Getting the word out about your business

I've been thinking about how to get the word out about any home based business. Advertising can be very expensive, so you'll need some creative ways to let the world know who you are, what you do, and how to contact you.

• Send out flyers. You can have flyers printed up at a local print shop or print them yourself. It would probably be more cost efficient to hire it done, though, since ink and paper could prove to be fairly expensive.
• Get business cards. This would be a very economical and effective way to let others know about your business. Business cards are fairly inexpensive and are usually well received.
• Have announcements printed up like notecards that you could give away or mail to people you believe would be especially interested in your business.
• Make cold calls. This is probably the most difficult way to promote your business because you must accept the fact that some people will flatly reject you. It takes a lot of cold calls to produce a good business contact.
• Word-of-mouth. Because people tend to trust what their friends tell them, word-of-mouth advertising can be an excellent resource. Of course, this means your customers must be completely delighted with your business. This alone will prompt them to recommend you to their friends.

How do you promote your business?