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Starting A Work At Home Typing Business On A Shoestring Budget
Having made the decision to start your own work at home typing
business, it can be hard to know the best place to start if your
budget is limited but there are many resources that will help you.
Make A Plan
Decide how much you actually have as a budget and map out a plan of how
you will make use of that budget.
Locate Your Customers
The next step is to think about who will be most likely to become your customers. Start by looking at businesses within a fairly small radius of your home. It doesn't make sense to add the extra time and expense involved in travelling long distances while you are still canvassing for customers. Avoid businesses where you would expect the staff to be good at using a keyboard (eg firms involved in the computer industry). Avoid big companies because they will have in-house staff to do their typing. The people who are most likely to become your customers are small partnerships and sole traders engaged in occupations involving manual work such as plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics etc. Most of them will either be doing their own typing or relying on a wife or girlfriend to do it.
Have Business Cards Printed
There are plenty of places that offer free business card printing. Take advantage of this free resource to get as many cards printed as you can, they are great to hand out to people you meet and to send to potential customers in a mailing campaign.
Have Flyers Printed
If you can get flyers printed free of charge, take advantage of this as well. Apart from posting them in suitable locations, you can send flyers to potential customers as you build your mailing list.
Classified Advertisements
Many small newspapers and trade magazines offer classified advertising space at reasonable cost. Specialised magazines and journals are good for targeting particular types of business.
Build A Mailing List
Use the phone book and classified advertising section of your local newspaper to build up a mail merge database containing the names and addresses of small businesses that might be in need of your home typing service.
Create Stationery
Use your PC to create a stationery template to be used for your letters and invoices. It is essential to your home typing business that any documents you send out look completely professional. Your correspondence will be an advertisement for the quality of your typing service.
You will find help with this in the Secretarial Business In A Box.
Do A Mail Shot
Using your template and database, send a letter advertising your typing service. To keep costs down, deliver as many as possible of the letters by hand.
Keep On Keeping On
Continue handing out business cards, posting flyers and sending mail shots. If you are very lucky, you might get some business as a result of your first round of advertising, but don't be disappointed if you don't receive any replies, you have to be patient when you are setting up a home typing business especially if you are working within a limited budget. Don't forget, the businesses you are targeting already have arrangements in place to have their estimates, invoices etc typed. You might be lucky and find a small business owner who is doing his own typing work and would be only too happy to pay somebody to do it for him. Advertising is about getting your advertisement to be in the right place at the right time; You want your advertisement to be there when the landscaper's girlfriend dumps him or the paper-hanger's wife takes a job and no longer has time for typing at home.
To be in business, all you need is one customer.
Make sure the typing service you provide to that customer is
nothing short of perfect and you can expect to get further business on the strength of recommendation by your customer. Of course, you can't rely just on word-of-mouth advertising but a testimonial from a satisfied customer is the most powerful advertisement a home typing business can have.
>>Read More Articles about working at home and how to earn money online
>> Visit the Work At Home Directory full listing for Work At Home Ideas
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DISCLAIMER: Elaine Currie works at home online and enjoys sharing resources that have helped to improve her life. In doing so she has created
relationships with certain experts and in recommending their products may receive compensation for doing so.
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