DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR SUCCEEDING?ARTICLES BROUGHT TO YOU BYCHUCK'S MAIL ORDER NEWS & OPPORTUNITIES |
By Chuck Rollason
DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR SUCCEEDING?.
I remember when I first started in my small mail order business it seemed like almost every article that I read about how to operate a small mail order business touted that I just had to have a business plan for my mail order business to become successful. That scared the pants off me.. As many businesses as I had been in I had never started with a formal business plan. I made them into a success though trial and error and a heck of a lot of hard work. Now, all of a sudden I need some kind of "high-faluten" business plan for my small mail order business to become successful. Well, as far as I was concerned that was a bunch of baloney! Well, since that time, (seems like a million years ago), I know you don't need a formal business plan, but some plan will be very helpful of insuring a success for your business. Personally I hate business plans, they scare me some.. all I think about is huge plans so in case the IRS or the bank needs to see my "Plan" I'll have something to show them.. Well, thank goodness they are not a complete necessity.
I suggest that you start with a small plan that will help insure at least a nice sized step of success in your business. Here's an idea.. We all know that you must be persistent to show any gain in this business. This means persistence in advertising regularly, mailing regularly, answering your mail and sending your inquiries and orders in a timely manner. Let's start with a small mailing program that will "force" you to do your mailings each day or weekly… What I did was start my first adsheet and guarantee that 200 copies would be shipped by first class mail each month. I would send the other 800 copies to 3 or 4 mailers and pay them to distribute them by bulk mail, but I still had to send out the other 200 by first class which meant that I had to get out at least 50 mailings each week. This meant that I had to get about 3½ more sheets to mail along with it as I didn't want to "waste" a mailing with just 1 piece in it. This meant that I had to "plan", (there it is again!), my mailings. I had to pick some circulars that I thought people may buy something from that would help me recover some of my mailing expenses. But make money or not, the mailings HAD to go out! I had to get at least 1,000 copies of each circular printed at a time, to keep plenty in stock for my mailings, and I could switch off with another if something wasn't "moving".
Now I know you won't have to get that radical… you know, like starting an adsheet just to make sure you do your mailings, but in my case it worked. It helped me build a customer base, my adsheet advertising, and ultimately my whole mail order business. Just vowing to and then mailing 10 pieces each and every day will insure you of some success in your own mail order business! 'til next time. … Chuck
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