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How I Build My Business

Written by: Donald F. Pooley

Article Overview: The good news is it isn't as difficult and you might think.

How I Build My Business

The good news is it isn't as difficult and you might think.
Not only do I get in front of a lot of the right people, but they generally will come to the office during the day rather than me having to go to their homes at night.
Every orphan policyholder assigned to me gets a letter of introduction and a questionnaire asking them to tell us what their priorities and concerns are. About 5% return it.
Twice a year each of our clients gets another letter, (not a newsletter), an actual letter, with another questionnaire, and generally the letter will have something in it.
For example, the 'Spring cleaning' letter includes a package of flower seeds to plant. In the summer, 'Have a cool one on us' includes a package of Kool-Aid. And in the fall we send out the 'Take a break on us' letter with a tea bag.
Do you know who those people call or send their kids to see when they need insurance? You guessed it! Me!!
We telephone all our clients at least once a year, and send our 'A' clients a birthday card, where we also ask them for referrals, "If you are happy with our service tell us who we should talk to".
So what does that add up to?
An annual investment of about $5 per client and a bit of time. Yet every year for the past ten my income has increased with this small amount of effort.
I still sell a ton of term insurance, as it is important to protect young families and provide cash at death to pay off their mortgages. I also sell whole life and universal life.
And the best thing about this business is I get to convert all that term to permanent over the next ten years. What could be better than that?
This is the greatest business in the world, and many of us are squandering our opportunities by not aiming high enough, and not giving the kind of service to our clients that they deserve.
Colin J. Campbell CFP, CLU, CHFC, Partner, Kootenay Valley Financial, in Cranbrook, BC, specializing in estate, and succession planning for family held businesses. Long standing ADVOCIS member, Past President Kootenay Chapter and current BC representative to the Chapter Advisory Council.

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Re: Great start, but no finish - My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
How do you know if you have a good idea? - [quote="orxan":3118uboz]My advise is FOCUS on your business. Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy. Concept is simple. 1- Have a good idea; 2- Build your business on it; 3- Monetize your business; 4- Promote it; 5- Build list of responsive customers; 6- Maintain You Business. Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW. Orxan[/quote:3118uboz] Thanks orxan! But how do you know if you truly have a good idea or not? If we ask ourselves, we may be suffering from tunnel vision. On the other hand, friends/family may try to discourage us from pursuing a small business because of their own fears, while others will simply give us an empty "you can do it!" line.
Re: How to do Link Building? - Be diligent. Build blogs.Pay attention to the contents.
Re: Are Business Owners too Old School to be Sold by a blog - I think this question needs to be redefined. Is it the the senior demographic that you're posing this question to? There is a wide range of business owners young and old. Some of the older folks can grasp the quick changes occurring on the net and go with the flow, while others have lost interest. I see blogs as next generation websites... they are superior than websites in so many ways. Sophisticated webmasters are cloaking their blogs to look like websites, so it's hard to discern whether it's even a blog, yet it has all the great functionality of a blog. Business owners need to embrace the internet regardless of their industry. Currently, I see the ideal combination looking like this: Build a static website, add a navigation link to a 'current news' feature or the like, which is your blog, and get the best of both worlds. Or as I said, build a blog that looks like a website. Finally - If the Marketing message is well done, then I don't see why it shouldn't be effective regardless of the format.


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