A low-cost selling strategy

Telemarketing was a very good strategy to sell products from big and small companies as well. But this was 15 years ago. Even thought there are not as effective as they used to be telemarketing agents can bring you nice profits. The phone bills will be a small amount to pay when you will have high profits.


I will give some advices regarding telemarketing strategies and methods:



1) Don`t try to sell products over 1000 $, they will be practically impossible to sell, try products under 200 $

2) Try to simple products that the costumer could understand the description over the phone, complex products are not likely to be sold

3) Using telemarketing you can study the market and the trend, you can anticipate the trend and come up with new products that will satisfy your customers

4) Telemarketing will not work if it is your only product for your marketing campaign, try combining it with other marketing techniques

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Costume rentals | Business Ideas

Has anyone wished to be Superman or Batman, Snow white or a ballerina when they were kids? Now they can by dressing up. This business idea is a niche business idea, that in some countries other that U.S. or UK is unexploited.



This type of business would not need a big investment from you. For starters if you don’t have a lot of money to invest, you could do a website from where you can rent your costumes. When the business is starting to go well, you can rent a spate to place the shop.


Halloween in becoming a global celebration and everyone wants to rent costumes and have some fun.


For not depending only on the month of October (Halloween) you can rent costumes to multinational companies or to local companies that have costume parties, or parties with themes. They make a lot of parties across the year. Private parties or masquerades can also bring you nice profits. You can also rent tuxedos or evening dresses for special occasions.

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Garden landscaping | Business Ideas

A small business idea that can get you high profits since the first month. A business like this cam be started with just 1000 euro (1500 $). The hard part in this business is that you find your first client, because, after that, he will recommend you to other people. Word of mouth is great in this business



Garden landscaping is a great business to start if you live in an area that has a very active real – estate market, with lots of homes. You don’t have to buy, at first, a lot of equipment, buy just the necessary, and if you need a special type of equipment, just rent it.

You can start with just a couple of workers, and then after you get more orders you can hire more, part –time. It will be great if you can make a deal with a real-estate developer in the area to recommend you to their clients, I’m sure that it will boost up your business.

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We will buy your groceries for you | Business Ideas

This business idea addresses to entrepreneurs that want to enter the niche of busy people. I have discovered that people are so busy that they have no time for buying their groceries.


So, they make a list of what they want to buy, and send you the list by email or by SMS, and you will do the shopping for them, of course for certain fee. You will deliver their groceries at home, when they are available, with the cash recite.



The best way to make your service known is by word of mouth.


Just think of how easy it is for you to earn money. If you have 10 clients in one day, you make just one trip to the supermarket, and problem solved. It will take you maximum 2 hours to buy everything and another 2 hours in the evening to deliver the goods.

source of photo: www.insidesocal.com

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Towing company | Business Ideas

I know that this isn’t the most interesting business idea that I presented so far but it is a profitable one. This kind of business is very good to start if your country has a good economic growth and the registration of cars is growing year by year. To that I must add that if your country has bad roads this is a plus :), (I thought I would never hear myself say that).


To start such a business you won’t need much money, but the profitability will depend on your capability to make the company known. That means a web site, flyers, word of mouth, ads in car services, partnerships with car services, or why not make an agreement with the local police (they recommend you to car owners that suffered an accident and in return you tow their police cars for free if they have problems).


To keep the costs to a minimum you can start the business by using second hand cars and platforms (in the future you can buy new ones). A second hand vehicle costs around 15.000 euro (19.000 $) and the second hand platform about 2000 - 5000 euro (2800 - 7000$).


You have to be very careful when you put a car on the platform, especially if it is new, so you don’t scrape the paint. Usually to avoid such situations you will have to make an agreement with a local insurance company.


The prices are usually between 0.50 - 1 euro / km (0.7 - 1.4$ / km). The profits are pretty good if you manage to transport about 30 cars a month. Also you can make profits by transporting boats or other machines that need special care. You can sell ad space on the car, there are insurance companies or services that would like to buy add on your car.


But unfortunately this business has some weak points - price of gas and the congestion in the big cities.

source of photo: www.ahtowing.com

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Is it good or not to enter on a competitive market?

A few days ago a friend of mine said that he wanted to bring on the market a new product, that in other countries was a success, but on our market it hasn`t been sold before. He was so excited, that I was a little bit of sad when I had to ask him the next question: “Did you think why that product is not yet on our market?” It’s a very thought decision that you will have to make.


Every situation has ups and downs.


Let’s take for the first example the situation when your company enters a market that is very competitive. You will need many resources, quality products, good prices and a good marketing strategy to success. But because that are so many companies in that segment of the market it means that those services or product have a high demand in the market, and that is very good.


In the second example, when you decide to bring a new product or a new service on the market you will have to put yourself the question “Why does this product is not on the market?” Maybe some other people found out that there was no demand, it didn`t bring high profits, the necessary investment was too big. On the other side if you come out on the market with a new product that is a hit, you will make money very quickly and profits will be very good as well.

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5 mistakes that managers frequently do

1. They don’t have well defined purposes – As a manager you will always have to have clear objectives. If you, a manager, don’t have a purpose in the company, how would you expect your employees to have one?

2. You are not organized - If you are not organized, you will lose important documents, you will lose client data and won’t find what you need in time

3. You are too conservative - Try to think out of the box, try to bring innovation in the company.

4. You don’t assume responsibility for your mistakes - When things are not going as you wanted to, it’s easier to blame someone else for your mistakes, but a true lieder always takes responsibility for his actions.

5. You don’t know how to assign jobs – You have to be efficient and assign the right jobs to the right people that would do the their work in as little time as possible.

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Sending cards, a profitable business | Business Ideas

The business idea concept is a very simple one, you send cards from people who are to busy to do it themselves. Let’s say business people, that are always very busy and don’t find time to send a card to a business partner. Your company will come in help, and send cards from them.


Practically you don’t need any money to start this type of business, ok, you need some, to register the company, but that is it, you can work from homeTo offer a complete service you can write a nice greeting for them, make a beautiful signature and use a very special envelope. But be careful and not send the same greeting more than once, you never know how business people can meet and discuss about a beautiful greeting card that they received from your client


As business people keep getting busier, a service like this can come in handy; after all, a nice business card can make a business relation stronger.

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Painted chairs, a new business opportunity

This could be an interesting business idea if you think that you could start it with a small amount of money and doesn’t need much effort to make it work. In Greece this type of chairs are sold with about 50 euro (70$), but they could reach 150 euro (220$) depending on the model and the type of wood that it is being used.



The initial investment will be around 3000 euro (4300$), money with witch you will have to buy special wood paint, brushes, wood and a wood cutting machine. The design doesn’t have to be complicated, but it’s a good thing if it has to have live colours.


People who buy this type of chairs are people with medium income, who have kids, or just want something colourful in their home. You can give them away as gifts for your friends and family. Maybe you could sell the chairs to a kinder garden and make cartoon designs to it. To keep the costs as low as possible, you don’t need a classic shop to sell your chairs; you could make an online shop, and sell the chairs all over the world.


To make the chairs popular you don’t have to invest large sums of money, you could make a web site, send companies e-mails and give flyers on the street. Also you could hire Art students to make their own designs and split the profits, even if it a small business you have lots of possibilities in selling them.


With all that said, I wish you good luck.

source of photo : www.tripcart.typepad.com

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5 ways to take your business to the next level

Until now you have tried to make your business profitable with steady growth rate. Now when you have passed the first stage in business and have made a successful business is time to expand and take it to the next level. Here are some pointers that could guide you with your expansion:

Expand with another location – First of all make sure that you can financially support a new location. Don’t rush into renting one that is cheaper; find a location that matches your business needs.

You can invest into new domains – Domains that have a connection with your current business or domains that are completely new. For this you have to do a lot of market research.

You can target other markets – Make new products that are destined to other markets, and match consumer’s needs. In this way you can increase rapidly your revenues. But be careful with the market research, it has to be correct.

Franchise your business – In this way you can increase you brands awareness with minimal costs. Be careful, so those who buy your license keep your high standards.

Buy a business - If you want do diversify your portfolio, you can buy a business. In this way you have a client database, already established. The hard part will be to merge the two companies together.

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What do you do with a product that is not selling?

You spend a lot of money and time in the research of a new product and when you get it out on the market, it doesn`t sell as much as you waned, what do you do? Well, you have two options:


1. You change something : design, price
2. You get it out of the market – in the world 30 % of new products are taken out of markets within the first year.


I would suggest a combination: get the product out of the market, is much more cheaper and doesn`t involve as much risks, and then when you revise your marketing strategy and position the product better, with small modifications you release the product again. This strategy is called: “turnaround strategy”, it is believed that a brand restyling is cheaper than launching a new product.

The product must have something new, to attract more clients and to satisfy new needs, people won’t buy a product that has old features. But be careful you could launch a much more innovative product that the market is demanding, you could be ahead of your time, and that is not good either.

Every product has a life cycle, from the day he is launch till the day it is no longer produced. Usually engineers and designers begin work on a new product with a couple of years before launching. In the car industry they start working on a new project before the latest model is launched.

So try to stay in front of your competition, but not in front of your customers.

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On call car paint shop | Business Ideas

I know that you are angry when you see that your car has been scratched in the parking lot. A little scratch can make your car lock badly and you will want to repaint the part that has been scratched. But when you go to a paint shop, and see how muck trouble you have to put up to repaint a little scratch, you give up and leave it like it is.


I give you a business idea that comes for this problem; it’s an opportunity for business.


The paint shop comes to you. For little scratches, you can call a company, and they will come and paint your car at your home, or office or right there in the parking lot with a spray, a brush or an aerograph, depending on the scratch. They could make the car color on site, so there are no discrepancies between colors. It is easier, cheaper and doesn’t take for ever to fix it. In 30 minutes the scratch is history.


I think that many people will become clients of yours, because you will save them time and money.

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10 ways to save your business from bankruptcy - Part 2

This is a continuation of my post 10 ways to save your business from bankruptcy


6. Don`t ignore your competitors mistakes - usually in business publication you can only read about successful entrepreneurs and successful businesses, nobody writes about bankrupt businesses because that kind of business doesn`t sell the paper. Try to get in touch with business owners that got bankrupt and ask their advice, I know it is hard to do that but try it; it will help you a lot.


7. Having lots of clients – I know that sound normal, but think of those companies that have exclusive contract with just one client. In the beginning they will think that is going to be easy dealing with just one client, especially if it is a long term contract. But what if your “big” client decides to end the contract because you are not doing your job right? What would you do then?


8. Always get the experts opinion – Most times business people avoid asking business advices from certified companies, because they say it is a waste of money. But trust me a good certified opinion may save you a lot of money, even after you pay the experts fee.


9. Keep in touch with the latest technologies that go around your business – you will lose many clients and most important your competitors will go in front of you if you use the same old products or services.


10. Be careful when you launch new products – if you launch on the market new products that need a lot of recourses from your company make sure that you have studied that market very well and taking in consideration the risks. If the product is not a success your company may have lots of financial problems.

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How to sell

Try not to sell the product, try to sell the experience, the feeling. The item is just a pretext; you sell the experience to your client. If you are a Bentley dealer, you don`t sell a car, you sell the sensation of luxury. Let`s take another example: People who get sophisticated phones, but they have nothing to do with all those features, they just want to seem important and busy. You don` buy a Rolex because it`s a very good watch, you buy one because you want to show the whole world that you are rich.



You should be asking yourself two questions before you sell something:


1) What am I selling?
2) Why would anyone buy my product?


The great psychologist Abraham Maslow made a pyramid of 5 needs that people should be satisfied with.

1. Physiological needs – food , water
2. Security needs – a job, medical insurance
3. Social needs – friend, co-workers
4. Ego needs – respect, responsibility
5. Self accomplished needs – achieving in life

For a sell to take place a certain need from the Maslow pyramid should be satisfied, and before you make you offer it is very important to understand what kind of need motivates the client to buy.

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