First, make a commitment that every day - weekends and holidays included -you will give out five business cards. Or 5 fliers or five sales sheets or five brochures. This must always happen. If it is 11 p am at night and you have only given away 3, you had best head to an all night supermarket and find somebody to give to cards to.
The key is that it must be done every day. The first time that you do not do this, that old demon procrastination will sneak in. It is just like a New Year's resolution - if you don't carry through every day it will not turn into a habit. If you do, however, accomplish something as simple as passing out five every day, at the end of the first year at least 2000 people will know about you. Five times three hundred sixty-five is 1,825, and some of those business cards will get passed on or posted on bulletin boards.
Now for the ten, or dime part. Every business day, before you begin working, you should have a contact list drawn up . Your contact list should include at least ten people that you will contact that day. You cannot stop working that day until you have reached those ten people. By mail, e-mail, fax, phone or in person is not the real important thing.
What is important is for you to get in the habit of contacting other people. It is very easy in your own business, especially a home business, to "cocoon". To sit there fiddling with your computer display settings, wishing that the phone would ring so you would finally start making some money. If you contact ten people every business day there will be another twenty-five hundred or so people who know about you.
More importantly, you will not lose valuable contacts, friends, and prospects by lack of staying in touch. How many friends have we lost touch with, simply because we don't make the effort to stay in touch? How many valuable contacts? How much in profits?
I can just about guarantee that if you will only do the nickel and dime marketing faithfully, you will have little need for more expensive methods. At the end of one year, doing just the nickel dime marketing, at least 5,000 people will know about your business. Your clients base will continue to grow and improve and you will be well on your way.
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