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Upfront fixed expenses may include copywriting, design, photography, illustration and printing, to name a few. These are the investments a company makes to create a promotional piece for business development.

In contrast, lost sales opportunities might be considered variable costs or opportunities not realized. You’ll never know how profitable a new client can be if you don’t land them first. You may avoid spending money, yet what is the cost of not being prepared? Having to tell a prospect who asks for a brochure that “we’re working on it” isn’t the best way to build confidence.

We recently sent out a mailing of two sample brochures that we produced. Some prospects have reported that they enjoyed getting the sample rather than just a letter. It lets them see the quality for themselves. Saying we can produce a brochure for an industrial company is one thing. Actually seeing samples is much more effective. The cost of sending out an envelope first class especially to several hundred prospects is  substantial, but if it gets the phone to ring and turns into meetings and business, it’s worth it.

It’s taken a long time to get this new site up. I think there were two reasons why it took longer than it should have. The first is that I did not set a specific deadline to have it completed by. I’ve been thinking about the project seriously for almost two years. But I never penciled in that due date. Once I set a deadline to have up by year’s end, it became more urgent. The second is that I kept putting it off because it seemed like there were so many options. Who should help with it, how should it look and what should I include are just some of the many questions that kept me from moving forward. Once I made decisions, the project moved forward. So my suggestion to others is to write down your deadline, and make decisions more quickly.