soliciting
efforts, and send their payments in by mail.
You'll need 125 square feet of space for each a small reception
area which can also double as a rest area for your operators and
general office area for bookkeeping, billing and other
administrative functions. Be sure there are convenient restroom
facilities as well.
Before installation of your first switchboard, the phone company
will require an inspection of your office, mainly to determine if
the floor is strong enough to support the weight of the
switchboard. Save yourself a lot of frustration by explaining
this to the real estate agents or the building managers before
they start showing you what's available. The best thing is to ask
for certified copies of the original building blueprints or
previous inspection reports, and have these in hand when you
contact the phone company.
Once you're ready to go, consider the attitudes and feelings of
the people who'll be working long hours on the switchboards for
you--invest in some cherry paint for the walls, non-glare
lighting, carpeting for the floors and a few wall prints,
pictures or other decorations. Look around for good used office
furniture and buy or lease only what is absolutely essential. A
pocket calculator and a used manual typewriter will work fine
until you get the business running on a dependably profitable.
When you order your first switchboard, listen to the telephone
company's instruction, read the operating manual and attend their
training sessions. The more you know about the equipment, the
easier it's going to be to operate it, and the more you'll
understand your profit potentials.
The traditional telephone company switchboard is known as the
model 557 or TAS-100. This board handles 100 incoming secretarial
lines and 15 office trunk lines, with this board, you have the
capabilities of receiving incoming calls and making outgoing
calls at the same time. You also have a business answering line
which can be used as your number for customers wanting to use
your number as their business number and/or for special events
such as a special number for survey replies or telephone orders
such as advertised on television for one-time-only sales
promotions.
Even though you have the capabilities of 100 incoming lines, you
shouldn't activate more than 5 or 10 more than your actual
customer list. As you add to your customer list, it's then a
simple matter for the phone company to activate or "tie-in"
according to your needs. Your rental lease payments to the phone
company for equipment includes maintenance, so whenever you have
a problem or something isn't working properly to suit your needs,
call and ask the phone company to send a repairmen.
Some of the extras you can get with your board includes a
"secrecy" switch. This feature prevents an operator from
listening in if a customer has already picked up his phone and
answered the call, but it does not prevent the customer from
picking up his phone after the operator has answered. The
customer could by request the operator to hang up and conduct
whatever conversation he wants with the caller.
Another feature is the "position-splitting" key. This involves
plugging in a second headset and simply turning the key to enable
two operators to work the same board during an especially busy
period.
When your customers want to call to check with you for any
messages, you can have them call their own number if they're
calling from a different number, or pre-designated trunk line.
Most answering service owners equipment works both ways until
they decide upon the system that works best for them. Whichever
method is finally chosen should be decided upon with the
efficiency of the operators in mind.
In addition to your switchboard, you should install a time clock
and message racks. These are ideally located above or on top of
your switchboard. The operator the takes the call, jots down the
message, punches the time clock and quickly slips it into the
customer's message box. When the customer calls in for his
messages the operator retrieves the messages from his message
box, reads them to him, again punches the time clock with each
message slip, and drops them into a "dead message" box.
You should keep these message slips for totalling at billing
time, so it's a good idea to have each operator file them in your
customer folders as they finish their shifts on the board.
retention of these message slips for at least 30 days is not
required, but it is a good policy to practice. You may find a
customer will want to check on a message received or double-check
his billing against your records.
Basically your message rack can be either pigeon hole
compartments in a wooden box designed and built to fit your
space, or a lazy Susan clips similar to what restaurants use for
fast food orders. At any rate, you shouldn't have any problem in
finding what you need on the open market.
It isn't necessary that you have specially designed or printed
message slips, but you should have a plentiful supply available
and within easy access to your operators. Simple 4 x 5 inch pads
should be all you'll need, and if you'll check with your local
quick print shops, you'll find most of them willing to make a
thousand or so pads of 50 to 100 pages each, from scrap paper,
for almost next to nothing. Another essential to plan on--buy in
wholesale lots and keep handy for your operators--is pens. It may
be exasperating until the business is on a sound profitability
basis, but in a busy month, one operator can easily go thru 100
or more pens. Don't fight the how's and why's just charge it up
as a business expense and order more pens.
You'll need some form of maintaining basic customer information
such as address, name and number to contact during an emergency
and any special answering instructions. For this, simply go with
3 x 5 or 4 x 5 index cards and place them in each customer's
message slot for easy operator reference. Many services have
these cards laminated in plastic to prevent them from getting
dirty or deteriorating with constant use.
Efficiency is the name of the road leading to profits in any
small business, so when you begin one switchboard, make sure you
have that position-splitting key, and that you balance the board.
In other words, don't put all of your similar customers--such as
plumers, electricians and doctors on one side of the board.
Instead, divide them across your board--half on them on one side
and half on the other side. This will enable you to put two
operators on that board in times of emergency. Your customer
lines must be distributed according to usage across the board for
maximum efficiency of your operation.
Each time a customer "signs" for your services you should have
him sign a simple contract that specifies the name and address of
the firm to be billed for the service, and typed name as well as
signature of the person authorizing the service. There should
also be space on this contract for alternate phone numbers, names
and addresses as well as phone numbers of persons to contact in
case of emergency, and any special answering instructions the
client may want you to use. Don't forget to include a clause
requiring 30-day notification of service cancellation by either
party to the contract. It's also a good idea to state that a full
month's payment must be made for any partial month's usage, in
order to cover any disconnect charges. You'll probably want to
stipulate that the last month's base charges are to be paid at
the time of service approval, in order to enhance your working
capital situation.
Check with the phone company--find out if they or you are to bill
the customer for hook-up charges, and the line into your
switchboard. By all means, get everything written out and fully
explained in the contract. You'll be money ahead by paying a good
contract that not to put all that you want into a legal contract
that not only protects you, but also is binding upon your
customers.
One other item of paperwork you should have is an Errors &
Omissions Insurance Policy. This protects you and your operators
against any liability form mistakes or missed messages--very good
to have, and available at very low cost thru the Associated
Telephone Answering Exchange, inc. by special arrangements with
Lloyd's of London. Your other insurance needs are those basic to
any business. Always shop around for the best rates.
In the beginning, you and your spouse or partner can operate a
telephone answering service. However, we strongly suggest that
you add to your "operator staff" just as quickly as your customer
list warrants. The longer you try to operate with just 2 people,
the longer it's going to take you to achieve real profitability.
Remember, you want a 24 hour, seven-days-a-week, full service
operation. This will require at least three full time operators
for your board, plus at least one relief operator--and don't
forget about commission sales people.
Ideally, you should try to hire people with telephone switchboard
experience, but in order to get these people, you may have to
offer short-shift, moonlighting tom regular telephone company
operators. It will take some time to train inexperienced people,
so bear this in mind when you begin looking for people to hire.
It's always a good policy to hire your new, inexperienced people
for the evening shifts. Break them in by having them "sit in"
with an experienced operator during the daytime hours, and have
someone close at hand during their first week on the evening
shift before turning them loose to handle the board by
themselves.
The most important qualifications to look for in an operator are
voice and attitude. The voice must be pleasant and sound alert,
interested and ready to help the caller. Warn your operators
never allow their "personal feelings" to show thru when they're
answering the phone. They represent your business and your
customers. As such, they must project a professional manner at
all times.
Teach your operators to answer the phones with a "happy smile" in
their voices. Train them to take their time with the callers, and
get the message right by reading the message back to the caller,
and also be sure they ask the caller for the correct spelling of
his or her name. Unless specifically instructed otherwise by a
customer, insist that your operators never allow an incoming call
to ring more than twice before answering it. Hardly anything
frustrates anyone calling a business number more than a telephone
that seemingly rings forever before someone answers it.
You can start you inexperienced people at $4 an hour, and your
experienced operators at $6 an hour. Try to explain to them that
the success of your business depends on them, and as your
business prospers, so will give them their monetary rewards. Get
them involved and interested in helping you succeed.
It's going to take aggressive selling on your part to reach
success with a venture of this kind. You must spend at least 50
percent of your time making sales calls--if you can't or don't
wish to do any personal selling, then you'll have to hire at
least two full time people to take your place. In addition to
your own sales efforts or people who will fill your shoes in this
area, you should hire at least one other full time sales person.
You should plan to have someone making telephone solicitations
for at least 3 hours out of each working day.
Selling your services--building an ever larger customer list--is
the name of the game for real success. You've got the start-up
information, and form here on, the rest depends on your own
ambition...
take for you to feel comfortably wealthy, and the reach it with
your own Telephone Answering Service.
Our research has turned up hundreds of husband and wife
entrepreneurs who, beginning with just a couple of thousand
dollars in borrowed funds, and a lot of ambition are grossing
$250,000 or more after a couple of years in business.
The exciting part is that the door is wide open for you to do the
same! The demand for telephone answering services is growing!!!
The advent of electronic answering devices in not even beginning
to slow this demand! A great many people are completely "turned
off" by the frustration of expecting to talk with a "live
person," and having to listen to a recording that advises the
caller to leave a message at the sound of the tone. Exasperation
of this kind can sometimes cost a business person thousands of
dollars in lost profit. Realizing this, today's successful
business person wants the personal touch of a friendly,
professional "secretary" answering their phones for them.
The professional answering service operator can pass along the
proper messages to the different callers, take messages, get
clarifications and even set up meetings with special customers.
In many instances, businessmen come to thick of the operators at
their telephone answering service as vital to their success, and
often reward them them with special favors or bonuses when a
particularly lucrative deal is closed because of courteous and
efficient service by the people at the answering service.
To get started properly, you'll need an initial investment of
about $10,000 for equipment and facilities, plus working capital.
In the beginning, with a 2 person operation, you can have your
operator selling by phone while you make in-person sales calls.
You might also want to add a couple of "hungry" commission sales
people to help line up a good list of accounts as fast as
possible. These efforts will take planning and coordination
because you won't want two different sales people calling on the
same prospect.
You can begin operating out of a spare bedroom or your
garage--you'll need a leased switchboard from the telephone
company--with plans to move your operation into more formal
quarters at a later date. However, it's quite expensive and
time-consuming to have a switchboard moved once it's been
installed. Our suggestion would be to locate a "beginning" small
office, and plan on being there at least 5 years from the start.
Many operations begin in a small 200 to 300 square feet economy
office location, and as their growth warrants, open a second
location with space for eventual expansion to include 3 or more
switchboards. Our research has found that you'll need an average
of 85 regular customers per switchboard in order to realize a
minimum profit after expenses.
Just about anyone with a business card will be a good prospect
for your services. People working out of their homes are a very
good prospects, especially those holding down regular jobs while
moonlighting with a part-time businesses of their own. Every
salesmen is a prospect, people who work on a 24 hour "on-call"
basis, repair service business owners such as plumers,
electricians, locksmiths, and auto mechanics...There are other
kinds of services that will be interested too, such as ambulance
companies, towing services, volunteer fire departments, survey
organizations, and customer complaint departments of virtually
every business in your area..By all means don't forget the
doctors, dentists and other professionals!
A lot of beginners start by providing service only for these
intermittent users. These people "put out the word" that if they
can't be reached at their regular number after 4 or 5 rings, the
caller should dial the number of the answering service. The
answering service, which in this case is just a housewife
answering her home phone, takes the caller's message and either
relays it to the customer or holds it until he checks in with
her. Very simple, very easy and very profitable!
Usually after such a "shoestring" operation has 15 to 20
customers. it's necessary to install a phone with multiple
incoming lines. The cost and questions of the phone company can
be allayed by purchasing your own telephone and explaining that
your have several teenagers in the family. However, once you have
35 to 50 customers it's time to expand into a commercial
operation complete with switchboard and hired operators.
The average rates to charge for your service should be about $35
per month for a specified number of calls--usually 70 to 75--with
a surcharge of 25 cents for each call beyond that number. Other
calls such as "wake-up" and reminder calls for appointments, are
usually billed on a "per call" basis at about 50 cents per call.
Most telephone answering services provide a variety of other
services to keep their operators busy during the times when there
are no incoming calls. These services range form typing, envelope
addressing, computer input services, envelope stuffing,
subscription soliciting and order fulfillment for mail order
operators to reviewing books for publishing agents. In recent
years, some have even included private post office, mail drop and
forwarding services. The important thing is to keep your
operators busy doing some kind of work that makes money for you.
When you decide to lease an office get going, complete with
switchboard--it's important that you try to get as close to the
telephone company's switching or exchange station as possible.
This is due to the mileage charges it'll cost you for landlines.
Remember too that each exchange station handles prefixes limited
to customers within a certain radius of that station. What all of
this means is that if most of the businesses in your area have a
234 and 345 prefix, you'll want to locate your answering services
offices as close to the station serving these prefixes as
possible. Basic installation and set-up of one switchboard will
cost you close to $4,000...
Generally, a metro population of 35,000 people will support a
telephone answering service hoping for $50,000 per year; 75,000
to 80,000 people will be needed for $100,000 and $150,000 people
for $200,000 per year or more. For more help and further
information, it would be wise to contact the Associated Telephone
Answering Exchange, Inc. This organization the industry's
watchdog group can up-date you on current practices and trends.
Meanwhile, in setting up your own facilities keep your costs in
line with a realistic view of your anticipated first year income.
It should't be too difficult to find low-cost rental space in an
older building not far from the telephone company's exchange
building- the telephone company is usually just as reluctant to
pay high rent as you are..Locating in an older, less than
"beautiful" building should not detract from your business
because few of your customers will ever actually see your
offices. Most will sign up for your services either thru your
in-person sales calls on them, or your telephone soliciting
efforts, and send their payments in by mail.
You'll need 125 square feet of space for each a small reception
area which can also double as a rest area for your operators and
general office area for bookkeeping, billing and other
administrative functions. Be sure there are convenient restroom
facilities as well.
Before installation of your first switchboard, the phone company
will require an inspection of your office, mainly to determine if
the floor is strong enough to support the weight of the
switchboard. Save yourself a lot of frustration by explaining
this to the real estate agents or the building managers before
they start showing you what's available. The best thing is to ask
for certified copies of the original building blueprints or
previous inspection reports, and have these in hand when you
contact the phone company.
Once you're ready to go, consider the attitudes and feelings of
the people who'll be working long hours on the switchboards for
you--invest in some cherry paint for the walls, non-glare
lighting, carpeting for the floors and a few wall prints,
pictures or other decorations. Look around for good used office
furniture and buy or lease only what is absolutely essential. A
pocket calculator and a used manual typewriter will work fine
until you get the business running on a dependably profitable.
When you order your first switchboard, listen to the telephone
company's instruction, read the operating manual and attend their
training sessions. The more you know about the equipment, the
easier it's going to be to operate it, and the more you'll
understand your profit potentials.
The traditional telephone company switchboard is known as the
model 557 or TAS-100. This board handles 100 incoming secretarial
lines and 15 office trunk lines, with this board, you have the
capabilities of receiving incoming calls and making outgoing
calls at the same time. You also have a business answering line
which can be used as your number for customers wanting to use
your number as their business number and/or for special events
such as a special number for survey replies or telephone orders
such as advertised on television for one-time-only sales
promotions.
Even though you have the capabilities of 100 incoming lines, you
shouldn't activate more than 5 or 10 more than your actual
customer list. As you add to your customer list, it's then a
simple matter for the phone company to activate or "tie-in"
according to your needs. Your rental lease payments to the phone
company for equipment includes maintenance, so whenever you have
a problem or something isn't working properly to suit your needs,
call and ask the phone company to send a repairmen.
Some of the extras you can get with your board includes a
"secrecy" switch. This feature prevents an operator from
listening in if a customer has already picked up his phone and
answered the call, but it does not prevent the customer from
picking up his phone after the operator has answered. The
customer could by request the operator to hang up and conduct
whatever conversation he wants with the caller.
Another feature is the "position-splitting" key. This involves
plugging in a second headset and simply turning the key to enable
two operators to work the same board during an especially busy
period.
When your customers want to call to check with you for any
messages, you can have them call their own number if they're
calling from a different number, or pre-designated trunk line.
Most answering service owners equipment works both ways until
they decide upon the system that works best for them. Whichever
method is finally chosen should be decided upon with the
efficiency of the operators in mind.
In addition to your switchboard, you should install a time clock
and message racks. These are ideally located above or on top of
your switchboard. The operator the takes the call, jots down the
message, punches the time clock and quickly slips it into the
customer's message box. When the customer calls in for his
messages the operator retrieves the messages from his message
box, reads them to him, again punches the time clock with each
message slip, and drops them into a "dead message" box.
You should keep these message slips for totalling at billing
time, so it's a good idea to have each operator file them in your
customer folders as they finish their shifts on the board.
retention of these message slips for at least 30 days is not
required, but it is a good policy to practice. You may find a
customer will want to check on a message received or double-check
his billing against your records.
Basically your message rack can be either pigeon hole
compartments in a wooden box designed and built to fit your
space, or a lazy Susan clips similar to what restaurants use for
fast food orders. At any rate, you shouldn't have any problem in
finding what you need on the open market.
It isn't necessary that you have specially designed or printed
message slips, but you should have a plentiful supply available
and within easy access to your operators. Simple 4 x 5 inch pads
should be all you'll need, and if you'll check with your local
quick print shops, you'll find most of them willing to make a
thousand or so pads of 50 to 100 pages each, from scrap paper,
for almost next to nothing. Another essential to plan on--buy in
wholesale lots and keep handy for your operators--is pens. It may
be exasperating until the business is on a sound profitability
basis, but in a busy month, one operator can easily go thru 100
or more pens. Don't fight the how's and why's just charge it up
as a business expense and order more pens.
You'll need some form of maintaining basic customer information
such as address, name and number to contact during an emergency
and any special answering instructions. For this, simply go with
3 x 5 or 4 x 5 index cards and place them in each customer's
message slot for easy operator reference. Many services have
these cards laminated in plastic to prevent them from getting
dirty or deteriorating with constant use.
Efficiency is the name of the road leading to profits in any
small business, so when you begin one switchboard, make sure you
have that position-splitting key, and that you balance the board.
In other words, don't put all of your similar customers--such as
plumers, electricians and doctors on one side of the board.
Instead, divide them across your board--half on them on one side
and half on the other side. This will enable you to put two
operators on that board in times of emergency. Your customer
lines must be distributed according to usage across the board for
maximum efficiency of your operation.
Each time a customer "signs" for your services you should have
him sign a simple contract that specifies the name and address of
the firm to be billed for the service, and typed name as well as
signature of the person authorizing the service. There should
also be space on this contract for alternate phone numbers, names
and addresses as well as phone numbers of persons to contact in
case of emergency, and any special answering instructions the
client may want you to use. Don't forget to include a clause
requiring 30-day notification of service cancellation by either
party to the contract. It's also a good idea to state that a full
month's payment must be made for any partial month's usage, in
order to cover any disconnect charges. You'll probably want to
stipulate that the last month's base charges are to be paid at
the time of service approval, in order to enhance your working
capital situation.
Check with the phone company--find out if they or you are to bill
the customer for hook-up charges, and the line into your
switchboard. By all means, get everything written out and fully
explained in the contract. You'll be money ahead by paying a good
contract that not to put all that you want into a legal contract
that not only protects you, but also is binding upon your
customers.
One other item of paperwork you should have is an Errors &
Omissions Insurance Policy. This protects you and your operators
against any liability form mistakes or missed messages--very good
to have, and available at very low cost thru the Associated
Telephone Answering Exchange, inc. by special arrangements with
Lloyd's of London. Your other insurance needs are those basic to
any business. Always shop around for the best rates.
In the beginning, you and your spouse or partner can operate a
telephone answering service. However, we strongly suggest that
you add to your "operator staff" just as quickly as your customer
list warrants. The longer you try to operate with just 2 people,
the longer it's going to take you to achieve real profitability.
Remember, you want a 24 hour, seven-days-a-week, full service
operation. This will require at least three full time operators
for your board, plus at least one relief operator--and don't
forget about commission sales people.
Ideally, you should try to hire people with telephone switchboard
experience, but in order to get these people, you may have to
offer short-shift, moonlighting tom regular telephone company
operators. It will take some time to train inexperienced people,
so bear this in mind when you begin looking for people to hire.
It's always a good policy to hire your new, inexperienced people
for the evening shifts. Break them in by having them "sit in"
with an experienced operator during the daytime hours, and have
someone close at hand during their first week on the evening
shift before turning them loose to handle the board by
themselves.
The most important qualifications to look for in an operator are
voice and attitude. The voice must be pleasant and sound alert,
interested and ready to help the caller. Warn your operators
never allow their "personal feelings" to show thru when they're
answering the phone. They represent your business and your
customers. As such, they must project a professional manner at
all times.
Teach your operators to answer the phones with a "happy smile" in
their voices. Train them to take their time with the callers, and
get the message right by reading the message back to the caller,
and also be sure they ask the caller for the correct spelling of
his or her name. Unless specifically instructed otherwise by a
customer, insist that your operators never allow an incoming call
to ring more than twice before answering it. Hardly anything
frustrates anyone calling a business number more than a telephone
that seemingly rings forever before someone answers it.
You can start you inexperienced people at $4 an hour, and your
experienced operators at $6 an hour. Try to explain to them that
the success of your business depends on them, and as your
business prospers, so will give them their monetary rewards. Get
them involved and interested in helping you succeed.
It's going to take aggressive selling on your part to reach
success with a venture of this kind. You must spend at least 50
percent of your time making sales calls--if you can't or don't
wish to do any personal selling, then you'll have to hire at
least two full time people to take your place. In addition to
your own sales efforts or people who will fill your shoes in this
area, you should hire at least one other full time sales person.
You should plan to have someone making telephone solicitations
for at least 3 hours out of each working day.
Selling your services--building an ever larger customer list--is
the name of the game for real success. You've got the start-up
information, and form here on, the rest depends on your own
ambition...
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