1. Saturday Afternoon at Mall. Set up a table outside your local mall or shopping center and hand out cookies and punch. Have a big banner advertising your business, and enough flyers or business cards for potential clients to take with them. Maybe even have a raffle for one free service or product, like one free trial house-cleaning.

2. Signs in your vehicle. Make a professional looking sign that has your business name and phone number in big clear print. Park your car in a conspicuous spot for a few hours when you don't need it and put sign in your window.

3. Pinup Flyers. Make a flyer giving all basics about your business. Make sure flyer is simple and easy to read. Avoid to much type or pictures. Have tear off tabs at bottom with your business name and phone number.

4. Use Your Imagination. Once you're on a roll with this kind of stuff, you'll automatically think of a lot more ways to go about it. Listen to your own ideas, they're probably great.

Well, Paula started out with a Saturday afternoon at mall. She told me that within a couple of weeks she had pulled in five new clients. Later that week I noticed a few flyers downtown with her name and number above a big picture of a scrub-brush and mop. I learned from her later that, over course of a few more weeks, she had pulled in another three clients, and was getting near her limit. She couldn't have been happier, and she said she had spent a total of about 10 hours and 30 bucks.

So remember, when you're just getting started in business, there's often no need to go with a big expensive marketing strategy. Keep it hands-on, and before you know it, your business will be bigger than you ever imagined. There's money to be made out there if you just know how to do it.

Joe, here are two sites that can help you develop a more "targeted" approach to Mr. Jones:

http://www.furniture-info.com http://www.furniturestatistics.com

I hope this helps, Joe. Decision makers are bombarded daily and we must be ever diligent that we are focusing in on "WIIFM" (What's In It For Me)".

Now, what was message to Joe?

Do Your Homework. Mr. Jones doesn't give a rip about your product unless it can fulfill his needs, but first you have to know what those needs are.

Joe's presentation, which probably took him hours if not days to prepare, was a classic case of overkill. The two sites referred to would have given Joe all ammunition he needed to prepare an effective presentation and in just a few short minutes.

By way, two research tools that I use to study markets, trends, and individual sites are listed below. Both are free to download and are priceless.

http://www.copernic.com http://www.alexa.com

Ready, Aim ... Get Ready To Fire!

Patty Baldwin is a former Better Business Bureau executive and the owner of several online businesses. A successful net marketer, she invites you to visit any one of her sites at:

http://www.allbizservices.com http://www.4bstrading.com http://www.allbizwealth.com