Running a small business is a dream for many people, but those who do it know that you need to have dedication in addition to dreams. A great business plan is the first step to getting a business off the ground, but once it’s launched, the real work starts. To give your business the best opportunities to succeed, you need to think creatively about how to get your message out to your customers.
When you’re just starting out, budgets can be particularly tight. Lots of cash goes into the launch and preparing your company to serve customers. It can sometimes feel like there’s just not enough to spread around to other expenditures beyond keeping the lights on and the website up. However, don’t let anything convince you to skip marketing efforts. You can find surprisingly affordable solutions, and you can’t miss out on any chance to introduce customers to what you do.
A simple starting point – and perhaps the most basic marketing tool – is business cards. Whether you strike up a conversation with someone on an airplane, at a trade show or just at your local coffee shop, giving someone a card with your business information will help you stick in their mind and prompt them to look into what you do. You can opt to have cards custom-made, or you can even find free business card options on sites like Vistaprint.com.
If you’ve gotten off to a good start, make sure that you push hard to maintain that momentum. Sitting back and just letting things happen isn’t a recipe for success – let your customers (both existing and potential) know of special events and offers from your business by sending out postcards. Because of the high volume of most orders, you can get a great deal on customized postcards that will get your message across with panache.
A lot of entrepreneurs are big-picture thinkers, and that’s definitely a good thing. But it’s also good to keep the small-scale concerns of a business in mind. You can have the greatest product in the world, but without a professional appearance, your business isn’t going to gain much respect. The good news is that it’s very economical to create a business identity – start with a logo and a few fonts, and use them regularly across all of your collateral materials. From letterhead to address labels, the materials you send out can say a lot about the kind of business you’re running.
The easy part about marketing is that, because you were passionate enough to start a business, you’ll have plenty to say about it. While conversations do go a long way in the business world, they’re limited to a fairly short amount of time. When you follow up with marketing materials that will keep your company fresh in people’s minds, you’ll be creating customers for the long term.