There are no shortcuts when it comes to growing your business.
Jason St.Clair

Recently I have been in touch with some potential clients, many of them, if not all are not quite ready for the amount of work that has to be done in regards to building up their client base. In this growing age of technology and shortcuts, many business owners are looking for as many short cuts as possible to grow their business as fast possible. But, I can tell you, there are no shortcuts. Its either going to take a significant amount of money to create ads for your business, or a significant amount of effort in other aspects of your business to create revenue. In this blog, I will offer a few ideas on how to grow your business offline and at a relatively low cost.

The most effective way of getting your voice out there and letting every know that you own a business locally is by handing out as many business cards as you can, wherever you can. Don’t be shy! This works especially well if you own a company that offers a service that almost everyone can use. Say you own a restaurant and you are out shopping. Maybe the store doesn’t let you solicit to their customers, but I can guarantee you, that the check-out clerk is going to try and spark up a conversation with you. Let them know you own and operate that new restaurant down the street. Who knows, you might even create a lifelong customer in that small interaction. Also, if you give that checkout clerk great service and food at your restaurant, they will most likely recommend you to their friends in family. This small effort, repeated time after time will create business for you. The only cost here might be a business card and some time.

Another example that I can give, is to use as many local resources as possible that are available to you. There may be several small business groups that meet up every month, small business networking events throughout your region. I suggest going to as many of those as you can, get your name and face out there. This will lead to some traffic coming to your door.

One last example I would like to share to is to create a press kit that you can send to the local media. Make it clear and let them know who you are and the services you provide. Local newspapers are always looking for content to publish and they all love to publish new businesses on their papers.  The only cost here is time and effort. That paper will usually post that article at no cost.

Thanks for your time

-Jason