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Blitz Ezine # 218 July 7th, 2003
Building profit centers part 2 - Getting the first sale

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The Blitz-Promotions News Letter.
Issue no. 218, July 7, 2003

************ In This Issue **************
Comments
Food for thought
Articles
The Classifieds
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Food for thought
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Be pleasant until ten o'clock in the morning and the rest of the day will take care of itself.
Elbert Hubbard

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Building your profit centers - Part 2
The Front end.
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The goal of your business - at least those of most businesses are to gain customers. So our aim is to either

a) Get them to purchase a product.
b) Get them to sign up for our newsletter.
c) Get them to come back and visit our site.

Once we get the customer to do one of those things, then we'll make them lifelong customers by providing a quality product, excellent customer service and making them feel important (we'll discuss more about this in future issues). The reason that we treat them so well... besides the fact that we are nice, is that we want them to be our customer as long as we have our products.

The hard thing to do is get them to act the first time, after this it becomes much easier to sell them. I read somewhere the other day that cell phone companies spend between $100 - $200+ to get a customer. Do they make that much back from them in a month or two or three? Of course not, but their goal is to make money from the long-term purchases of that customer.

I'm not suggesting that you spend that much for each customer, but hopefully you will start to take a long term view of your customer. The front end is that first purchase that will make them a life-long customer.

So what are some methods to help you get that first sale?

1. Offer some type of discount or coupon.
2. Offer a sample of your product - you may think there is no way that you could offer a sample, but I'm sure if you would think about it a bit, you can come up with one.
3. Offer a few of your products below retail - do some shopping and make sure you price just below your biggest competitors. If needed go to wholesale for the product. Again the thing is to hook them.
4. Offer an extra convenience - gift wrapping, reminder service, etc.

That should give you some ideas - go out and hook some new fish. And enjoy the Summer.

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Finding Time To Be With The Kids
by Janice D. Byer
Docu-Type
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For many parents, finding quality time with our children can be an uphill battle. Our lives are busier these days than they have ever been before, especially when both partners are working.

Our typical day consists of working eight to ten hours at our 'jobs', chauffeuring the children around to various extra curricular activities, and handling all the errands and house maintenance that needs to be done.

Sure, we all adapt to not having very much spare time, but most of us would rather be sitting down with our children reading a good book than racing around running our day to day lives.

So, how can we lighten the load enough to be able to have more time with our children?

Well, doing the shopping and cleaning the house can't be eliminated, and omitting the extra curricular activities is not an option either.

So, that just leaves work. We need to cut back on working to free up some valuable hours.

But, how do we do that? All the work needs to be done. We can't just 'not' do something.

So, why not get some help occasionally? Outsource some of the work to others who are capable of handling it. In our rapidly changing work environments, more and more independents are becoming available to help. For administrative tasks, hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can be the most effective and economical solution. These highly experienced professionals have a variety of specialties. From word processing to website development to Internet research, VAs can supply individual or a combination of office related services when you need some help. No need to hire a full or part time staff member.

No need to worry about source deductions or lost time wages. And, definitely no need to supply space and equipment for an extra body to use. VAs are generally self-employed entrepreneurs who can work with you while not actually being on your premises to do it. They have fully equipped offices and are available to help you get a handle on some of your administrative tasks ... virtually!

So, why not let someone else do some of your work for you, leaving you with more time for the important things....your children.

Janice Byer is the founder of Docu-Type Administrative Services, an off-site office assistance company that specializes in word processing, desktop publishing and website development. She invites you to visit her website
http://www.docutype.net
to learn how she can take some of your workload off your shoulders.