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Posts Tagged ‘Generate’

There is a sale that is $5,000 and paid over a 12 month period. How do you set it up in quickbooks to generate an invoice for each month that shows the cost due each month? This has came up a few times and no one has been able to figure out how to do this or why you can’t. PLEASE HELP!

I have my own business and have applied for a line of credit from the bank. They have asked for a financial statement, but I’m not sure what that includes or how to generate one from Quickbooks 2002.

Keeping in touch with clients and network contacts is a key element of generating new business.

By maintaining regular contact with your contacts you can help remind them of the service that you provide. This helps generate new business from clients hiring you again and referrals from people who know and like you.

Frequency Of Keeping In Touch

It’s often difficult to know how often to keep in touch with your clients. Many people are annoyed by contact that is too frequent. However, if you do not keep in touch often enough, you and the service that you provide will start to fade from memory.

Knowing your clients well will help you decide what frequency and approach to keeping in touch is best for them. But if you aren’t sure, ask them what they prefer.

Using a simple questionnaire, ask them how frequently they would like you to keep in touch with them. Suggest 4-5 alternatives such as: monthly, bi-monthly (every other month),quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

You could also ask about specific information that they might welcome. Choices could include market trends, economic conditions, home maintenance and tax issues.

And of course you will also want to know the preferred format: hard copy (paper) or electronic (web-based) .

You can use the your survey to launch a more formal program of keeping in touch. When sending your questionnaire, explain that you are launching a new keeping in touch program and would like their opinion.

Keeping In Touch With Family and Friends

As well as keeping in touch with clients, it’s also a good idea to keep in touch with other referral sources such as your family, friends, network contacts and referral partners.

Unfortunately family and friends are too close to you to offer objective or unbiased recommendations. Also, since they know you as a family member or a friend, they may not know how you serve clients.

They can however promote your personal qualities to people who don?t know you.

Keeping In Touch With Network Contacts

Your network contacts include the people that you meet as you go about your daily activities …in stores, offices and other places. Also included in this group are the people you have met through formal networking and your participation in clubs, organizations, community events, social activities, religious services and so on.

While these people may be unfamiliar with how you serve clients, they do know people you don’t know but can help. By keeping in touch with them, you remind them of the service that you provide to clients. This will help them make referrals to you.

Make sure that your family, friends and contacts understand the type of clients you are looking for.

Also ensure that they all have a small supply of your business cards to give to people they want to refer to you. This makes it easier for people to make referrals and help prospective clients contact you.

A final word of warning on keeping in touch. Once you start the practice, it is essential that you continue. Interrupting or even worse ending your practice of keeping in touch with out an explanation can seriously compromise your credibility.

Not withstanding the seriousness of the current economic crisis, the situation does offer some unique opportunities to self-employed people and owners of small businesses.

When business is booming, many people say they are too busy to get involved in marketing activities such as research and planning.

Now that the economic downturn has slowed the overall pace of business activity, owners have the opportunity to undertake some of these delayed marketing activities.

Satisfied Clients Help Businesses Grow

Although helpful at any point, evaluating client satisfaction is timely market research that will yield many benefits…now and in the future.

Satisfied clients are the foundation of any successful business. Knowing how well you have satisfied your clients will help you build on this achievement in promoting your business and attracting new clients.

If however, you have not succeeded in satisfying some clients, you can take remedial action to minimize consequences for your business and prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.

But the benefits are not just related to client service issues.

A client satisfaction survey allows you the opportunity to reconnect with clients and enhance your existing relationship with them.

And by enhancing your existing relationship, you position yourself to generate more new business as a result of clients hiring you again and referring others to you.

This new business could arise now…or later after the economy improves. Provided you keep in touch with clients during the bad times you can rest assured that they will generate new business for you during the the good times.

Measuring Clients’ Satisfaction

The most effective way to measure client satisfaction is to survey your clients by means of a written questionnaire.

You can deliver the questionnaire in person, by regular mail, electronically or some combination of these formats. Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on you and your clients.

Regardless of how you deliver the questionnaire, include an explanation of why you seek your clients’ opinions and instructions for completing and returning the completed questionnaire.

The questionnaire itself could include questions about…how the client learned about you…your responsiveness to their issues and concerns… overall level of satisfaction and so on.

Evaluating The Results

While it is reassuring to find out how well you have satisfied your clients, the survey also points out how you can improve your services.

You might for example discover that individual clients are unhappy about one issue or another.

Take the time to understand your client’s concerns and resolve any issues as effectively as you can. It’s also possible that several clients raise similar concerns. Obviously you will want to address these concerns before they jeopardize your business.

Ideally your survey will help you learn more about how you do or can serve your clients.

But even it if doesn’t, you can take comfort in the fact that your clients are most likely satisfied with your service. If they were unhappy, they would probably tell you…perhaps anonymously.

Regardless of whether or not your survey stimulates any improvements, by reporting to your clients…and others..about the results, you have another opportunity to connect and keep in touch with these people.

Remember that keeping in touch with clients and contacts enhances existing relationships….which in turn helps generate repeat and referral business.

Is that not a great value-added benefit of monitoring client satisfaction?