I've been going nuts over the past month plus trying to catch deadlines for various ad vehicles ... most importantly getting us set up for the two Yellow Pages for next year, then getting into things like Chicago Parent (whose big save-it-all-year "schools" issue comes out in about a week) and Chicago Learning Guide, both of which had deadlines in the past week. We're testing flyers in a couple of zip codes with one of the major neighborhood weeklies, testing a few narrow-focus magazines, and generally seeing what brings in some traffic.
We've done mailings to the Principals of all the schools in our territory, then followed up with letters to their school counsellors (and that already looks to be bearing fruit ... as we've been contacted by one major Catholic school for possibly providing test prep!). I've had business cards, stationary, and envelopes printed, had promo pens done, and we just got in yesterday these imprinted candy dish things (to go with the 50lbs of Jolly Ranchers I got in) that we'll be using to "break the ice" with counsellors, librarians, etc.
I've also put together a perfunctory web page, which largely serves to say "hi" before shunting off queries to the "official" ClubZ! web site ... I have two URLs pointing to it, and did a text file of a survey for any potential tutors that might wander in there from seeing the web address in an ad. I set up various e-mail boxes so that we can at least hope to sort things out as the business gets rolling.
So, aside from all the DSL craziness that I've been reporting here (and my eBay "hobby reports"), that's what I've been doing over the past month plus. I realize that this journal has been a bit on the dull side over this time (a lot of Pokemon and quizzes), but look at the positives ... it has kept my neo-con Kerry-bashing to a minimum, which (had I not been so busy with getting things set up for the business) would have spewed out in 3-4 posts and forwards a day!
