Who's In Your Network?

Wondering how to get your first dozen clients or so under your belt? Here's a list of potential prospects. Offer them a 50% discount for being one of the first 10 inventories you complete as part of your new business launch! But they must also agree to serve as testimonials and referrals for you if they are satisfied with your services (and they should be!) Then you'll be able to feature them on your website and in your marketing materials. (Be sure to get a signed release form giving permission to feature them in your advertising, without revealing details about their specific inventory -- and be sure to take pictures of them -- and you -- while the inventory is in progress. You might bring along a friend or family member to take these "extra" posed photos of you "in action" with clients.)

You can make up little business-card sized "Grand Opening Certificates" which offer the discount, either to a specific number of people or with a time limitation (valid on inventories scheduled by Aug. 31, 2007; subject to availability). Staple those to your brochures and include them in the letters you send to your network (see below).

Who's In Your Network?
* Friends
* Relatives
* Parents of children's friends
* Parents of your friends
* Relatives of your friends
* Club members (country club, swim club, town club, collecting club, sports club)
* Common interest associations/affiliations
* Military service people
* Your holiday card list / personal address list (send a letter, brochure, and business card to each and every one of them announcing your new venture)
* Sorority/fraternity
* Cousins
* Neighbors, block-party attendees
* Sports team members

Professional / Third-Party Contacts
* Real Estate Brokers
* Financial Advisors (especially for estates)
* Attorneys (especially real estate attorneys)
* Bankers (again, look for ones who work with estates)
* Insurance Agents

Business Contacts
* Current and previous associates and managers
* Consultants
* Vendors, Suppliers, Salespeople
* Professional associations
* Seminar, conference, and workshop attendees
* Business owners (a wholly separate market to target)
* Insurance and financial industry associations (NAIFA, IIA, SFSP, FPA -- all of these have local chapters and usually newsletters that you can advertise in -- good for "name recognition" before you send your letter and make the follow-up call -- remember, it takes 9 impressions before you become memorable!)

Educational Contacts:
* Elementary, middle, and high schools friends and teachers
* College friends, alumni associations (they will often put in a notice about your new business in their "Alumni Update" newsletter -- great if you're still "local")
* Professors, coaches, advisors
* Adults education teachers and/or classmates

Community Contacts:
* Civic and political leaders
* Clergy/congregation (You should DEFINITELY put an ad in your church bulletin if you're active in the church)
* Volunteer affiliations, PTA
* Health club members
* Local organizations; boards, scouts

Most of these (in contrast to insurance agents) will be "warm" referrals already -- that is, you can reference a personal association in your correspondence or conversations. They should "know" you or be at least 2 degrees of separation from you (in the whole 6 degrees of separation world). That is, if they don't know *YOU*, they know someone who DOES know you.

The idea of reaching out to collector's clubs is a wholly separate one -- find them (check your local library for the Gale "Encyclopedia of Associations" and see which ones meet locally -- or find some of this information online) and offer to speak to their group about home inventories. These are individuals who have a LOT of money invested in their items. They might (or might not) have catalogued their collections, but they also need home inventories, because a lot of them have custom display cases and specially designed rooms that would probably not be valued appropriately if they had a claim. You could also offer a special, time-limited savings offer for inventories booked within 30 days of your talk, and you could write an article for their newsletter (trade out for an ad in a couple of issues), if they have one.

Also, while you're cultivating referrals, consider contacting the manager of any local extended-stay apartment complexes (these often offer fully-furnished units). Offer a "group rate" to inventory all of them.

Does your town/city have a "small business suite" complex? Approach the manager and ask if you can bring in breakfast (preferred, it's cheaper -- donuts and bagels and juice) or lunch one day in exchange for being able to hang out in the common area and pass out your business cards and information to the business owners who rent space there. (Do it on your lunch break, or take the day off work to focus on business development.) We have units like this in Omaha ranging from 10 small suites up to buildings with 40-50 offices. If you charged $100 per room (most of these are small offices with rooms that are 8x10), you could easily make $1000 or more from one contact -- well worth the $30 in food and paper plates! Bring your schedule along to book direct appointments, but also *collect* business cards from people you meet, and add them to your mailing list. If the common area is slow, walk around and see which doors are open and just take a minute to introduce yourself and drop off a brochure. (In the first years of my business, we leased space at two of these kinds of buildings, and would have people come around a couple of times a month.)

Check and see if there are any "business inventory" specialists in your town -- you know, the kind that count widgets and stuff. Contact them and exchange information -- you're likely to get some calls for *that* type of inventory service, and you'd appreciate *their* referrals for home inventory services or small businesses looking for "non-sale" inventories.

Finally, I'd second the thought that there are business networking meetings that meet at ALL hours of the day. And if there's not, YOU should start one! (Contact Business Networking International for details). I used to belong to one that met for one hour at 7 a.m. every Friday morning. I did it for about a year, and then I remembered that I'm *not* a morning person! Fortunately, by then, many of my other marketing efforts had kicked in.

("Who's In Your Network" handout compiled by Linsey Levine, MS)