Re: Going Solo

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Being well-financed is crucial to any business. Make sure you
have enough money to pay the bills for a while (business and
personal), because it will take a long time before you're up and
running the way you need to be. Hopefully you have an
understanding spouse with a good job....

I've often written my ideas on obtaining business, but the one I
will stress again today is to get active with the Chamber of
Commerce,and maybe one other local civic organization. Usually,
many of the other active members are local big-shots, and you
can get very cozy with them, which can only help - they tend to
take care of each other. Also, when it comes to referral time,
whoever runs the Chamber will remember the people who volunteer
for them.

You can't just sit around and wait for the phone to ring. This
is how many solos fail; they're not out there grabbing the bull
by the horns. It reminds me of someone in my town who tried
starting a practice. She put flyers on all the cars in the
municipal parking lot (including mine). I never saw her making
herself public - no local events, no volunteer activities, no
seminars. She expected people to call her because of a flyer.
She lasted less than a year.

Like Jay Foonberg said, getting business means persistence,
persistence, persistence. Jump in there and force people to know
you. Nobody else will.

Good luck.

On 10/23/06, Solo to be... wrote:
> Carol: thanks for the response. The plan is to open a general
> practice shop. Follow up question: any advise as to how the
> lessen the blow of going from a siutaiton of steady paycheck
to
> no clients/no paycheck?