Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

What about giving a workshop on your business (real estate, home improvement, catering etc.) as a way to draw initial interest? I have a contact who has a start up virtual workshop company (considering the cost of gas and all the rising prices getting people interested in your product/service from the comfort of their home seems like a sound idea) that I would be happy to share the contact information with anyone who is interested.

Jenn-
I`m not really sure I understand what you mean.  Is it a company that helps you go to people`s houses to pitch your product? or is it a company that goes to people`s houses to get them interested in attending a demo of your product?



-------------------------

Brandon
De Novo Pittsburgh Chiropractic & Health
Treating Pittsburgh`s Athletes
www.denovopittsburgh.com

This is a virtual website company (which itself is a startup) If you have a skill or service that you can give a great workshop on then this maybe a way to get your name out there.  Everything is done online, a great way to reach people now that gas prices are keeping everyone home.

Why don`t you just post the URL so whoever is interested can have a look?

Workshops can be a great tool for marketing. We have used this method ourselves with much success. But it took some trial & error getting things to run smoothly.

Whether or not your workshop is online or offline, I think there are some main guidelines to remember. The focus of your workshop should not be on selling anything. There is nothing worse than professionals thinking they are going to learn about something only to find that they next hour or 2 is going to be one long sales pitch. Instead, the focus should be to educate with a very subtle marketing message.

Do some research to find out what your target market struggles most with, and create a workshop to provide a variety of options or solutions. Or, when introducing a new service focus on how it can benefit them, show them how it is done etc. It goes without saying that you can have marketing materials such as brochures for them to take and read. This will be your marketing. Otherwise, workshops should be to inform and instruct. The goal should be to show yourself and your company as experts in your field, not just to sell. When you show yourself as the expert (and as a plus, people can meet you face to face), the business will come because those who attended will remember the impact you had on them during that 1- or 2-hour session.

As a side note, I`ve found virtual workshops & teleclasses (as they relate to small businesses) generally have a lower attendance than physical workshops. My theory on this is that as humans, we crave interaction with others, and as professionals we crave the opportunity to network with others. There is often little opportunity for networking in a virtual (web-based) or phone setting. Not to mention seeing something live, whether it`s just a speaker or a demo of a product or tool, can have a greater effect on attendees because they were provided with a mental image to go along with the verbal message. Also, many would rather meet the "expert" behind the information.

I know how gas prices are and how the economy is affecting small businesses and individuals right now, but despite that going virtual isn`t always the best plan. I think a good mix of live and virtual workshops will get the job done.

Thank you virtualsidekick that was an awesome post! We are just a startup. We want to make this online workshop site work. We need people to teach. Learners are out there, people who want to teach are a little harder to find. We are open to all those who want to explore using our workshops as away to get the word out about there business.

You are right we don`t want long sales pitches, we want good classes. We want repeat business both teachers and students.