Ummm, good idea Jodith. I will create something simple but professional to send out to businesses to introduce myself and my business. I will use the business directory that I have seen here in Memphis. Not the yellow pages but a directory of small businesses.

I will update you guys on the progress.

Pamela

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Pamela
CMB Business Solutions www.cmbbusiness.com

If you live in a rural area as I do then go ahead and visit the companies. That seems to be the norm here as opposed to the "big city" where it would not be welcome. I prefer sending postal mail instead of email so as not to get lost in the shuffle.

I get a business paper that lists all new dba/llc and I send them a card congratulating them and letting them know that office organization is the key to success.

Have you gone to F2F networking events? You can hone your pitch there while making great potential contacts.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant

Jodith here is a list of members of your local Chamber of Commerce http://www.bellingham.com/membership/searchChamber.asp. Just click the search button to see them. You might consider working your way down the list sending to a few each week. I personally wouldn't send to all at the same time as you don't want to be in the COC's bad books if they get a complaint.

Good Luck!

Lynne

Thanks for the link, Lynne!

At this point I'm using a mailing list because I want to specifically target small businesses. With Experian, I can target by number of employees and yearly gross sales. I've targetted my list for businesses with 4 or less employees and between $500k and $1 mil in gross sales per year to start (the min $500K was to weed out those with a business license who hadn't really started business). That alone has over 6000 names on the list, just for Whatcom County. I had no idea how many small businesses there were around here.

Anyway, Experian charges $100 per 1,000 names, so I'm going to purchase it in chunks of 1,000. Their's was the only one I found that would let you split list into chunks to purchase.

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Jodith Allen
Administrative Arts

Originally Posted by jeanvis

Has anyone ever hand delivered materials to small business owners in your area? I don't want to email because I feel it can easily be dismissed and my husband pointed out that some may think of it as spam and delete immediately. It seems as tough it would get quite expensive to pay postage on all the packets I would want to send out - so I though maybe hand delivering. Has anyone done this? Is it not a good idea? What are your thoughts? I'm going to be needing some new clients soon as my personal friends are having to cut back on work due to their businesses not being as profitable as usual.

I hand deliver brochures, business cards directly to owners and managers. This allows me to meet the people in my area and tell them about my services. Since this is something new to my area I have to do a lot of "training" and teaching of what a VA is. I usually go out every Tuesday and Thursday.

Andrea~

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Action Jackson Virtual Assistant|

Wow! This is so inspirational! Thanks you guys. I also got names and addresses off the Chamber of Commerce site for free. That is smart, though, to be more specific in targeting businesses making more money per year. I sent out 15 letters last week and have now heard back from two. One emailed a nice response saying no thanks and the other said they are hiring for a part-time assistant internally and asked me if I want to be considered. So I'm feeling hopeful that mailing letters is a good idea.

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Lindsay
www.writingthatsizzles.net

I heard something the other day (news?) that said that in San Diego, California, that about 90% of all businesses were small business owners. Wow! I didn't realize it was such a high number either.

Do businesses making a million bucks a year need a VA? With that kind of revenue they have an in house exec assistant and when there's an overload that person just works lots of (usually unpaid) overtime ... been there, done that. My clients have always been the small outfits and one-man-bands who couldn't afford to employ a full time crack Exec assistant but seek such help on an hourly as-needed affordable basis.

Lynne

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The Wordpro Wizard
www.wordprowizard.com

I also agree and like the idea of mailing out a simple letter with a business card to introduce the business and services offered. If and when a response is received then I will send other materials such brochures, rates, etc. I will follow-up with a phone call after I think they have received it and take it from there.

Barbara Cooper
Preferred Virtual Services
www.preferredvas.com

I only did one "old-fashioned" mailing. I sent letters and business cards to 100 companies in my area. I didn't get any responses, but I like to think that they are holding on to my business card/contact information, and will be giving me a call soon

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Kathy
www.theofficevirtuoso.com