Ways of finding work

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geoffyoung101's picture

One of the topics on my mind at the moment is how to find work. As a small business it can be hard to balance the time between delivering to existing customers and yet exploring any potential leads.

Approaches on my mind are:

Word-of-mouth - doing a good job and then hoping that word spreads. Trouble is, this takes time to build up and I can see that you need to reach a critical mass before it really kicks in.

Networking could lead to future work and that is certainly something I am exploring. Whilst I can govern how much time I spend on it I am not particularly in control of what it brings forth. I'm sure it is all worthwhile but only a percentage of networking would ever lead to work I feel.

Pitches. I have the background and experience to make a good job of a pitch response. However there are two issues I see: 1) You need to be plugged in to the right procurement frameworks (and these are going to be largely public sector or somewhat related to public sector) and 2) By their very nature these are competitive and as such you are not going to always win. Pitches take a lot of work and effort and making sure you get a return on your time investment is a tricky one.

Contracting. Registering with the job agencies and looking for full-time contract work. I see this as an important option but I am concerned about the impact it will have on my ability to really create a business. But sometimes needs must.

Any thoughts on this and any ideas you want to share ?

Comments

Cold calling

geoffyoung101's picture

Meant to add this one to the list above - but it is my least favourite approach:

You could just build a list of prospects and pick up the phone and start working through the list.

Although perhaps I should be giving this a go ??