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HOW TO START YOUR OWN HOME-BASED SECRETARIAL SERVICE

Many skilled office personnel are seeking new and flexible methods of juggling both the successful career they have always wanted and the desire to work out of their own homes. One approach that can fulfill both the desire to be your own boss and the need for a challenging career is the development of a home-based secretarial service.

A home-based secretarial service is a business with an unlimited profit potential. Third year profits for similar businesses in metropolitan areas as small as 70,000 persons are reported at $100,000 and more. It's a new twist on a traditional job that's growing in popularity and acceptance. There's no end in sight for the many and varied kinds of work a secretary working at home can do for business owners, managers and sales representatives. Various surveys indicate that by the year 2000 at least 60 percent of all secretarial work will be handled by men and women working from their homes.

Now is the time to get yourself organized, start your own home-based secretarial service, and nurture it through the start-up stages to total success. Our research indicates that there is little or no risk involved, and most secretarial services break even within 30 days, some reporting a profit after the first week! Your cash investment can be as little as $100 to $250 if you already have a computer with word processing software and a letter-quality printer. You can set up at your kitchen table, make a few phone calls, and be in business tomorrow. Although a small amount of work could be handled with a large office typewriter such as an IBMTM Selectric, the quality and accuracy now necessary in secretarial services will be better served if you move into word processing. If you do not own a computer already, buy one as quickly as possible with the profits from your new business.

There are several computer systems that would make an excellent addition to your home based office. Since the largest number of your clients will not have an office staff of their own, it may not be important which computer system you purchase. After all, you will be doing their typing and keeping the "file" copies on computer diskettes at your home. However, there may be times that you will take in overflow work form larger companies that already have a secretarial staff. In these cases you will want to be able to produce a computer file that is compatible with that already in use in the client's office. Thus, an IBMTM compatible machine may be the best bet. Go to your local library and read through the magazines written for computer purchasers. Make a list of the pros and cons of the individual computer hardware (systems) and software (programs for word processing and bookkeeping).

After composing your list, read through the computer sales literature available at local retailers and then do some comparative shopping. Always talk with the salesperson concerning your needs and wants, and get their recommendations. Ask if you can sit down and test several computer systems and software. After you have completed your background study, make your purchase. Many retailers offer low interest or interest free loans on computer system sales. Check their offers. The low price of computer systems makes them easily affordable for the home-based business operator, and the purchase of a new system should be one of your highest priorities.

As mentioned earlier, you can start almost immediately from your kitchen table. In order to avoid fatigue and back problems, make your work area as comfortable and practical as possible. Invest in a small computer or work table and a standard typing chair just as soon as you can afford them. You may wish to consider a computer workstation set on rollers that can be moved aside or wheeled into a storage closet during non-business hours. However you design your workplace, the height of your chair and desktop should be compatible. Typing can be a stressful chore if the workspace is not fitted for the individual. When typing, your wrists should be no lower than the level of the keyboard. If the arms are slanted upwards for extended periods it puts an increased strain on the lower arm and elbow. The computer screen should be at eye level or slightly elevated. You may wish to invest in a screen filter to cut the amount of glare and potentially harmful x-rays emitted by the terminal. While at the library, read several articles on ergonomics (workstation design) to get a better feel for the design of your personal work area.

While you're shopping for office furniture and supplies, be sure to pick up a chair mat. If you don't, you may suddenly find that the carpet on the floor of your work area needs replacing where continued movement of your chair has worn a hole. You'll also want an adjustable copy holder that will hold the paper from which you're typing at eye level. Buy several wire or plastic letter trays to hold your papers: jobs to be done, finished work, and paper supply. If you plan to do a great deal of work during the evening hours, invest in an adjustable "long arm" work lamp.

When buying paper, visit the various wholesale paper suppliers in your area or in any nearby large city and buy at least one carton (12 reams) at a time. Purchase ordinary 20 pound white bond. Open one ream for an immediate supply at your typewriter or printer, and store the rest in a closet, under your bed, or on a shelf in your garage or basement (but in as low-humidity an environment as possible). Buying wholesale, and in quantity, will save you quite a bit of money.

In the beginning, you'll be the business - typist, bookkeeper, salesman, advertising department, and janitor. Much will depend upon your overall business acumen. For those areas in which you feel weak or lack experience, buy books or tapes and enhance your knowledge. You don't have to enjoy typing and bookkeeping, but you should have better than average proficiency.

Your best bet in selling your services is to do it all yourself. Every business in your area should be regarded as a potential customer, so it's unlikely you'll have to worry about on whom to call. Begin by making a few phone calls to former bosses or business associates. Simply explain that you're starting a freelance secretarial service and would appreciate it if they'd give you a call whenever they have extra work that you can handle for them. Before you end the conversation, ask them to be sure to keep you in mind and steer your way any overload typing jobs about which that they might hear.

Begin making personal calls on prospective customers. Dress in a professional manner, and visit the business people in your area. For this task, you should be armed with business cards, a brochure describing your services, and an order or schedule book of some sort. All of these things take time to design and print, so while you're waiting for delivery, use the time to practice selling via the telephone. At this stage, your telephone efforts will be more for the purpose of indoctrinating you into the world of selling than actually making sales. Call the potential client and ask to speak with the office manager or owner. It is best if you can find out their name in advance. Just be honest about starting a business and sincere in asking them to consider trying your services whenever they have a secretarial need. Insurance companies, attorneys, and wholesale distributors are always needing help with their typing, so start with these businesses first.

For your business cards, consider using a freelance artist to design a logo for your letterhead, brochures, and business cards. Check with friends who already use artists or pass the word among the students in the art and design classes at any nearby college or art and advertising school. Hiring a regular commercial artist will cost you quite a bit more, and generally won't satisfy your needs any better than the work of a hungry beginner.

Be sure to browse through any Clip Art books that may be available at your local print shop, newspaper offices, advertising agencies, libraries, or book stores. You must come up with an idea that makes your business card stand out, and that can be used on all your printed materials; a logo that makes you and your company appear different from all the others. Consider something along the lines of a secretary with pad in hand taking dictation, or perhaps a secretary wearing a dictaphone headset seated in front of a computer terminal. You might want something distinctive for the first letter of your company name or perhaps a scroll or flag as a background for your company name.

Once you've got your logo or company design in hand, the next step is your local print shop. Ask them to have the lettering you want to use typeset in the style you like best. Show them your layout and have a minimum of one thousand business cards printed up.

The layout of your business card might appear as the example below. Center your company name and motto, placing the logo either below or to the left of the title. At the top corners place a description of your services, such as Word Processing, Bookkeeping, and Phone Dictation. Place your name in the lower left hand corner, with your telephone number opposite it at the lower right hand side.

Word ProcessingPhone Dictation
Bookkeeping

At Your Fingertips
Personalized Secretarial Services

John and Jane Doe (123) 555-1234

Be sure to give one of your business cards to everyone you call on in person. If it is a larger company you visit, leave one with the receptionist as well. During those times when a company has an overflow of work, it will often be upon the advice of a harried employee that the boss will seek extra help. Make yourself and your services known to everyone who could possibly need help some time in the future.

Your best method of making sales calls will be with a business telephone directory and a large notebook. Go through the business directory and write down the company names, addresses, and telephone numbers. Group together all of those within one office building, and those on the same street in the same block. Be sure to leave a couple of spaces between the listing of each company. Start a new page for those in a different building or block. Having completed this first step, simply start with the first business in the block or on the lowest floor in a building and number them in consecutive order. This will enable you to call on each business in order as you proceed along a street, down the block, or through a building.

You'll be selling your capabilities and your talents, and charging for the time it takes you to get set up and complete the assignment each client gives you. You should be organized to take work with you on the spot, and have it back at a promised time. Arrange to pick up any work not currently available and deliver it back to the office when completed. Be ready to handle dictation or special work assignments by phone. You should also emphasize your abilities to handle almost everything by phone, particularly when time becomes a critical factor. Establish your fees according to how long it takes you to handle the work plus your cost of supplies (work space, equipment, paper, etc.), and then fold in at least a $5 profit. In other words, for a half hour job that you pick up on a regular sales or delivery call, you should charge a minimum of $10.

An additional service to offer your clients is the making of copies and the sending and receiving of facsimiles (fax). Establish a working relationship with a local quick printer. Make sure his copy machines are of the highest quality and that he keeps them well maintained. You don't want to offer your clients a poor product. When your clients need a sales letter or other document drawn up plus so many copies, you can complete the entire job without the client having to arrange for the copies with the printer himself. The average cost of copies today is 10 cents apiece. On large jobs you can get a bigger discount. When you furnish copies, always fold in your copying or printing costs plus a dollar or more for every 50 copies you supply.

If you choose to offer sending and receiving facsimiles (fax) you must decide whether you will own and maintain the machine yourself, or whether you will use the services of another agent. An inexpensive fax machine can be purchased for less than $500 dollars. It simply plugs into your existing phone lines. Many machines will differentiate between incoming fax calls and normal telephone calls, ringing the attached phone handset if a normal call is detected. If you choose not to purchase your own fax machine, many local quick printers offer fax services. You may choose to use the same printer for both your copy and fax jobs. Fax costs vary, the cost of receiving being much less than that of sending. The cost of sending faxes will include both the long distance phone cost (if any) as well as the cost of the job itself. Generally speaking, a basic rate of $2.00 per page for sending (plus any long distance charge) and $1.25 for per page for receiving faxes is typical.

Starting with former employers and business associates, many businesses are able to line up 40 hours of work without even making sales call. If you're lucky enough to do this, go with it. However, if you should begin slowly, don't worry. Keep knocking on doors, presenting yourself and your business to every available prospect. With persistence, your work will begin to pay off.

As your work load increases past the point where you can do it alone, start lining up your friends to do the work for you. Guys and girls who work all day at a regular job, but need extra income, and housewives with time on their hands can make excellent part-time employees. Local college students may even be able to help on a limited basis. Tell your aides what kind of equipment is needed and the quality of work you demand. You can arrange to pay them so much per hour for each job they handle for you, judging from the time you figure the job would take if you were doing it, or on a percentage basis. The best arrangement is on an hourly basis according to a specified amount of time each job normally takes.

Whenever possible, and as soon as you've got a supply of workers established, turn all your current assignments over to them and get back to lining up more business. If you're selling by phone and your area seems to respond especially well, you should immediately hire commission sales people. Train them according to your own best methods and put them to work assisting you. Your sales people can work out of their own homes, using their own telephones, provided you've got your area's business community organized in a loose leaf notebook style. All you do is give them so many pages from your notebook from which they make sales calls each week.

After you have established several telephone agents, you should still make personal sales calls. If for some reason you get bogged down and can't or don't want to, hire commission sales people to do it for you. Generally, women selling this type of service bring back the most sales. For all your commission sales people the going rate should be about thirty percent of the total amount of the sale. Remember: Sooner or later, you're going to want to hire a full-time telephone sales person plus another full-time person to make sales calls for you. Eventually, you want workers to handle all the jobs and sales people to do the selling for you. Therefore, the sooner you can line up people for these jobs, the faster your business is going to prosper. Later, you'll want a sales manager to direct your sales people and keep them on track, so try to find a "future sales manager" when you begin looking for sales people.

Your basic advertising should be a regular quarter page ad in the yellow pages of both your home service telephone directory and the business yellow pages. You'll find that 50 percent of your first time clients will come to you because they have an immediate need and saw your ad in the yellow pages. Don't skimp on either the size or the eye-catching graphics of this ad. You will also want to place a regular one column by 3-inch ad in the Sunday edition of your area's largest newspaper. Any advertising you do via radio or television will be quite expensive with generally poor results. Consider this form of advertising a long time before spending a lot of money.

By far, your largest advertising outlays will be for direct mail efforts. You should have a regular mailing piece that you send out to your entire business community at least once a month. This is handled by sending out 200 to 500 letters per day. For this, obtain a third class postage permit or else postage costs will drive you out of business. Check with your local postmaster concerning these rates and regulations.

Your mailing piece should consist of a colorful brochure that describes your business. Explain the many different kinds of assignments you can handle, a notation that no job is too small or too large, and a statement of your guarantee. Do not quote prices in your brochure. Simply ask the recipient to call for a quotation or price estimate. It's also a good idea to list the background and experience of the business owner, plus several business testimonials and/or compliments. You could also include a couple of pictures showing your workers busy and actually handling secretarial assignments. The most important part of your brochure will be your closing statement or invitation - an encouragement for the recipient call you for further information.

Your brochure can very easily be put together in a Z-folded, 2-sided self-mailer. Again, look for a freelance copywriter and artist to help you with the design. Once you've got your "dummy" pretty well set the way you want it, make copies of it and either take it or send it to several direct mail advertising agencies. Ask them for their suggestions of how they would improve it, and for a bid on the cost if you were to retain them to handle it for you. Listen to their ideas and incorporate them where and if you think they would make your brochure better. If one of them does come in with a cost estimate that's lower than you've found locally, think seriously about assigning the job to them. This is definitely the most important piece of work that will ever come out of your office, so be sure it's the very best and positively indicative of your business. This will be the business image you project. Make sure it reflects the quality, style, and credibility of your business, your thinking, and your success.

Have the final copy of the sales brochure printed on 60-pound coated paper in at least two colors and by a professional printer. The end result is then Z-folded by the printer, and has your third class mailing permit indicia showing on the cover side. The cover should be flamboyant and eye-catching. You want your mailing piece to stand out in the pile of 50 or 60 pieces of other mail received by the recipient.

Your mailing list should be preserved on your computer in a database format easily accessible and manageable. Keep a master copy stored in another location away from the main office. Make a back-up copy of the master file every week. You will also want to keep a "hard copy" (printed version) of the list. When you are ready to begin your mailing, simply run off a list of recipients either on pressure sensitive labels (peel and stick) or four across on white computer paper (Cheshire labels). The addressing shop will then load their machine with your labels, and will automatically apply a label to each brochure, bundling the finished products per postal regulations, and deliver the bundles to the Post Office for you.

In summary, you'll want to solicit business with a regular routine of telephone selling, personal sales calls at the prospect's place of business, media advertising, and direct mail efforts. All of these methods are important and necessary to the total success of your business, so don't try to cut corners or spare the time and expense needed to make sure you're operating at full potential in these areas. In addition, it would be wise for you to attend your local chamber of commerce meetings and join several of your area civic clubs. At these meetings you'll be introduced to many business leaders, and through their association you'll gain a great deal of new business and help in many of your needs. Once you're organized and rolling, you can easily expand your market nationwide with the installation of a toll-free telephone number and advertising in national business publications. Perhaps you can add to your primary business with a mailing shop of your own, the rental of mailing lists, specialized temporary help services, telephone answering services, and even survey work.

In order to achieve total success, the bottom line is planning. Plan your initial operation through from start to finish before you even think about soliciting your first customer. Get your operational plan down on paper. Itemize your needs, estimate your costs, line up your operating capital, and set forth milestones for growth. Set profit goals for the first three months, six months, first year, second year, and three years from your business start-up date. Learn all you can about the support systems involved in operating a profitable business - planning, advertising, selling, bookkeeping, and banking. Continue to up-date your knowledge with a program of continuous learning. Do your homework properly and there's just no way you can fail with a Home-Based Secretarial Service.
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Copyright 1991 by Premier Publishers, Inc, USA. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the express prior and written permission of the publisher.

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