Screw marketing. Invest in sales. Hire a salesperson and get them making calls. Much more likely to generate reliable income.

Sometimes an email address that isn’t .com .org .net or .edu will not be able to validate as a valid email. I use a .co site for a long time and had that issue a few times.

Call all your old clients and tell them you are booking appointments for the holidays.

SCORE can help you write a business plan. There are certain trends in forecasting spreadsheets that it’s useful to know about. Bankers get excited to see certain formulas applied.

It was a free workshop on business startup. The speaker went on to share about a person who has started up a cleaning business by investing in new branded vehicles as an example of how not to start up a business. The point was, get out and hustle and make money. Don’t put money into branding and expensive equipment before you have built up a clientele.

Make money then buy the dot com when it’s not a big financial hit. Invest in your products and selling now.

Yea. Message me. I know a company that created a doll. They are helping new companies to find manufacturers.

I recommend to get an appointment with your local SBDC (Small Business Development Center). It’s free and they can help you figure out the best approach for your business.

https://www.sba.gov/local-assistance/resource-partners/small-business-development-centers-sbdc

The state wants you to be successful. They will not shut your business down. They will help you to get caught up and learn how to do this. Also, you small business is not on their radar at all. It’s really unlikely that this will be an issue for you. But it’s good to start figuring it out.

At a workshop I attended, the speaker said the cheapest business to startup is a cleaning service - you just need a few cleaning supplies.

You need early adopters who are excited to have the cool thing no one else has yet.

The main thing is to use tools everyone will actually use. One of the main issues with projects is that the lowest common denominator is email. And stuff gets lost that way. I’ve run projects in a Google Doc before.

So I’d talk to your team members and discuss options with them.

Probably b/c your competitor is better at selling than you are. They probably are churning just as much, but are doing better at reaching more people.

Yes. Pm. I know a company that is helping new companies solve this problem after it took them years to find a manufacturer.

Raise your rates. Your price should communicate the value of your service. People compare rates. Yours should be in the middle or top, not the bottom, since you have a nicer car.

Search for copackers in your state. Often the Dept of State or Dept of Agriculture has the list.

When you start a business you throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Do what’s in your heart, just keep swimming, and eventually your focus will get clearer.

My client decided to stop trying to reach this audience. I create online courses and still believe this population would benefit from online courses and interaction, so I’d still like to reach them. I think it would take something like television ads. A lot of the As Seen on TV stuff was designed for people with disabilities and then is generally marketed so they can reach people who may not admit they need specialised devices. That’s why people in those ads are so “clumsy.” I think that kind of blanket ads approach would be the way to reach this market, and possibly also using humour like that to make it approachable.

I am a business startup coach. I had a client who wanted to reach this market. What we found was:

1. Agoraphobics don’t have money if their own. They rely on family or disability for income. It makes it hard to sell them services.

2. The market is hard to reach. There are some Facebook groups that focus on agoraphobics but as their popular is so vulnerable the moderators are aggressive about shutting down any promotion, even if the services could genuinely help.

Think about it as teaching people about whatever they need to know to make that first connection to your business. Answer the basics: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Masters in Engineering Management, UAB