*I just wanted to do a little Throwback Thursday from an article I originally published on May 22, 2013 about my first real experience with Marketing. Enjoy!*
We all remember our first job. Some may have been hired at the local McDonalds, others may have waited tables. Me? I landed a job with an accounting (CPA) firm!
I didn’t know it then, but that was my first REAL experience with marketing.
It all started with thinking outside-of-the-box. I was a shy kid and didn’t want to go directly to the businesses and ask for a resume, or even if they were hiring. I didn’t want to hear the business owners/managers say no. So, I came up with other plans… FLYERS.
I decided to make up some flyers and put them in the mailboxes of affluent neighborhoods. The way I saw it was these people were either business owners or high up on the corporate totem poll. I didn’t have a clue about market research or who any of these people were, just that they had gigantic houses.
So, I recruited my cousin to help me put over 800 crappy black and white flyers into their mailboxes asking for a job. I didn’t even put my phone number on the flyer, just an email address. Then… I played the waiting game.
I sat in my room thinking… Is this going to work? Will anyone really call me because I put a stupid flyer in their mailbox looking for a job?
The wait was over. Within a week, I received eight job offers. Yes, EIGHT (8)! That’s almost one percent (remember, I put OVER 800 flyers in mailboxes). I about crapped my pants. IT WORKED!!! I don’t remember them all, but one was from a guy who owned a lending company and he said he liked that I thought outside-of-the-box and that he could use someone like me. Another was from a woman who had a horse barn looking for someone to shovel horse poo (No, I didn’t take that job. ha).
Then, there in my inbox was an email from a CPA firm about 8 minutes from my house. They were looking for someone to make cold-calls to get new business. I was never a salesman, and the sound of cold-calling scared the bajesus out of me. But, I thought, I’m young and I have to over come my fears. I emailed them back and we setup a phone interview. They asked me to come into their office a few days later and I walked out of there with a job. It started off as part-time and moved to full-time. I worked there for 2.5 years and made over $63,472. It’s not a lot of money, but when you’re young and it’s your first job, gosh-darn-it it felt good!
Not bad for a $70 investment for paper and to make copies.
What did I learn from this? A couple things… I learned to just go out there and make “IT” happen. I learned life is a numbers game. No matter how crappy your marketing is or what you’re offering, someone WILL respond to your marketing if you do enough of it. Oh, and target marketing helps too (Remember, I didn’t know what I was doing, I just decided to put the flyers in affluent neighborhoods because I thought they were the business owners and higher-ups of the corporate world).
Now go take action!
Great article and personal story… thanks
Thanks, Mike!
Great reflection on your past adventures. I’ll never forget walking out of Wendy’s following one afternoon of misery. Never to return!
If I find myself needing a job in the future, this is probably the approach I would take. Actually, what I would probably do is figure out a service like lawnmowing, use well-constructed flyers and then hire people to do the labor. Something like that.
Thanks, Anthony!
Great idea about the lawnmowing service. Reminds me of what Doberman Dan said about if he needed to make quick money he’d do the same thing for window washing and give a huge discount, but then set people up on a recurring monthly window washing club (or something along those lines).
Rock on!
-DH