Offline Business and Full-Time Job

It's NOT effective but you CAN land clients that way if you're persistent enough. You're most likely going to have to be available to speak with clients though, one way or another. You could use PPC, social media, email, craigslist, etc. There are a ton of options, but you will need to find a way to be able to speak with you clients.

Thanks...I completely understand about having to speak to clients on the phone. I just don't have the time to do mass cold calling during the day. I can always find time to speak with clients that are warm-up already.

How about you allocation time everyday. Same time everyday and limit your minutes on the line so that you can accommodate all.

I feel like that's the only option you have. Simply pay on commission.

As an alternative, letters work very well. And you can do that by night.

Ed,

I am in the same boat as you. I also have a pretty decent day time job income to replace.

I started with direct mail campaigns, which got my phone ringing. I then could just return calls during lunch/break/after work. Most of the return calls meant that they wanted my service, and most voicemails left gave personal cell phone numbers, and permission to call in the evening time.

So, I would read through this sub-forum, and find a lot of direct mail information in here, there is plenty out there, and try that if you please.

Ryan

I understand working full time too. There's an opportunity cost of foregone income if you left etc.

If you have zero business day hours, what are some obvious things you can do?

Utilise other forms of advertising: print, direct mail, radio etc.

Unable to take phone queries? Either get an answering service, hire a VA to make appointments out of hours for you or make your website the destination of your advertising. Utilise your website to pitch them and sell for you.

You can hire appointment setters, or phone salespeople also.

You could hire a retail shop and employ someone to take care of foot traffic, who could also make phone sales when not busy etc.

Being a full time employee, you may not be after that many clients anyway. You could start with the proverbial network of who you know: on a personal level, businesses you use yourself etc. Move from there to word of mouth. I've seen some posts that actually laugh at this type of thing, which is ridiculous. Maybe if you're launching a full time business off the cuff, sure. But it's the way a lot of freelancers get their start. And, from what I've read, most freelancers end up getting most of their work from referrals, eventually.

Run a class on something IM related for local businesses. Get invites from flyers/direct mail/radio advert....or when you've got a day off to go visit/call etc.....

You need a good management of time, you should make time windows for your calling to your clients, i hope this management work in your favour.

Since some of this advice doesn't make sense for someone working fulltime, I'll ad my own non-sensical advice... my suggestion would be to quit your job. I lost my job with no income and was forced to make it work, it's been a year now. And my partner quit her job way to quickly - it was a grim Christmas, but it has worked. There is nothing like fear and no options to get the job done.

try some online stuff like classifieds and cold Email to get clients ..... it is batter the calling some on ...........

I'm in the same situation - starting offline biz while working fulltime job.

It's hard. Gets even more hard to do prospecting when you have a few clients on the go as well!

The way I do it:

Incentivised referrals
SEO
Direct mail letters