Getting exposure and new business

Regular readers will know I bang on about my "virtual team" of advisers and helpers who calm me down when I get over excited, pick me up when I am down and give me a place to sound off ideas as well as listen to what they have to say.

Today has been a brilliant day when all good things seem to come together.

Firstly, my PR guru Nigel Morgan of Morgan PR got me in the Newbury Business Review with a big spread - just the thing to give me a boost over the xmas period. As I have said before, unless you know and befriend somebody like Nigel, you will not get the exposure you need. Not only is he well connected, he is good company too!

The second big push for Garden4You was that I officially joined BNI Kennet Chapter today and was sworn in. I have been close to several members over the last year and my other half joined over a year ago for her Internet advertising business, The Best of Newbury . Its has been really good for her. The Chapter has some interesting characters and businesses, most of which compliment each other, therefore helping with referrals etc.

The BNI thing is a bit regimented, but in some ways its a good thing as it really makes you do what you are there to do - network. As a small Newbury based garden maintenance business, regular contact of this type ensures you have a constant stream of leads to deal with which otherwise you would not find - generally I am out all day, every day, so looking for business on my own is hard (I am blessed with a great website and excellent Google rankings as well (thanks to Karen and the "best of"). But its great to have 30 motivated BNI "sales people" working for you without the cost.

If anybody is interested in coming along to our BNI Chapter as my guest, just drop me a line - I went several times as a guest and stand in for other members before I joined and it really made my mind up about doing this.

The other thing I have done this week to market Garden4You is to buy some shirts with my logo on, a roadside display board so people can see who the loony is singing to themselves and magnetic signs for the trusty Land rover - I've now blown my whole marketing budget so now I need to get some work in to pay for it all!