How to go to Work for Yourself with a Home-Based Business

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Pretty soon, these initial "loss leader" contacts will turn into customers and business accounts, and you'll compile a valuable list of "steadies".

There's a name for a list like that-it's called "goodwill"-and it will rapidly become a growing part of your company's actual value. In fact, it's not at all uncommon to learn that when a company changes hands, the value placed on goodwill amounts to half-or more-of the total asking price.

Because your "family" of customers is such an important and valuable asset, you must keep careful records of the names and addresses of the really good clients who have come back to you repeatedly. (Incidentally, that's one reason why charge accounts are so popular among so many retailers . . . not only do the accounts make paying more convenient and help the "impulse" buyer to decide, but they form a record without any extra effort!)

As you build your list of preferred customers, use it. Alert those buyers to new merchandise offers, special sales (and don't be afraid to try sales restricted to "repeat" customers only), and to any special events (a new expansion, remodeling, etc.) you have coming up.

If you're in a service business, one source of advertising material that you can draw on is a library of photos of work you've done in the past. After all, writers keep carbon copies of what they do. . . so why shouldn't a bricklayer have a good visual record of every chimney he or she has ever put up?

A form of free advertising that too many small-business people overlook is the "human interest" story about their business that they can provide to a local radio or TV station or newspaper. (In other words, be your own "PR man", "publicist", and "promoter".)

Remember, though, that the less heavy the "salesmanship" is in any publicity presentation, the more likely it will be to attract the attention of both the communications media and potential customers. Use some anecdotes that will interest people, explain some differences between "myth" and fact in your field, provide a little "how-to" message, and generally share your enthusiasm for your business with the audience. Such an approach works!

DOING MORE (WORK) WITH LESS (SPACE, TOOLS, ETC.)

One of the more than 200 I'm-my-own-boss people I talked to across North America while writing this book was a fellow named Dick Holbrook. Now, Holbrook has been in business at various trades for 20 ,years andduring that period-he's been the business manager for a Vermont college, worked as a chef, managed a small hotel, and-when I caught up with him-was a director of the Appleyard Corporation in Calais, Vermont . . . a small mail-order recipe business that Holbrook has turned into a community industry!

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