A home business is the most economical way to be your own boss.
You don't have to rent office space, there's no commute, and your expenses are tax deductible.
Still, you will have to get the word out about your business if you want customers.
Here are some ways to save money.
Business cards are a must, but many people don't get them right away because of the cost.
What they don't realize is that there are ways to get them very inexpensively! If you have a word processing or desktop publishing program on your computer, you can make your own.
Many programs have templates for business cards, and some even have pre-designed ones that you can simply customize with your own information.
You can find printable sheets of business cards at your local discount store or specialty paper store.
If you aren't inclined to make your own or want a more professional look, VistaPrint has a low cost introductory offer.
You get 250 customized business cards for the price of shipping and handling.
Once you have your cards, leave them everywhere! Offline advertising is another scary budget item, but there are ways to save money.
A good, low cost way to advertise offline is in local classified-only publications.
Classifieds in this type of paper are usually cheap, and they can be quite effective depending on the type of business you are in.
Another inexpensive idea is flyers.
If you have a computer they are a cinch to design and print yourself.
Then you can put them on bulletin boards or hand them out personally.
Online, there are many places to advertise.
The trick is identifying your target market and getting your message to them.
If you are advertising to the wrong people, you are just wasting your money.
Find sites that do not offer the same product or service as you, but something else that would interest your target market.
For example, if you are selling educational toys, you would want to advertise on a site that offers products or resources for parents, but probably not a site about car parts.
Shopping around is also a must.
Find several possible sites, check their prices and research the site's popularity.
If you have the Google Toolbar, you can simply go to a site and its pagerank will be displayed in your browser.
This tells you the "importance" of the page, based on how many other sites have links to it on their site.
You should try to stay with sites with a pagerank of at least 3, the higher the better; however, the sites with higher pageranks usually charge more for advertising.
There is also pay-per-click advertising, in which you bid the amount you are willing to pay for visitors to be sent to your site.
The best thing about this type of advertising is that you only pay for the traffic you receive.
There are many different pay-per-click programs available.
Some are presented in search engines, others sign up other sites to display the ads.
Just do a search for "pay-per-click" and you will find lots of programs to choose from.
Link exchanges are a good way to get your site seen for free.
You simply find other sites that would be of interest to your target audience, and contact the site owner to find out if he or she would be interested in trading links.
If so, you place their link on your website, and they do the same for you.
Something you can do online or off is donate prizes to be given away.
All sorts of organizations hold raffles, and they usually accept donations to give away as prizes.
Your business name and donated prize will be on the website or raffle ticket for all to see.
The winner will receive one of your fine products or services, which they will surely tell their friends about.
Don't forget to include a business card, catalog, or brochure with the prize so that they can come back for more! These are just a few ideas to help you get the word out about your business without spending a fortune.
You can also post tidbits about your business on online forums, and of course talk about it every chance you get.
And always remember to provide good customer service.
The best advertising of all is word of mouth from happy customers, and that doesn't cost a dime.