Referral Program 2006

I sent out the following email yesterday to a bunch of people:

Dear Valued Customers & Friends,

I hope you all had a very happy Holiday Season! I hope I get the chance to speak to each one of you again sometime soon.

Here I am, my first quarter running my own business and it has turned out to be a healthy quarter, more then I can ask for as a new business owner with much to learn & accomplish before I can get Lowe Studio LLC where I want it to be.

In no small part, it's because of the loyalty & help I've received from all of you. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you all. I hope that this good relationship I've had with each of you will continue on through this year and many more.

To kick off the new year, I've decided to test some of the ideas I've had for my business, beginning with with my 2006 Referral Program in appreciation for the wonderful word-of-mouth I get from my clients.

Effective immediately, if you know any businesses or professional individuals that may need my design services (e.g., business cards, website design, brochures, ad design, logo design, etc.). Please pass me their contact information and I'll contact them right away. Or have them contact me through any of the sources below and have them mention your name.

If this leads to actual work, I'll take 10% of the project total and apply it as a business credit to your account. Perhaps you need me to help update your 2 year old website? Help you get a shopping cart to sell that cool crafted towel holder you made over the holidays? Update your business cards with your new cell phone number? Draw a sketch of your pet chihuahua for a new tattoo? The possibilities are limitless...I'll be here to help!

I think this will be a great way to continue building my business, while giving back to the people who've helped me the get this far.

Thank you for being such great customers & supportive friends!

I should have added.... "But that's not ALL!!.... buy now and get this handy backscratcher free!!"

Not sure if it will work but I thought I'd give it a try. I'm very convinced word-of-mouth is 10x more effective then any advertising, especially here in this small island. So part of my strategy of business is to pour a lot of my resources and energy towards fostering that relationship between me and my clients.

It's part of the reason I've often did MORE for my clients then they expect. I kind of look at that lost labor time almost as an advertising expense in itself. I'm hoping if I keep this up, it will work out for me in the long run.

I checked out a similar organization lately who's sole purpose is to network business professionals called BNI. I like the idea.... once a week you meet with a set group of business people for maybe an hour or so just to network. They have a set schedule where you spend anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes telling the others what's going on with your business.

Before you know it, you'll obviously start becoming very familiar with these people and their businesses, and they will in turn know your business very well too. So we become a network of people who will then have a much easier time passing referrals together.

The cool thing about it is that each chapter of BNI, they design it so that only 1 person in each industry can be eligible to join. That way, you aren't competing against another individual in the same group. If you sell roofing equipment and there is another guy there selling the same thing...TOUGH, you gotta go find another chapter to join.

As a designer, I'm told I'm in pretty high demand in a lot of chapters as they always need designers to handle work within the chapter members or for businesses that they might have referrals for.

I think it's a good concept I'm likely to join. But I'll have to wait till after my vacation.

Christy is really into investments. She studies a lot about international funds and has surprised me that she's got a pretty high tolerance for risk in these things. I have to learn from her I think....my mutual funds have been pretty unexciting. It's been sitting roughly at the same level for the past year. PFFFFFT. If I wanted my money to just sit like that I'd put it in the damn bank. I gotta get up with the program.....