25 Jul Business Kickstart: The Essentials For Your Practice

Dollars spent on marketing are an investment, but like any investment, there are good ones and bad ones. To be a good investment, marketing dollars must have a positive return. A dollar spent on marketing should return more than a dollar. We have developed our Kickstart package to do such a thing!

Take a read of this article from Entrepreneur.com on what you need to get started!

Business name

It may be a good idea to hire someone who knows what they are doing, but don’t pay for an exhaustive study. A few hours of a professional’s time and a couple of brainstorming sessions should be sufficient. If not, you hired the wrong person.

Business cards

In most businesses, without cards, you won’t be credible. You may want to get some help designing your cards, but don’t spend thousands of dollars. Shop around for a fair deal.

Letterhead and printed envelopes

Our advice is to get printed envelopes, but insist that your letterhead be electronic so that you can print it yourself. We let a marketing company sell us a printed letterhead and have probably used about one sheet per year. By the way, make sure that whoever develops the electronic version of your letterhead sets things up so that pages of your communication beyond the first one look good.

Website

Every business needs a website. Most people will check out your website before doing business with you or becoming your employee. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to explain your business proposition clearly and concisely.

Email address

Your business email address should beyourname@yourcompany’sURL.com. Don’t use a Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail account. It will hurt your credibility.

Beyond these basics, don’t spend money on marketing until you know the segment of the market you are targeting and the best way to reach them. Answer these three questions:

1. Why should a prospective customer buy my product or service rather than a competitor’s?

2. Is there a segment of the market that values the thing that differentiates my offering and is it large enough to support my business?

3. How will I reach this customer segment with my marketing message?

Only after you have clear answers to these questions can you put together a marketing plan that will have a positive return on your investment.