Cold Calls - Not So Terrifying As They Would Seem

Calo Marketing & Design

If you have a small start-up business like mine the first thing you'd want to do is create sales and lots of them. So in order to create more sales and build a customer base with real prospects you really can't get any more basic than doing cold calls. It's a straight up hustle, sweat, blood and tears and probably the most cost effective way of doing it. Here are a few pointers if you are jumping in the deep end like I did.

* Turn your fear into motivation. Know that you will get rejected and that's ok. The more you practice the easier it will get.
* Make sure you know who you're calling. Develop a target market and make sure that the products and services you offer are appropriate to the market you're targeting. Do your products or services meet the needs of your customers?
* Instead of reading down a list of services, explain how your services will benefit their business. Will it help them get more customers, increase visibility or minimize costs?
* Make a list of specific questions to ask. Now that you have their attention you need to pin point what their needs are.
* Listening is also very important and is a genuine gesture that says you do care about your customers and your business and that your not out here just to make a quick buck.
* Last but not least, if they say "No" then accept it and move on. There is nothing more annoying than telling a sales person no thank you more than once. Besides, the fact that you talked to them, said your piece and respected their "No" will most likely put you in the forefront of their mind when they do need your services. Every customer touch is a potential opportunity and first impressions are important.

So go for it! Jump right in! Or maybe after you develop a marketing strategy, website and SEO you will have a better idea of who needs your products and services and where they're hiding.

Google going after small businesses on both sides

Why is Google going after small business? Why not? There are over 7 million small businesses in Texas alone and more than half of them don't have a website. They have virtually unlimited funds to roll out this campaign and not recieve a dime for a whole year. Pretty bold move if you ask me. If they can shell out $500 million in chump change to settle with the government then I'm sure a free website campaign can be funded from the change they find in their couches. This is bad for small businesses like mine that have been going after the same customers. My start-up business rolled out the same offerings and we offered it cheap. We wanted to break into this niche of small businesses that are virtually unseen on the Internet and show them how valuable a little website can be. Initially some customers were skeptical of the low price and wondered if quality was as good as the value. Then here comes this mammoth of a company and offers free websites and customers just follow suit like lemmings. No hard feelings because their brand pretty much sells it for them. But it’s like and ant going up against a rhino! They are helping small business and at the same time hurting them. They now know what we know but can they deliver the personalized service and value that we have based our business on? Good question. More to come...

Goals

My business partner brought up a good point today. We need to focus on setting goals otherwise we get scattered and go off to other things without getting anywhere. In business this is a big no no because without goals you might as well be chasing your own tail. I've just recently started doing this with college this past year because the last few classes start to get challenging and without goals I don't do so well. So what I started doing with my business is writing goals for the next 2 days in a journal. I try to be as specific as possible and if they change during the day then I go back and change it in my journal. This is a major help for me because I've gotten more things accomplished this past week than the past month not using this system. So goals are great and all it takes is a small notebook and a pen. Try it out for a couple of days, then go back and read all that you did. You will be amazed at how much was accomplished in such a short time.

Economist

So it is true, I am an econ major. I never stopped to understand what exactly it is. All I know is that it has the highest starting pay of any degree, which is always a good reason to do it. Recently I have discovered that economics is more of a social science than anything. It looks and tries to understand human behavior. Why do you think every economist gives a different opinion of the economy? All we can do is look at the data and if it is not corrupt we can come up with an educated guess as to what is going on. I believe intuition and perception are a great asset to any economist.

Hoping that my future career will help change this world for the better, I"m off to finish my homework.

Finance

I'm finding out that finance uses accounting data and economic principles to make decisions that effect the well being of a business. You want to look at the cash flows of a business. In accounting they use the accrual method. For example if you build a pool table for $1000 and sell it for $5000, according to the accrual method you have made a $4000 profit. But the table was sold on credit and has not yet been paid for. By using the cash flow method your business is actually $1000 in the red. The economic principal used here is marginal cost benefit analysis. What is the marginal cost that will give us the most profit? Accounting tends to use a max profit outlook but does not take into account actually cash flow.

You must also take into consideration the present value of money. If your business makes an investment now, what will the return be and how far in the future will your investment turn a profit? Everyone should know that a dollar today is not worth a dollar tomorrow. Let's say you have two options for investing. Option 1 returns $2 next week and $4 next month and option 2 returns $2.50 next week and $3 next month. Which option would have a higher ROI?

Even though option 1 has a higher total ROI, option 2 returns a higher ROI sooner which can be reinvested to provide greater future earnings. This is why you must take into consideration the present value of money.

Not only can this be applied to business but also personal finances. If you think in terms of your actual cash flow and not what cash you will be getting, people would not go into debt easily.

sales taxes

Sales taxes are a biatch! I want to know exactly where that money goes. The state tells us what it's used for but where is the paper trail? Where does our hard earned money end up? Alot of questions no real answers....