The Achilles Heel of a Start-Up

TidesOfFortune said: Greetings my fellow FWers. I know that there are a lot of brilliant minds that frequent these forums so I would like to reach out to this community in search of help. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

I’m preparing to embark on a business venture around this same time next year. Every variable within my control is in place except for one very critical piece, “finding clients”. I see it as the Achilles heel of a start-up. This is the one variable I feel that no matter how much you prepare for it, you can never guarantee its success. I intend to do everything within my power to mitigate this risk and improve my chances of succeeding. Anything beyond that is left by and large to chance.

What I ask of from the community is for advice on any techniques or methods I can use to market my business in hopes of attaining clients. I know the line of business very intimately and I‘m confident that if I am successful in finding these clients, the business will run like a well-oiled machine.

Business Scope
Business Type: Long Term Care Pharmacy
Target Location: San Diego, Riverside or Bakersfield, CA (dependent on potential clientele in the area)
Target Clientele: Long Term Care/Skilled Nursing Facilities, Intensive Care Facilities, Assisted Living, and any facilities/hospitals in need of sterile compounding

Marketing Ideas
These are the marketing ideas that I’ve come up with thus far. I am hoping to eventually expand on this from the feedback I receive.
1. Offer a finder’s reward. Anyone able to find clientele for the business will be compensated for their efforts (i.e. reward ranging from $10,000-$50,000 depending on the size of the facility found).
2. Spam the net. Post this reward notice on any online websites/forums that I can, to increase possible hits. (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Craigslist, even SD and FW if they would allow it). Suggestions for any additional promising websites or other media would be nice.
3. Door-to-door. Set up meetings with any potential clients that are willing to lend an ear. Present my business proposition and even possibly offering them a sign-on bonus of some sort as an incentive for switching over to do business with me.

Thanks for hearing me out.

who are your competitors? what is your competitive advantage? what does the Porter's 5 forces diagram look like for your market? what is the size of the market? growth rate? expected revenue, expenses, and profit? how much capital investment is needed, and the weighted average cost of capital?

Anakin

I think you would have better luck with a Medical Marijuana Dispensary

be careful with the kickbacks... the Feds are taking out California pharmacies like crazy lately due to widespread MediCal/MediCare fraud.

Just use the Yellow Pages to get a list of them.

Ha ha ha .. yellow pages .. ha ha ha .... not usually your wisest way these days.

The word of mouth buzz can be very powerful. I think Facebook is a great place to start. Regarding the kickbacks, paying a 3rd party to find a client should be ok. I don't see this as any different from paying a sales person to do this for you. Paying the client directly, on the other hand, may be a different story. I would double check this if I were you, just in case. Good luck with this. Long term care is a tough niche. It's not like you get new walk-in customers stumbling into your pharmacy every day.

I've been (distantly) involved with a similar venture over the past two years - it ended badly for all and they had the customer problem already taken care of - they owned their own nursing home chain. They also "knew the business intimately" but it turns out there was a lot they didn't know. After watching their mistakes I'd suggest starting small and growing slowly with customers that will understand as you make the inevitable mistakes. Get your systems working! Make sure your software can keep up, your pharmacists are reliable and that the billing and collections is accurate and on time. This last one sounds so obvious, but it is always a huge problem in LTC and dealing with Medicaid/Medicare/Insurance Companies. (On paper the company I knew was making $500K profit a month, yet they never collected it.)

Find a small growing chain and partner with them. Grow as they grow, and the unrelated customers will come from normal channels as you are ready for them. (Tradeshows, cold calls, Associations, word of mouth...) The industry is still very fragmented - a few big chains, but the bulk of is still mom and pop homes where they may own one or two facilities. It is also very insular - homes change hands regularly and your typical Nursing Home Administrator has worked for many chains/owners and dealt with many suppliers - they talk to each other and know who to avoid.

Don't expect to get into a big chain until you are well known and have proved yourself (if ever) - the profits from LTC pharmacies are so great that they already have their own inhouse pharmacies. Be prepared to spend lots of time on the road selling one on one. Make the effort to visit the small towns - and hire someone with sales experience in the region that already knows who's who.

owenscott said: Just use the Yellow Pages to get a list of them.

Ha ha ha .. yellow pages .. ha ha ha .... not usually your wisest way these days.

Why not? OP stated that his prospective clients are as follows:

Target Clientele: Long Term Care/Skilled Nursing Facilities, Intensive Care Facilities, Assisted Living, and any facilities/hospitals in need of sterile compounding

So they're all commercial enterprises. Why not the Yellow Pages if they're local?

Thank you all for spending the time to read and reply to my thread. All points have been noted.

- I will definitely research this possible kickback issue in further detail. I have a corporate lawyer friend who I can actually enlist the help of. I know that law, at times, may be very ambiguous and left up to interpretation so if you happen to be a corporate lawyer yourself, I would love to hear your opinion on the issue.
- I agree that spamming the internet may not be a very personal approach but it does have the advantage of reaching out to the masses. Besides, I don't think it would hurt to try. Getting just even one customer this way will be a big success in my eyes.
- When I say door-to-door, I mean trying to set up professional appointments to come in and meet with the clients. Cold-calls are very annoying. It'll leave a bad taste in their mouth and probably burn down the bridge for any potential business with them in the future.
- I've thought about hiring a professional salesperson to market the business for me. I've even had a co-worker who wanted to refer me to one. My biggest fear is that the salesperson will turn out to be a money sink with little to no results. Using the finder's reward method, I can theoretically hire an unlimited amount of workforce, where I would only need to pay them upon delivered results.
- Anakin, I see you have quite a number of questions for me. We've completed our core analysis but the data is saved in one of my business partner's desktop computer. He is actually out of town at the moment, but when he gets back, I'll provide you with the answers to the best of my knowledge.
- tmonkey, boy do I have a whole load of questions for you. We have pharmacists in place, ready to go, who are already familiar with the applications we will be using. We have help from people experienced in systems testing and integration. As for billing, my only concern is that with the current economic and political climate, reimbursements from the government may be delayed or even impacted pending the direction healthcare in the US will be taking. The big thing that we are lacking are the contacts/connections, but I would still love to hear the details from your experience (i.e. which applications, vendors, GPO's, etc... did you guys use?) I want to compile a list of more detailed questions I'd love to ask you. I hope you will be around to answer them. Or even better yet, if I can contact you directly via PM or even by phone, I would greatly appreciate it.
- aeiouy. Not sure what "verbotoen" is. Regarding method #2 (finder's reward), I plan to protect myself from being scammed by allocating the bonus in equally divided disbursements over a specified period of time. The beneficiary will only receive payment following each successfully completed period of business. The language details will all be included in the contract agreement that I will draft up with the help of my lawyer friend.
- No need for Yellow Pages. We've completed our research of all the potential clients around town already. The million dollar question is, (reiterating the main point and title of this thread) how do we get these clients to do business with us?

I understand that it is a basic building block, but it is a high risk variable that is not 100% within my control. For example, if I can't get my computer application to work properly, there is no excuse and that is entirely MY fault. But if the customers don't want to do business with me, there's probably not much I can do at that point. My goal here is to gather tips on how to improve my chances of getting this variable as close to 100% under my control as possible.

But if the customers don't want to do business with me, there's probably not much I can do at that point. My goal here is to gather tips on how to improve my chances of getting this variable as close to 100% under my control as possible.

If customers don't want to do business with you, you find out why - and you give them what they want. There is a lot that you can do!

What is your business USP - Unique Selling Point? What do you offer that no other company offers? Low price? High quality? Cute logos (don't laugh), advanced technology, geographic proximity, celebrity spokesperson etc? Easy credit terms? There needs to be some reason for them to buy from you, and nobody else - and you need to figure out how to let them know about it.

You're not in the business of providing a service, not with a start-up. You're in sales. If you're not selling, you don't have a business. All the product research in the world won't give you customers - unless you figure out a way to translate that product research into sales. You can't just put out a product and expect people to randomly buy it. You need to sell it to them.

Just because you personally hate cold calls is no reason to decide not to cold call. It's as useful a sales technique as any. You test cold calling, find out how effective it is, you test other methods, figure out what works - and then keep testing. You need to know how much it costs you to land a customer.

You don't want to waste your time and money marketing to people who will never buy - that's just throwing money away. You want to target your efforts to actual potential customers. There are marketing firms who will gladly work with you based on what information you have about your customers are looking for. There are also great salespeople who can take those leads and close a sale.

There are many ways to get customers. Have fun with this.

I wish you the very best with your start-up. It's not easy but when it takes off, it's great.

anakinskywalker said: TidesOfFortune said: Greetings my fellow FWers. I know that there are a lot of brilliant minds that frequent these forums so I would like to reach out to this community in search of help. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

I’m preparing to embark on a business venture around this same time next year. Every variable within my control is in place except for one very critical piece, “finding clients”. I see it as the Achilles heel of a start-up. This is the one variable I feel that no matter how much you prepare for it, you can never guarantee its success. I intend to do everything within my power to mitigate this risk and improve my chances of succeeding. Anything beyond that is left by and large to chance.

What I ask of from the community is for advice on any techniques or methods I can use to market my business in hopes of attaining clients. I know the line of business very intimately and I‘m confident that if I am successful in finding these clients, the business will run like a well-oiled machine.

Business Scope
Business Type: Long Term Care Pharmacy
Target Location: San Diego, Riverside or Bakersfield, CA (dependent on potential clientele in the area)
Target Clientele: Long Term Care/Skilled Nursing Facilities, Intensive Care Facilities, Assisted Living, and any facilities/hospitals in need of sterile compounding

Marketing Ideas
These are the marketing ideas that I’ve come up with thus far. I am hoping to eventually expand on this from the feedback I receive.
1. Offer a finder’s reward. Anyone able to find clientele for the business will be compensated for their efforts (i.e. reward ranging from $10,000-$50,000 depending on the size of the facility found).
2. Spam the net. Post this reward notice on any online websites/forums that I can, to increase possible hits. (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Craigslist, even SD and FW if they would allow it). Suggestions for any additional promising websites or other media would be nice.
3. Door-to-door. Set up meetings with any potential clients that are willing to lend an ear. Present my business proposition and even possibly offering them a sign-on bonus of some sort as an incentive for switching over to do business with me.

Thanks for hearing me out.

who are your competitors? what is your competitive advantage? what does the Porter's 5 forces diagram look like for your market? what is the size of the market? growth rate? expected revenue, expenses, and profit? how much capital investment is needed, and the weighted average cost of capital?

Anakin

- My competitors are other long term care pharmacies. As someone had stated earlier, there are a few established chains but a considerable portion of the industry is made up of independents.
- I think our competitive advantages could possibly be: closer proximity to the facility, faster STAT order deliveries, competitive pricing, extended hours of operation, Medication Administration Record (MAR) review supplementation, sterile compounding services, billing and dispensing enteral orders, dispensing of CII controlled medication (for some of the big chains, I heard that this is against their policy now), volume/performance bonuses (unless prohibited by law)
- As for the Porter's 5 forces diagram, I'm not an MBA guy, so bear with me on this one.
1. Suppliers - Pharmacies of this kind typically join GPO's for increased purchasing power. So this one shouldn't be a problem.
2. Customers - This one may be the biggest obstacle. This line of business can potentially be very lucrative for pharmacies, so we are at the mercy
of our customers.
3. Substitute Products - With the exception of minor nuances here and there, the core service provided by these pharmacies can be seen as a
commodity and is highly substitutable. As a new player in the game, this may work to our advantage.
4. New Entrants - Not too worried about this one. Long term care is a niche within pharmacy. A great majority of new graduates joining the work
force will be working retail. If they wanted start a business, it would most likely be a retail pharmacy. Between building capital and gaining
the experience necessary to start up and run the pharmacy (assuming they had any interest in long term care in the first place), I doubt that
there would be many left that would make the cut.
5. Established Rivals - As mentioned in an earlier post, many facilities already have set contracts with existing pharmacies and it would be very
tough to pry them from this partnership. The two things that I'm banking on are, 1)picking up facilities that are unhappy with their current
pharmacy (which I am hearing some rumors about), 2) picking up the wave of new facilities that should be opening up soon. Assuming they are still
on schedule, the baby-boomer generation should be set to retire in the year 2010 (Not all of them and not all at once of course). I just want to
be sure my pharmacy is up and ready so I don't miss out on this big opportunity should the timely retirement happen.
- When you say the size of the market, I'm assuming you are asking about the potential customers that are out there. There are approximately 1,000
facilities California-wide, which leaves us around half of that for Southern California. But most if not all, are already being serviced by a
pharmacy.
- Regarding the growth rate, I don't know where to start for this one. Other than hoping to pick up the retiring baby-boomer wave, it is too
unpredictable to know how effectively we can pry these facilities away from their current suppliers.
- Our guesstimated yearly revenue would be around 1.8M. We are hoping to see a return of at least 15%, which would leave us with expenses
approximately totalling around 1.5M per year.
- From our analysis, we found that we probably need around 350k for start up costs. Our goal is to pay this out of pocket so no weighted average cost
of capital should be involved.

TidesOfFortune said: anakinskywalker said: TidesOfFortune said: Greetings my fellow FWers. I know that there are a lot of brilliant minds that frequent these forums so I would like to reach out to this community in search of help. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

I’m preparing to embark on a business venture around this same time next year. Every variable within my control is in place except for one very critical piece, “finding clients”. I see it as the Achilles heel of a start-up. This is the one variable I feel that no matter how much you prepare for it, you can never guarantee its success. I intend to do everything within my power to mitigate this risk and improve my chances of succeeding. Anything beyond that is left by and large to chance.

What I ask of from the community is for advice on any techniques or methods I can use to market my business in hopes of attaining clients. I know the line of business very intimately and I‘m confident that if I am successful in finding these clients, the business will run like a well-oiled machine.

Business Scope
Business Type: Long Term Care Pharmacy
Target Location: San Diego, Riverside or Bakersfield, CA (dependent on potential clientele in the area)
Target Clientele: Long Term Care/Skilled Nursing Facilities, Intensive Care Facilities, Assisted Living, and any facilities/hospitals in need of sterile compounding

Marketing Ideas
These are the marketing ideas that I’ve come up with thus far. I am hoping to eventually expand on this from the feedback I receive.
1. Offer a finder’s reward. Anyone able to find clientele for the business will be compensated for their efforts (i.e. reward ranging from $10,000-$50,000 depending on the size of the facility found).
2. Spam the net. Post this reward notice on any online websites/forums that I can, to increase possible hits. (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Craigslist, even SD and FW if they would allow it). Suggestions for any additional promising websites or other media would be nice.
3. Door-to-door. Set up meetings with any potential clients that are willing to lend an ear. Present my business proposition and even possibly offering them a sign-on bonus of some sort as an incentive for switching over to do business with me.

Thanks for hearing me out.

who are your competitors? what is your competitive advantage? what does the Porter's 5 forces diagram look like for your market? what is the size of the market? growth rate? expected revenue, expenses, and profit? how much capital investment is needed, and the weighted average cost of capital?

Anakin

- My competitors are other long term care pharmacies. As someone had stated earlier, there are a few established chains but a considerable portion of the industry is made up of independents.
- I think our competitive advantages could possibly be: closer proximity to the facility, faster STAT order deliveries, competitive pricing, extended hours of operation, Medication Administration Record (MAR) review supplementation, sterile compounding services, billing and dispensing enteral orders, dispensing of CII controlled medication (for some of the big chains, I heard that this is against their policy now), volume/performance bonuses (unless prohibited by law)
- As for the Porter's 5 forces diagram, I'm not an MBA guy, so bear with me on this one.
1. Suppliers - Pharmacies of this kind typically join GPO's for increased purchasing power. So this one shouldn't be a problem.
2. Customers - This one may be the biggest obstacle. This line of business can potentially be very lucrative for pharmacies, so we are at the mercy
of our customers.
3. Substitute Products - With the exception of minor nuances here and there, the core service provided by these pharmacies can be seen as a
commodity and is highly substitutable. As a new player in the game, this may work to our advantage.
4. New Entrants - Not too worried about this one. Long term care is a niche within pharmacy. A great majority of new graduates joining the work
force will be working retail. If they wanted start a business, it would most likely be a retail pharmacy. Between building capital and gaining
the experience necessary to start up and run the pharmacy (assuming they had any interest in long term care in the first place), I doubt that
there would be many left that would make the cut.
5. Established Rivals - As mentioned in an earlier post, many facilities already have set contracts with existing pharmacies and it would be very
tough to pry them from this partnership. The two things that I'm banking on are, 1)picking up facilities that are unhappy with their current
pharmacy (which I am hearing some rumors about), 2) picking up the wave of new facilities that should be opening up soon. Assuming they are still
on schedule, the baby-boomer generation should be set to retire in the year 2010 (Not all of them and not all at once of course). I just want to
be sure my pharmacy is up and ready so I don't miss out on this big opportunity should the timely retirement happen.
- When you say the size of the market, I'm assuming you are asking about the potential customers that are out there. There are approximately 1,000
facilities California-wide, which leaves us around half of that for Southern California. But most if not all, are already being serviced by a
pharmacy.
- Regarding the growth rate, I don't know where to start for this one. Other than hoping to pick up the retiring baby-boomer wave, it is too
unpredictable to know how effectively we can pry these facilities away from their current suppliers.
- Our guesstimated yearly revenue would be around 1.8M. We are hoping to see a return of at least 15%, which would leave us with expenses
approximately totalling around 1.5M per year.
- From our analysis, we found that we probably need around 350k for start up costs. Our goal is to pay this out of pocket so no weighted average cost
of capital should be involved.

i'll think about this more. somehow i don't feel the compellingness of the business plan. why this, and not something else, like running a restaurant, or Starbucks, or Subway, or something else? maybe other more experienced members can share some insights.

also i don't see how you will be able to handle expenses of 1.5 million with just 350k of capital. do you expect to be given merchandise on credit by your suppliers? or load up on bank debt? always budget extra money, because businesses always need more money that you thought they would need.

since you mentioned the business plan was in your partner's desktop, i am guessing your partner is the main guy pushing this idea? did he come up with it? did he pitch the idea to you and then badger you till you agreed to join him in the business and put up the capital?

how long have you known this guy? do you trust him/her? beware of being used as a source of money for con-men building castles in the air. i have seen several such con-men/con-artists.

Anakin

anakinskywalker said: TidesOfFortune said: anakinskywalker said: TidesOfFortune said: Greetings my fellow FWers. I know that there are a lot of brilliant minds that frequent these forums so I would like to reach out to this community in search of help. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

I’m preparing to embark on a business venture around this same time next year. Every variable within my control is in place except for one very critical piece, “finding clients”. I see it as the Achilles heel of a start-up. This is the one variable I feel that no matter how much you prepare for it, you can never guarantee its success. I intend to do everything within my power to mitigate this risk and improve my chances of succeeding. Anything beyond that is left by and large to chance.

What I ask of from the community is for advice on any techniques or methods I can use to market my business in hopes of attaining clients. I know the line of business very intimately and I‘m confident that if I am successful in finding these clients, the business will run like a well-oiled machine.

Business Scope
Business Type: Long Term Care Pharmacy
Target Location: San Diego, Riverside or Bakersfield, CA (dependent on potential clientele in the area)
Target Clientele: Long Term Care/Skilled Nursing Facilities, Intensive Care Facilities, Assisted Living, and any facilities/hospitals in need of sterile compounding

Marketing Ideas
These are the marketing ideas that I’ve come up with thus far. I am hoping to eventually expand on this from the feedback I receive.
1. Offer a finder’s reward. Anyone able to find clientele for the business will be compensated for their efforts (i.e. reward ranging from $10,000-$50,000 depending on the size of the facility found).
2. Spam the net. Post this reward notice on any online websites/forums that I can, to increase possible hits. (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Craigslist, even SD and FW if they would allow it). Suggestions for any additional promising websites or other media would be nice.
3. Door-to-door. Set up meetings with any potential clients that are willing to lend an ear. Present my business proposition and even possibly offering them a sign-on bonus of some sort as an incentive for switching over to do business with me.

Thanks for hearing me out.

who are your competitors? what is your competitive advantage? what does the Porter's 5 forces diagram look like for your market? what is the size of the market? growth rate? expected revenue, expenses, and profit? how much capital investment is needed, and the weighted average cost of capital?

Anakin

- My competitors are other long term care pharmacies. As someone had stated earlier, there are a few established chains but a considerable portion of the industry is made up of independents.
- I think our competitive advantages could possibly be: closer proximity to the facility, faster STAT order deliveries, competitive pricing, extended hours of operation, Medication Administration Record (MAR) review supplementation, sterile compounding services, billing and dispensing enteral orders, dispensing of CII controlled medication (for some of the big chains, I heard that this is against their policy now), volume/performance bonuses (unless prohibited by law)
- As for the Porter's 5 forces diagram, I'm not an MBA guy, so bear with me on this one.
1. Suppliers - Pharmacies of this kind typically join GPO's for increased purchasing power. So this one shouldn't be a problem.
2. Customers - This one may be the biggest obstacle. This line of business can potentially be very lucrative for pharmacies, so we are at the mercy
of our customers.
3. Substitute Products - With the exception of minor nuances here and there, the core service provided by these pharmacies can be seen as a
commodity and is highly substitutable. As a new player in the game, this may work to our advantage.
4. New Entrants - Not too worried about this one. Long term care is a niche within pharmacy. A great majority of new graduates joining the work
force will be working retail. If they wanted start a business, it would most likely be a retail pharmacy. Between building capital and gaining
the experience necessary to start up and run the pharmacy (assuming they had any interest in long term care in the first place), I doubt that
there would be many left that would make the cut.
5. Established Rivals - As mentioned in an earlier post, many facilities already have set contracts with existing pharmacies and it would be very
tough to pry them from this partnership. The two things that I'm banking on are, 1)picking up facilities that are unhappy with their current
pharmacy (which I am hearing some rumors about), 2) picking up the wave of new facilities that should be opening up soon. Assuming they are still
on schedule, the baby-boomer generation should be set to retire in the year 2010 (Not all of them and not all at once of course). I just want to
be sure my pharmacy is up and ready so I don't miss out on this big opportunity should the timely retirement happen.
- When you say the size of the market, I'm assuming you are asking about the potential customers that are out there. There are approximately 1,000
facilities California-wide, which leaves us around half of that for Southern California. But most if not all, are already being serviced by a
pharmacy.
- Regarding the growth rate, I don't know where to start for this one. Other than hoping to pick up the retiring baby-boomer wave, it is too
unpredictable to know how effectively we can pry these facilities away from their current suppliers.
- Our guesstimated yearly revenue would be around 1.8M. We are hoping to see a return of at least 15%, which would leave us with expenses
approximately totalling around 1.5M per year.
- From our analysis, we found that we probably need around 350k for start up costs. Our goal is to pay this out of pocket so no weighted average cost
of capital should be involved.

i'll think about this more. somehow i don't feel the compellingness of the business plan. why this, and not something else, like running a restaurant, or Starbucks, or Subway, or something else? maybe other more experienced members can share some insights.

also i don't see how you will be able to handle expenses of 1.5 million with just 350k of capital. do you expect to be given merchandise on credit by your suppliers? or load up on bank debt? always budget extra money, because businesses always need more money that you thought they would need.

since you mentioned the business plan was in your partner's desktop, i am guessing your partner is the main guy pushing this idea? did he come up with it? did he pitch the idea to you and then badger you till you agreed to join him in the business and put up the capital?

how long have you known this guy? do you trust him/her? beware of being used as a source of money for con-men building castles in the air. i have seen several such con-men/con-artists.

Anakin

Anakin
- There are several reasons we chose to pursue long term care pharmacy, the first being that it is a specialty niche within a specific industry. Granted
that any type of business nowadays will be met with fierce competition, we are hoping that this attribute will inherently thin the herd. Secondly, and
most importantly, we possess intimate knowledge of the business operations from head to toe. In my opinion, our experience and insight is invaluable
and instrumental to the success of the business.
- Since drugs are fairly expensive, this line of business involves a very high inventory turnover rate. We will typically be reimbursed on a monthly
basis. So theoretically we will never have the entire 1.5M at any given point in time, but throughout the year the total expenses are expected to hit
the estimated 1.5M. As for the of budgeting emergency reserve funds, we are aiming to give ourselves a 6-month buffer. So if absolutely necessary, we
can withstand 6 months of bleeding.
- I have known my business partner all my life so I trust him whole-heartedly. I can assure you that he shares the same sentiment.

marketingmike
- There is no shortage of effort from our team to sell the business to clients. What I am mainly in search of are any techniques or methods I can use to
market our business.

4. Hire a PR firm to make you seem like an expert, and appear on every radio program and local news program (including morning shows).

5. "Teach" short courses at community colleges about retirement planning, and use confusing and nonstandard terminology and tell bewildered students to call you at the office tomorrow.

6. Do free seminars at community centers and cheap restaurants. Some people even do them at library meeting rooms and give out nothing but sandwiches, and one person held his in doughnut shops.

ThePessimist
I find that most of their business expansion arises via referrals from existing clients. It appears that the nursing facility owners are familiar with one another and share somewhat of a mutual relationship. The big problem is trying to first get our foot in the door.

larrymoencurly
4 – Regarding the PR firm, here are my thoughts that I have stated earlier:
I've thought about hiring a professional salesperson/firm to market the business for me. I've even had a co-worker who wanted to refer me to one. My biggest fear is that the salesperson will turn out to be a money sink with little to no results. Using the finder's reward method, I can theoretically hire an unlimited amount of workforce, where I would only need to pay them upon delivered results.
As for the paid programming, considering that my target audience is very narrow, I’m not sure if this is the right venue for this. No other long term care pharmacies that I am aware of use this form of advertisement.
5 – I’m not sure I fully understand suggestion #5. By teaching short courses at community colleges and conversing with bewildered students, how would this increase my chances of picking up a new client?
6 – I think this is a good idea. I will need to find the common places where the clients may be gathering (i.e. long term care conventions, health fairs, physician workshops, etc...) and hold seminars/workshops or information booths.

thegerudo
Thanks for highlighting this idea. That’s exactly what I had in mind when choosing Bakersfield as an option. As opposed to a place like Orange County, I was thinking that there would be a lot less competition out there since that area is not as desirable. That way, it would hopefully be easier to at least get my foot in the door.

Teaching short courses at community colleges is a great way to establish yourself as an authority. And to get your name (& your company's name) out there.

However, if you don't have a good sales staff, you will find it more difficult to take those connections and leads and convert them to customers.

Best to you in your business - hope it goes well!

princessida
Thanks for the clarification and words of encouragement.

xarien
1. I agree. We need to identify the key people that have pull at their respective facilities. I’ll give lead411.com a shot.
2. I have several associations and conventions in mind. I’m hoping a good amount of potential clients participate in these as well.
3. There is a good chance that these clients will be at the conventions held by the big associations. I will definitely be attending those. I can also try seeking out CE dinners and other smaller functions that they may be at but this will be a little trickier.

Thanks for the input.