Publicizing Your Small Business – A 5 Step Approach!

The secret behind a successful small business is advertising. The key is to advertise like you have a multi storey office premises, though you are working from home. The following five steps will help you to kick off your business in style!

1. The website advantage!
With the World Wide Web promising to give you the most exposure, do not hesitate to open a website for your business. Saying ‘err’ for an answer, when asked about your website, is the worst possible way, to kick start your business. Some of you might be wary of the cost spent on website designing by professionals. We can go for open source templates which costs less than ten dollars per month. The amount of money you spend on your website will directly reflect your business!

2. Business cards
If you want to be remembered by a client after a casual prospecting, you better have a business card with you. The business card assures your prospective customer that you are a reliable and a quality business person. Handing out a business card to your potential customer is one form of etiquette expected from good businessmen.

3. Phone number and post box number
Cell phone and home phone numbers might not sound professional enough for some customers. Further it reveals to them that you are working from your home. On the other hand a number with 800 looks more businesslike. A post box number to go along with it could be even more thorough. The 1-800 phone numbers could be obtained at a low cost of $ 5 per month and Post boxes cost $ 20 for a half year.

4. T shirts with your logo
When you are meeting a potential client in an informal atmosphere, it is a very good idea to wear buttoned shirts which contains a logo of your company. This will give you a professional look in addition to publicizing how serious you are about your business. Some of you might even want to wear cool t shirts with your company’s theme printed on it. This could be especially helpful if you own a painting or a construction designing company.

5. Fax on the web!
Efax.com is a website which provides you the option of sending and receiving fax without the need for a facsimile machine. You will be provided with a custom virtual fax phone number. Using this client can send you documents. All the faxed documents arrive in your email as pdf files, which you can read with your pc. You can send files through your email to any number. The bigger companies tend to use faxing a lot, for important document transaction. Thus fax might also be a sign of professionalism!

We all want to open our own small businesses. We all want that independence. We all want to lose the boss and become our own. Sounds familiar? So you open your small business and now you are faced with a new set of dilemmas to deal with.
 
What happens if you are off for a couple of days? You may have the flu or need to go away on a family emergency. What happens to your small business then? Do you have some kind of backup plan? Can someone come in and fill in for you until you get onto your feet? Would they even know what to do in your absence? Most small businesses have no way of continuing without the daily and constant input of the founder owner.
 
Here is an idea that may just help you. Think about creating a backup plan.
 
Why not create a list of all the critical and noncritical processes and procedures that have to be done daily to run your business. Prioritize them in order of importance. Write out in detail what each of these processes are all about and what needs to be done for each of them so that your small business can run by itself. Your business has its own little idiosyncrasies that reflect both your style of managing it and your personality. You have special relationships with certain customers and suppliers. Make sure you have notes on how to handle these and other things that make your business unique.
 
This sounds like a lot of work. Surely you have enough to do already?
 
Yes, but in the event of you becoming ill or unavailable this is nothing short of critical to the survival of your business. Not only will this help for your unexpected absences but the ones that expected too. Going on vacation would be nice once in a while and your business would not have to come to standstill while you are away. It could still run while you are away and continue to pull in income.
 
In fact, if you could afford to go away on vacation and employ someone to run the business, eventually you will not even have to be there at all! Then you may even be able to set up another small business and repeat the process. Besides by itemizing what needs to be done and how it should be done, it does make the repeat and build another business that much easier, as you will have the basics down.
 
Even if you are not a serial entrepreneur wanting to set up multiple businesses, having your processes mapped out does offer the small business owner some piece of mind. It is a great relief just knowing that you can safely bring in a temporary person when you are not able to and do the job of running your business.