My marketing is generating so many leads, that I may have to start creating a post for each business category. Let’s start with a mid-year recap:

January 2010: I started the year off with three businesses: real estate (agency/investing), mobile notary public services, and a designer fragrance online store. Then I added a fashion accessories biz.

July 2010: I’ve retired the designer fragrance and fashion accessories businesses. Real estate and vending and now my top priorities, with notary services running a close second.

I’ve gotten on the habit of a regular lead-generation plan for both my real estate and vending business. And now I get so many calls and emails, I don’t have time to return them all. The only time I have to return calls is during my lunchbreak (I still have a J-O-B), and when I get home from work after 5pm. I’d like to call people early in the morning, but I think 8:30am phone calls might be a bit too much. Then again, some might see me as a go-getter. I guess I’ll have to test that theory and see

For real estate, I’ve been marketing heavily to people facing foreclosure, and the response rate has been good. My recent batch of 78 letters yielded 10 phone calls. That’s a 12% response rate, much better than the supposed “average” response rate of 2%. I’m attributing that to the fact that I only use hand-addressed envelopes and stamps for postage. I know it takes longer, but I believe people open it because it looks like it’s coming from someone they know. All the other mailings I’ve done using labels or printed envelopes got me ZERO response. So I’m sticking with what works. The next step to this will be hiring an assistant to do it every week.

For the vending business, I’ve decided to focus on non-profit groups instead of for-profit locations. My hunch is that since they always need money anyway, they’ll like getting a monthly payout from the machine. I did a test by sending emails to some senior centers in my area. Out of 11 emails sent, two responded that they wanted a machine (that’s an 18% response rate, in case you’re wondering). I placed my first machine at a bar, which I’m due to service for the first time this coming week. It’s a double-head, which I’m going to break down to a single. After reading all the discussions on the Vendiscuss forum, I’ve decided to sell gumballs only. They’re the most profitable, and the easiest item to obtain. I’ll check my results after a month, and if it’s not where I want to be, then I’ll consider incorporating candy. My goal is build my passive business stream and keep it as simple as possible.

One thing I like about this process is that I keep coming to the same “realizations” over and over again. Stay consistent with lead generation, and always keep the goal in mind.

candy bulk vending · lead generation · marketing · real estate investing

Here are quick updates on what’s going on with my ventures this week:

• Real estate – I got another wholesale property under contract Wednesday, and I’m meeting with a seller to get another one under contract tonight. This will keep me on track to meet my goal of wholesaling at least one property a month. Two of the properties are shortsale/wholesale deals, and the other two are “traditional” wholesale deals.
• Mobile notary service – I had two more appointments for notary service this week, which is okay. I’m still working on the automation of marketing this business. I contacted a targeted publication for classified ad rates, so I should have an answer soon. One of my old friends is also moving back to Philly, and she wants to be a notary. So I may have her replace me, and just run the business without having to run around notarizing stuff. We’ll see.
• Designer fragrances – Today is the day that I select an eLance vendor to install the shopping cart software for my designer fragrance website. I’m selecting someone from overseas, which makes me a bit nervous, but I expect everything will work out. I originally planned to install it myself, but after two failed attempts, I realized my time was better spent doing other things.

That’s it for now, gotta get back to work

business activity updates · Designer fragrance business · mobile notary public business · real estate wholesaling business

When I started my mobile notary business, my idea was to provide a service that no one else in Philadelphia was providing. While I’ve come across quite a few heartfelt situations with notary clients, a recent appointment really touched me. This week, one of my notary appointments was for a lady who needed to get a power of attorney signed by her husband who is in a mental institution. I was a little hesitant at first because 1) I don’t like hospitals of any kind and 2) I was scared of going to a mental institution. My fear was totally unfounded.

The client needed a mobile notary, and she needed to provide two witnesses to identify the spouse. She told me that no one in her family would come to the institution to be witnesses. Now I don’t know the family situation, but how mean can you be that you won’t make time to help out a family member in a hospital? We ended up getting two strangers who happened to be visiting their family members to be witnesses. This lady was crying her eyes out as we found some witnesses, and I wanted to cry with her. When I saw her scrambling to get this done for her husband, it reminded of the wedding vow: “.. in sickness and in health, till death do us part”. It was a strong reminder to me of what true love really means. There are so many people who leave or give up when their spouse has ailing health, whether mental or physical. I really admire people who honor their vows.

Getting paid to provide mobile notary service is cool, but what’s even cooler is the fact that I can really help people in their time of need. It’s these types of situations that make me appreciate the good in everyday people. There’s no amount of money in the world that can duplicate that feeling.

mental institutions · Notary business · providing services that help people · wedding vows

March is starting out to be a profitable month:

• Just when I thought the fragrance business was going kaput, I got a few orders this week.
• I had a real estate settlement yesterday, I have a rental commission check coming in the mail, and I’ll be receiving a referral commission next week. I also got a new buyer approved who appears to be very serious.
• A new notary service customer requested their third appointment in less than two weeks yesterday.

I like having inflows (money coming in).  My challenge for this month is to automate those inflows as much as possible. I’m not sure how automated the real estate and notary businesses can get, but I know I can automate the products I sell. I woke up early today just to start making notes about what I can change.

Since I’m streamlining and committing to keeping better records, I finally downloaded GNUCash to maintain my books. It’s a free accounting program (very similar to Quickbooks), and it’s awesome. Thank God for open source software.

accounting · automation · Notary business · open source software · pefume business · Real estate business