Congratulations, Kristina!

You mentioned targeting business owners -- this is DEFINITELY a huge market. For one thing, inventory services are deductible as an expense for business owners! I actually got my start doing inventories when I had to document all my business assets for my insurance agent. I had put it off, and put it off, and put it off some more before I thought to myself, "Gosh, there's got to be someone out there who can do this for me!" This was 6-7 years ago, long before Darold started Peace of Mind here in Nebraska.

I started by doing my own, and then continued on a small scale since then, doing inventories for colleagues, family, friends, and by referral. But the idea of targeting small businesses as prospects is a great one.

If you're just starting up, make sure one of your practice inventories is a business one, so you can include it as a sample. You might even offer to do your insurance agent's office -- that's a surefire way to show the value of this service!

For maximum impact, target prospects by industry. Make a contact with a professional association and develop a relationship with them. For example, I do a lot with mental health professionals since I worked for a couple of counselors during high school and college. There's a local association for private practice mental health therapists, and they have meetings and conferences, a website, and a newsletter.

There are TONS of organizations out there for professionals of all types -- even ones for insurance and financial professionals (www.naifa.org is one, for example). Advertise in their newsletter, offer to speak at a conference about inventory documentation and its impact on insurance settlements or estate planning, network with these individuals. They will be, as Kristina knows, a GOLDMINE of potential business. And, many of them will likely hire you to inventory THEIR business.

Believe me, as someone with eight computers, four printers, tons of peripherals, etc., I was just BEGGING for someone to come and inventory all those serial numbers, and professional books. Turns out, I was the solution to the problem! *smile*

Fred,

Thank you for your support. Your are my opportunity and success! I thought about putting my "About me" page up, but the people that are looking at my site are not "the general public". These are people and contacts that have met me personally, or know me through someone. Since this business is based primarily on referrals...that's what I find works best for now. My connection base and contracts are based on my terrific work and branding of my business. The one thing I will do, is the picture on the main page of my website is make it "ME" in the picture instead of someone else. I will also be starting a page outlining my testimonials.

Hi all,

Just an update from British Columbia here. I am now working my Inventory Business fulltime. Yes, fulltime. For the new people...it took since March to get to this day. I average 1-2 bookings per week. My average monthly income is around $3000.00 per month. So not to bad. My target market that has been the most success is the high income earners and business owners. I also started a new segment to my business called Remodelling Portfolios. It is the same practice and protocols as home inventory, however you record and document all materials used in a remodel project. This is useful when having a re-assessment on your home for mortgages, loans, or even selling. It documents all the work that has been completed with before and after pictures. The contractor gives me the details as he works along and I document and track. The software that Fred has designed works perfectly. Use the interior and exterior tabs of the software.

More on the networking. This is so important. Over the past 7 months, I have consistently fostered important relationships with key people. These people have helped streamline my business plan, introduce me to countless contacts and overtime as I have become more proficient at "selling" my services. It really is time, passion and keep pushing forward. There was a time a few months ago where I wasn't sure that this was going to work, but again, my networking partners believed in my service and encouraged me to keep going. I attend tradeshows as a volunteer for other companies, I attend 4 networking meetings a week (BNI, HighOutput, Chamber, and 2 local Womens Networks). I scour the local papers weekly looking for lawyers who write colums relating to what I do and I contact them, I look for people who have had fires or thefts and donate gift certificates to help them as well as giving my service free to them. Just this week an older man lost his entire home to a fire, didn't have home insurance and the local paper was asking for donations. Perfect time to promote your biz guys! I wrote a letter, inserted a gift certificate for Value Village and offered my service to him when he was up in his new home with new contents. I am there to help him. I also wrote into the editor of the story, just re-iterating the importance on home inventory and insurance and that my company can do to help. Its free press and you look good!

So where do I see my future. My one year goal is to hire another person to work with me, increase sales to $6000 per month and increase advertising costs to participate in 2 tradeshows.

Keep your heads...it takes alot of frustrations, learning, educating and promoting. Be passionate about your service, bring stories to the table and get connected in the community. Soon your company will be the talk around the group table of lawyers, financial planners, insurance companies, contractors and friends. 

I just revamped my website...check it out. www.takestock.ca

I thought I should resurrect this post with an update: I am still working on my initial launch.  I was hoping to be up and running by July but that just didn't happen.  With a full time regular job and other commitments it is hard to start a new business.

I would like to say that while I am optimistic about the home inventory business I would caution us not to be overly confident in our services.  While overestimating your income can seem like the optimistic thing to do, it can lead to great discouragement and possibly giving up on the business all together.  The slow and steady pace will win this race.  I think a realistic goal, while not encouraging for those of us who are struggling financially to keep our heads above water, is to give yourself a whole YEAR to get this baby up to full speed. 

That doesn't mean that you can't make money during that year it just means that it will likely take a whole year to be able to make a living being a home inventory professional.  Of course, results will vary, and some of us are likely to be the ones that they would use in a promo ad for Fred's software.  Be confident, not ****y and foolish (I'm talking to myself on this one too).  As much as I would like to leave my "day job" and do this full time I am taking the cautious road that is much more likely to pay off in the long run.  Plus, with this new industry we have, it will only hurt us all if people see a bunch of home inventory businesses pop up an tank within a couple months.

If things work out great and you find a hungry market then fantastic!  Run with it and you are ahead of the curve.  But I have personally witnessed at least 2 small businesses (not home inventory) that began with great gusto and ended up closing their doors after less than a year (one after only a few months).  Marketing, planning, networking, research, insurance, financial planning, customer service, and budgeting are all crucial to our success.  These things are all ongoing and very time consuming processes.

I hope that this message is taken the way it is intended; to inspire success and not to discourage.  We can win this fight and make home inventory a national success story if we can stick with it and work our tails off.  Let us not lose heart!

Hi Eric,
Give the agent and others that you meet a call during your lunch hour of break time and set up a lunch meeting convient for both of you. I have done this several times and it is a great way to get to know people.
Good luck.
I love all the great advise on this post and have picked up some pointers.

Violet
Unique Inventories, LTD

Excellent comments!  I totally agree about the guerilla marketing.... very powerful and proves that you don't need to spend a lot of money.  Networking and forming relationships is key!  For those of you that are a bit shy, don't be nervous about meeting with agents and others as suggested.... just do your homework so you are confident, have professionally printed materials and a sample of your product.  You won't have a hard time selling in my opinion.... just get out there and make it happen.  I encourage everyone to network as Bridget suggest.... don't just sit back, place an ad and wait because you likely won't get the results you are expecting.  A combined approach of various geurrilla marketing methods will yield the best results.

Jay Conrad Levinson's "Guerrilla Marketing" books are on our recommended reading list as well along with a couple others found on the last page in the 'Marketing' section of our Startup-kit.  I also like Anthony (Tony) Robbins

Just a heads up, If you are using Vista Printing, you can contact them and they will speel check your proof while you are on the phone with them. I did that before I ordered my Brochures. And trust me, my 9 year old spells better than me.

It's great that everyone is busy getting their businesses up and running! I am not getting the home inventory bookings I was hoping for. I attend 2 network meetings a week and have started developing my contact list, for my monthly newsletter. A suggestion was made to me that I should give $50 Gift Certificates towards a "photo" only inventory to RealEstate Agents, etc as incentive for their clients. This should generate interest and when clients cash in their gift certificate, they would then spend the extra dollars buying the "electronic" documentation portion. Does this make sense?

I have also joined in on a local humanitariun project that will be placing my name on the sponsorhsip billboard for the next 3 months, as well as newpaper noteriety.

I do find it difficult to make the contacts I need to as I also still work fulltime. Soon, I am just going to take the plunge and quit my job and network fulltime. It is very time consuming following up with leads, etc. 

...but I am loving it! 

Erik:

Before you spend a ton on advertising, you might try the "guerrilla" campaign first.

While bigger companies (like Coke, Pepsi, Nike, etc.) can afford to "buy" brand name awareness, a home inventory service can get started with high impact, low cost marketing ideas. Slow and steady wins the race ... a couple of paid gigs will get you going and start to produce referrals. You don't need to spend hundreds -- or thousands -- of dollars to generate that new business, however.

Your best investment to start (best place to spend your startup marketing money):
Car magnets
Business cards (most use vistaprint, at least to start)
A Chamber of Commerce membership
A phone book listing (not necessarily a Yellow Pages ad, because most directories don't have a specific "Home Inventory Services" category, but having a business line that will get you in the white pages is important).
A web site (professionally designed if you can afford it, but clean, simple, well-thought out, and error-free, at a minimum). Invest in a service like Constant Contact to start building your mailing list (www.constantcontact.com)
Door hangers (200-500 of them to start -- can print your own or order online from NEBS.com or one of the other door hanger-specific web sites out there). Simple is still effective.

Your 90-day game plan:

Attend all the Chamber of Commerce events you can (especially the networking ones). Don't just focus on getting YOUR name out there -- instead, collect the business cards of the people you meet and send them a "nice to meet you" letter. Then add them to your database. Keep in mind that small business owners are also a good prospect for non-revenue inventory services (that is, inventories of their office excluding any inventory of product that is for sale).

Join a local tips group if there's one in your network (BNI is a nationally known one). Find one that has lots of business-to-consumer members

Make a list and contact at least 2-3 insurance agents in your area per week. Draft up an introductory letter and then followup with a call and ask if you can take them to breakfast or lunch to introduce yourself and find out more about their specialties. You are a prospective referral source for them too! (Start with your own insurance agent, and then ask for referrals out from there).

Research and see if there is a local branch of the Independent Insurance Agents of America in your area, and find out if they have a newsletter or meetings. Sponsor one of *those* instead of doing consumer marketing.

Follow the lead of real estate agents and "farm" an area -- preferably your neighborhood. Is there a neigborhood association? Do they have a newsletter? Contribute an article on conducting a home inventory (I'll try to put together some samples of this type of stuff and post it later). Do they have meetings? Offer to come and speak to them. Take door hangers door-to-door in the area. Put a time-limited offer on the door hanger (i.e., 15% off your inventory if you book your appointment in the next 30 days.)

Plan and execute your public relations campaign. (Here's another whole separate article with examples from me...) You're a new business. That's a news release. There's a disaster in your area (flooding, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, major housefire) -- that's another news release (with tips on conducting your own inventory). Send an announcement to your alma mater for their magazine or newsletter (especially if it's in the same town you live in now).

That's your first 90 days.

If you are buying a TV or radio or newspaper ad over $50 in your first 90 days of business, you're wasting your valuable start-up money. The real problem you have is not a lack of name awareness of YOUR business, it's a lack of awareness of the WHOLE INDUSTRY at this point. Do some guerrilla marketing first to seed the market before buying awareness. (I recommend any of Jay Conrad Levinson's "Guerrilla Marketing" books -- available online (used or new), at your local bookstore, or your local library).

I hear you Erik.  I think the nature of the economy right now is not helping people get an "unproved" business going either.  A lot of people are feeling the crunch of money problems so they are not really eager to help someone trying to start a business.

On the positive side when I talk with people I know about a home inventory business it is universally met with positive feedback.  Well, once I explain things to them it is anyway.  Initially they are like, "Home Inventory?  What's that?"  Then we talk about it a little (by the way, working up your little blurb for this point in a conversation is CRUCIAL!  You can make or break yourself right there).  Hope this helps.  Keep the faith!

I am trying to post as much as I can as well.  I'm deep in my prep process so most of my time is planning, writing up my paperwork, working on the website, doing more research, etc.  I believe that this is a unique and exciting business opportunity but unfortunately I've hit a brick wall with a lack of funding. 

I'm stretched thin as it is so I can't even order my startup kit.  My wife and I both work full time and our son is in daycare so our family time is already minimal.  It is so frustrating because I only need just a little bit more money to get things moving but a little is just too much at this point.  Seems like there are always more expenses popping up that need to be addressed.

So, overall I'm very excited & very frustrated at the same time.  I hope this doesn't sound like a whine or something, just venting a little.  I'm sure that once we get this off the ground things will start working out fine. 



~ a tiny violin plays for me and my struggles... 
(isn't that how it works?)