Feel I've hade a HUGE mistake!

TurnaroundSue

Like Jaydani, I too purchased a franchise 9 months ago and up to the end of this financial year will have made a £2k loss. It is really hard, especially as you still have your monthly franchise fee to pay and the cost of advertising is extortionate. I too was promised great returns, but these are not yet forthcoming - can't really see how they will be neither now that I have been doing it a while, but am determined to stick in there (not alot of choice really as am tied in for 5 years!!), and hope in years to come I can look back and say 'remember when I started out and we didn't have any money etc, etc'

Good luck with your new business Iday77, it is really tough, but it takes one hell of alot of self motivation to keep going when the easiest thing in the world is to throw in the towel - the hardest thing is sticking with it!!!

lday77

Hi Everyone

Thanks for all you support, I just thought I'd give you a quick update. Since cold calling last week I got two customers who agreed to meet with me one of whom I went to see this week with some designs which he loved, so he has recommended me to two other companies!

Also yesterday someone I phoned last week actually phoned me back which I didn't expect at all and I am meeting with them next week to show them my portfolio.

It's true that you only get out what you put in, I am feeling much more positive now, my diary for next week is almost full with existing work and these new leads...I know I need to do a lot more contacting but it definitely does work and now I know it does, I don't feel so !!!!!! about doing it.!

BlondeHeadOn

That's great news lday77, I'm so pleased for you! Once you get the recommendations rolling, you will be away - better than free advertising.

With very best wishes,

:T :T :T

Savvy_Sue

Great news!

lday77 wrote:

Also yesterday someone I phoned last week actually phoned me back which I didn't expect at all

Do try not to sound surprised if / when people do this! :rotfl: Even if you are!

gonzo10

Have you joined your local Business Link and Chamber of Commerce? Lots of networking opportunites through them. You could also ask Business Link to recommend you to startup businesses.

Somebody mentioned offering printing services aswell, I can let you have details of some very competitive printers if you wish.

Gonzo

enor

I hate doing sales calls as well, I always get to a certain point and run out of steam. The call always seems to end with me apologizing, rather than a sale.

I've decided to give up on this approach all together, now I just call a company and ask for the name of the relevant person. I then send a sales letter out that ends with a promise of a phone call in a few days. I find it much easier to talk about the points on the letter when I make the next call than trying to sing my own praises in the first place. The main benifits of this approach are:

a) If the individual is not interested in you the likelyhood is you'll be fobbed of when making the second call (i.e. put through to an answerphone or hung up on!). Therefore, if you do get through you to the right person you'll be halfway there already and so the call is less scary.

b) You can hope that even if the company is not interested in your services at the moment they may keep your letter for future reference. (Yes, I know most of them probably end up in the bin)

There are obvious downsides to this aproach and the major one is the lower success rate, although for me this negated by the fact that I can get through more people in a day.

This works for me because I'm calling hotels mainly and I know the job title of the person I want my letter going to, I thought I'd share this because I was in the same situation last year but managed to claw my way out.

John_Gray

Might I echo the comments about website spelling? I do proofreading as a hobby (!), and the misspelling of "occasional" just jumped out at me. And even more so when the magnified version had a different misspelling!

I hope everything continues to go well for you!

John

bbruce

John_Gray wrote:

Might I echo the comments about website spelling? I do proofreading as a hobby (!), and the misspelling of "occasional" just jumped out at me. And even more so when the magnified version had a different misspelling!

I hope everything continues to go well for you!

John

I agree too.
I used to make a good living proofreading as mistakes jump out at me without having to read all the words!
Errors such as 12:00pm, commas used for plurals and "it's" for "it is" are rife these days as spellcheckers accept them.
Adverts and solicitations with incorrect spelling and grammar put me right off.
These days "phonetic" spelling has become more acceptable but I take the somewhat old-fashioned view that if they can't be bothered to get that bit right, where else have they cut corners?
Keep up the good work!

competitionscafe

I have only used them as a buyer of services (not as a seller) but have had good results from sites like elance.com., rentacoder and other similar sites. You will be competing for jobs with people in other countries who can / are willing to do work for very low rates but if you emphasize quality over cost you should be able to find some work that way?

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/ as suggested is also good for networking as well as general help and advice.

Gingham_Ribbon

bbruce wrote:

I used to make a good living proofreading as mistakes jump out at me without having to read all the words!

Hiya.

I think this is something I could get into. How did you go about it if you don't mind me asking?