Great Ideas for your Small Business: Hire a Mascot or a Celebrity Brenny watt didn’t set out to find a mascot for her small store, but she ended up with a famous cat. “One day, a stray cat wandered in, and we started to feed her,” said Watt. “Then one night, we accidentally locked her … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Free Up Your Sales Force “Most salespeople love to sell but hate to generate their own leads,” said the co-owner of a financial planning firm in Orlando. “So we invest a great deal of time and money for telemarketers to generate leads. This frees the salesmen to do what … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Put Your Company Name on Everything When they first started making “rack Sacks,” plastic bag holders, Exhifix Inc. didn’t have much money to spend on advertising. That’s why they printed their company name and phone number on every product. As a result, it became very easy for people to … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Set Up a Strong Referral Network Unlike the folks at big companies, small business owners are usually eager to help each other out by making referrals. Entrepreneurs really believe that “what goes around, comes around.” While many referrals are made informally by word-of- mouth, some entrepreneurs take it a … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Use Food as a Selling Tool Food is a powerful sales tool. everyone needs to eat, so take advantage of tasty treats whenever you can. This is a simple idea that really works. Bright Star Resorts, which rents vacation homes and condominiums in Central Florida, hosts a monthly barbecue … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Do Good for Your Community One of the easiest ways to draw attention to your business is to do something good for your community. Small business owners across the country are coming up with terrific ways to contribute and make a positive impression at the same time. You don’t … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Use Coupons to Attract Customers On a balmy spring evening, i took myself out to the local movie theater. Standing outside the door was a young man in a Häagen-Dazs apron. He was passing out coupons offering a “double feature”—a free scoop of ice cream when you bought one … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Create an Active Database If you look at the piles of business cards on your desk and just see a mess—look again. What you’re really looking at is potential income. No matter how small your business may be, you should be creating and updating a database. With simple software, … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Set Up a Dealer Network Consumers are accustomed to buying cars, tires, and computers through authorized dealers – and other businesses can benefit from a similar sales model. David Usher, who died in a kayaking accident in March 1997, was a brilliant entrepreneur. A former paper salesman, he began … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Market to Callers on Hold “We put over 100 customers on hold every day,” said Elie Wade, president of Mortgage Makers in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Wade turned that annoying waiting time into a marketing opportunity by signing up for a service that produces the messages callers hear while on … Read more
