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[jennifer bruch Contribution Level: 1]

A few of you talked about Small business owners being a untapper resource! I found this webpage with tons of small business I lost the link for now probably have it at home but anyways. What is the best approach for small business and the group plan I dont know much about it yet I am new. Any tips

[jennifer bruch Contribution Level: 1]

found that website I used. http://www.sba.gov/

[Billy Hart Contribution Level: 1]

Hi Jennifer;

The URL you refer to (www.wba.gov) will not connect you with specific small businesses in your area or any other. I worked with about a hundred small businesses over a 29 year period assisting them in a variety of ways, including getting loans and even equity capital through the SBA's Small Business Investment Corporation network. The SBA does have what is known as "Development Corporations" in key markets throughout the USA whose primary function is administering the SBA 504 Loan Program. These development corporations sometimes will refer a consultant to an applicant who cannot qualify for a 504 loan, but the referral is strictly by supplying the consultant with the name and it is up to him/her to make the approach directly. SBA policy forbids their making introductions of any type.

To work this market, I suggest getting an account at www.zapdata.com (a division of Dun & Bradstreet) where you can get all the information you need by even zip code. These are not free leads, but the price and quality are far and away the best I have found.

Once you have a list (which you can download to your computer), prepare a standard pre-approach letter and send it (personalized from your mail-merge function in Microsoft Word, etc.) with one of the AmeriPlan brochures to the business owner/President and ask for an appointment Not To Exceed 15 minutes to answer questions he/she may have. Be sure to state in your letter when you expect to call them, then call on schedule. You may not get them on your first call, but tell whomever answers the phone to leave the target a message that you called and that you will call again on a specified date. DO NOT EVER ask whomever answers the phone to have him/her call you.

The small business market can be very rewarding; but it will make you pay your dues for those rewards.

If I can be of further help, please feel free to contact me.

Billy Hart

[John Bartlett Contribution Level: 1]

Hi,

If you go to the biggest local library you have and get a library card, most of them have a free online business database you can access. One of the databases that my library has is Dun & Bradstreet Million Dollar Database.

Once in there, you can filter out businesses by dozens of different filters.

Some of them being:
1) Number of employees (AmeriPlan seems to work best for about 250 or less)
2) zip code
3) area code
4) sales per year
5) Type of business (sic or naic code) it has explanations that you can type in the kind of biz you are looking for and it will give you a list of those codes automatically
6) Tells you if a company has several branches
7) One filter is type of location (headquarters, branch or single location).
8) tells you if the particluar location in your city (or wherever) is the headquarters or branch (you want headquarters or sometimes, if there is only one location, it will list it as a single location rather than headquarters)


It will then give you the company address, phone number, website, owner's name, other officer's names and a ton of other info.

You always, always, always want to do your best to speak to the owner if it is under about 80 employees. If it is larger, you may have to start with the HR director (usually handles benefits) or ask for the person buying benefits or benefit coordinator.

Ask the company if they have any subcontractors that don't fall under the company benefit umbrella and are having to pay full price for their benefits rather than spliting it with the company. Ask them if they have anyone working under 30 hours a week. That is the minimum hours worked to be considered full time and able to get company benefits. Some larger companies will have something in place for "part timers", but most don't.

If you ever want info on one particular company, go to www.manta.com. That lists the owners etc.

If you need anything else, just call me (John Bartlett) at 9816-389-7281 and I will try to help.

[John Bartlett Contribution Level: 1]

you will need to go into IBO support and look for "Group Resources"
each employees fills out a form and the owner will have to fill out a form telling where to send invoice etc.