HOW TO START YOUR OWN
HOME-BASED SECRETARIAL SERVICE...
A new approach to serving one
of the oldest and most basic needs of even the
smallest business community, a home-based
secretarial service can satisfy the
entrepreneurial needs of even the most ambitious
woman!
This is a kind of service
business with a virtually unlimited profit
potential. Third year profits for businesses of
this type, in metropolitan areas as small as
70,000 persons are reported at $100,000 and
more. It's a new idea for a traditional job
that's growing in popularity and acceptance.
As for the future, there+s no
end in sight to the many and varied kinds of
work a secretary working at home can do for
business owners, managers and sales
representatives. Various surveys indicate that
by the year 2,000 - at least 60 percent of all
the secretarial work, as we know it today, will
be handled by women working at home.
For most women, this is the
most exciting news of things to come since the
equal rights amendment. Now is the time to get
yourself organized, start your own home-based
secretarial service and nurture it through your
start-up stages to total success in the next
couple of years.
Our research indicates little
or no risk involved, with most secretarial
services breaking even within 30 days, and
reports of some showing a profit after the first
week! Your cash investment can be as little as
$10 to $25 if you already have a modern,
electronic typewriter. You can set up at your
kitchen table, make a few phone calls, and be in
business tomorrow.
If you don't have a modern,
office quality electric typewriter comparable to
the IBM Selectric - a portable just won't do,
because it'll break down, wear out, and fall
apart after a month of heavy duty use... If
you're aware of this delicacy of a portable
electric, you can conceivably begin with one,
but you'll definitely have to graduate to a
bigger, heavier machine as soon as possible...
An IBM Selectric, complete
with start-up supplies kit which includes a
dozen ribbons, can be purchased for less than a
thousand dollars. On contract, this would break
down to about $175 for down payment and monthly
payments of less than $50 per month over a
2-year period. Naturally, you'd want to include
the standard service contract which costs about
$100 per year, and means that whenever you have
a problem or want your machine serviced, you
simply pick up the phone and call the service
department. They'll ask you what kind of problem
you're having, and then send some one out to
rectify it immediately.
Shoestringers can rent an IBM
Selectric for about $60 per month, plus a small
deposit. And those of you who are really on a
tight budget, can contract an equipment leasing
firm, explain your business plan, and work out
an arrangement where they buy the machine of
your choice for you, and then lease it back to
you over a five or ten year period for much
lower payments.
Whatever you do, get the best
typewriter your money can buy. The output of
your typewriter will be your finished product,
and the better, "more perfect" your finished
product, the more clients you'll attract and
keep. It's also imperative that you have one of
the modern, "ball" typewriters. Only these kinds
of typewriters give each character a clear, even
and uniform impression on your paper.
Typewriters of the "arm & hammer" type quickly
become misaligned, producing a careless look on
your finished product.
As mentioned earlier, you can
start almost immediately from your kitchen table
if you've got the typewriter. However, in order
to avoid fatigue and back problems, invest in a
typing stand and secretary's standard typing
chair just as soon as you can afford them. Watch
for office equipment sales, especially among the
office equipment leasing firms. You should be
able to pick up a new, slightly damaged, or good
used typewriter stand or desk for around $20 to
$25. A comparable quality secretary's typing
chair can be purchased for $50 or less.
While you're shopping for
things you'll need, be sure to pick up a chair
mat. If you don't, you may suddenly find that
the carpet on the floor of the room where you do
your typing, needs replacing due to the worn
spot where the chair is located and maneuvered
in front of the typewriter. You'll also want a
work stand with place marker and a convenient
box or storage shelf for your immediate paper
supply. If you plan to do a great deal of work
during the evening hours, be sure to invest in
an ad just able "long arm" office work lamp.
When buying paper, visit the
various wholesale paper suppliers in your area
or in any nearby large city, and buy at least a
half carton - 6 reams - at a time. Buying
wholesale, and in quantity, will save you quite
a bit of money. The kind to buy is ordinary 20
pound white bond. Open one ream for an immediate
supply at your typewriter, and store the rest in
a closet, under your bed, or on a shelf in your
garage or basement.
In the beginning, you'll be
the business - typist, salesman, advertising
department, bookkeeper and janitor - so, much
will depend upon your overall business acumen.
Those areas in which you lack experience or feel
weak in, buy books or tapes and enhance your
knowledge. You don't have to enjoy typing, but
you should have better than average proficiency.
Your best bet in selling your
services is to do it all yourself. Every
business in your area should be regarded as a
potential customer, so it's unlikely you'll have
to worry about who to call on. Begin by making a
few phone calls to former bosses or business
associates - simply explain that you're starting
a typing service and would appreciate it if
they'd give you a call whenever they have extra
work that you can handle for them. Before you
end the conversation, ask them to be sure to
keep you in mind and steer your way any overload
typing jobs that they might hear about.
The next step is "in-person"
calls on prospective customers. This means
dressing in an impressively professional manner,
and making sales calls on the business people in
your area. For this task, you should be armed
with business cards (brochures also help...),
and an order or schedule book of some sort. All
of these things take time to design and print,
so while you're waiting for delivery, use the
time to practice selling via the telephone. At
this stage, your telephone efforts will be more
for the purpose of indoctrinating you into the
world of selling than actually making sales.
Just be honest about starting
a business, and sincere in asking them to
consider trying your services whenever they have
a need you can help them with. Insurance
companies, attorneys and distributors are always
needing help with their typing, so start with
these kinds of businesses first.
For your business cards,
consider a free-lance artist to design a logo
for you. Check, and/or pass the word among the
students in the art or design classes at any
nearby college, art or advertising school.
Hiring a regular commercial artist will cost you
quite a bit more, and generally won't satisfy
your needs any better than the work of a hungry
beginner.
Be sure to browse through any
Klip Art books that may be available - at most
print shops, newspaper offices, advertising
agencies, libraries and book stores. The point
being, to come up with an idea that makes your
business card stand out; that can be used on all
your printed materials, and makes you - your
company - unique or different from all the
others.
I might suggest something
along the lines of a secretary with pad in hand
taking dictation; or perhaps a secretary wearing
a dictaphone headset seated in front of a
typewriter. You might want something distinctive
for the first letter of your company name, or
perhaps a scroll or flag as a background for
your company name.
At any rate, once you've got
your logo or company design, the next step is
your local print shop. Ask them to have the
lettering you want to use, typeset in the style
you like best - show them your layout and order
at least a thousand business cards printed up.
For your layout, go with
something basic. Expert typing services, in the
top left hand corner... Dictation by phone, in
the top right hand corner... Your company logo
or design centered on the card with something
like, complete secretarial services, under it...
Your name in the lower left hand corner, and
your telephone number in the lower right hand
corner...
Everybody that you call on in
person, be sure to give them one of your
business cards. And now, you're ready to start
making those in-person business sales calls.
Your best method of making
sales calls would be with a business telephone
directory and a big supply of loose leaf
notebook paper. Go through the business
directory and write down the company names,
addresses and telephone number. Group all of
those within one office building together, and
those on the same street in the same block. Be
sure to leave a couple of spaces between the
listing of each company. And of course, start a
new page for those in a different building or
block. Now, simply start with the first business
in the block, or on the lowest floor in a
building and number them in consecutive order.
This will enable you to call on each business in
order as you proceed along a street, down the
block, or through a building
You'll be selling your
capabilities - your talents - and charging for
your time - the time it takes you to get set up
and complete the assignment they give you. You
should be organized to take work with you on the
spot, and have it back at a promised time;
arrange to pick up any work they have, and
deliver it back to them when it+s completed; and
handle dictation or special work assignments by
phone. You should also emphasize your abilities
to handle everything by phone, particularly w
hen they have a rush job.
Establish your fees according
to how long it takes you to handle their work,
plus your cost of supplies - work space,
equipment and paper - then fold in a $5 profit.
In other words, for a half hour job that you
pick up on a regular sales or delivery call you
should charge $10...
Another angle to include
would be copies. Establish a working
relationship with a local printer, preferably
one who has a copy machine comparable to a big
Kodak 150 Extaprint. When your clients need a
sales letter or whatever plus so many copies,
you can do it all for them.
Only make copies on the very
best of dry paper copying machines, and only for
50 copies or less. More than 50 copies, it'll be
less expensive and you'll come out with a better
looking finished product by having them printed
on a printing press. When you furnish copies,
always fold in your copying or printing costs
plus at least a dollar or more for every 50
copies you supply.
By starting with former
employers and/or business associates, many
businesses are able to line up 40 hours of work
without even making sales call. If you're lucky
enough to do this, go with it, but -
Start lining up your friends
to do the work for you - girls who work all day
at a regular job, but need more money; and
housewives with time on their hands. You tell
them what kind of equipment is needed, and the
quality of work you demand. You can arrange to
pay them so much per hour for each job they
handle for you - judging from the time you
figure the job would take if you were doing it;
or on a percentage basis. I feel the best
arrangement is on an hourly basis according to a
specified amount of time each job normally
takes.
Whenever, and as soon as
you've got a supply of "workers" lined up, you
turn all your current assignments over to them,
and get back to lining up more business. If
you're doing well selling by phone, and your
area seems to respond especially well to selling
by phone, then you should immediately hire
commission sales people. Train them according to
your own best methods and put them to work
assisting you. Your salespeople can work out of
their own homes, using their own telephones,
provided you've got your area's business
community organized in a loose leaf notebook
style. All you do is give them so many pages
from your notebook, from which they make sales
calls each week.
Even so, you should still
make those in-person sales calls... If for some
reason you get bogged down, and can't or don't
want to, then hire commission sales people to do
it for you... Generally, women selling this type
of service bring back the most sales... And for
all your commission sales people, the going rate
should be 30 percent of the total amount of the
sale... Point to remember: Sooner or later,
you're going to want to hire a full-time
telephone sales person, plus another full time
person to make in-person sales calls for you -
Eventually, you want workers to handle all the
work for you, and sales people to do the selling
for you - So the sooner you can line up people
for these jobs, the faster your business is
going to prosper.
Later on, you'll want a sales
manager to direct your sales people and keep
them on track, so try to find a "future sales
man ager" when you begin looking for
salespeople.
Your basic advertising should
be a regular quarter page ad in the yellow pages
of both your home service telephone directory
and the business yellow pages. You'll find that
50 percent of your first time clients will come
to you because they have an immediate need and
saw you at in the yellow pages, so don't skimp
on either the size or the "eye-catching"
graphics of this ad.
A regular one column by
3-inch ad in the Sunday edition of your area's
largest newspaper would also be a good idea. Any
advertising you do via radio or television will
be quite expensive with generally very poor
results, so don't even give serious
consideration to that type of advertising.
By far, your largest
advertising outlays will be for direct mail
efforts. You should have a regular mailing piece
that you send out to your entire business
community at least once a month. This is handled
by sending out 200 to 500 letters per day. For
this, you should obtain a third class postage
permit or else these postage costs will drive
you out of business.
Your mailing piece should
consist of a colorful brochure that describes
your business. It should explain the many
different kinds of assignments you can handle -
a notation that no job is too small or too large
- and a statement of your guarantee. Do not
quote prices in your brochure - simply ask the
recipient to call for a quotation or price
estimate.
It's also a good idea to list
the background and experience of the business
owner, plus several business testimonials and/or
compliments. You could also include a couple of
pictures showing your workers busy and actually
handling secretarial assignments. The most
important part of your brochure will be your
closing statement - an invitation, indeed - a
demand that the recipient call you for further
information.
All of this can very easily
be put together in a Z-folded, 2-sided
self-mailer. Again, look for a free-lance
copywriter and artist to help you put it
together. Once you've got your "dummy" pretty
well set the way you want it, make copies of it,
and either take it or send it to several direct
mail advertising agencies. Ask them for their
suggestions of how they would improve it, and
for a bid on the cost if you were to retain them
to handle it for you. Listen to their ideas and
incorporate them where - and if you think they
would make your brochure better. And, if one of
them does come in with a cost estimate that's
lower than your independent, "do-it-yourself"
costs, then think seriously about assigning the
job to them.
This is definitely the most
important piece of work that will ever come out
of your office, so be sure it's the very best,
and positively indicative of your business. This
will be the business image you project, so make
sure it reflects the quality, style and
credibility of your business - your thinking,
and your success.
Your brochure should be on
60-pound coated paper, in at least two colors
and by a professional printer. The end result is
the Z-folded brochure - Z-folded by the printer
- with your third class mailing permit indicia
showing on the cover side. This cover side
should be flamboyant and eye-catching. You want
your mailing piece to stand out in the pile of
50 or 60 pieces of other mail received by the
recipient.
When you're ready to mail,
simply take a couple of cartons of your
brochures to an addressing shop, have them run
your brochures through their addressing machine,
loaded with your mailing list, bundle them and
drop them off at the post office for you. This
takes us back to the planning on how to compile
your mailing list. I suggest that you begin with
Cheshire Cards by Xerox. You type the name of
your addressee on the cards, maintain these
cards in the order of your choice, take your
boxes of cards to the addressing shop whenever
you have a mailing, and there+s no further work
on your part. The addressing shop loads their
machine with your cards, prints the address on
your cards directly onto your brochures, and
gives the cards back to you when the mailing is
completed. A mailing of 100,000 brochures, via
this method - generally could be completed and
on its way in one 8-hour day.
In essence, you'll want to
solicit business with a regular routine of
telephone selling, in-person sales calls at the
prospective client's place of business, media
advertising and direct mail efforts. All of
these efforts are important and necessary to the
total success of your business - don't try to
cut corners or spare the time or expense needed
to make sure you're operating at full potential
in these areas! In addition to these specific
areas, it would be wise for you to attend
chamber of commerce meetings, and join several
of your area civic clubs - you'll meet a great
number of business leaders at these meetings and
through their association, you will gain a great
deal of new business - and even help in many of
your needs.
Once you're organized and
rolling, you can easily expand your market
nationwide with the installation of a toll free
telephone and advertising in business
publications. Perhaps you can add to your
primary business with a "mailing shop" of your
own - the rental of mailing lists - specialized
temporary help services - telephone answering
services - and even survey work...
The "bottom line" thing to
remember in order to achieve total success, is
planning. Plan your initial operation through
from start to finish before you even think about
soliciting your first customer. Get your
operational plan down on paper - itemize your
needs, estimate your costs, line up your
operating capital, and set forth milestones for
growth.
Set profit figures you want
to be realizing 3 months... 6 months... l
year... 2 years... and 3 years from your
business start-up date. Learn all you can about
the "support systems"
involved in operating a
profitable business - planning, a dvertising,
selling, bookkeeping, and banking - and continue
to update your knowledge with a pro gram of
continuous learning. Do your homework properly,
and there's just no way you can fail with a
Home-Based Secretarial Service. |
RoDI
ISOC
IWA
ARTT
RTS
WQC 2003
ISAQ 2005