Finding Customers for Your Home Based Business

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Mar 17, 1998

Finding Customers After receiving numerous personal requests for information about finding customers, this week's article was born. It seems to be a pressing issue that all entrepreneurs face, especially those of us still in the start up phases. However, it needs to be mentioned that none of the following suggestions are set in stone. Use them, abuse them, alter them, adapt them, change them, trash them! Do whatever needs to be done for you to prosper from them, and grow your business's clientele.

Who are your potential customers?

The first thing that you need to do to enlarge your customer base is to write a list of all of the types of people they would consist of, and places that they would frequent that would benefit from your services and/or products. Be creative! Ask your friends and family what they think. Would they use your services? Do they know anyone who could, or would? Write them down on the list. Once you think that you have exhausted all of your ideas, put it somewhere accessible (I put mine on my fridge) and leave it for a couple of days. Give yourself at least a week to consider every possibility, as this is the most important step.

For example, a list for a word processing business might include:

other work at home parents
students at college, university
newsletter for your child's school, church, sports team, spouse's work, etc.
newsletter for a non-profit organization
job hunters (resumes)

Whatever you do, do not intentionally delete any one or thing just because you think that it will not be profitable. Just brainstorm, and let the ideas flow.

Target Your Potential Customers

Take this list, as tattered as it probably is by now, and take it with you to your local library. Your purpose? To discover any more organizations, groups, businesses or individuals that may need your products/services. How? Talk to the librarian. He or she can direct you to the pamphlets, newsletters, magazines and other resources from your local area. You'd be surprised at how many leads you can get just by doing this.

For example, a web site designer might find:

list of local BBS's in a computer newsletter
article about getting your business on the Web in a local magazine
information package given to local businesses from the Welcome Wagon
yellow pages created by local Better Business Bureau
local school board's listing of courses offered (and you notice that there is nothing about learning how to create a web page!)

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