When I went flyering recently, I took a friend to help me put them in paper boxes - I drove the car while he reached out the passenger side with the flyers. When I saw how much trouble he had at times, I thanked god that I didn’t try to go alone. I read a post where CFP mentioned he like to hand them out alone (I’ll find it and post later - I’m about to fall asleep right now) and I cant imagine how you can safely and efficiently do that.
So how Do you if you go solo on your flyering adventures?
There are so many blind hills and curves around here that I don’t consider driving on the wrong side of the road as an option. On foot would be Way to slow and even banned in some of the upscale neighborhoods. I thought the scooter idea was great (again, I’ll have to find it later and link back to it) especially at 120mil/gal, but I don’t know how that would work on hills.
So what are the most efficient methods (cost+manhours / time) for various situtations?
As the business owner, you shouldn’t be passing out fliers at all if you can help it. I am surprised that CFP is. I thought his business was bigger than that. Passing out fliers can be done by almost anyone. I hire clean cut teenagers and pay them commission. You can hire just about anyone who likes to walk. The job requires no skill whatsoever, so finding people is not that hard.
You really should be think about doing the things that you are good at and keeping yourself only doing actual revenue producing activity. Farm out the menial tasks to others.
Most folks who deliver fliers in my area get paid ‘per flier delivered’ or the rare time ‘by the hour’. When you say you pay ‘commission’ are you talking a ‘per flier’ rate or actual commission on a sale as a result of the flier?
I don’t exactly understand what you’re explaining. I’ve tried door to door before and had little success. In FL, older people don’t like random people just coming up to their door.
So as a Brand New business owner struggling to get business, I should be sitting on my throne at the office paying people $ I don’t have all the while waiting for the phone to ring to get work scheduled? The point of me doing such things myself is to not having superfluous costs involved in growing, managing and operating my business. Paying somebody any amount would be more expensive than doing it myself even with gas prices as they are and also keeping in mind that I have the time to do so, mileage is tax deductible and paying a teenager or whomever is not a legitimate business expense are far as I know.
Yesterday I fliered for 3 hours. When your business is young (I’m almost at the 1 year full time mark) you gotta do these things. When I was swamped for business last spring I should have hired kids to distribute fliers then maybe I wouldn’t be slow right now. Well at least I got a couple of jobs for my efforts yesterday.
First off, you might have a misguided concept of what a business owner does if you think they “sit on thrones” all day while others “work.” Your statement makes me wonder how cut out for entrepreneurship you are. In your situation, you should be up against glass all day, and collecting checks, while someone passes out fliers for you. Your goal should be to spend as much time as possible in actual revenue generating activity.
Second, if you reread my post I said “if you can help it.” Meaning: obviously a one man band has to his own distribution, I did too. But as your business grows you need to start farming out tasks that are easily handled by others and concentrate on what you are best at. Hopefully you have a plan in place to accomplish that.
Larry, this is getting too deep for me. I had to go look up the word felicitous in the dictionary. I was just answering a question with all the emotion and prejudices that accompany anyones personal opinion. :o
Well, his sarcasm was directed solely at me because he specifically took aim at what I wrote. Secondly, what is your role in this thread? So far you have not offered anything about flier distribution, only questions about my motives.
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So as a Brand New business owner struggling to get business, I should be sitting on my throne at the office paying people $ I don’t have all the while waiting for the phone to ring to get work scheduled? The point of me doing such things myself is to not having superfluous costs involved in growing, managing and operating my business. Paying somebody any amount would be more expensive than doing it myself even with gas prices as they are and also keeping in mind that I have the time to do so, mileage is tax deductible and paying a teenager or whomever is not a legitimate business expense are far as I know.
