I am pleased to introduce Mandi as the newest writer for the Shak family.  Please make her feel at home as she shares her experiences both in running a small business and supporting her husband as he started his own.

This month marks the two year anniversary of the debut of our family’s business. We celebrate that we made it past that one-year mark, which so many small businesses never see. At times, though, we cringe at some of the decisions we have made…and hope we make more informed decisions in the future!

One of our biggest struggles has been in choosing the appropriate form of advertising. There are so many avenues to explore…

From newspaper, television commercials, and internet ads to phone books, online business locators, and those bi-monthly coupon books, there are advertising options at every turn. And you can’t overlook all of the smaller, give-away items. We’ve seen so many…business cards, pens, pencils, paper clips, mugs, glasses, matchbooks, sticky notes, letterhead, postcards, desk calendars, magnets…should I go on???

If you’re not careful, you can blow your first year budget on these “favor” goodies alone!

We were warned that spending too much on advertising is a common problem, and we were even advised to “stick to the basics.” So we were faced with defining and covering our basic advertising needs.

We immediately started gathering all the information we could on every different kind of media we could find. We advertised in the phone book and online in various forms. We purchased business cards, car signs, ball caps, pens, etc.  Our theory was that it takes money to make money. We needed these “basic” tools to get the business recognized, right?

We felt almost giddy as the boxes arrived and we looked through all of our “goodies” with ANDERSON AUTO GLASS printed boldly on everything from refrigerator magnets to magnetic car door signs. We were ready for the multitude of phone calls that would soon begin. We got a few calls the first week…then a few the next…and a few the next…and so on. But we were never so busy that we even got to put anyone on hold!

What about all of those brightly colored fliers we put out over three neighborhoods?  What about all that time we spent distributing them?  We started getting a little nervous. So, we took advantage of another great opportunity to get our name out there…we paid $800 to advertise on one of those things people come around and hang on your door.

We finally got some calls.  Yep, five.  All from sales reps from other companies wanting our business. NOT A SINGLE CUSTOMER came out of that “investment!”

“The sales lady said the landscaping company got tons of business from it,” my husband told me over dinner one night.  And that’s when it all made sense.  Of course the landscaping guy got business. These ads were handed out at the beginning of the summer, it was his season.  Our business, although a little busier in the warmer months, has no specific season - auto glass is need based.

Choice of advertising should be based on the nature of the business!!!!   Is that a profound finding, or what? It took us almost a year and a half to figure that out! But as I’ve spoken with other small business owners of all sorts, I’ve found that most started with those same basics, and all had to learn the hard way!

So, when trying to decide on your most beneficial advertising method, ask yourself one question…

As a customer, where would you look to find this service?

If a baseball goes through my back window, I’m going to use the easiest, quickest methods to find someone to fix it.  However, if I’m planning a wedding that will take place in a year, I may have more time to explore other, more time consuming areas. If I’m looking for a great value on dinner, I’ll look through my coupon book. But if my need is for a walk-in clinic that offers x-ray equipment, I’m more likely to do a quick search online.

In short, there isn’t one form of advertising that is better than all the others. Re-evaluate your needs every six months or so.  At some point, you may find that your customer base is so large, you are better off to go with a coupon mailing. You may discover that business cards, passed along by your customers, have brought you more referrals than you can handle! Two years down the road, you may decide to go with something completely different.

So, if you know your business and are familiar with the tools available to market it, you have a great start. The key is to stand back and look at the whole picture, determining what is best at a particular time. Once your needs have been determined, there are countless advertising venues just waiting to be traveled!