How are you approaching small businesses?
Small businesses (firms with less than 100 employees) make up over 95% of all employers in the U.S. and employ almost half theof all employees in the nation. What are you doing to connect with these great prospective clients?
There are many reasons to approach a small business person but the reason and time I want to approach them is the day they sell their business. If you think about it, while they were successfully running their business, all their time… money… and risk was tied up in their business. They had very little need for a financial advisor.
BUT, the day they sell their business, they instantly need one. Getting a check for $3 million… $5 million… or even ten million is uncomfortable to them and they want help immediately. All of my biggest cases and the biggest cases of my friends in the industry, all came from small business people that had just sold their business.
But how do you know when a business person is selling their business? They generally try to keep that kind of information under wraps.
What I do is to send a brief, two-paragraph letter to family owned businesses once a month. I keep it brief, so they can read it quickly and get on with their day. My topics are always about how to make their lives as business owners easier or more profitable. Here are some ideas of the topics I have included over the last few months:
• How credit card companies are preying on small business owners by skirting the new credit card laws
• Three new tax breaks for small business owners in 2011!
• The Gallup small business index poll—How does your business stack up?
I provide this letter each month to all the 2Objects members so they can use it to be the go-to-guy for small business people in their towns. Please get hold of us if you are interested in receiving the letter as well!
