MicroMentor

Kenneth Larson

Hastings, United States

I pass the following experience on to others in the belief they may benefit from a similar approach.

In order to manage high volume of inquiries in federal government contracting, I set up a Google blog as an extension of my volunteer work that blossomed into a web site ($10 a year to buy and convert it from a blog to a domain in my name) containing the basics of entering and succeeding in the venue as well my books and articles on the subject for download via Box Net (also a free application)

The idea was to refer clients to article links at the site to avoid repeating myself over and over to new business clients and still keep myself available for specific inquiries and problems.

I linked everything together on "Linked In" and began answering questions at the "Answers" feature there as well as registering at many of the free applications for networking web sites on the Internet to see how that could benefit my work. Twitter, BlogCatalog, Facebook, Widgetbox, Friendfeed, Ning and similar free applications served my site well.

The Adsense Feature added cash flow. Roughly 30% of my clients began coming via Linked In or Linked In related networking.

The result has been heavy traffic, good efficiency in supporting in excess of 4000 counseling cases over the last 5 years and virtually no expense to me as a volunteer working for  non-profit organizations such as Micro Mentor.

Posted on 11/02/11

Josh Naylor

Chicago, IL, United States

Hi Alexandra.  I'm sure there are a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs that are in your same situation.  When starting a new business attracting and retaining new customers should be your top priority.

Selling and networking go hand in hand so the first question to ask yourself when thinking about networking efforts is where will you be able to get the maximum benefit from the energy/resources you are expending.

Let's go through a quick example exercise.  Let's identify three potential customer types and then determine which would be most valuable to you and how to reach them:

1 - Individual homeowners - lots of potential customers - walk down a residential street and almost anyone could be your customer.  The problems here are how do you market your services to such a broad audience; also, the margin on each of these clients is probably a bit low.  Since they are individual consumers they will naturally have a lower price point so you will have to eek out your margin.  This would work well for a high volume business model.  Maybe not an ideal client base to target right at the beginning, but plan to attack this segment once you have some employees.

2 - Businesses - again, lots of potential customers, plus businesses are probably able to pay a bit more money for cleaning services than consumers, and will most likely be able to subscribe to a regular program - that means steady cash flow which is what all businesses need.  Maybe a good segment to target.  Take a look at businesses around you that might need your services - restaurants, salons, insurance companies - etc..  Try to put together a few packages for each of these locations that would get them on to a monthly service.  Perhaps a 1 appointment trial offer or get one week free if they buy a package of 4 cleaning sessions.

3 - Property Management Companies - here you have fewer potential customers, but the business they can bring you in would be really phenomenal if you get an account with them.  This would be a great place to focus your effort - perhaps do some research and approach small to mid size property management companies and pitch your services there.

After taking a look at your potential customer base I would select one or two of these as your target accounts and then focus my networking efforts there.  So for instance, if you like the idea of doing cleaning work for businesses I would try to identify a few business types and then look for events where you might be able to market to them.  If you wanted to focus on a specific community perhaps put yourself in contact with that area's local chamber of commerce and then attempt to market to the small business owners by connecting with them at chamber of commerce events.

I think that the key to any successful networking endeavor is to first set a target population;  by doing so you can first make sure that your efforts are directed in the most effective fashion by going after the most profitable market segment, and secondly have a way to measure what is and is not working. 

Hope this helps, and if you would like to discuss in greater detail let me know.  Thanks!

Posted on 11/07/11