Day 29: Lessons Learned

I don't know if I should be embarrassed or patting myself on the back to have already made several mistakes along the way to starting up my new business.

My first big mistake was purchasing a list to make cold calls.  When I received the list it was not of high quality in that it had several contacts at the same location.  So basically once I made contact and was routed to HR for inquiries the rest of the contacts at that location became obsolete.  I really wish I would have waited until I figured out that HR managers are probably going to be my entrance into the corporate world and then I could have probably achieved a greater response.

I sent out a marketing message to my newsletter subscribers offering them a free consultative session and no one responded.  I was then told by a marketer that that was a huge mistake to make and I should try and sell them something so blatantly.

I signed up for an appointment management system, which costs $10 a month.  I know not a lot of money but it all adds up for a new business.  I have no appointments and therefore it is pretty much a waste of time.  I plan to remove this from my website and instead encourage people to just contact me directly.  Besides the "face-to-face" contact will result in a much richer experience then signing up with an online service.

I subscribed to a local small business group that publishes a directory and holds networking events.  That has resulted in exactly zero business so far.  I'm thinking that is $299 I could have spent elsewhere on marketing.

I really didn't have a prescription for the problem or pain my clients are feeling.  Instead of putting my phone number on the front screen I had a link to an online appointment system, which contained my pricing.  Perhaps that has scared some people off, not sure.  I have since updated my homepage and I am hopeful that it will result in more leads being generated.

My new approach is to stop and think before I buy.  In fact I am not going to subscribe to anymore services until I start getting some paying clients.