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You will not begin to attract customers until they know what you do and the quality you produce. You need to advertise your abilities and services, and some methods can be more costly than others. I recommend that you use all the resources available to you and do as much of your advertising yourself. Direct contact with your own created brochure and business card is probably the most cost efficient and effect. You will earn more respect for having made a direct contact rather than solicit their business by any other means. Volunteer to do layout design for a local organization or school. Use their distributed materials to use in your portfolio, when customers ask what you have done you'll be prepared with materials they may already be familiar with. This familiarity with your work will help you to sell your qualities. Another option is to donate printed products or coupons for services to a raffle or charitable auction, they will be mentioning the awarded prizes and who they were provided by. This is of nominal material cost and a bit of time, but the advertising you'll receive from them is worth far more. Offer to do free product with the referral of a new client, or so many purchases or dollar value. Common offers are to include a set number of business cards, return address labels and envelopes, and custom greeting cards. Used correctly, these tools can gain your business the right attention it needs, and a satisfied customer who receives free products from you will recommend you to others. Get involved with organizations that can help. I recommend becoming a member of your local Chamber of Commerce, they offer training and the opportunity to network with other members to promote your business. There are several womens and youth business associations that can provide support and connections. Community involvement will help build strong ties in your community and will promote the services you can provide. It is recommended that you understand business and learn about management and marketing. Depending on your immediate budget, you can also use traditional advertising such as classified ads and broadcast methods. A simple column ad in a paper can be very costly to run for a month, magazine ads run even more. You must carefully plan your wording strategy to get the maximum impact in the fewest words possible and compete against several similar ads. There are no guarantees of success in using these methods and for such ventures your money is best spent on developing your own materials and approach your customers personallly. WARNING! - When soliciting a customer at his place of business, never take up a lot of their time, briefly explain that you do desktop publishing and that you would like to leave some information. Always remember to thank them for their time! |
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Visit the areas to the left to learn more about publishing as a home-based business. |