February 3, 2009
Promoting Your Sewing Machine Repair Business
We are surrounded the endless assortment of get rich quick schemes. Still, there are real business opportunities that ordinary people can do.
The sewing machine repair business is a real doable business, like all real businesses. Success depends on successfully doing three things: Attracting Customers, Satisfying Customers, and Holding On To Customers.
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In this article, we will discuss the second task: Finding Customers.
Every business must find|get| attract customers and make sales. Without sales there is no business. This is true no matter what business you consider. Unless you attract customers, you cannot make a sale. Unless you make sales, you cannot get income. Unless you have income, you do not get paid. Unless you get paid you cannot pay your bills. So, finding customers is an essential task for every business. It is also essential for your sewing machine repair business.
There are two major ways to get prospective customers: advertise and have someone else advertise for you. Lets consider advertising first.
Make a list of all your advertising options. There are many. Billboards, direct mail, bulk saturation mailings, postcards, fliers, posters, newspaper space ads, classified ads, batched advertising, radio, TV, cable TV, and telemarketing are just a few of your options.
The advantage of promotional your business is the speed and ease with which you are able to contact potential customers. In a matter of hours or days, you are able to reach literally hundreds or thousands potential customers.
The problem with advertising is that it can be extremely expensive. At the beginning, it is not uncommon to spend more on advertising than you make in your sales. This can be devastating for a start-up company. You need to tightly control your advertising expenses. Set stringent standards for return on your advertising investment. For every dollar you invest in advertising, you must produce enough sales to pay for the advertising and all the other costs of servicing that sale. Ideally, a dollar in advertising should produce ten times that investment in sales. Another way to view this investment is to calculate your advertising expenses at 10% of each sale. This is easier to do once you have established a track record.
Different marketing mediums work better for different businesses. Your goal is to find out what works for you and your business. To identify your best producing advertising vehicles, use some common sense and test before risking large amounts of money.
Decisions, decisions, decisions. Business is all about making decisions. The choices you make with regard to your advertising will have a big impact on your bottom line. What are the best advertising for your business?
You might think about promotional including newspaper ads, classifieds, direct mail, or batched advertising as a start.
A common beginning point for new business owners is newspaper advertising. The theory goes that everybody reads the newspaper, but is that true? How many people will actually respond to you ad and become your paying customers? In a sense it does not matter what the ad costs. What matters is how much money your ad earns for you.
When people pick up the newspaper, what do they do? Read the headlines, look at the pictures, read an occasional story, and of course check out the classifieds. It is here that you can often get your best bang for the buck. Your ad is strategically placed in the category appropriate to your service. When people see it, they know you want their business.
Have you considered direct mail, direct distribution, or batched advertising? Going directly to people is very powerful. Mailing an attractive postcard can cost as little as seventy five cents per address. Remember to consider costs for mailing list, piece production, and postage. Some organizations distribute fliers, door hangers, etc. for local businesses. These too can be very cost effective when properly managed. Sending out your ad with several others in a package like ValPak, can also work.
Unless you have money to burn, avoid expensive media. Radio and TV are expensive. Think about it, if you spend $35 per thirty second ad spot, how many people will you gain as paying customers? Ten minutes of promotion spread over a week will cost $700. By the way, it may be nice to see yourself on TV.
Promote your business aggressively, but wisely. Track your results. Use common sense when you set up your ads. Always keep the question in your thoughts, How will I Attract customers? Consider your return on investment, the effectiveness of the ad and media, and the overall results. Avoid spending your business into the ground by ineffective expensive marketing.
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