Newspaper Ads
Small classified ads in your local newspaper or community shopper are very affordable and can pay for themselves with just one new recruit. Using classifieds helps get the word out about your business opportunity every week.

Flyers
Many local businesses such as laundromats, thrift shops, and grocery stores, provide community bulletin boards where you can post information about your opportunity. Create a small flyer or a page with tear-off tabs containing your contact information and post them where permitted. You might also get permission to leave flyers at your local library, trade schools, daycare, and coffee shops. Be sure to keep track of where you posted your information and check back regularly to replenish them.

Networking Groups
Join local networking groups, including your chamber of commerce. If you can’t find a local networking group, start your own. They’re easy to operate and you may be surprised how many other small and home-based business owners might be looking for just such an opportunity to promote their own businesses.

Community Job Fairs
Community job fairs are usually well-attended. Set up a booth where you can hand out brochures, answer questions about your business opportunity, and collect contact information and email addresses for you mailing list. Consider holding a drawing for a free gift as a means of gathering potential leads to add to your mailing list and to create goodwill.

Create Interesting Recruiting Bags and Gifts
Fill a clear plastic bag or gift bag with a few fun and informative items such as a brochure, an opportunity CD or DVD, a sample product and your business card. You might also add other clever items such as a $100,000 or Payday candy bar or a copy of your last commission check. Add some colorful shredded paper and seal the bag with a decorative label that lists your contact information. Always keep a few recruiting gift bags with you to hand out to prospective recruits at networking events, home parties, and any other time you can.

Always be on the look out for opportunities to share your business and build your team.

How do you recruit in your local community? Please leave a comment to share your ideas.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Tips to Build Your Direct Sales Team with Offline Recruiting

Are you still interacting online with a username that hides your identity or are you using your real name? Have you gone so transparent that everyone knows who you are, what you’re doing, and where you are all day, everyday?

Last week’s release of Facebook Places produced a whole new flurry of discussion about social media and Internet privacy. And frankly, I’m confused.

When I first got started online (more than twelve years ago), most people tried to be anonymous and maintain privacy. I think many were like me – fearful of who would be getting our private information and what they’d do with it. While there are still people whose identity is well hidden online, I think many others have gone way too far over to the other side.

Not only are people using their real names and sharing photos of themselves and their families, but now many are using applications that announce their whereabouts to the world.

Personally I don’t want strangers to know whether or not I’m home, at the coffee shop down the street, or cruising the Caribbean. To me, it’s a safety issue. Did you see the site PleaseRobMe.com? The site no longer post tweets that announce users’ locations; now they are trying to raise awareness of potential dangers of announcing when you’re away from home.

Plus, I just don’t understand the need to tell anyone besides my immediate family where I am.

But that’s me.

At the same time many are sharing their every move online, I think most people would say that they highly value privacy and don’t want their private information shared. Perhaps we have a false sense of security because we use privacy settings to determine who can see what we post. Or perhaps we’ve just given in because the “bad guys” seem to be able to get our information no matter how much we try to protect it.

I’m pretty middle of the road when it comes to what I share online. I use my real name, and I post my picture, and I’m sure other information about me is pretty readily available. But I don’t post much about my family, and I don’t share my exact location or announce when I’m going on vacation.

I’m still of the mind that if you post it online, it’s available to the world. If I don’t want the world to know, I keep it to myself.

How important is privacy to you? How much Internet privacy do you want and how much information are you willing to share?

[Image courtesy of Faithful Chant.]

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Anonymous vs Too Much Information

Here are three important steps to help you do just that:

1 – Engage your audience. Once you know who your ideal customer is the next step is to really engage them. Have you noticed how some people can have many, many friends yet each friend feels as though they are the most important friend to that person? It takes a real knack to accomplish this on and offline, but if you can then you are well on your way to building a strong relationship with your audience.

One way to accomplish this online is by writing in a way that implies you are speaking to only them. Write in a friendly, clear tone appropriate for your chosen market. Share some information about yourself if necessary to let your customers know that you understand their needs and situation. A good tip is to write as though you were chatting to a good friend over coffee.

2 – Know their motivation. People are motivated by different things. When you do your market research an important point to focus on is what motivates your target prospect to act – in other words to buy something. Some people are motivated by social status, others want to feel good about themselves while others simply want to feel part of something.

By knowing the motivation trigger of your target market, you’ll know how to communicate in a way that gets better results. You can also cater your products and services to help your ideal prospect resolve their problems. A win/win situation for all involved.

3 – Take a “real” approach. Online people do business with people they like and feel a connection with. You can accomplish this by taking a personal and “real” stand with everything you do. If you’re a small business say so. Let people know a little about you, your business, why you started it and so on. If you have a family then it’s fine to say so too. In other words, be “real.”

People will appreciate that you are a real person and not just some entity flowing in cyberspace. Connect with your customers in a similar way you would with a neighbour or friend. This is one of the best ways to build a strong connection with your audience. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you do this in a professional manner but with a little practice getting the balance right isn’t difficult.

Connecting with your target audience means better profits, long-term customers and the satisfaction of running a business which helps people. It’s really worth taking the time to do this right from the beginning and you’ll reap the benefits for years to come.

And if you’re looking for a great tool to help make building a website that helps you connect with your market effortlessly, try the Internet Based Family Easy Website Builder. It includes online support and full training to help you build a profitable website from the ground up – no technical or previous experience required!

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
How to Really Connect with your Target Market

When you set out to network, you may be thinking about the benefits you will receive, such as new clients and increased business. To get the most out of your networking, however, you need to build trust and relationships between the people you are networking with. The following are some tips to help you in this process.

1. Be Genuine

Always be genuine and authentic when you are networking. The people you are networking with need to get to know you in order to trust you. If they do not feel that you are being yourself, they may be wary of forming a relationship with you.

2. Determine Your Goals

What do you want out of your networking experience? Do you want to make contacts, learn new skills or something else? Do you want to network locally or via the Internet? Knowing what you want will help you determine which groups are best for you to join.

3. Join Several Groups

Joining several groups will help you broaden the spectrum of your networking relationships. To create a wide networking circle, you may want to join both local and online groups.

4. Give It Time

It may take time to build up a network of business associates. Keep participating in the group and get to know people. Relationships take time to develop.

5. Ask Open-ended Questions

When having a conversation with someone from your networking group, ask open-ended questions instead of questions that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”. This will keep the conversation flowing and let people know you are interested in them.

6. Help Others

Position yourself as a powerful resource by helping others. Share leads and referrals with those in your networking group. The people you help will appreciate your efforts and return the favor.

7. Ask for Referrals

Make sure the people in your networking group know what you do for a living. Ask them for referrals. A referral is the name of someone who is in need of your services. A referral is a “hot lead”; the person who gives you the referral should call the referral and let them know you will be getting in touch with them. While some people may automatically give you referrals, that won’t always be the case. If you don’t ask for them, you may not receive them.

8. Follow Up

When you are given a referral, follow up in a timely manner. Call or email the referral as soon as possible and let them know who you are, the name of the person that referred you to them, and the services you offer. The referral will surely report back to the referrer; if you did not handle yourself professionally, you won’t be getting any more referral from that person.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
Tips for Effective Networking

When you increase your circle of influence offline, this opens up new possibilities for your business. You may meet someone in need of your services, or someone who will recommend your services to others.

Here are some things you can do to expand your circle of influence or warm market.

Join Clubs and Organizations
You can increase your circle of influence offline by joining networking groups, clubs, and other organizations. Some examples would be your local Chamber of Commerce and the American Business Women’s Association. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to the other members. They are all there to network and grow their businesses, too.

Take Classes:
You can also meet new people by taking a class. You can take a class at your local college or check into a hobby-type class such as knitting or French cooking. If you are a parent you have the opportunity to meet many new people every day at the park and your children’s school. Get to know the parents of your children’s friends.

Volunteer:
Volunteering is another great way to meet new people. You can also get to know people by frequenting the same places often. If you get coffee every day at around the same time, you will most likely get to know some of the other patrons who get their coffee at the same time. You will also get to know the people behind the counter.

Tips For Interacting with New People

When you meet someone new, smile and introduce yourself. Try to make small talk about a subject you both have in common. If the town you live in is expecting a snowstorm, you can chat about that. If you are both standing in line to pick up your children from school, ask what grade their child is in. If you are at the video store and someone picks up a copy of your favorite movie, tell them how much you loved it.

Your first conversation with the person does not need to include what you do for a living. If you have a quick, friendly conversation with them, the next time you see them you will recognize each other and say “hello”. After a time, you will feel comfortable around the person and can start talking about your business.

Remember, If you want a referral, ask for one. You can say something like, “if you ever know anyone who needs help with their website, let me know”. That simple statement could open up a whole conversation. The person you are talking to could have been looking for a website or perhaps the company they work for is thinking about taking their business online.

Stay friendly and open while you are meeting new people. Don’t be afraid to mention your business, and you will see your circle of influence widening and your client or customer base expanding.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
How to Increase Your Circle of Influence Offline

To grow your business you will want to consider widening your circle of influence online. You have certainly heard how important ‘word of mouth’ marketing is. That is because almost half of all Americans will ask their friends and family for advice when they shop for anything, including a new business.

Online networks are very powerful resources. Establishing relationships with people you meet online can certainly help you grow your business.

You will want to do a little market research in the beginning. Think about what type of business you are in and where your target market will congregate online. You can choose to explore business-to-business networking by joining a site such as www.linkedin.com. This site would be the business equivalent of myspace. John Kerry and Bill Gates both belong to this site, for instance. With this site, you can network with other business people and have the opportunity of forming partnerships and sharing clients.

You can also approach people that you want to do business with directly. Send them an email and let them know you visited their site. Let them know what your intentions are, such as teaming up together on a joint project, sharing leads, referrals, etc.

An alternative to that would be to go directly to your target market. If you have a website that is focused on pet care, find other websites that have a similar theme. Some of them may have a message board or forum. By participating in the forum posts, you can get to know other pet lovers who may be interested in the products on your website.

When visiting a message board, go there with the intentions of helping people, not yourself. If someone posts a question and you have some feedback for them, post back. You can put some information in your signature line about your business. If people who view your posts find your information helpful, they may click on your signature link to learn more about your business. You will not gain any clients by simply spamming boards with ads about your business.

A blog will also help you expand your circle of influence online. A blog will help establish trust between yourself and your website visitors. They will get to know you and look at you as an expert. When they, or someone they know, are in need of your service, they will turn to you.

You may want to ask a question and let your readers respond. They will enjoy the interaction and can also give you some great feedback for future projects you are considering.

As you build your circle of influence, you will have people coming to you, asking if they can hire you or join your direct sales team. You will be able to maintain a growing prospect list and client and customer base and will save money on advertising.

Originally posted at Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection. Please click the link below to read the complete post, add your comments, and find similar articles.
How to Increase Your Circle of Influence Online