| Best
Ways to Build, Promote and Sustain a Retiree Business
So you have decided to set
up your own self-employed business now that you are
retired. Your best choice, as we write on Best
Retiree Job, is to work as a freelance or consultant using
the skills, knowledge and training you already have. So
after you have gone through the 7
steps of setting up your new retiree business and made the
initial phone calls, what should you do next?
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1.
Make Every Contact You Can To Promote Your New
Business. Hand out
your cards to everyone you know socially or through
business. Send email to all your personal and
professional contacts.
Make sure they know you
have a new business--and a new website--even though you retired from your previous job.
Then continue
tooting your own horn by telling every new person you
meet what your business is. Be careful, however,
not to be obnoxious about it.
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2. Show up in
Public. Attend conferences that relate to your
business. Learn about and go to other conferences where
potential new clients may be in attendance. If your
business is a local one, be sure to attend the Chamber of
Commerce. You may want to join the local Rotary or other
business group. Better yet, offer to speak on a topic
related to your business at one of the conferences or local
groups.
3. Write an
Article. One way to position yourself as an
authority is to write an article for a magazine or trade paper
and local newspaper. Better yet, write a weekly or monthly
column about a topic related to your business. Believe us,
assignments go to people who are authorities and who are
well-known--not to unknowns.
4. Publish a
Newsletter. On your website offer to send a monthly
newsletter to anyone who signs up. You can also send email to all your
personal and professional contacts asking if they want to
receive your newsletter--which will give you an instant
subscriber list. Do not send your
newsletter to anyone who does not reply to your offer. You
do not want to be seen as an annoying pest.
One tip: make your newsletter short and snappy. No
longer than the equivalent of one typewritten page. Keep
an archive of your newsletters on your website, if that is
possible without additional cost. Each newsletter should
be a separate page on your website.
| 5. Publish a White
Paper. White Papers are articles on specific topics of
interest to your prospective clients. They are not
published monthly--but perhaps once or twice a year. They
should focus on one newsworthy or controversial topic, rather than the multiple topics in a
monthly newsletter. Keep your White Papers in an archive
on your website.
6. Offer a Class.
Offer a short class on a topic related to your new company
through a local adult education program or community college
evening course to help you generate new business leads. By doing this you are positioning yourself
as an authority in your field--which is always desirable. |
| A
Real Life Retirement:
Betsy
moved to Nevada when she retired and decided to
re-establish herself as an independent insurance
agent, a business that relies greatly on
personal contacts--which she did not have in
her new community. She called the local
college and offered to give a 2 hour evening seminar on
the topic of "Women and Personal
Finances". From this class,
which she gave regularly, she developed a new client
base for her retirement years. She also
was active in her homeowners' association and
that brought more clients to her.
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7. Don't give up.
It takes persistence to start
a new business. A good reputation and a bit of luck can
help, too.
About Press Releases.
An article in a newspaper or online media can increase your
business enormously. So the impulse
to send out press releases to trade publications or other media can
be high. But this public exposure will happen only if someone at the publication actually decides to
use your news. The 7 tips we list above are things that
you control and have proven to be effective ways to promote
self-employed businesses--without relying on someone else's
decision. We suggest that you read Jay Levinson's
"Guerilla Publicity" for more information about
getting publicity for your new venture.
About Blogs.
Blogging can be incredibly time consuming. Some people use
their blogs successfully to promote their businesses, but beware
of letting yourself become so involved with your daily blog that
you quit focusing on your business. We suggest that
you read "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by
David Scott for blogging tips.
| Your
feedback and comments are welcome. If you have
experiences or ideas to share, please send
feedback now. |
NOTE: All names
on this site have been changed to protect individual privacy.
The stories are real, the names are not. |
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