I need to get advice on starting a small business. Threre are industry giants already in the business. You can compare the situation like Internet explorer and Netscape. I have a unique idea that is missing in other services here. I need to know that what strategy should i use to make my idea successful.
Mainly i need that the industrial giants must not start using my way of providing services before my success.

All kind of strategic,marketing etc. ideas are welcome. Thank you in advance

This is a question i struggle with Every day. I have a great service, i do the service better then anyone else, charge less then everyone else(almost) and am a lot friendlier, and happier to step up to what ever the client needs.

BUT... Nobody calls,or even enquires through email or anything about the service and my products, i feel lost i have tried, visiting businesses, dropping booklets, flyers, and nothing seems, to work. Adwords gave me a little boost the first month i tried it but has yet to produce any more actual results.

I am lost completly

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Joel Brown - Orion Networks
Techie-Central - Forums | SEOPTIMISA
Books | PHP

Hummm, seems common attitide.

Let me ask, Do you have proper marketing plan / Are you reaching your target market properly...?
How much you know about your market and how frequently you launch marketing campaigns.

I think you are talking about google adwords... how much are you paying for this. What is the return on investment.

Please view this article. Very informative!

http://www.small-business-forum.com/articles/34.html

I personally think that either you send your message verbly or by email, the most important thing is the message itself.

This would take hours but I'll give you a very simple reply using a real example. A M.D. had a idea to do something a new way (developed a new tool) he developed the product.... got the patents ....tested it and proved it worked and better...Then what did he do? He gave stock in the company to someone from "a industry giant" who knew what he was doing and let him run it. So if your product is really better and you have the stats to show it I would try to build a team of people with the backgrounds that you need. (marketing, finance, operations etc) It may mean you have to take a back seat in exchange for the business working.

Alan Moore

Neuron - I would guess that no i dont really know any more about my target market then that they are small businesses. This is a bad position to be coming from but i have a very ahrd time refining my market to anything less as i dont seem to end up getting around to knowing more about a single market with in my IT area.

As for adwords to date they have cost me about $30-40 for about 4 months of ads, and i have earned about $700-800 from sales from those ads(only assuming but it is the only way the businesses that purchased could have found me).

amoore - This is definately a good idea i woudl put on a Technical Sales Rep stirght away if i had the processes and position ready. But it is just a little to early and i am still working out of my parents home so i dont know that it is really feasible just yet to try and add in the extra dream team sort of staff to boost things. Though it is somthing i will definately be looking at doing in the near future, i just need a bit more gaurenteed revenue per month and i will be out to set up an office ASAP so i can put on full time staff. To help build on the business.

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Joel Brown - Orion Networks
Techie-Central - Forums | SEOPTIMISA
Books | PHP

Is $700-800 your sales or net profit?

However, in both of the cases, is it a reasonable return for a business like yours?

The other question is, what is the visitor to sale ratio you observed using adwords? Actually what i need to know, if it is more profitable to get a higher ranking in the search engine or to display ads? Which one gives better and more interested customers?

What i can understand... You are defining your target market as "Small Business". If it is, then i think that your target market is out of your focus.

Well, I think it is more easy to capture, if you divide your market into more specific categories. You shall be able to run more targeted and profitable marketing campaigns.

Neuron, industry giants aren't conerned with you at this stage in the game, and if you think they are then figure out if there is a way to make them your target market.

orion_joel, prove this statement "I do the service better then anyone else" without getting the job and focus your marketing around it.

Just my opinion not sure that it's worth the .02

Sorry! you could not get the theme of the discussion here on this thread.

The name of the game on this thread is 'to Compete with them' not 'to target them for selling'. Example: like Mozilla FireFox is competing with Internet Explorer.