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10 great ideas that made flying safer, easier, or a whole lot more fun.
Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine
, September 1, 2009

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So You Finally Have Your Own Company - How Will You Market It?


When I was going through school, owning a business was the dream. I spent so much time stressing about how to start a company, I didn't know what to do with it when I had one. I have some rather specialized knowledge, although it is less specialised now-a-days. Essentially, I'm a technological wizard. I can program, build computers, And all the rest of it. I wished to work as a Self-employed PC advisor. Although I knew that I could make lots more money in the trade, it seemed worth the sacrifice to be able to set my own hours and be my own boss. Regrettably, I knew nothing about how to advertise your business.

A lot of people take courses on how to advertise your company, but I naively assumed that, since I understood what I was doing with computers, I would be able to get customers in my niche. This was an awfully serious mistake. I did have a few acquaintances in that niche, and that is key to promoting your company. However, those niche contacts were rapidly exhausted. They were simply not enough to make a decent living for me. Some of the very best techniques for how to market your business were things that I was already aware of. Ever since I had been starting a business, I had maintained a good web-site with excellent keyword optimized content. I did get a fair bit of web traffic, but it didn't seem to be translating into customers. Then I figured out the problem: I hadn't used any niche marketing.

Understanding how to advertise your company starts with understanding the nature of your business. In my case, because I was a tiny player, I needed to have a little local market. I could not ever make my mark advertising my company to a broad, national clientele. There were just simply too many bigger people around. When I marketed myself as an expert located in the area, however, the calls started coming in.

This was easier said than done. What people not ever tell you when they give you tips on how to market your company is how much busy work there is. I put up flyers all over the local area, made contacts at local technology club meetings, and even went to high schools to check if they had any difficulty in their computer labs. It took me nearly six months, but at that point I ultimately had a consistent clientele. Getting a significant number of people is vital to how to market your company. Once you have enough customers, word-of-mouth handles the rest - at least it did for me.

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