Rick's Biztalk posts

Who should be the keynote speaker for Bizjam 09?

In your wildest dream, who would YOU want to see deliver the keynote? Money is no object. I'll start:

How about Steve Jobs? Wouldn't THAT be wild?! Starting from nothing many years ago and building Apple into what it is now would be a great story for the keynote. I imagine he might be kinda hard to get though ( ya think?). His one-time sidekick Woz, however, did speak at the Seattle Chamber of Commerce about a year ago. Guess he has more time and less money than Jobs.

Your turn . . . .

really fabulous lead generation idea

About a year ago, I learned about something that's available for FREE (got your attention, right?) at the local library. It's a database of businesses in the US & Canada called ReferenceUSA. It's possible that your library already subscribes to this database (mine does). With my free library card, I can access this database (from my laptop at home, no less) and generate lists of potential clients. It's amazing and pretty easy to use. You can sort that huge list of businesses by annual revenue, metro area, # of employees, SIC code (a 6-digit code that classifies various types of bussinesses), etc. etc.

Here's an example: I've used this database to generate a list of ad agencies, located in Seattle, with between 5 & 20 employees, and revenues of between $5M & $20M. The database then spits out TONS of info like company name, contact name, address, phone #, website, credit rating, .... more info than you'll ever use. Isn't that GREAT??!

Call your library and check it out.
And let me know if it works for you.

Rick
Lone Eagle Digital Imaging, LLC
www.LoneEagleDigital.com

direct mail, cold calling.... tried 'em, don't like 'em

I've got a really fabulous shop, equipment set, software, skills, supplies, brochure, computers, spectrophotometers (I'll tell ya later)... everything except enough CLIENTS. I've done direct mail (~20k pieces over the last year) to my target market in WA & OR. I've done a little cold calling to that same list of folks. But, as you may know, neither is quite as effective as we'd like. Here's my question:

How can I more effectively use that HUGE list of potential clients I have more effectively without feeling like I'm bothering them with junk mail & phone calls??!

Mainly, I've got two big problems:

1. I'm located in a remote, rural town (Yakima). This is not to say I 'can't' work remotely with clients..... I can. The trouble is getting them to notice Lone Eagle Digital Imaging & all the great large-format inkjet prints I can produce.

2. By nature, I'm not much of a salesman (miserable may be more like it). I do love my business, shop, technology, etc. and very enthusiastically bend anyone's ear who's willing to listen. But that's not the same as what a full-blown salesman can do.

If you've got ideas, I'd love to hear 'em. Thanks in advance for your help.

Rick
Lone Eagle Digital Imaging, LLC
www.LoneEagleDigital.com

greetings from Rick at Lone Eagle Digital Imaging.

Hello Bizniks. I was excited to learn about Biznik when a new business contact introduced it to me. Looks like just the thing to help me & my small business to reach out to a bigger & better market. I own Lone Eagle Digital Imaging, LLC. We help people & companies communicate in a big, colorful way. We do this by designing & producing a huge range of large-format graphics.... backlit displays, vehicle wraps, vinyl & fabric banners, window graphics, non-slip floor graphics, and photo & fine art reproductions. The list of uses is long. Please see the Lone Eagle website at www.LoneEagleDigital.com - it may spark an idea. Let me know if I can help you get your message across in a big, colorful way.
Rick Sader
509 972-0568
www.LoneEagleDigital.com