Previously I’ve chatted about Valarie Khoo’s article here. She talked about utilising the existing customers or clients that you already have and building your business through them. I agree absolutely that this is vital lifeline for your business and I’d like to expand that thought for those of you who are starting a business.

Starting a business can be hard work. I have clients who have started a business and I’d like to share a strategy that helped them.

1. Create a customer wish list – Look around you and write down everyone that you know who may be interested in your product or service
2. Refine the List – Look through the names and place the names in groups. Use the most obvious first. For example; Family, Work, School, Social, Hobby etc
3. Target your Groups – Target your approaches to each specific group, looking for ways to reach more than one person in a group at the same time

It can be daunting to be staring at a customer base of none so start with those you have around you…after all they have a vested interest in helping you…they might even like you!

Remember, if you need help you can also call me for a catch up.

Enjoy!

One of my favoured blogs is Valarie Khoo’s Enterprise, one of The Age blogs, and I’d like to share a column she wrote a while ago. Click here for the whole article but I’d like to share some of her great points.

She says that one of a business’ best assets is their database and that the people that you already know can continue to be significantly supportive of your  business and be responsible for growing your business even further. She advises four points to work on:

• Ensure that your database is in a format that is easy to use
• Promote yourself to these customers/clients regularly
• Implement a referral program
• Any promotion which is designed to attract new customers/clients captures at least basic contact information

Enjoy!