Ideas to Market By….

I have stopped telling people that I am unemployed. Whew. It’s a relief and a lot of pressure. Being self-employed means that I have to support myself, support my business, and support my ideas for my business.

I wrote earlier about how following every lead has brought me to this place of self-employment. Now it will be about marketing the business.Without a marketing background I have to rely upon my common sense, my understanding of people, and my very strong desire for success.
A friend gave me 200 “good” addresses for CPAs and attorneys. I designed and mailed a flyer describing my business, which has so far yielded 2 solid bookings. I understand that a 2% rate of return is a reasonable response. I am also following in the social networking scene. Matt Skallerud, founder of PinkBananaMedia.com, describes his social networking strategies in a July ’08 article at his website: http://www.pinkbananamedia.com/storydetail.cfm?storyid=6
Another technique is this Blog. And of course my website which has been upgraded with better photos, a link to A Clear Path blog, and a counter to see how many people are visiting my website.

I am now a vendor with UCLA (www.ucla.edu) because at the end of January, the campus will host a Resource Fair. The $250 fee to participate in the Fair provides me with a table to display my flyers, business cards, and small calendar magnets with my contact info. For my investment of approximately $500 I have the potential to reach 1500 fair-goers.

I also want to focus on the niche markets that I plan to target: CPAs and accountants, realtors and foreclosure experts, and baby-boomers. I have already begun to get calls from CPAs and I think word-of-mouth will help me to access this audience. I talked with a foreclosure expert who guided me in creating the text for a flyer to send to colleagues doing similar work.

Baby-boomers are an interesting group. Their elderly parents are making the transition to assisted living centers or they are reaching the end of their life. Adult children are dealing with the responsibility of clearing of the family home that is filled with history and clutter. Boomers themselves are also experiencing major life transitions. As they retire they downsize and move to warmer climes, or to active retirement communities.

There is no end to the need for a professional organizer. I believe that this is going to be a recession-proof business. Clutter, chaos, disorganization can often be unhealthful; order can lead to a longer life (who knew?) http://newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1958
Consequently, disorganized people may feel they have no choice but to call me! I truly believe this and I also believe that it’s simply a matter of time before A Clear Path takes off in a big and wonderful way!

Next time… How about some organizing ideas?!