How to Write a Small Business Bid Letter

By Lanee’ Blunt

Writing a small business bid letter requires different things to consider when preparing the bid. Start with an outline this will help you organize information that needs to go into the bid letter.

Writing a bid letter can win you the bid. A purchasing bid letter has to be planned before you begin the initial writing. In most cases the bid will go to the lowest-priced responsible bidder. They are evaluated with no discussion held with the bidders.

Difficulty

Moderate

Things You’ll Need

Cost of material

Cover reports

Financial statements

Certificates and licenses

Analyze the requirements. Before you prepare the bid make sure you have a full understanding by studying the specifications and requirements to make the purchase.  Examine all the specifications, read the IFP several times.

Write the “Company profile” section. Write about your qualifications and your experience with similar jobs.  Include the bidder’s identification number, number of employees. Tell the evaluators the responsibilities of key personnel and subcontractors.  Add client references.

Write your response. Start the first paragraph with a section about your company. Bids include the experience, expertise, and a reliability section and the method of performance. Tell the procurement staff or the business venture about your organization your experience and your work references or samples of the type of work performed. The second paragraph is the performance section and it should tell how your organization will perform when you buy the business venture, or deliver the goods requested in the bid document. The format is not that important just make sure you have all the information included.

Cost

Your bid price should come out of the budget detail, the materials, labor, overhead, packaging and transportation. The price must meet the supplier’s rate of return objectives.

Tips

Make sure that the bid is signed.

Do not leave out attachment, for example financial statements, compliance reports, certificates, licenses, etc.

Read This Next


Starting a LLC


Documents Required Opening a Sole Proprietorship

How to Register a Business

Read more »

Small Business Internet Marketing Ideas

By Lanee’ Blunt

Marketing your small business online gives you the opportunity to reach people globally.  Online marketing is successful if you handle it properly.

Internet marketing can drive traffic to your company website. In some cases it is more cost effective and cheaper than tradition forms of advertising. Getting an ad on television or a full page ad in the newspaper can be expensive, but putting an ad in an online directory is much cheaper.

  

Pay-per click advertising

This form of advertising allows a small business to set up an account, select a list of tightly targeted keywords that match your business, with keyword matching and phrase matching. You will be listed on search engines with an effective text ad for your product or service. The keywords are low cost and highly effective.

Online Directories.

List your small business with an online directory and write a description about your business.  Use keyword tags.

Email marketing

Make it easy to sign up for your email newsletter on your website.  You must have a way to capture the email addresses on your website. Make sure that all of the subscribers on your list have opt-in to receive an email newsletter from you.

  

Banner advertising

Small rectangular advertisements that range in appearance and size that can be used for products or a service business. When a prospect clicks on it their internet browser will take them to your website and advertisement.

Read This Next

Advantages of Advertising Flyers


Benefits of Newsletter Marketing


Postcard Advertising

Read more »

How to Advertise Your Business by Email

By Lanee’ Blunt

Small businesses can benefit from advertising their business by email. It gives them another option that is cost effective.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing. It solicits prospects to take some form of action. It is cost effective way that small businesses can market their business, and add new customers. Sending an email sales letter to a target audience has its advantages.  With email marketing you can target your prospects by their interest, age, profession and etc. Email marketing letters are successful if handled properly.

Building a Mailing List

The subscribers on your mailing list must opt-in to receive your email, otherwise t it will be consider a spam message.  The prospect must have taken some kind of action to receive your email.  You can also get an opt-in mailing list from a list broker. There are many companies online that you can purchase or rent a mailing list. Your company must provide a way for recipients to unsubscribe to your email, so make it easy for them to opt-out from your email program.

Your house list is the best list to work from because it consists of people that have bought from you in the past. Put your current customer’s names on the list, and all of your prospects that you’ve given a sales presentation too.

Subject Line

The subject line is the first thing that the recipient sees.  Write something that will make the prospect read the email.  Use and offer, or write a benefit here.  The subject line has to be fifty characters or less, so use it to get their attention.

The Offer

When you have an offer in your email, you must make it possible for the link to be directly on the page which has the offer. Don’t expect the reader to go from page to page looking for the offer. Use a custom-designed page thanking them for responding to the email.

Read This Next

Advantages of Advertising Flyers


Benefits of Newsletter Marketing


Postcard Advertising

Read more »

How to Create a Product Brochure

By Lanee’ Blunt

Product brochures are widely used in direct mail, and marketing. They are inexpensive to make and lend themselves to considerable flexibility in use. A product brochure should be well prepared and well thought-out. Work from an outline because it forces you to think about what you want to say and what needs to be included in the brochure.

The Audience

Are you writing to engineers, insurance companies or managers? Your brochure must fit the informational needs of your audience. The engineer may be interested in performance specifications of the product. The insurance company may be interested in data or charts. Software programmers and engineers explain that they want to stick to the technical jargon in the brochure, and anything else is a lot of fluff. The problem with that is that the product brochure is sales literature and they often inform, persuade and close the sale.

The Facts

Tell consumers everything they need to know about your product. Write about the product features, the specifications, and the performance. Give many features on the product, but keep in mind that you must drive home the selling points. A lot of customers complain that brochures don’t give enough facts. The customers want to know what’s included in the price, your hours, and your range of products or services.

Reference:

Roman, Kenneth, Jane Maas, and Martin Nisenholtz; How to Advertise; Thomas Dunne; 2003

Read This Next

Advantages of Advertising Flyers


Benefits of Newsletter Marketing


Postcard Advertising

Read more »

How to Advertise a Small Business Online

By Lanee’ Blunt

Marketing your small business online is an effective way to advertise. Many small businesses are looking for new ways to advertise their businesses as an addition to print advertising. Most online directories allow small businesses to list their business, write a description, and use keyword tags. Advertising and creating a powerful ad will take time and effort. Write and rewrite the ad until you come up with an ad that is successful. Create a powerful headline that will compel your prospects to take action.

Email

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing in which you can reach prospects with an email message for the purpose of acquiring new customers, convincing them to buy something, or sending advertisements.  One advantage of email marketing is that your ROI can be tracked and it has been proven to be high when done properly. All your subscribers must take some form of action to opt-in to indicate that they want you email message. All subscribers must know that they can easily opt-out if they don't want your message.

Google Adwords

Google offers low cost highly effective advertising for your product or service. Adwords provides your small business with effective text ads that are displayed with search results. When you place your small business ad with Adwords it gives you the ability to select a list of tightly targeted keywords that include, keyword matching, phrase matching, exact query matching, and negative keyword matching. This targeting technique will help you create a high targeted ad campaign.

Online Directories

Most online directories allow small businesses to list their business, write a description, and use keyword tags.

Free Classified

List your product or service with an online classified site because people are searching for a particular product or service they will find your ad.

Reference:

Inc; Internet Opportunities Small Business Overlook

Web Source: Internet Advertising

Voices Yahoo: 8 Ways to Advertise your Online Business for Free

Read This Next

Advantages of Advertising Flyers


Benefits of Newsletter Marketing


Postcard Advertising

Read more »

Tips on Making a Brochure

By Lanee’ Blunt

Your small business must have advertising material. Plan ahead when creating a brochure. You will have limited time to create one when you are trying to win a bid, or when a prime prospect asks for more information on your small business.  You can lose the deal if you are not prepared and have a brochure that will help sell your service. Here are tips on creating a sales brochure.

Write the brochure with your audience in mind.  What do they want from your company? This is not the opportunity to go on and on about how great your company is. Look at it from the prospective of what does the client want from you?

In your brochure tell the customer everything in detail that they need to know about your small business. This may sound obvious but there are many small business brochures that I have read that are merely just a long list of items, giving no details about the company, the service, or how it works.  According to Jane Maas’s book, Better Brochures, Catalogs and Mailing pieces, “Tell customers what is included what, are the cost, what are the hours.  Graphic devices can help to spotlight important information.”

The brochure is advertising material and must be persuasive. All of the services offered by your firm should be written in detail descriptions explaining how the service works. This is not the time to brag about your company, but explain how your firm helps the client.

Reference:

Mass, Jane. Better Brochures, Catalogs and Mailing Pieces. New York St. Martin’s Press

Read This Next

How to Create a Company Logo


How to Make Your Own Company Letterhead on Microsoft Publisher


How to Build a Business Referral Program

Read more »

How to Write a Service Proposal for a Small Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

A service proposal is used for asking for funding, bidding on a RFP or used to get investors for your small business. Collect all of the information on your service from brochures, your website and ensure that graphs that will be included are relevant. Plan your proposal early before writing it.

Difficulty

Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need

Company brochures

Graphs

Charts

Write an executive summary which is a brief summary of the project. Tell the evaluators or client why your small business is the best for the contract.

Write the next section which you will give your firm qualifications information. Write about the number of similar types of jobs that you have had in the past. State the size of each job.  Give references from similar types of jobs that you have done.

Write your personnel information and the responsibilities of key employees in your firm. List the supervisors of the service business.

Address the cost estimate and explain the price you are proposing. List a final price for the project.  Include each service that is proposed with a detailed fee schedule.

Write all expected completion dates. Provide a methodology for documenting bidding on a RFP the completion dates. Address every topic in the request for proposal (RFP) and address them in the order that they appear in the RFP. 

Eliminate your errors by proofreading and editing. Rewrite sections that are too vague and don’t explain the full meaning of what you are proposing.  Avoid typos that will make your proposal look unprofessional and amateurs.

Tips

Have the proposal completed before the deadline so you will have time to revise the proposal.

Demonstrate that your firm has the capability to perform the job.

Reference

Fedmarket: Proposal Writing: Filling the Holes    


 Read This Next

How to Create a Company Logo


How to Make Your Own Company Letterhead on Microsoft Publisher


How to Build a Business Referral Program

Read more »

Tips on Advertising Your Small Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

You can advertise on a budget and make your money go further. You also have to get former customers to use your business again and give you repeat business. A small business must advertise and without breaking their bank. Small business advertising can be done on a budget, but requires time on your part.

Postcards

Postcard advertising is ideal for the small business owner on a budget. Postcards are a very effective marketing method.  The cost is very inexpensive, first class postage for a postcard is about $0.28 U.S.  You can print labels on your computer; the other side of the postcard should have an offer, for example, give the customer something free, a discount, or two for the price of one. Create a tempting offer, and it should improve your response rate.

Email

Sending an email sales letter to a target audience has its advantages.  With email marketing you can target your prospects by their interest, age, profession and etc. According to Kenneth Roman, Jane Maas, and Martin Nisenholtz’s book, How to Advertise, “The joy of direct marketing is its accountability—you quickly know the exact results of an advertising investment.” With this type of marketing you have the advantage of tracking your response rate. Your company must provide a way for recipients to unsubscribe to your email, so make it easy for them to opt-out from your email program.

Newsletters

Newsletters are public relations material. You also have to get former customers to use your business again and give you repeat business. Newsletters keep your small businesses name in front of your prospect.

Reference:

Kenneth Roman, Jane Maas, and Martin Nisenholtz; How to Advertise; 2003

Read This Next

Advantages of Advertising Flyers

How to Write a Small Business Proposal

How to Make Your Own Business Cards Online

Read more »

What is Direct Response Advertising?

By Lanee’ Blunt

Direct response advertising is used by large corporations, small businesses, consulting firms and companies of all sizes. Direct response advertising is not as expensive as traditional advertising, it can be tracked and it offers a lot of different media outlets. It allows you to communicate with your customer by direct mail campaign, infomercial, radio, magazine, mail order, and email.

In direct response advertising the prospect is urged to call the advertiser right away to receive the offer. Direct response methods include coupons to cut and mail, reply cards in direct mail, and toll free telephone numbers. For example, if you are sending direct mail you can send a reply card and ask the prospect to mail it back with their phone number if they want more information.

Direct response advertising works because it requires a call to action. You can use a time sensitive statement in your in your call to action. For example, call now for a free gift and if you call within the next twenty minutes you’ll get the second item free. Direct response advertising can be tracked. This type of call to action allows the advertiser to track the offer and run similar offers and track which one received the best response.

Reference:

Business Dictionary: Direct Response Advertising

Read This Next


Direct Marketing


Product Branding Principles


Principles of the Marketing Mix

Read more »

How to Write a Proposal for a Small Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

A proposal for a small business requires careful preparing before you write it.  Begin the process with an outline this will help you organize your thoughts and help you prepare the information that needs to go into the proposal.  A small business proposal can help your business get business loans, investors, or more commercial clients.

Executive summary. Why should they choose your company and why your small business is the best for the contract? Write how your company is going to accomplish the requested work and how you’re going to do it. Write the history of your company.

Write the “Resume and qualifications” section. Write about your qualifications and your experience with similar jobs. Tell the evaluators the responsibilities of key personnel and subcontractors and provide their resumes.

Address major topics in the request for proposal (RFP) and address them in the order that they appear in the RFP.  What are the expected completion dates?

Cost Estimate. Propose your price. List and itemize each service that your company is going to perform with a detailed fee schedule. Include a maintenance cost estimate which is an estimated cost for planned or unplanned work which can be carried out in conjunction with the proposed project, but is not required to meet the intent of the project.

Proofread and revise. Rewrite all sections of the proposal that don’t explain in detail of what you are proposing. Eliminate all typos. Use section titles and subheadings.

Reference:

Find FRP: Government Contracting: How to Write a Proposal or Respond to a Bid Solicitation

Fedmarket: Proposal Writing: Filling the Holes

Read This Next

How to Create a Company Logo


How to Make Your Own Company Letterhead on Microsoft Publisher


How to Build a Business Referral Program

Read more »

How to Make a Marketing Letter for a Small Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Small businesses can use direct mail to get new clients, get more customers, sell their products, and as a follow up.  One advantage of using direct mail is that you don’t have to cold call and if you don’t like cold calling then sending sales letters may be beneficial. There are many advantages of using direct mail that will help you market your small business.

Defined exactly what you want your reader to do after they have read your sales letter?  Would you like your prospect to ask for information? Suggest that they send for your information package.  If your goal is for a home visit if this is the case, you can suggest that you’ll call them to set up an appointment. Having an offer gives the prospect a reason to respond to your direct mail. Use an active voice when writing the offer. 

Work hard to get your readers attention and keep it.  Give them your sells points and stress some benefits of using your business. Use headlines in the sales letter because they gain attention. 

A sales letter has to have a call to action, which tells the reader to pick up the phone and call now. If the product is sold by mail ask them to send for more information. Make it easy for your prospect take action.

Read This Next

How to Create a Company Logo


How to Make Your Own Company Letterhead on Microsoft Publisher


How to Build a Business Referral Program

Read more »

How to Design Business Cards Online

By Lanee’ Blunt

Business cards can be created online using an online business card maker, saved, and then taken to a professional printer. There are two important aspects of a business card; design and quality. If your card is poor quality you can undermine everything you are trying to accomplish.

Open an online business card maker.

Use colors that are appealing as a background. Your card can be a reflection of the type of business you are in. Try not to overload your card with a lot of information that is so small you can’t read it.

Include your name, company name and company logo, title, phone number, email address, and website. Use a clear readable font such as Times New Roman or Helvetica.

Browse the design gallery and select a Business card. There are many styles to choose from that can be changed to suit your needs. Customize your cards or just pick a design that you like. Choose the full bleed image which prints to the edge of the card—8 cards per page, or choose no bleed which prints white between cards—10 cards per page. It will depend on the style of card that you have selected.

With some online business card makers you can instantly create and print your own cards at home. With some online companies they will print the cards for you and ship them within a specified time.

Read This Next

How to Create a Company Logo


How to Make Your Own Company Letterhead on Microsoft Publisher


How to Build a Business Referral Program

Small Business Advertising

Online Marketing Advantages

Direct Mail Leads

Read more »

Direct Marketing Sales Leads Tips

By Lanee’ Blunt

Direct marketing works if it is done the right way. It is effective if you research your target demographic. There are companies that you can hire to conduct a market research for you, or companies that offer paid memberships that give you access to market research. It is important that you know your market because you can have the best direct mail package, or email campaign and if your mailing list is wrong you won’t profit from the campaign.

House List

A house list is a mailing list that is made up of customers and prospects. It is very important for you to keep accurate records of customers, prospects, and referrals that you have received. One of the best lists available to you will be your house list which is a list of customers and people that have already responded to your ads and have bought from you in the past. They may still be interested in your product or service. A response rate is higher when you call the prospects on your house list. They are already familiar with your business and they may be members of your newsletter or maybe you have met them networking or at trade shows.

Rented List

You can purchase a mailing list from a list broker or media company to use for a specified length of time, or for a certain number of communications. Before you order your mailing list you should be clear of who are your best customers and clone them.

Reference:

Find More Buyers: How to Order the Most Profitable Marketing List

Entrepreneur Connect; How to Boost Direct Marketing Sales Leads; Candy Lee; 2011

Marketing Direct; Lead Generation Response Rate Winner; George Clay

Read This Next

Small Business Advertising

Online Marketing Advantages

Direct Mail Leads

Read more »

Best Home Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Work from home--Henkster

Best home business to get into when you are looking for an honest way to make a living either as a part-time supplement to your income or a full-time income.  Many people believe that working from home means that you work from your pajamas and you can work whenever you want to at your own hours. But working from home is much more than that you must be your own boss and push yourself harder and most times you put in more than 40 hours a week.

There are many ideas to choose from but the first thing to consider is do you want a service business or to sell a product?

Computer Services

A computer technician, programmer, systems engineer, web designer are always in high demand. You could have a profitable business from home by becoming a subcontractor or a consultant. The hourly rate for these services is very high for freelancers.

Bookkeeping

If you are doing your friends and families taxes you should consider going into a home business.  You will need software and a computer for your business.  Market your business, send direct mail, design a website, and pass out fliers.

Writing

Freelance writing is a good home based business. Can you write ads, brochures, and website content? Market your services to corporations as a freelance copywriter by sending direct mail, or cold calling.  Freelance copywriters are in demand especially in today’s economy with corporations downsizing.

Online Store

Sell products on eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist.  Or you can set up an online store and sell products on your own website with a drop-shipping service.  You can also sell used goods or buy goods wholesale.

Reference:

MSN Money; America's Best Home-Based Businesses; Start up Nation; 2010

Entrepreneur; Businesses You Can Start at Home; Lesley Spencer Pyle; 2010


Read This Next


Documents Required Opening a Sole Proprietorship


How to Work With Wholesale Suppliers


How to Start a Copywriting Business


Start Your Own Online Store


How to Start a Consulting Business

Read more »

What is Direct Mail Advertising?

Direct mail is a selective form of advertising. The direct mail package is directed to the person that appears on the mailing list. It can be used as a follow up of people that have shown interest in your product or service. 

Your direct mail can be targeted toward a group of people and written just for that group to interest them in your product or service. “Direct mail is the only mass medium that can be directed toward target groups or prospects. The message may be highly personalized and can also be designed as an effective market research tool,” according to B. Charles Ames and James D. Hlavacek, in their book, Managerial Marketing for Industrial Firms.

Direct mail is used to get more qualified leads. When you need more prospects send out another batch of letters.  There will be no cold calling and when you call the prospect they will expect to hear from you.

An email letter can be used as direct mail too. It is a good marketing tool. You don’t want to send spam, but a sales letter that will be effective.  You can write a marketing letter that will get your foot in the door and get your product sold.  Email marketing letters are successful if handled properly. Email used as direct marketing is cheaper because you don’t have to worry about the cost of printing the mailing piece, the envelope, and the postage.

Direct mail is an excellent way to sell your product by mail. You can use as many words or as many pictures as it takes to make the sale by adding a brochure or catalogue with the letter.

Reference:

B. Charles Ames and James D. Hlavacek; Managerial Marketing for Industrial Firms; Random House

Read This Next

Direct Marketing

How to Use Postcards to Advertise a Business


How to Make a Flyer

Read more »

How to Write a Café Business Plan

By Lanee’ Blunt

A café is a business that can get big, depending on what you are planning on serving. Start with a business plan because it may help you ask for funding; persuade potential investors to support the business financially. Start the business proposal with a market study that profiles your customer base, current sales in the market area, and pricing features of competitors.

Write an executive summary which is a brief summary of what the café is and where it will be located. Tell the reader why your café is a great business for example, if it is going to serve all organic foods. What are the services that you are going to provide?

Write the management summary. Write your mission statement. Write about the management team. Who is going to be the general manager?  What experience and education does he or she have? Who is going to be the chef and the experience that he or she has?

The finance section of the business plan should include your cash flow statements, of each year you have been in business—up to three to five years, company income statements, balance sheets and other financial ratios, such as a break-even analysis. Or a cost estimate that explains the estimated cost of the building, equipment needed, cost of installation of equipment, vehicles needed for transportation. You may require help from your accountant or a good spreadsheet software program.

Eliminate all errors by proofreading the business plan. Rewrite sections that are too vague and don’t explain the full meaning of what you are planning.  Avoid typos that will make your business plan look unprofessional and amateurs.  If you don’t have the skills to write your business plan there are online resources that can assist in formulating a business plan or there is Business Plan software that you can purchase that will help you.

Reference:

Inc: How to Write a Bakery Business Plan

Read This Next


How to Open a Restaurant with a Sole Proprietorship or LLC


How to Start a Catering Business


How to Create a Company Logo

Read more »

Direct Marketing

By Lanee’ Blunt

Direct marketing is used by large corporations, small businesses, consulting firms and companies of all sizes. Direct marketing may boost your business by winning you quality customers.  It allows you to communicate with your customer by email campaigns, interactive consumer websites, mobile messaging, fliers, catalog distribution, sales letters, direct mail packages, and online display ads. It is designed to obtain orders directly by mail. It is not just advertising, but the combination of advertising and selling.

Direct marketing is the combination of contacting and influencing a chosen set of prospects by using direct mail, telemarketing, and etc. The marketing messages are addressed to the prospect and focuses on the target market. A mailing list that has been qualified for the target market is tested and used. For example, if you are sending emails you would purchase an opt-in email list from a list provider. The specialized list purchased from a commercial list house may be developed for lawyers, dentist, nurses, college professors, teachers, and accountants, etc.

It may take several approaches before you may turn a prospect into a buyer. Direct marketing is an alternative to cold calling and attracts qualified leads to your business, and keeps them in the loop until they are converted into customers. It will provide you with a set of clients that can give you referrals. Direct marketing can be measured which will help you stay on target if your campaign was successful. For example, if a business sends out 1,000 sales letters and 100 prospects respond to the promotion, the business knows that campaign led directly to a 10% direct response rate.

Reference:

Business Dictionary: Direct Marketing

Systematic Direct Marketing: Direct Marketing

Read This Next

Product Branding Principles

What is a Promotional Mix?

Four Types of Marketing Channels

Read more »

How to Create a Direct Mail Postcard

By Lanee’ Blunt

Direct mail postcards can be an effective way to market your business. They are small and require no folding or opening and can obtain any advertising message you wish to include. Since they don’t have to be opened you can expect that your advertising message will at least be glanced at. Postcard marketing is a powerful lead-generation tool because it enables you to be creative and enticing in one advertising piece. 

Before creating your postcard make sure that you have a good mailing list. It is the most important part of a direct mail campaign. The best mailing list puts your advertising message in front of the people that are looking for exactly what you are selling.  Identify your target market by income, gender, age, profession, and geographic location.

Keep it simple on the address side because there are several requirements that dictate how you lay out your postcard for example, the address information, postage and the mail barcode.

The other side can be a used for your advertising message, or you can use the whole area for a coupon, or a sale. Write an attention-getting headline, a few features and a few benefits, an offer and a call to action. Be brief and use bulleted points for your features and benefits. Proofread your postcards before they’re printed. Include all of your contact information, phone, website or email address so that the prospect can get more information.

Read This Next

Advantages and Disadvantages of Sending Postcards

How to Use Postcards to Advertise a Business

Four Rules for Direct Mail

Read more »

Start a Small Business Newsletter

By Lanee’ Blunt

Newsletters are public relations material. Newsletters help to remind customers about your company without being too pushy. They are a great way to follow up on a direct mail package and when the customer is ready to buy they will think of your product or service. Newsletters are a great way to remind customers to buy from you. 

Start building a list for your newsletter by putting your current customer’s names in a special file, and all of your prospects that showed interest in your product or service. Your house list consists of people that have bought from you in the past and is the best list to work from.

Give the prospect a lot of useful information in the newsletter.  It is not the place to be boring.  Write helpful articles and interview some of your employees. You can get a lot of information into your newsletter, far more than you can a brochure.

Use a newsletter as an offer in a direct mail piece.  Capture the subscribers email address on a reply card and send your informative newsletter.  Make the content fresh and enjoyable.  “Newsletters are one of the most popular uses for permission marketing.  You can ask visitors if they would like to receive notification of new products, updates to your site, relevant tips, advice, industry news, and so on-whatever might be of interest to your target market,” according to Susan Sweeny book, 101 Ways to Promote your Web Site.

Reference:

Susan Sweeny; 101 Ways to Promote your Web Site; 2001

Read This Next

Advantages of Marketing Letter for Consultants

Four Types of Marketing Channels

How to Make your Own Business Cards Online

Read more »

How to Start a Catering Business

By Lanee’ Blunt

Starting a catering business may be your life long dream, or maybe your friends’ and coworkers are always suggesting that you should start your own catering business.  An advantage of opening a catering business is that the start-up cost is low.  Presentation skills and the ability to make food look fancy go a long way, and keeping up with the latest trends in food and party ideas will help make your catering business a success.

Apply for Licenses

Register your business with your state and county government.  Obtain a food service permit and a business permit. Register with the IRS.  Check with your county Public Health Department if you are going to operate your catering business from home.

Equipment

Many caterers look for a commercial kitchen where they can rent space by hour or by shift. A restaurant’s facility may be used in its off-hours or you can share the rental cost of a commercial kitchen with other caterers.  You will need a delivery vehicle and a phone.

Advertise

Start a website and take pictures of the food you make and some of the parties that you have catered.  Talk to wedding planners and introduce yourself to bridal boutiques, bakers, party suppliers and florist.  Create and handout your brochure and business cards. Send direct mail to corporations and small businesses. Follow up with a phone call and ask for an appointment to discuss your services.

Reference:

SBA; Starting a Home-Based Food Production Business; Caron Beesley; 2011

Inc; How to Start a Catering Business; Gina Pace; 2011

Entrepreneur: Business Idea Center: Catering

Read This Next

How to Register a Business


How to Open a Restaurant with a Sole Proprietorship or LLC


Direct Mail Advertising

Read more »