How to start a small business

In my first article in this category. I’d say You can implement almost all the tips from my other article Freelancing – Your First Few Steps. The mistakes are the same, the lessons are the same.

If you are starting a small business here are other lessons from my life you might find useful.

1. Grunt Work : When you are starting out, you might have to call lots of people, go for lots of appointment, burn gallons of fuel. The thing is you need first few clients to get your business going. If you are going to sit there and wait, no body will come. Trust me I was expert in this strategy for 3 months. I didn’t get any appointment in that time.

2. Don’t be Needy : Don’t, act needy. I know you want that guy’s business fast otherwise you’ll starve. But if you come off as needy, you’ll have NO chances of getting business. In fact when you’ll get desperate, your clients will push you into corner, demand low prices, unreasonable deadlines and might not even pay you.

3. Improve yourself selling skills with every communication : Now this might seems like “Well duh!”, but lots of people forget this. What I want you to do is improve your communication and selling skills. If you lost a client. Don’t slap yourself silly. Think what might have triggered the downfall?

Here are few things for you to check every time.

Did I come off too needy?
Did I asked him for his business (this is contradiction to the first one but unless you ask, nobody will give you their business)?
Was the client motivated to business with me?
Did I qualified him properly before closing the sale?
Was I thinking of “How I can benefit my client with my services?”

These 5 questions will improve your selling exponentially. No doubt about it.

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Filed Under Small Business

2 Comments 

Comments

2 Responses to “How to start a small business”

  1. Daniel on August 14th, 2007 4:39 am

    I couldn’t understand some parts of this article How to start a small business, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

    EDIT by Varun: Can’t believe it, this guy is a spammer. I was only able to catch it when he used this same message for 5 different threads.

  2. Varun Pratap on August 17th, 2007 1:33 pm

    You know Daniel, I am assuming that you are already know your stuff… then all you need is to learn
    1. How to market Your product or service?
    2. How to Negotiate with people…
    3. How to sell your products or service and have clients looking for you all the time… This is one thing that I suggest every entrepreneur should learn before getting into business.
    Get a FREE 20 Minute Consultation with me

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