We own a small retail window covering business form our home. We have never used door hangers to market our business..I’m thinking about running door hangers advertising an end of the year "blow-out sale".
Also, are there any websites that compare the success of using certain types of advertising?

I like the answer above mine. Good answer.

I found Gemini Phoenix Marketing Solutions and wondered if anyone had any experience with them. I have heard that their graphics designer is top notch. Do they do good website and ecommerce designs and implementations?

I’m sorry sir, but as a design student I can tell you that their website is certainly not "top-notch." It’s not terrible, I’ve seen worse, but it’s certainly not the best.

I would offer many different options for business owners to choose. printing and distributing flyers or corner signs, running ads in the newspaper and online websites or radio. Pretty much anything to do with advertising/ promoting for local businesses owned by individuals (like lawn care, roofing, restraunt, hair salon etc.) What should I do to start my business and is this a stupid idea?

I really think this is a good idea. I would contract you. Here are a few things you should know.

1. Pick a good name. Something people will remember.

2. Will you be a Sole Proprietor, LLC, or Corporation? This effects your liability if you get sued and taxes.

3. How much seed capital, or money do you have to start your business? This can include credit available.

4. Do you have a contract your costomers will sign? AKA an Engagement Agreement. Without this you will probably not get paid, and you will always want to leave very clear what you will do and not do. That way there are not any mistunderstandings.

5. Do you have an office, or work from home? Office will help you get clients vs home where business is rent free.

6. How will you keep records? Bookkeeping is very important. If the IRS has questions and you don’t have records you will loose audits and get fined. This can lead to not having funds to run your business. BE CAREFUL and keep records.

7. Will you have employees or sub-contractors? This can also get you in trouble. If you pay an employee cash that employee can sue you and you will most likely not have money to run your business after all the fines. BE HONEST.

8. Do you have an Accountant, Lawyer who will help you and give you advise? This is an investment. We can help you to stay out of trouble and grow your business. Look for a trustworthy accountant.

Hope this helps and Good Luck!

Running a small business is hard work. The business owner faces mounted stress from pressure to make sales, do the work of the business, marketing, and the general great load on their shoulders!

So I’m asking you, what kind of help would you pay a small fee for (say $50/month) someone to help you out with running your business?

I would pay for software development service for that amount.

A business networking sites provides information for small business entrepreneurs-

The Young Entrepreneur Society- http://www.youngentrepreneursociety.com

I do NOT want to use Constant Contact. I want the company to create the custom e-mail newsletter for me. I do not what a Do-It-Yourself company.

Thank you in advance for your ideas!

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Im helping a mate drum up some more work for his small business. He does web sites for other small businesses, mainly focussing on sites that people build and maintain for themselves, so we can provide them really cheaply. Has anyone got any ideas on how I could go about marketing this idea? Thanks for the help.

With type of business the quality of his own website will big one of the biggest selling points or detractors of how well his business does. Who would pay a website designer to create a website for you if their own website is terrible!

I would also put a lot of effort into search engine optimisation, so that the website can be found in google and yahoo. Given there are a lot of web designers out there it is very difficult to get to the top for search terms like "website design", however if the site is optimised for search terms including your town or city this will help anyone who is looking for a local website designer.

In addition to this he should embark on a program of building inbound links to the website, this will also help with ranking.

Outside the internet, perhaps an advertising in a local newspaper or similar would generate some business.

And finally with this type of industry a lot of work is gained from word of mouth and repeat business with regular clients. Given the market is partly "do it yourself" you should make sure it’s not TOO do it yourself or this isn’t an opportunity for ongoing work with clients.

Good Luck,
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Global Advertising Products
http://www.adproducts.com.au

I am thinking about sending some brochures/flyers out around the neighborhood to help people with budgeting, tax planning, and even start the discussion about doing taxes at the end of the year. Here is my question, however….. do I put prices of what I am going to charge for the budgeting help on the brochure? Do you push people away or draw more people in if you DON’T include prices? Any advice helps! Thanks!

You probably should consult with a professional graphic designer and printing company to determine your budget. Oftentimes, a brochure is not recommended for initial contact with a potential clients. A simple postcard/flyer will often do the trick, at a much cheaper price. You can even print a full color postcard at a very reasonable price.

A designer can help you create something that not only looks unique, but give you recommendations for wording and what often works.

I work for a catering company who uses Reduced Printing (www.ReducedPrinting.com). We actually found them through a google search and they were extremely pleasant and very resourceful. We use them for all our printing needs, and their prices are very good. You might want to give them a call and see if they can help you. If it’s helpful at all, we used a discount code (I think it’s GOOGLE25) and we saved $25 off our first order, but I’m not 100% sure if that was the discount code.

Good Luck

Any thoughts about marketing a small tour business? I have good word of mouth, but it is in a single community and I need to expand beyond that circle to grow the business. Face to face presentations are best from my experience, but difficult to be in many places at once. How about direct mailings and web advertising (Google ad words?) Any insight is appreciated!

The best way to move into new markets to find markets that are adjacent to the market you are already in. Don’t try to stretch to completely new markets – it is too expensive.

Find customers within your existing business who fit in both your current and adjacent markets and ask them how they learn about new products/services in their other market (what they read, what sites to they visit, what keywords to they use on Google, etc). All this will help you find sources of media that best target these buyers.

Then I would try to get PR before advertising. It is often less expensive and more effective. If you have never used PR (Public relations) before, I have a suggestion. My friend opened up a business in a new market. To get local newspaper coverage, he went to the newspaper and asked which local PR specialists the newspaper liked to work with. Then he hired their recommendation to get him ink in the local paper. It worked like a charm.

I teach small business owners how to market websites and would like to know what a fair price is for a one day seminar (6-8 hours) about online marketing.

Thanks for your feedback.

You will get faster and more accurate responses by simply searching the web and looking for websites of your competitors. Then you can find the going rate for your type of seminar.

I’d like to know what the best marketing software for a small business. What do other people use?

There is a ton of software out there. No software will do everything! You need to decide what you want out of a software program. Some software will hurt your efforts if you do not use it wisely.

The best places to market your business is social sites. They are free and very popular.

If you are are a small business with a local location that consumers come into and not just online then Local marketing online is the way to go ( google local, yahoo local, twitter, facebook, myspace, Customer list very important for email marketing ).

Take the time and find some webinars that will help you look at what type of marketing you need for your business.

I would start with twitter, facebook, and myspace. Then look up keywords that you think a customer would put in google to find your business.

I will be having a free webinar for about 20 people coming up soon on twitter and how to use it for small business.

An excellent example of using Twitter as a marketing tool, as a customer service avenue and as a Community Builder is Zappos.

let me know what kind of business it is and I may be able to be more specific on what tools you can use to promote it.