Suggestions on getting my business to take off

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Suggestions on getting my business to take off

Postby PremierMedia » Sun Sep 01, 2013 7:01 am

Hello everyone, thank you in advanced for reading this. I just created a website and sample slideshow to go along with it to try to make my own business using ProShow Producer. I started out just making a slideshows for fun and I was amazed how powerful this program was and it's amazing results. So about a week ago a purchased web hosting and the domain http://www.premiermediaservices.com. I know the website does not look to professional but on the right hand side their is a sample slideshow I made and I am hoping to amaze new customers when they see it. I don't have the funds for real advertising such as Google Adwords, but I have posted an ad on Craigslist, and tired to use free advertising forums to try to get attention. I also made a Facebook fan page and a YouTube for the business in hope of attracting business. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas to get my first customer? Thank you again!

~Avery
Last edited by PremierMedia on Sun Sep 01, 2013 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Suggestions on getting my business to take off

Postby BarbaraC » Sun Sep 01, 2013 8:45 am

You might try contacting people in your area whose own business could benefit from slide shows. Photographers and funeral homes are the standard contacts. Once enough people have seen the results of your work, you might start gaining customers directly.

Before you contact anyone, however, spruce up the web site. Make it clean-looking, perhaps dropping the idea of a patterned background. Also, I'm fairly sure you've used commercial music in your sample video, and unless you have express permission to use it, you're breaking copyright law. Third, you'll want the video to be larger.

Lots of stuff to think about, right? :D

Barbara
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Re: Suggestions on getting my business to take off

Postby trulytango » Sun Sep 01, 2013 10:55 am

Hi

I would spruce up the demo by getting rid of the red eye :wink:
Windows 7 HP 64-bit, Intel i5 2500K Quad Core, 8GB RAM, 1.0GB Ge-Force NVIDIA GTX 560i, Adobe Photoshop CS5, Producer 6 (GPU Benchmark was 336, now 324), a big old Canon 20D and a funky Canon Powershot G15

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Re: Suggestions on getting my business to take off

Postby PremierMedia » Sun Sep 01, 2013 1:44 pm

BarbaraC wrote:You might try contacting people in your area whose own business could benefit from slide shows. Photographers and funeral homes are the standard contacts. Once enough people have seen the results of your work, you might start gaining customers directly.

Before you contact anyone, however, spruce up the web site. Make it clean-looking, perhaps dropping the idea of a patterned background. Also, I'm fairly sure you've used commercial music in your sample video, and unless you have express permission to use it, you're breaking copyright law. Third, you'll want the video to be larger.

Lots of stuff to think about, right? :D

Barbara


Thank you Barbara! I cleaned up the website and removed that striped background. It looks a lot better now. I also spent some time fixing all the little details on the website. I will also contact local businesses and funeral homes in hope of business. Thank you again!

~Avery

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Re: Suggestions on getting my business to take off

Postby BarbaraC » Sun Sep 01, 2013 2:06 pm

It looks SO much better!

Barbara
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Re: Suggestions on getting my business to take off

Postby silverfox » Mon Sep 02, 2013 6:17 am

Here is a short guide on starting a small business - not original but may give you some ideas.

Promoting your new business, service or product is an ongoing job, just building a website does not do-it. . If you wish to see measurable results, you must promote what you do and what you offer day in day out. This can get a little boring and at times discouraging and you don't feel like anyone is taking any notice of you, but trust me, if you keep promoting your business, product or service you will see results – (if you have a product or service your audience wants).

How do I go about promoting what I have to offer, how do I stand out from the crowd?

The answer is simple but not so easy to do! You need to do something that gains interest and that raises awareness, something outrageous and something thought provoking and somewhat different. You need to capture and keep your target markets audience. “You cannot be all things to all people.”

So how do I do this ?

First off you need to do some market research, find out what your target market read, watch, listen to and pay attention to, as there is no point trying to advertise your business, product or service to everyone as not everyone will be interested and this will be a waste of both your time and effort. Get out and research how to reach your market. Once you have done your research its time to turn those figures into sales and potential sales.

Start by writing down any ways you can think of to promote what you do, write everything down you can think of, no matter how outrageous, weird or odd it may sound, you never know it could be tweaked at a later stage and turned into an outrageous attention grabbing idea.

Here are a few ideas to what you can do to promote your business, service or product:
1. Send out some press releases
2. Offer sales incentives and promotions from 10% free to buy one et one free. (some of my contacts are even using Fiverr.com)
3. Get a website and a blog, tell everyone what you do and what you offer.
4. Produce and hand out business cards and flyers.
5. Produce a video or two for you tube, facebook and other sites, describe what you do and what you offer.
6. Produce and send out your own paper based or email based newsletter. Snail-mail still works.
7. Utilise social networking sites and groups, join them, meet new people and get networking
8. Organise and hold competitions to get others involved as well as generate more interest.

TOP TIPS: Remember to promote your business several times a day, get others to spread the news by word of mouth, and remember to be patient,, nothing will happen overnight. It is my rule that to build and maintain a successful service business you must spend at least 20% of your time marketing.

Good luck and keep us posted on your journey!

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Re: Suggestions on getting my business to take off

Postby AMD » Mon Sep 02, 2013 5:10 pm

Good luck in your endeavor, and I certainly wish you success.

It is good that you feel that you can offer a show to clients for such a low cost. Do realize, though, that you will need to offer shows that are probably rather unique and highly personalized in order to get clients . . . and that usually takes quite a bit of time, expense, and additional effort using additional resources--as well as getting the word out. One must purchase legal licenses to music, backgrounds, and elements as well as possibly access to image, music, and video editing programs. I know that I, personally, have never been able to create a show for someone approaching the low $40 range unless it was just a freebie that I did as a gift. Clients will always certainly want more than they themselves could put together using what is available to them on their computer.

I might add that you shouldn't be too disappointed if you don't have clients initially beating at your door. I know when people first hear that I create slide shows, they don't see the big deal as they throw some pictures together, add some music, and have a slide show. Then, when they see a $300-400 show that I have created in a local venue, they go "Wow"! . . . How did you do that?" However, I have put a lot of time, energy, money for resources, and creativity with several programs into the process and the end result--but no way could I charge only $40.

I do hope your new business thrives for you!

Ann

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