HOW TO START YOUR OWN HOME-BASED SECRETARIAL SERVICE. . .
(Wherever you see "typewriter", think "computer")
A new approach to serving one of the oldest and most basic
needs of even the smallest business community, a home-based
secretarial service can satisfy the entrepreneurial needs of
even the most ambitious woman!
This is a kind of service business with a virtually unlimited
profit potential. Third year profits for businesses of this type,
in metropolitan areas as small as 70,000 persons are reported at
$100,000 and more. It's a new idea for a traditional job that's
growing in popularity and acceptance.
As for the future, there's no end in sight to the many and
varied kinds of work a secretary working at home can do for
business owners, managers and sales representatives. Various
surveys indicate that by the year 2,000 - at least 60 percent of
all the secretarial work, as we know it today, will be handled by
women working at home.
For most women, this is the most exciting news of things to
come since the equal rights amendment. Now is the time to get
yourself organized, start your own home-based secretarial service
and nurture it through your start-up stages to total success in
the next couple of years.
In fact, there are two ways to go. You could be a "sub-
contractor" for an existing home based secretarial service. Or,
the second (and much more profitable) avenue is to start your own
secretarial service. The second approach is the one we will
discuss in this report.
Our research indicates little or no risk involved, with most
secretarial services breaking even within 30 days, and reports of
some showing a profit after the first week! Your cash investment
can be as little as $10 to $25 if you already have a modern,
electronic typewriter. You can set up at your kitchen table, make
a few phone calls, and be in business tomorrow.
A typewriter would only be used for a "quick start". Today,
you can't be competitive without a computer! But don't let that
worry you. The prices for (and ways to finance) computer
equipment have become very competitive also. Great deals for
these purchases (or rentals) are very easy to find. After a couple of
additional hints, we will leave this up to you and continue with
the discussion of the service itself.
In the beginning, the only "software" you will need for your
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computer is a good wordprocessing program like WordStar or Word-
Perfect. Both of these programs (and most others) have tutorials
and, of great importance, spell checkers. As you grow, you will
probably find a need for additional software in order to be able
to offer additional services.
A definite must is to also have a laser printer! Good lasers
are available for less than $600. Again, financing is easy and
it's one of the best investments you will ever make. (You'll see
a couple of reasons why a little later on.) The "more perfect"
your finished product, the more clients you'll attract and keep.
As mentioned earlier, you can start almost immediately from
your kitchen table if you've got the typewriter. However, in
order to avoid fatigue and back problems, invest in a computer
table and secretary's standard typing chair just as soon as you can
afford them. Watch for office equipment sales, especially among
the office equipment leasing firms. You should be able to pick up
a new, slightly damaged, or good used computer stand or desk for
around $20 to $25. A comparable quality secretary's typing chair
can be purchased for $50 or less.
While you're shopping for things you'll need, be sure to pick
up a chair mat. If you don't, you may suddenly find that the
carpet on the floor of the room where you do your typing, needs
replacing due to the worn spot where the chair is located and
maneuvered in front of the typewriter. You'll also want a work
stand with place marker and a convenient box or storage shelf for
your immediate paper supply. If you plan to do a great deal of
work during the evening hours, be sure to invest in an
adjustable "long arm" office work lamp.
When buying paper, visit the various wholesale paper suppliers
in your area or in any nearby large city, and buy at least a half
carton - 6 reams - at a time. Buying wholesale, and in quantity,
will save you quite a bit of money. The kind to buy is ordinary
20 pound white bond. Open one ream for an immediate supply at
your typewriter, and store the rest in a closet, under your bed,
or on a shelf in your garage or basement.
In the beginning, you'll be the business - typist, salesman,
advertising department, bookkeeper and janitor - so, much will
depend upon your overall business acumen. Those areas in which
you lack experience or feel weak in, buy books or tapes and
enhance your knowledge. You don't have to enjoy typing, but you
should have better than average proficiency.
Your best bet in selling your services is to do it all
yourself. Every business in your area should be regarded as a
potential customer, so it's unlikely you'll have to worry about
who to call on. Begin by making a few phone calls to former
bosses or business associates - simply explain that you're
starting a typing service and would appreciate it if they'd give
you a call whenever they have extra work that you can handle for
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them. Before you end the conversation, ask them to be sure to
keep you in mind and steer your way any overload typing jobs that
they might hear about.
The next step is "in-person" calls on prospective customers.
This means dressing in an impressively professional manner, and
making sales calls on the business people in your area. For this
task, you should be armed with business cards (brochures also
help...), and an order or schedule book of some sort. All of
these things take time to design and print, so while you're
waiting for delivery, use the time to practice selling via the
telephone. At this stage, your telephone efforts will be more for
the purpose of indoctrinating you into the world of selling than
actually making sales.
Just be honest about starting a business, and sincere in
asking them to consider trying your services whenever they have a
need you can help them with. Insurance companies, attorneys and
distributors are always needing help with their typing, so start
with these kinds of businesses first.
For your business cards, consider a free-lance artist to
design a logo for you. Check, and/or pass the word among the
students in the art or design classes at any nearby college, art
or advertising school. Hiring a regular commercial artist will
cost you quite a bit more, and generally won't satisfy your needs
any better than the work of a hungry beginner.
Be sure to browse through any Klip Art books that may be
available - at most print shops, newspaper offices, advertising
agencies, libraries and book stores. The point being, to come up
with an idea that makes your business card stand out; that can be
used on all your printed materials, and makes you - your company -
unique or different from all the others.
I might suggest something along the lines of a secretary with
pad in hand taking dictation; or perhaps a secretary wearing a
dictaphone headset seated in front of a computer. You might
want something distinctive for the first letter of your company
name, or perhaps a scroll or flag as a background for your company
name.
At any rate, once you've got your logo or company design, the
next step is your local print shop. Ask them to have the
lettering you want to use, typeset in the style you like best -
show them your layout and order at least a thousand business cards
printed up.
For your layout, go with something basic. Expert typing
services, in the top left hand corner... Dictation by phone, in
the top right hand corner... Your company logo or design centered
on the card with something like, complete secretarial services,
under it... Your name in the lower left hand corner, and your
telephone number in the lower right hand corner...
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Everybody that you call on in person, be sure to give them one
of your business cards. And now, you're ready to start making
those in-person business sales calls.
Your best method of making sales calls would be with a
business telephone directory and a big supply of loose leaf
notebook paper. Go through the business directory and write down
the company names, addresses and telephone number. Group all of
those within one office building together, and those on the same
street in the same block. Be sure to leave a couple of spaces
between the listing of each company. And of course, start a new
page for those in a different building or block. Now, simply
start with the first business in the block, or on the lowest floor
in a building and number them in consecutive order. This will
enable you to call on each business in order as you proceed along
a street, down the block, or through a building
You'll be selling your capabilities - your talents - and
charging for your time - the time it takes you to get set up and
complete the assignment they give you. You should be organized to
take work with you on the spot, and have it back at a promised
time; arrange to pick up any work they have, and deliver it back
to them when it's completed; and handle dictation or special work
assignments by phone. You should also emphasize your abilities to
handle everything by phone, particularly when they have a rush
job.
Establish your fees according to how long it takes you to
handle their work, plus your cost of supplies - work space,
equipment and paper - then fold in a $5 profit. In other words,
for a half hour job that you pick up on a regular sales or
delivery call you should charge $10...
Another angle to include would be copies. Establish a working
relationship with a local printer, preferably one who also has a
high quality copy machine. When your clients need a sales letter
or whatever plus so many copies, you can do it all for them.
Only make copies on the very best of dry paper copying
machines, and only for 50 copies or less. More than 50 copies,
it'll be less expensive and you'll come out with a better looking
finished product by having them printed on a printing press. When
you furnish copies, always fold in your copying or printing costs
plus at least a dollar or more for every 50 copies you supply.
By starting with former employers and/or business associates,
many businesses are able to line up 40 hours of work without even
making sales call. If you're lucky enough to do this, go with it,
but...
Start lining up your friends to do the work for you - girls
who work all day at a regular job, but need more money; and
housewives with time on their hands. You tell them what kind of
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equipment is needed, and the quality of work you demand. You can
arrange to pay them so much per hour for each job they handle for
you - judging from the time you figure the job would take if you
were doing it; or on a percentage basis. I feel the best
arrangement is on an hourly basis according to a specified amount
of time each job normally takes.
Here is a good place to talk about a laser printer again. Lots
of people you can line up will have computers at home but few will
have lasers. Don't tell them they need one or how much more they
could do for themselves if they had one! Let them be dependent on
you. They can do the typing and spell checking and then copy the
file to a disk which you can then put in your computer and print
out on your laser printer. This can keep your workers from going
into business for themselves and competing against you.
Whenever, and as soon as you've got a supply of "workers"
lined up, you turn all your current assignments over to them, and
get back to lining up more business. If you're doing well selling
by phone, and your area seems to respond especially well to
selling by phone, then you should immediately hire commission
sales people. Train them according to your own best methods and
put them to work assisting you. Your salespeople can work out of
their own homes, using their own telephones, provided you've got
your area's business community organized in a loose leaf notebook
style. All you do is give them so many pages from your notebook,
from which they make sales calls each week.
Even so, you should still make those in-person sales calls...
If for some reason you get bogged down, and can't or don't want
to, then hire commission sales people to do it for you...
Generally, women selling this type of service bring back the most
sales... And for all your commission sales people, the going rate
should be 30 percent of the total amount of the sale... Point to
remember: Sooner or later, you're going to want to hire a full-
time telephone sales person, plus another full time person to make
in-person sales calls for you - Eventually, you want workers to
handle all the work for you, and sales people to do the selling
for you - So the sooner you can line up people for these jobs, the
faster your business is going to prosper.
Later on, you'll want a sales manager to direct your sales
people and keep them on track, so try to find a "future sales
manager" when you begin looking for salespeople.
Your basic advertising should be a regular quarter page ad in
the yellow pages of both your home service telephone directory and
the business yellow pages. You'll find that 50 percent of your
first time clients will come to you because they have an immediate
need and saw your ad in the yellow pages, so don't skimp on either
the size or the "eye-catching" graphics of this ad.
A regular one column by 3-inch ad in the Sunday edition of
your area's largest newspaper would also be a good idea. Any
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advertising you do via radio or television will be quite expensive
with generally very poor results, so don't even give serious
consideration to that type of advertising.
By far, your largest advertising outlays will be for direct
mail efforts. You should have a regular mailing piece that you
send out to your entire business community at least once a month.
This is handled by sending out 200 to 500 letters per day. For
this, you should obtain a third class postage permit or else these
postage costs will drive you out of business.
Your mailing piece should consist of a colorful brochure that
describes your business. It should explain the many different
kinds of assignments you can handle - a notation that no job is
too small or too large - and a statement of your guarantee. Do
not quote prices in your brochure - simply ask the recipient to
call for a quotation or price estimate.
It's also a good idea to list the background and experience of
the business owner, plus several business testimonials and/or
compliments. You could also include a couple of pictures showing
your workers busy and actually handling secretarial assignments.
The most important part of your brochure will be your closing
statement - an invitation, indeed - a demand that the recipient
call you for further information.
All of this can very easily be put together in a Z-folded, 2-
sided self-mailer. Again, look for a free-lance copywriter and
artist to help you put it together. Once you've got your "dummy"
pretty well set the way you want it, make copies of it, and either
take it or send it to several direct mail advertising agencies.
Ask them for their suggestions of how they would improve it, and
for a bid on the cost if you were to retain them to handle it for
you. Listen to their ideas and incorporate them where - and if -
you think they would make your brochure better. And, if one of
them does come in with a cost estimate that's lower than your
independent, "do-it-yourself" costs, then think seriously about
assigning the job to them.
This is definitely the most important piece of work that will
ever come out of your office, so be sure it's the very best, and
positively indicative of your business. This will be the business
image you project, so make sure it reflects the quality, style and
credibility of your business - your thinking, and your success.
Your brochure should be on 60-pound coated paper, in at least
two colors and by a professional printer. The end result is the
Z-folded brochure - Z-folded by the printer - with your third
class mailing permit indicia showing on the cover side. This
cover side should be flamboyant and eye-catching. You want your
mailing piece to stand out in the pile of 50 or 60 pieces of other
mail received by the recipient.
When you're ready to mail, simply take a couple of cartons of
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your brochures to an addressing shop, have them run your brochures
through their addressing machine, loaded with your mailing list,
bundle them and drop them off at the post office for you. This
takes us back to the planning on how to compile your mailing list.
I suggest that you begin with Cheshire Cards by Xerox. You type
the name of your addressee on the cards, maintain these cards in
the order of your choice, take your boxes of cards to the
addressing shop whenever you have a mailing, and there's no
further work on your part. The addressing shop loads their
machine with your cards, prints the address on your cards directly
onto your brochures, and gives the cards back to you when the
mailing is completed. A mailing of 100,000 brochures, via this
method - generally could be completed and on its way in one 8-hour
day.
In essence, you'll want to solicit business with a regular
routine of telephone selling, in-person sales calls at the
prospective client's place of business, media advertising and
direct mail efforts. All of these efforts are important and
necessary to the total success of your business - don't try to cut
corners or spare the time or expense needed to make sure you're
operating at full potential in these areas! In addition to these
specific areas, it would be wise for you to attend chamber of
commerce meetings, and join several of your area civic clubs -
you'll meet a great number of business leaders at these meetings
and through their association, you will gain a great deal of new
business - and even help in many of your needs.
Once you're organized and rolling, you can easily expand your
market nationwide with the installation of a toll free telephone
and advertising in business publications. Perhaps you can add to
your primary business with a "mailing shop" of your own - the
rental of mailing lists - specialized temporary help services -
telephone answering services - and even survey work...
The "bottom line" thing to remember in order to achieve total
success, is planning. Plan your initial operation through from
start to finish before you even think about soliciting your first
customer. Get your operational plan down on paper - itemize your
needs, estimate your costs, line up your operating capital, and
set forth milestones for growth.
Set profit figures you want to be realizing 3 months... 6
months... l year... 2 years... and 3 years from your business
start-up date. Learn all you can about the "support systems"
involved in operating a profitable business - planning,
advertising, selling, bookkeeping, and banking - and continue to
update your knowledge with a program of continuous learning. Do
your homework properly, and there's just no way you can fail with
a Home-Based Secretarial Service.
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End of Report.