I am going to let you in on a little secret. Yellow page ads still work after a business closes. If a company goes out of business and drops their phone number, the yellow page ad will still work! The ad doesn’t just disappear. I discovered this when I was building a heating and air conditioning business in Wisconsin. We picked up an old phone number that had been disconnected for more than 4 months. The very first month this phone number produced over $15,000 in revenue. We did over $40,000 in 3 months before we stopped tracking it. We eventually acquired 2 more numbers with similar results.

How did I get so much revenue from a number that was disconnected? The number came from a business that had been around for many years before it closed.  The owner retired and could not sell it. This phone number had ads in several current and past phone books. There were also stickers all over the area with their phone numbers on them. That equipment would eventually need service or replacement. We hoped they would contact us through the old number and they did.

There are many reasons to acquire disconnected phone numbers, the biggest one is the potential access to thousands of customers that were serviced by the old company. You pick up access to these customers for a fraction of what you would have to spend advertising for them. Even if the homeowners moved, the stickers on the equipment stayed with the house.  Some people kept old invoices and refrigerator magnets for years. They all had the old company’s phone number on them.

Many times we mistakenly think our customers know everything we do, but this is not usually the case. Most people will never know a business is closed until they need their services again. After you reactivate a disconnected phone number, just pick up where the old business left off. Make sure your call takers are scripted on how to handle calls that come in from old business. If handled correctly, customers won’t be too concerned about the change as long as you take care of their needs.

Finding disconnected phone numbers is easy. All it takes is a little finger exercise. Take out a phone book and call all the numbers in your category as well as any related categories. Make sure you call from an unknown or blocked number. You don’t want your competition to know you are calling them.

Use a tracking sheet to record how they answered. Think of this process not only as marketing, but as research. You want to know how professionally they answered their phone. Did it go to a machine or answering service? Do their people answer your call and take control, or do they appear not to care? Is there a busy signal, or no answering machine? You may be surprised at what you find out by doing this exercise.

When you do find a disconnected number, you want to convert that number to your business. Here are some steps to do that.

1-      Call the phone company to see if you can get that number immediately. Some phone companies won’t give you the number until after it has been disconnected for 6 months to a year. Find out the exact date that it is available and mark it on your marketing calendar. Make sure you call early on that day to get the number.

2-      If you can find the former owner, offer him some money to have the phone company release the number to you earlier. Consider offering him some money for his old customer records also.

3-      Sometimes the phone number is connected to a huge ad in the phone book that wasn’t paid for. Offer the phone company a small percentage of the cost of the ad if they give you the number (20-30%). If you don’t get results from one phone employee, talk to another. Some employees don’t have the authority to make that decision. Any money is better than no money.

4-      Train your call takers on how to properly convert the calls from the old business.

5-      Treat these new customers like gold and that should take away most of the concerns they have.

If someone already has an old number and they are not the competition, offer to buy the number from them and pay all their costs to change the numbers. Ask them how many calls they get a week looking for the old business. This information should help you know how much to pay for the number.

If they don’t want to sell the number, ask them if they would refer the calls to you. Tell them you will pay a referral fee. Your highly trained call takers should be able to keep track of all referrals.

We used to go through this exercise every 1-3 months. Acquiring a discontinued phone number reduced our overall lead cost and was worth the effort. Consider doing it yourself the first time before passing it off to an employee. Personally listening to the phone answering of your competitors may offer some insights into your own phone practices. Now, let your fingers do the walking.

Read About Steve Sorenson

I was talking with my teenage children the other day. The discussion came to money-it always does with children. They wanted more! More than their mother or I was going to give them. It was time for them to find a job. If they could not find a job, then they would have to make one. Everyone can do this, not just teenagers.

I remember looking for work when I was young. The work may have not been romantic or prestigious, but it gave me money. Money allowed me freedom at an early age. Freedom to do the things I wanted to and buy the things my parents wouldn’t get me. I delivered newspapers, mowed lawns, worked on farms, shoveled snow, painted, and many other things. I did whatever I could do to have cash in my pocket.  When someone said they needed something done, I said I could do it. If I didn’t know how to do the job, I found someone to teach me. Some of these jobs turned into full time companies with employees.

How did I get these jobs? I went out knocking on doors. I made phone calls. I talked with whoever would listen. I never gave up. I wanted money, and I was going to find a way to get it. I simply found a need and filled it. There will always be people who need things done for them.  To find out what they need, ask some questions: What chores or service do they need done?  Are you willing to pay me to do them? When would they like them done? Ask these 3 questions long enough and you will be busy.

There are many types of services you could provide at little or no start up costs. Babysitting, pet walking, house sitting, and cleaning are some services. Maybe start a shopping service for people that do not have the time to shop or are unable to do it themselves. Help people sell things on Ebay or Craigslist. Look at doing lawn care, maintenance, message delivery, or vehicle detailing. Any one of these part time activities could easily become a full time business. These full time businesses can provide you with greater security and more enjoyment than you might get working somewhere else.

There are many ways to market your service for little money. Don’t give in to conventional thinking.  You could email your friends and relatives. Tell them what you are doing. Ask if they know of anyone who could use your services. Put an ad in Craigslist. Do not write the ordinary ad, write a great ad! Print cards and fliers on your computer. Hand them out or paste them on bulletin boards around town. Knock on doors. The main thing is to be committed to getting the word out and doing whatever it takes to succeed.

Consider providing these services to businesses as well as homeowners. People are hungry for great service. Providing exceptional service is a key ingredient that will get you repeat customers as well as referrals. There is a lot of competition in giving lousy service, but little or no competition in giving great service.

I have been helping businesses and individuals find work for years. The process is not really that hard.  If you have never done anything like this before, start on a part time basis and see if it is something you want to do. Get creative and get going.
Action steps.
-Find a service people want and are willing to pay for.
-Make an action plan and commit to it.
-Acquire the tools necessary to complete the service.
-Market your service to acquire customers.
-Deliver the service.
-Collect the money.
-Ask for referrals.
-Repeat the process.

If you are willing to do the hard things that most people are unwilling to do, you will be successful. I wish you well. Now if I can only get my teenagers off the computer long enough to do it.

Steve Sorenson is a Wizard of Ads partner living in Hawaii. You may contact him at stevesorenson@wizardofads.com

Read About Steve Sorenson

Anyone Can Accept Mobile Payments With "Square"

Read About Jane Fraser

Media Technology Monitor (MTM) Top 10 Results (August 2009)

Read About Jane Fraser

 “Your ad spoke to me.  I knew I was the right person for the job.

For a recent job opening at our radio stations we ran an ad on the radio and in the local newspaper that attracted 101 applications in five days. When narrowed down to fifteen for interviews, that was the most common comment.

The key to attracting the right people is how you write the employment ads. Are they written about the job or about the person that you are hoping to attract? We did an informal survey of recent classified ads and found 96% of them were about the job.  An ad stands out from the clutter and generates lots of interest when the ad is about them, not about the job you’re trying to fill.

Here’s the ad we ran:

Are you dependable and resourceful?  Do you have lots of energy, intuition, and initiative?  Are you persnickety for detail? Do you dress well, and have good computer skills?   CJCS/MIX FM is looking for a receptionist and traffic manager.  Not sure what that is, call us and we’ll explain.  We’re looking for a special someone who can greet people in person and on the phone with energy, and with a smile.  It’s a friendly work place, and if you have a sweet tooth, there are always lots of treats.  If you have what it takes call us 555-1234.  

Let’s deconstruct what we did, so you can do it too in your next job search ad. 

We wrote the ad to match the tone of the person we were seeking by using references to energy, well dressed, smile and friendly. By inference, we also defined ourselves and our workplace. We had so many people say that they would “love” to work with us, that it was almost embarrassing. Almost. 

We asked questions to get people saying yes, that’s me. You’ll notice we asked the same thing three times…resourceful, intuition and initiative. Guess what we prize in our staff members? You’ll notice we didn’t explain the job, nor give the address or email contact. That was so the applicants had to show some initiative and figure out how to best apply for the job.

We didn’t want wallflowers, so we asked them to phone us. That showed a willingness to converse on the phone, which is part of the job as receptionist. If they are afraid to talk on the phone we’re not interested. It also gave our staff an opportunity to assess the applications. Our staff’s first impressions and observations are vitally important to the hiring process.

How many job ads have you seen looking for a “detail oriented” person? Ho hum. Boring. “Persnickety for detail” sure made them notice and hopefully smile too.

When you have a job opening that you need to fill, you can choose from 6 or 7 losers who view your job as a dead end time filler or you can choose from 100 applicants energized by the thought of working for you?

It’s more work for you, sifting through the resumes and interviewing, but the results are always more satisfying…and you’ll often find people for future job vacancies too. If you want to attract boring people, write classified ads about the job. But if you want to attract wonder workers, write about the person you want to attract and be persnickety in how you do it.

Read About Steve Rae

"...an ad should be simple enough so that it is the strategy."

              --Al Ries & Jack Trout, Positioning, p. 207

In the above linked 30 sec. TV spot, JWT has positioned Microsoft's Bing well; they're up against a competitor that already owns the human mind for seach engines.

So rather than fight it out with Google, Bing created and claimed a new position in the search engine marketplace...

"Decision Engine"

Read About Joshua A. Stevens

 Since my father-in-law is in network computers, I pointed this LA TImes article out to him this morning. 

1. Watch on your schedule, not the television stations or the network schedule.  It's like Tivo. This is just a web version of Tivo
2. Better control over the annoying advertising. We are sick of the lousy boring annoying commercials

1. Local television stations are doomed unless they get their heads out of the 50’s and 60’s way of doing TV
2. Businesses that depend on TV to attract customers need to re-think their marketing. Because the internet will do to TV what TV did to Radio. Maybe even worse

Old school TV advertising THINK is the problem Josh; you can help your clients here because you don't THINK old school TV do you?

Josh: I do not.

Josh's Father-in-law: That's right, you don't.

And besides the convenience of watching on your own schedule, the TV ad industry has run their customers off by being boring and annoying.

Josh: "Okay. I think you make some good points there; I need to be on my way now. Thanks."

(do you think I touched a nerve giving my father-in-law this article to read this morning?)

Read About Joshua A. Stevens

I have made a lot of money in some businesses, and lost a lot in a few. Here is a great article on what to watch out for.
In a recession like we are in, and millions out of work, many will go into some sort of business without enough thinking and planning ahead. Here are 7 to watch out for.

http://smallbusinessanswers.yahoo.com/overrated

For a list on buisness you could do very well in contact any Wizard of Ads Partner:
http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=PartnersVideos

Read About Clay Campbell

1. Call your prospects by name with Renewable Words (read: uncommon insight)
2. Be bold as a 1^st World dictator…we’ll have to get approval for some of this  
3. Be message clear (with the action we want prospects to take, response mechanisms, etc.)

Read About Joshua A. Stevens

1. begin with uncommon insight
2. need a bold offer (that's backed up)
3. need to be message clear about the action we want the reader/listener/viewer to take.

Read About Joshua A. Stevens