How to Market Your Home Based Business

Even if you've budgeted thousands of dollars for promotional purposes, your home-based business can't logistically hang a sign on the front window that reads: Jane's Computer Consulting & Hard-Disk Drive Repairs While You Wait. Who would read it? The mail carrier? The UPS driver? The neighbors? (Now that opens a whole new can of zoning worms.)

A home-based business, by its nature, has a more difficult time announcing itself to potential customers. Nonetheless, every entrepreneur, home-based or not, should design a campaign to announce his business. Because competition is so tight, a business needs to make a lot of noise to survive in the marketplace. That's especially true for a new business, but even established enterprises often could use a good shot in the arm.

Some of the tips--such as giving to charities or writing a newspaper column--may inspire you to come up with your own apt ways to get the word out.

Tell everyone about your baby. Allison, a Denver publisher enjoyed a glowing reputation as editor of a Denver newspaper syndicate service aimed at those age 50-plus. She made a deal with her former employer, a senior newspaper, and struck out on her own, taking the idea for a senior news wire syndicate with her. This new service would syndicate her own articles. Allison celebrated the birth of her senior news syndicate and emerging publishing company much like other proud parent: She picked up the telephone and began contacting everyone she knew. She described it as "networking with a vengeance." Specifically, she called the editors she had worked with over the years.

As a result of her intense marketing efforts, she made clients of 35-40 senior newspapers each month. She has also published a string of books and software. She came to be regarded within the senior market as an authority on issues for the mature, which brings other assignments and income.

Donating is a piece of cake. Some business owners seem leery about volunteering their products or services because they fear their offerings will not be considered valuable in the future. Basically, the theory is that you'll find it difficult to explain why you did a job for free or for a mere $200 one week, yet the next week, you charge $1,000 for a job. It will open you up to price negotiations of the worst kind.

In reality, though, most people find that volunteering a service or donating a product produces two worthwhile benefits: It lets people know you're in business, and it helps out the cause of your choice.

Susan started an at-home catering business. During her first days of business, Susan not only approached bridal contractors to test her wares, but she also volunteered her services to charities. She regularly donated her desserts to the local ballet and opera companies. It was a good thing---but also a great marketing strategy. As she explained: "That's how I got hooked up with the wealthier clientele."

Even before Susan officially opened for business, she realized the benefit of performing charity work. When she worked as a pastry chef at a local country club, she volunteered to produce a dessert buffet for a charity benefit. She offered to donate her labor to the organization without hesitation. She reasoned, "It was a good way to start because, to this day, those people are some of my best customers ."

It led to Susan selling $75,000 in baked goods annually working part time so she could be around for her young children.

Getting new business may be the goal, but Susan said donating also provides other benefits for entrepreneurs. She explains that her favorite causes "are better off if I give them a cake to auction for $150, as opposed to giving cash, which wouldn't be as much." In addition, she can deduct the cost of materials (ingredients in her case) on Schedule A under Charitable Contributions.

Publicity as child's play. Home-based businesses don't always allay themselves of the media the way they should. Basically, to get attention you have to interest the media in a story about your business and tell them what you can do for them. Articles on hometown citizens involved in interesting things are the backbone of any decent local newspaper.

When Linda started her newsletter business, she already knew a bit about the importance of getting the word out fast. She had left a full-time marketing to stay home with her three preschool-age children.

"I'm in marketing, so I know that as a home-based business, getting publicity from the newspapers and TV stations is feasible," Linda explained. "If you've targeted the media correctly, all you have to do is call or write to present your ideas."

She used her own advice. When the premiere issue of her newsletter hit the stands, she introduced herself to the local newspapers and suggested she would make an enticing story. The angle: local woman unveils unique business. She also approached her former hometown newspaper and suggested they, too, do a story on her newsletter. Most papers welcomed the suggestion and ran articles.

Those articles generated enough publicity that Linda became recognized as an expert in planning interesting, crafts-oriented activities for children in her local area. Suddenly groups were asking her to speak and present seminars. Again, without spending major dollars, Linda was getting her product before her target audience of parents. She also bought a mailing list of newspapers geared toward the age 50-plus market. "A lot more grandparents are taking care of grandchildren and looking for help," she explained.

Local newspapers often operate with a threadbare staff, so if a well-targeted article comes in over the transom, an editor believes she's struck gold. The key is not to be self-serving in your expert column. Don't mention your product or service repeatedly. If you have a byline and a reference to how people may contact you (even if it is through the publisher's address initially), you will be building up a reputation within your target audience.

They'll remember who gave. Everyone loves a bargain, and you can't do better than free. That's the theory behind Victoria and Richard's decision to give away cups of water to promote Pure Water, their San Diego- based dealership that sells water purification systems.

"We approached local county fairs, arts-and-crafts exhibitions, events of any kind and offered to distribute cups of water to the patrons," explained Victoria. "When people walked by, we gave away a cup that had our company name on the back."

To make sure people didn't forget the name, Richard wrote a cookbook that featured recipes using their product. The cookbooks were nothing more than regular sheets of paper folded and stapled. The back page included the company name and information for buying a purification system. "Cookbooks stick around forever," he said. "People may give them away, but they never throw them away."

Got into bed with another business. Mary Lynn, is an artist with an eye toward marketing. Most of her paintings depict lighthouses and small-town scenes of neighborhoods in Maryland. Though her business had prospered, Mary Lynn felt it wasn't feasible to open a gallery. Still, she knew how important it was to get her work before her market. To that end, she hooked up with a pub in Fell's Point, Maryland, to produce a gallery-type show.

Both businesses prospered. The artist's friends, family, and fans flock to see her work, drawing many to the pub who otherwise wouldn't go. Conversely, in the first two hours of one show, Mary Lynn pasted little red dots (her sold signs) on at least five paintings.

Getting people to pay attention to your business takes more than money--it takes a willingness to think past the obvious and explore the unknown. But that shouldn't be difficult for you. After all, that's why you started your own business anyway, right?