It's all about word of mouth for me. This venue (the Sunbelt mailing lists) and another forum where I'm active kept me busy in the beginning, and then I started writing articles and business exploded.
I actually did advertise the first month or two, locally; and sent a few emails to companies that had asked about my services in the past. In my case, as far as I could see, advertising had a zero percent success rate (and therefore a zero percent ROI). Sending those emails was good about 25% of the time (which, overall, is a pretty good success rate). I've also made quite a few contacts via LinkedIn and my blog. I'm very much a "soft peddle" person when it comes to marketing. I'm not cheap, and I know that, and I've lost several bids over the years because of that. But more than once folks have come back after the first consultant screwed it up and I got to go fix it. Those tend to be VERY loyal customers. ;-) I lost money the first two months, broke even the third, and have been in positive territory ever since. I wouldn't have lost money those first two months if I hadn't spent the money on advertising. :-P Regards, Michael B. Smith Consultant and Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com From: Don Kuhlman [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 2:01 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OT - ugh! This may be out of scope for the list, but since it's been touched on, do any of our successful entrepreneurs care to share how you got your own thing going? For example, did you start out by advertising, cold calling, website, contacting head hunters for work or (all of the above)? Just curious of some successful steps that you folks took to get going. I'm thinking that after you got the ball rolling, you signed on clients for ongoing support, and then things spread through word of mouth, or how did you keep an income stream coming in at the beginning? Don K ________________________________ From: Michael B. Smith <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> To: NT System Admin Issues <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Monday, February 6, 2012 9:47 AM Subject: RE: OT - ugh! I put off starting my own business for YEARS because I was afraid of what I already knew. :-) Whereas, in retrospect, I wish I'd done it much earlier. I can think of someone else on this mailing list (who is in Alaska this week) who waited even longer than I did. :-) Regards, Michael B. Smith Consultant and Exchange MVP http://TheEssentialExchange.com -----Original Message----- From: Maglinger, Paul [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 10:28 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OT - ugh! I remember reading something awhile back stating that the reason that some "non-college educated" people were able to start successful businesses was the fact that they were not "educated" enough to realize the risks involved. An interesting thought, isn't it? -----Original Message----- From: David Lum [mailto:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>] Sent: Monday, February 06, 2012 8:33 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OT - ugh! No, you don't need a degree to start a billion dollar company, but you do need brains and a lot of hard work. Of course if it's something you love, it's not work at all it's a passion, and folks that are passionate about what they do are what you're looking for. We're better than our less passionate IT workers simply because we ENJOY the work, learning new ways to do things, learning how the mechanics of something works, and seeking out others who have the same passion. I feel I'm better at Windows administration than my fellow SE's simply because my passion for it is far higher. "Sneaking Out to Write Code: You already know how Microsoft was founded. Bill Gates and Paul Allen dropped out of college to form the company in 1975. It's that simple: Drop out of college, start a company, and become a billionaire, right? Wrong. Further study reveals that Gates and Allen had thousands of hours of programming practice prior to founding Microsoft. First, the two co-founders met at Lakeside, an elite private school in the Seattle area. The school raised three thousand dollars to purchase a computer terminal for the school's computer club in 1968. A computer terminal at a university was rare in 1968. Gates had access to a terminal in eighth grade. Gates and Allen quickly became addicted to programming. The Gates family lived near the University of Washington. As a teenager, Gates fed his programming addiction by sneaking out of his parents' home after bedtime to use the University's computer. Gates & Allen acquired their10,000 hours through this and other clever teenage schemes. When the time came to launch Microsoft in 1975, the two were ready." http://www.wisdomgroup.com/report/10000_hours_of_practice/ And another recommended read: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/a_fast_track_to_10000_hours_of.html Dave. ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to [email protected] with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
