Global Marketing Plus

If you need business right now, here are five ideas for getting business fast!

1. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.  Identify people who need your skills and make them a special offer so tempting they simply can’t say no.  But be sure you at least cover all of your costs and ask them to serve as a reference for you in the future.  Some money beats no money! 

2. Turn your ex-employer into your client.  Your former employer already knows your capability and has a proven need for it. Often you can negotiate to do on a part-time basis or contractual basis what you had been doing full-time, or you can negotiate a contract to train your replacement.

3. Subcontract or do overload.  Your competitors can be an excellent source of business!  Contact your competitor and see if they have overload work that they are willing to subcontract out to you.  About 20% of my new business comes from my competitors!

4. Work as a temporary in the field in which you will be doing business.  Working as a temporary can not only give you valuable experience for your resume, but can also give you valuable contacts.  It also provides you will a source of immediate income while building your business.

5. Volunteer.  Some work beats no work and work begets more work.  There is nothing worse for your morale than having no work to do.  Volunteer efforts may become paid efforts, and many volunteers turn their experiences into paying contracts or orders.  You can also use it as a source of experience and references that can help getting future business.  In some cases you may even work side-by-side with the very people you need to contact to get business!

If you spend the time and energy now to do the things described in this blog, both in previous posts and future posts, you will soon find you need to spend less of your time on getting business and more time will be spent on doing the work you want to do and getting paid for it.  Eventually your business will become self-sustaining — that is, it will generate all the business you need.  And you will truly be able to say, “I get almost all of my business from referrals.”

Should slow times occur, you will be able to act with confidence to turn the slow times around quickly.

Tomorrow we will go into more detail about networking.  Have a profitable day!