Steemit Engagement Challenge - S7W4 | Your own business directory as a business

I’ve always said that you can sell ice cream on the corner of the street and be successful as success in a business depends on the operator.

Now I can add that opportunity only knocks once and if you miss it, it is gone forever.

If you are a good operator and you love opportunities this business is just for you. Your own business directory.

The concept

A paid A5 black-on-white printed booklet (business directory) of businesses advertising their businesses to consumers in the area which will be distributed at local supermarkets or schools.

What is a business directory?

A business directory is a list of businesses in a specific area or category. Businesses normally pay a small fee to list their business on these directories. We can also say that a directory connects businesses, clients, or customers.

These days you will find many online business directories which will link you directly to the website of the advertiser.
You will find online business directories which are quite niche and category specific and then you will also get those directories that act more like the “Yellow pages” directories that we are familiar with.

In the golden oldie days the “Yellow pages” was a printed directory of businesses, printed on yellow pages and delivered yearly to households.

Today I want to introduce you to how you can run a successful “White pages” directory for your area of living.

Why a business directory?

Running a business is being part of a pizza. The only difference is that these days the pizza is no longer cut into 8 equal slices but in much smaller slices. I can remember when I opened my first restaurant.
There were only 2 restaurants and 1 coffee shop in town. When I sold the restaurant there were plenty of both plus well-known brand takeaways. The slice of the pizza got smaller.

The WHY

• It is a helpful tool for both worlds, businesses, and end-user
• All businesses must advertise to enable them to grow their business
• Any business can be listed in a directory
• It provides quick information
• It builds awareness
• It is a much cheaper way to advertise a business
• It is a form of socializing
• It promotes your area of living

An informal and printed business directory is not often to be seen with the result that there are not many competitors. The ideal business for someone who is hungry to start their own business.

A business directory ticks so many boxes

When you think of starting your own business the first thing you have to ask yourself is “what”.
What will my business offering be?

I’m sure most of you know the saying, “Every successful business venture begins with a good idea”. Read this statement again… A GOOD IDEA.

A good idea might be where you start but if you don’t do your homework your good idea will become someone else’s good idea.

You also need to think about what is required to start the business and this is where a business directory ticks those boxes.

Business requirements	Business Directory requirements
Target “audience”	All businesses
Location	Your area of living
Capital requirements	There is no capital layout if you already have a computer
Asset Requirements	You, your computer, and your mobile phone will be the only assets you need
Lease agreement	Your “office at home” is where you will be operating from
Suppliers	The printer company you will be using
Start cost	A few cents for traveling
Staff	No need to employ staff
Registration	No registration is needed
Bank account for the business	You can use your existing bank account
Marketing	Local supermarkets and schools
Government Compliance	None
Accounting and Financial Analysis	Not required

I can assure you that there are few businesses that requires as little as a business directory.

The “how’s”

Now that we know what is required for the business we need to take a closer look at the "hows".

1. Decide if the directory is going to be a monthly, quarterly, or yearly directory.

2. Find out the cost to print an A5 booklet that consists of different amounts of pages and also different quantities. For example the cost of 5,000 booklets that consist of 10 A4 pages, folded into an A5 booklet with two staples, or the cost of 10,000 booklets of 16 A4 pages.
Of importance, start small making sure you fill all the available space in your booklet.

3. Print your template on A4 paper and fold it to an A5 so that you know exactly how it is going to look.

4. Once you have done your costing, design a template that will include your front cover, advertising layouts, and a social page for the school or supermarket where you will be distributing your directory for free. You can always give some area information or “What’s happening this month” on the first inside page which will be at the back of your front page

5. Choose a catchy name for your directory, create a logo, and design your front page.

6. Set your pricing for the cost of the adverts. If the print of a booklet is going to cost you 1,000 STEEM you have to work out how many adverts you will have to sell to make up at least 1,500 STEEM, 50% profit.

7. You will divide your adverts into, quarter, half-page, and full-page adverts. The full page will be the most expensive advert but it must be cheaper than four quarter pages.

Example:

8. Number your adverts as per the example above and create a list of which adverts were sold and to which business. You can also use this list to keep track of the payments you’ve received from the businesses.

9. Think out of the box. What will help you to get that business to advertise with you? For example, you can place these booklets in local means of transport, link a Facebook page where you can list these businesses, etc. Whatever extras you can add will help you to sell those adverts.

10. Visit one of the local schools or supermarkets and do a deal with them. A full-page advert at no cost if they distribute the booklet among the scholars or shoppers to take home.

11. Put on your business face, get on the road and start selling your adverts.

12. Collect the advertising material from the businesses and if they don’t have you can design and advert for them at an additional cost. There are plenty of small businesses that don’t have a logo. You can even offer a free logo design at no cost if they advertise with you and a small fee for the design of the advert.

Of importance is to collect the advertising fees when you sell the advert. If a business is skeptical collect at least 50% as you need to pay the printers for their work and you don’t want to do this out of your pocket.

13. Get your advertisers to approve their adverts. This can be done by email so that you have a record of it.

14. Put your booklet together and ready for the printers.

15. Print, collect, distribute, and collect outstanding fees.

This is in short how you can become the owner of a business directory.

Don’t be greedy. Start small and do better with each publication. A black-on-white booklet is perfect to start with. If you are successful you can later print it in color.

Success stories

I developed the basic concept for my stepdaughter when she was in high school as part of an entrepreneurship course. It was a huge success and a project for which she won first prize.

Later on, I also helped one of my employees to start his own directory, Sloep Wes, another proven success.

^{With courtesy of Sloep Wes}

Whatever business you wish to start, there are four critical points you have to remember when you do, *operator excellence, *sales skills, *communication and relations ywith your clients, and lastly, *financial management.

Good luck!

All adverts are my own.

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I invite the following ladies to join in;
@henry5
@sofian88
@bela90

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