by Sarah Thompson

Created on: September 19, 2008   Last Updated: August 08, 2009

Advertising for your company offline and on a budget

When I first started out with my cleaning company, the first thing that came to mind was," What is the easiest and cheapest way for me to get my name and my company out on the streets?" The second thing was,"How do I get clients to want me business?"

These are just a few questions that many face when opening a new company and not having the budget to go over the top with advertising.

Placing an ad in the local newspaper is always an option but costly. You also have to decide what days to run the ad, how big to make the ad, color or not, and will the family dog be using this anytime soon for target practice. These are the small things that I did not want to think about as a first time business owner on a budget. So, I opted out of this technique and started at home, the old fashioned way.

I bought a pack of business cards from the local supply store and printer paper and ink cartridges, went home and started creating. A few hours later I had business cards and flyers for my company with cartoon characters and big bold lettering on them. I was ready to market my company. I put on my walking shoes and hit my neighborhood running. I know you are not supposed to sell candy door-to-door but noone ever said you couldn't promote youself and sell your business that way. After meeting new neighbors and burning some calories, I was finally out of flyers. So, I took the remaining business cards I had and put them in a few of the neighborhood resturants and jiffy marts.

Not long, about 3-5 days later, I started getting phone calls. some people were willing to hire me to clean, others just wanted to tell me about my flyer and the great job i did at misspelling "free consultation". To my amazement I forgot to use the spell check that day and ended up printing about 100 flyers with this mistake on it. OOPS! However, I only spent about 25 dollars so I wasn't too upset. Had I gone to my local paper and placed an ad who knows who would have been calling me and only think about what would have happened if I would have gone onto the internet and started a website for my company.
Although, there are places out in town that will do this marketing for you, I always think that getting out there and doing the hard work yourself will payoff in the end and you will always stay on budget. Just remember to spell check your work first.

Learn more about this author, Sarah Thompson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.