You'll probably find that these are difficult questions to answer. If that's case, make a point of asking your customers through a survey. As an incentive to fill out survey, you can offer a free draw with prize of your product o service for winner.

Your survey can find out what they like most about your business, what they would change, if they have additional needs you could meet and much more. Use this information to create a solid marketing plan.

Once you are familiar with your target market, put this information down on paper and start writing your marketing plan. A marketing plan should cover one year and be evaluated at end of that year. Down road you can create two to five-year plans, but for now, stick with one year at a time.

When creating your plan, put it into a three-ring binder so that it is easy to refer back to on a regular basis. Try to check in with your plan monthly. Add a tab for monthly reports so that you can track success of your marketing efforts. In this section, put monthly reports on sales and your return on marketing investments. If a specific activity is costing much more than it brings in, it might be pertinent to re-evaluate that activity and make changes as necessary.

If you think you're too small to create a marketing plan, think again! You can take your cue from some of business giants out there in order to take your small or home based business to next level. McDonalds, The Gap and Coca Cola wouldn't be where they are today without an incredible marketing plan, pulled together with cohesive marketing communications. 

These companies know that effective marketing is not just about creating catchy jingles or funny commercials, but rather that's it's about understanding their customers can communicating key messages clearly while maintaining a consistent identity that corresponds to values of that target market.

Although not all work at home moms are planning on being next McDonalds, you can still use your marketing plan and cohesive marketing communications on a smaller scale to reap similar benefits.

So in conclusion, take some time to get to know your customers, write down what you learn and then plan strategic marketing strategies to best reach and communicate with them. Review your plan regularly to make sure it works and plan to succeed. With a well thought out plan, your small or home-based business will soar.

Fonts, Ink Colors, and Paper Choices

Various fonts (typefaces) are also used to reflect your image. Simplicity and professionalism are key.

The next consideration is your choice of ink colors and paper choices for producing your stationery packages. Take note of correspondence that you receive daily in mail. Corporate professionals tend to use conservative and strong colors of ink. Blue and dark gray are most popular choices for this group. But with more women in boardrooms and young entrepreneurs in technological and computer fields, colors are changing--becoming brighter and more adventurous. Popular color trends are desert colors--rust, green and indigo, for example. Trends to recycled papers are result of our environmental focus. Today, recycling process is so advanced that most quality papers are recycled in varying percentages of recycled content. The speckled fiber look is not as popular as it once was; even many high-end papers have recycled content.

Business Cards

Business cards are often first and last impression that you give a customer; so it is imperative that yours be best it can be. A quality business card and logo reflects favorably on you. It shows that you have taken time to properly market your products, and states, "We're important." even before you say a word. It reflects quality of work that you do. In other words, ordinary card, ordinary work; great card, great work. A quality card will give you competitive edge, especially if your card and that of your competitors' are in hands of a customer trying to make a decision. Conclusion

Your image should reflect who you are. What image do you wish to project? And maintaining consistency with all your printed materials (logos, business cards, letterhead, invoices, brochures, advertisements and signage), as well as your web site design, will reinforce your credibility and professionalism, and enable you to build consumer confidence in your business.

With a great product, a successful business "persona" and a quality, consistent business package, your company and home based business is off to a positive start. Success is just around corner.