Cold Calling Small Business Owners

[TFTech]

Well, I was feeling brave; so I decided to go into my local Chamber of Commerce directory, and call a few folks in there.

I have to say, it's tough not to get discouraged:

First call was a non-profit that I was providing with a 2 hour block of time Pro-Bono (to drum up something), and I was forced to leave a voice mail.

Second call was to a carpentry contractor (because I deal with 2 contractors current as customers that are absolutely great customers), and I was gruffly mentioned 5 seconds into the call that he is 'on the do not call list'. He is a listed and current business on the chamber's site, so I'm Sure that it is ok to call him, as it is a Business-to-Business call. He hung up on me as I was trying to apologizing for taking up his time.

Anyways *sigh*, wowsers.

I know I need to keep calling those small and home businesses that I am trying to target, but boy-o.

Any advice to this cold-call rookie?