a thought about advertising

One of the scariest things when you run your own business is what you do about advertising.

There are loads of well priced and even free ways to advertise. You’ve just gotta do your research. It does take time, but before you sign a cheque for some company to print your ad in some paper or put you on some screen, ask yourself one question, “why should I do this?”

Ask yourself, have you heard of the place your advertising? If so why and how? I advertise in a local paper and the reason I agreed to that is that the place I worked when I was a student, used to advertise in it. So I knew the name, knew they were reliable, had built a good reputation etc, so I knew I could trust them.

But also don’t get sucked in by the big players either. There’s a huge directory everyone knows of, (they’re yellow) and they offer everyone a free listing, which is fab! But they will phone you and try to sell you there big products. Now, you know the name, you know they have been going for quite a few years, understatement of the year, but just watch because their product really only works for some many people.

I know quite a few businesses that live of the work they get from this directory they don’t advertise anywhere else, but I also know others that never hear a peep from them. Like if you are a bio chemist, I don’t think folks are going to look you up in an online business directory, but they probably will if you’re a pest control guy/gall! So maybe you don’t need anything more than the free listing.

But the thing that amazed me was that once you give one of these companies the time of day the rest come to knock at your door, and even more amazing they can be quite aggressive when you don’t want anything. "But why not? Surely you would be happy to take on more business?" well duh! “Then why don't you want to take an advert with us?" then come the stats as to how awesome they are! They really can pull you in! Learn how to say no.

But there is another way, my dad feels that when they call you it’s a great opportunity to sell them one of his fire extinguishers, he’s had no sales yet but definitely talked to a few more managers than he would have on the days they call. Maybe next time I’ll see if they need a t-shirt done up!