Promoting Your Business

Without customers knowing about your business, it does not matter how good it is, it will never be successful. You have to get your image right too, so present it well.

Online: You have to get your website right, and finding a good designer is essential if you cannot do this yourself. Factor this into your set-up costs.

Get the URL relevant to your business name, and if someone else has already got it, then think about changing the name of your business before it is too late.

Advertising: Local advertising is the best way to start, and you can consider putting fliers through doors in your local area too. Find out the cost of ads in the local papers, and make sure you give great service - word of mouth is the best advertisement of all.

Public Relations:PR is expensive, and you may have to do it yourself initially. Get some positive coverage of your business in papers, magazines and websites, and TV and radio if you can.

Get a decent story together, with some interesting research or a quirky take on something more mundane, but don't just plug your business - that is a classic mistake. Send out a short press release, and try to have some fun with it.

For example, in 2001, a cleaner at a London's Eyestorm gallery cleared away an installation by artist Damien Hirst, having mistaken it for a pile of rubbish. The collection of beer bottles, coffee cups and overflowing ashtrays was supposed to represent the chaos of an artist's studio. Eyestorm took the story to The Sun and the newspaper ran a weekly column for the cleaner in question to air her views on different pieces of contemporary art - invaluable PR for the gallery.