It’s easy to start a business. Some paperwork, a few fees and voila, you have a business. You either launch with some established clients or you hit the pavement hard and start lining up some new folks. No matter the industry, once you have the clients, you need to stay in touch with them. Especially in today’s transient business workplace. What do I mean by that?
“Well…I don’t know if it’s the sign of the times, or a generational thing, but it seems that people don’t stick around much anymore, especially in the PR and marketing sector which is my bread and butter.” – posted in the CreativeCow.net Business forum.
In today’s business world, it seems people are changing jobs faster than ever. The employee who stays in a company for 10, 20, 30 years is all but long gone. 1 year is a major milestone for many people. So as you run your business day to day, well what’s a entrepreneur to do when that person you just talked to last year has a phone number that no longer works and the emails are kicked back as undeliverable?
Well first off, if these people are your bread and butter you damn well better do a good job staying in touch with them. Bread and Butter means your primary clients. How can you NOT stay in touch with your primary clients? Easy, especially if you’re a one man operation or small shop. You concentrate on what’s in front of you, here and now, the next deadline. You’ll get in touch with that bread and butter client as soon as what’s in front of you is done. Problem is, there’s that next thing that lands in front of you, here and now, the next deadline. Before you know it, 12 or 14 months have passed since you last talked to that bread and butter client and they’ve moved on.
Dropping an email at least once a month to say hello is a good idea. Especially if you have a common interest like sports where you can use a game or an event or even a good dinner to say “Hey, was watching the game last night, did you see that play so and so made? That was awesome! Hope you’re doing well!” Or, “I know you love so and so cuisine, have you checked out XYZ on 5th street? Incredible!” Put that on your calendar so it’s a scheduled item that appears in front of you with a deadline. Takes 5 minutes, do it over a breakfast or your coffee break, but do it.
Something as simple as that keeps you on the radar and when the person moves along, they might drop you an email and take your contact info along. Now you’re still on the list at your bread and butter client and you might have just picked up a new client thanks to your contact moving on. Short of hiring a Marketing Director, which I finally did in 2013, you need to take it upon yourself to stay in touch. Especially if these clients are your bread and butter……