Helpful Hints for Marketing your Home Business

You have thrown open the doors to your home business and you are ready to take the world by storm.  Yet, as you realistically very well know, before then can come beating on your door, your clients or customers need to know that you exist!  However, short of buying time on local television, how can you get out the word?

Here are some helpful hints for marketing your home business:

Know your market!  To whom are you marketing your products or services?  Is it the customer who might walk in off the street or the business down the block? Obviously, customer and businesses are approached differently.  For example, if you are opening the doors to your dog grooming home business, you would want to advertise your services where owners of dogs are most likely to be found, namely at the local veterinarian and pet supply store.  If, on the other hand, you are marketing a new line of dog shampoo, you would want to approach the businesses themselves, the vet and the store, and see if you can set up a time with the purchasing manager to convince her or him to stock your product in their business.

Make your advertisements stick out!  If you have ever been waiting in your doctor’s office, you will quite possibly have seen the procession of pharmaceutical company reps coming and going.  It appears as though they have purchased their snazzy attire from the same store, and their modus operandi quite probably is also the same.  Look around the doctor’s office, and you will see pens and pads of paper that are emblazoned with the logos of the drugs they are selling. Do any of these medications stick out?  Probably not. Consider now your product or service…how can you make it stand out?  For example, if you are opening your nail salon home business, you could hand out pens in the shape of an honest to goodness hardware nail.  This will not only make folks take another look, but it will also get your name out to the men, who might not frequent your store but quite possibly purchase gift certificates for their wives or girlfriends.

If you do have the funds to buy some time on local television, resist the notion of making the commercial yourself!  Too often you see the commercials on television that have grainy resolution, impossible camera angles and dry text inefficiently read by actor who have never been in front of a camera. Hire a professional outfit to direct the commercial for you and do all the hard work; it will pay off in the long run!  The same is true for radio spots! 

Get your friends and family to help out! Handing out fliers with coupons attached is one way to drum up business.  Yet having fliers to your pet sitting business handed out by a cute little boy or girl with puppy, bunny or kitty ears, and maybe some whiskers painted on their adorable faces is a sure fire way to not only get your business out there, but also to get into conversation with prospective clients; after all, who can resist a little kid with kitten ears? 

Present yourself at all times in accordance with your home business.  If you run a nail salon, your nails need to be at all times in great shape; if you run a dog grooming business, your own dog should be a showpiece, even if you are only going down to the corner.

Sponsor your local youth or church carnival.  Hand out some free t-shirts as prizes, and be amazed how quickly they are gobbled up!  The same is true if you are located near a beach – hand out some free beach balls during the height of summer and you will most certainly get many takers!

As you can see, marketing your home business does not require you to do outrageous stunts, yet it will demand that you pay a lot of attention to details, consider taking the paths less traveled, and not try to cut corners. So what are you waiting for?  Go ahead and have a nice dinner with your best friends and see if you can all come up with some ideas.  After all, many great ideas saw the light of day on the back of a cocktail napkin!