Leaflet Distribution

Advertising A New Business

Running your own business is seen by many to be the perfect lifestyle, the potential to make a good income, perhaps flexible hours and better life, but very few people who are thinking about starting a business realise how hard it will be !

Starting a New Business from scratch takes a huge amount of energy, time, commitment and most importantly Money !

Money and cash flow is the lifeblood to any business, without it you sink. One of the areas people seem to forget when planning a new business is the amount of money needed to advertise it, without advertising no one will know you are there, and if they don't know you are there, they will not be able to give you their hard earned cash !

Very often we see start up businesses that have everything sorted, great premises, cars, vans, stock, tools, staff everything that they need to trade, as it gets close to the opening date the attention comes around to advertising the business.

The phone calls are often very similar, I am sure many will agree."We are starting our new business next week and we need to do a leaflet drop to promote it" this always gets the alarms bells ringing, the information is gathered, location, type of business etc, then it comes around to the budget, " I have spent so much setting the business up, I only have £500 to advertise it "

Now £500 is not going to go very far when you consider the leaflet needs to be designed, printed and then distributed, but that is all they have, enough for one small leaflet drop.

Any new business needs to advertise very regularly and often especially over the first year or two, once it becomes established the advertising schedule can then be tailored to suit. If the advertising is not in place, there is a large risk of lack of business, without the business there will be no cash flow, without the cash flow, you will not be able to advertise, and so it goes on, and sure way to sink.

Without A Good Advertising Budget You Are Doomed.

Remember the advertising is what generates business, it should be one of your priority items, not something last on the list.

Converting A Response Into A Sale

The main focus after your Leaflet Distribution must be to convert as many responses as you can to direct enquiries and from that hopefully sales, this process must be slick and efficient and a very easy process for any potential customer.

Firstly think of as many ways as possible that someone may have responded to your leaflet, ranging from thinking about the product or service that you offer, visiting your website, going through to a direct contact, perhaps by phone, email or by personal visit.

You must make it as simple as possible for any potential client to make contact, view the range of products and services that you offer or even possibly make an order.

One of the biggest mistakes that companies have is by having a junior member of staff answering telephone calls, quite often from potential clients, if someone is making an enquiry, they expect a quick efficient delivery of the information that they require, and very often a junior staff member will not be able to provide this.

Lots of small businesses also make other major mistakes, which are frankly unforgivable, these issues often affect the trades type businesses, builders, plumbers, electricians etc.

Firstly, the telephone not being answered, just an answer phone, secondly, if the phone is answered all you will receive is a short sharp "Hello" no company name or similar, the caller is then left wondering if they have called the correct number, but certainly has a much reduced first impression of the company called.

Do You Really Have A Market Need ?

Most Businesses really do believe that they are offering a required product or service, but I think that there may be quite a large number of people that are offering their business to a rather limited market, so their chances of business success are always going to be limited.

Even in the mass market fields there is no quick route to instant riches and success, if there was everyone would be millionaires.

You have the option of being in a limited market with few competitors, or a mass market where you will have many competitors and huge competition.

I have seen many products and services over the years and I am still amazed at some of the ones I still see.

Also be aware of the time of year that you may planning your distribution, unless you plan to advertise throughout the year there is very little point in advertising summer products in mid winter, for example bbq equipment and charcoal.

Joining The Bandwagon, copying a business type is also a recipe for failure, there are often get rich quick types business around, just think on BMV property sales, and currently we have gold buying businesses, fine if you are the first, a disaster if you start one a while latter after seeing all those people making money, these business models come and go and are never in vogue for very long.