Most small businesses in many communities spend thousands of dollars each year in advertising that may not pull in customers like it should.
And then there are the small advertising opportunities, which it seems do great and cost hardly anything.
Consider if you will advertising in a high school booster club's program.
Perhaps it is for the football team or the high school band.
Each one of those students and their parents also live in the local community and would rather support local small businesses that support their kid's school.
If you are a community-based business then you will get extra kudos from customers and you may find them shopping in your store even if your prices are a little bit higher than the local Wal-Mart.
So many small businesses fail to advertise in these types of programs and it is amazing that they will pass up an opportunity to put a business card size add in the program, which will only cost them about a hundred bucks and will be seen by nearly every single person in the school and most of all the parents.
It is simple and it is cheap and it makes a statement about your company and your place in the community.
Any business can make a profit and scrape the cream off a community without giving back, but this does not make sense for longevity through the thick and thin of upturn and downturn cycles in our economy.
If you are one with your customer and actually part of the community and you support the customers who support your business year in and year out; you will find your business becoming successful overtime.
Please consider all this in 2006.