Finding clients for a home-based business
By Jenny C. McCune • Bankrate.com

Attracting business to a home-based operation can be like a game of hide-and-seek. It's hard for the home-based business owner to find customers and hard for customers to find the company since its ensconced in a residence.

It's a unique challenge, but it isn't Mission Impossible. Here are some strategies to help raise your home-based business profile and build a bigger clientele.

Plot your marketing map
While any type of company needs a marketing plan, it's imperative for a home-based business.

Small companies don't have the money to waste on shotgun, scattered marketing. Before you start on any venture, you have to figure out who will be your best prospect and focus your efforts on that customer, says Kim Gordon, president of the National Marketing Federation Inc. in Silver Spring, Md.

It's best to concentrate your efforts where they're most likely to pan out in terms of sales. Gordon, author of Bringing Home the Business, recommends first figuring out what's distinctive about your business and then coming up with a targeted marketing campaign.

It's easier and less expensive, she says, than marketing on the fly and trying to sell everyone on your product or service.

Work smarter, not more expensively
Marketing budgets can be tight at new companies, but that doesn't mean your firm can't afford to market using a variety of different tactics. It's just a matter of scaling them down to what you can afford to spend, Gordon says.

"You can implement just about any strategy inexpensively," Gordon says. "It's just a question of reaching a clear decision of what tactical option works best for you."

For example, advertising in a national magazine may be out of your price range, but you may find that you can afford to place an ad in a regional edition or a trade journal that markets to the same demographic group you're trying to reach.

An accountant who can't afford to buy airtime on a local radio station can volunteer to be an expert for the radio station's "Get Ready for Tax Time" show.

Or an environmental cleanup specialist may want to increase his or her visibility in the area by putting together a press kit rather than hiring a PR firm to do the work.

"With today's desktop publishing programs, you can put out a professional looking press kit by yourself," Gordon says.

Open up the communication channels
There are a variety of ways to communicate with prospective customers today, Gordon says. Small and home-based businesses can contact prospects by phone, e-mail, fax or face-to-face.

What's important is to find out what's traditional for your type of business, what your customers prefer, and what's the most effective in terms of amount ventured (your time and resources) and amount gained (what you get in exchange for your efforts).

For a business-to-business company like a CPA firm, you'll probably want to follow the typical marketing sequence of call, mail, call. You call first to establish interest, then mail information, and finally follow-up with another call.

But if you're heading up a company that markets a product or service to consumers, then you'll probably want to establish brand awareness through advertising or publicity before you try to recruit customers, Gordon says.

Piggyback off of existing customers
Linda Pinson, a small business author and developer of Business Plan software, says the easiest way to find new customers is to use existing ones as a source.

"I look at it as an inverted pyramid process," Pinson says. "One customer generates two, then four, eight, sixteen and so on."

The simplest way to do this is through superior customer service. Treat existing customers well and they will recommend you to other customers.

A less passive way of using old customers to bring in new prospects is to solicit recommendations. Just ask current patrons, "Do you know of anyone who could use my product or service?"

Work the Web
A Web site also can be a great way to make your home-based business more visible and attract new customers.

Even if your company deals with customers on a local level, just having a Web page where people can get more information can work wonders. The big trick, according to Pinson, is to spend time building traffic to your site.

"A lot of small businesses don't follow through enough with their Web site," she notes. For example, they don't register it with search engines.

An effective Internet presence can be one more way for customers to find out about you, on top of a Yellow Pages entry or an ad in your local newspaper.

Ingratiate with information
Build trust and recruit new customers by supplying information free of charge, suggests Mike Marchev, a trainer, coach and author of Become the Exception: Ideas and Strategies that Put the Fun Back into Selling.

This can be as simple as putting together a pamphlet explaining how to choose a pest exterminator when you're in the extermination business, or a dog first aid guide for a dog obedience teacher.

"So you probably think if you give away this information, aren't you giving away business?" Marchev asks. "Not really. Most people will read your report and decide they'd rather hire you to do whatever it is than do it themselves."

Be tenacious
Marchev says you never know when a prospect will turn into a customer. So it's wise to keep people on mailing lists and apprised of what you're doing.

"I sent out e-mails to this one guy about my book," Marchev says. "I'd sent out 400 e-mails probably and after the 401st e-mail, he decided to buy."

Of course, a small business owner has to be realistic as well as tenacious. If somebody is definitely not a candidate for your product or service -- for example, you're trying to sell a baby carrier to a confirmed bachelor -- then don't waste your time trying to sell it.

But if there's a chance, you should keep in touch with the prospect. Marchev likens it to a line out of the movie Cast Away: "Tom Hanks says something like, 'Tomorrow is a brand new day and you never know what the tide will bring in.'

"In other words, a common mistake that people make is that they quit too soon rather than ride things out."

Perpetual marketing
Finally, Gordon notes that marketing is a never-ending process for a successful business.

Just keep it focused and keep looking for customers. That way, your company will never go through a business drought.

And your home-based business game of hide-and-seek has a great chance to turn into an entrepreneurial "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire."

Jenny C. McCune is a contributing editor based in Montana.

-- Posted: Aug. 13, 2001