Do-It-Yourself Advertising Campaigns For Small Businesses
Research, persistence and consistency are the three keys to effective do-it-yourself advertising for small business owners. With a combination of these three, a small business owner can become their own advertising agency and keep their business name and message in front of the public effectively.Most small business owners operate on a shoestring budget, so there is a need for free or low-cost advertising options. That’s where the research part of the equation comes into play. Be sure to set aside time to surf the net specifically for this purpose. Search for sites that offer free classified advertising, take the time to check them out, and then select the best. Many of these are pure junk, but there are some that are quite effective ways of getting your business name and your product or service in front of a large audience. Be sure to always include your website address as many of these classified listing will show up in search results.Research can also yield a variety of resources for your small business marketing and advertising. My small business has benefited from the various free printed materials offered by Vista Print. They are an online printing company which offers free business cards and a variety of other free items. You pay only a small shipping charge. This is a fantastic resource for any new or small business to get quality printed materials for very little money. This is one of the resources I discovered through my constant research and has been invaluable to my business. With a little searching, you can find similar resources for your business online.Persistence and consistency go hand in hand for the small business owner. We know the importance of persistence and consistency in the day to day activities of running our business, but we must also remember their importance in promoting our business. With all the nuts and bolts issues involved with running a business, we often forget about promoting it. That’s where the persistence and consistency elements come in. Focus on making a persistent effort to consistently market and promote your business. Each day, try to do at least one thing to promote your business name and the products and/or services you offer. People often overlook your message the first dozen or so times they see it, but will sometimes respond after they have seen the same message repeated consistently. It can be very frustrating, especially when you don’t see immediate results, but it is well worth the effort in the long run.In addition to these three elements, there are a couple other basics every small business should include in their advertising mix. The first of these is a clearly recognizable logo that represents your business. Think golden arches. If you are unable to design a logo for yourself, spend the money to have one created for your company. Then, make sure that logo appears on every single piece of printed material that comes from your business, and also on every single internet communication you generate, from your website to your email signature. Through consistent use of this image, you will be helping to build your business’ brand and creating a visually recognizable reminder of that brand.The second thing every small business should have is a website. There are so many options available these days for easily creating and maintaining a website that there is truly no excuse for any small business owner not to have one. Your website is an excellent opportunity for you to post extensive information about your business and to easily and quickly update information and communicate with prospective customers. Of course, a beautiful website will do your business no good if no one visits it, so you will need to apply the principles of research, persistence and consistency to properly promote and advertise that website. Research the correct ways to submit your site to the major search engines and internet directories and then be persistent about consistently promoting your website through listing the URL on all printed materials and any other means you can find.The most basic advice I would offer relating to do-it-yourself advertising campaigns for small business owners is to simply give marketing and advertising the same priority you give other areas of running your business. Just as you set aside time to go through the drudgery of bookkeeping and other necessary functions, be sure to set aside time to research advertising opportunities and then be persistent in delivering consistent advertising messages to all those potential customers out there.
The Best Job In The World?
1999 was probably the worst year of my professional life. Unsatisfying office jobs followed by long periods of unemployment and claiming benefits. I’d also missed out on an opportunity to train as a Microsoft certified programmer because I was unable to find a placement. The dream of making my way into the world of employment had turned into an absolute nightmare, at times I felt like a total failure.
Towards the end of 1999 an opportunity arose for me to work in a casino. I’d always loved card games after seeing the glitz and glamour of casinos in James Bond movies. Dissatisfied with life in Northern Ireland, at the age of just 20, I packed a couple of suitcases and ended up going to the Isle of Man to train as a croupier (casino dealer) in January 2000. 18 months later I was working on my first cruise ship, and 18 months after that I was boarding the QE2 (the most famous ship of them all) to do a world cruise.
For a young man from a housing estate in Antrim, Northern Ireland this was beyond even my wildest dreams. On a ferry from Belfast to Liverpool in 1997, I’d once seen a pontoon table and croupier and dreamt what it may be to work as a casino dealer on the high seas.
Everything aboard the QE2 was as you would expect, starting with Captain Ron Warwick, who looked exactly what the captain of the QE2 should look like (Google the name if you don’t believe me). Passenger facing crew were immaculate in their appearance. I could probably have shaved with the crease on my pressed tuxedo shirts, and on a number of occassions when I had been sunburnt in port, I could feel the creases cutting into my tender skin as I dealt the cards that evening in the casino.
The great thing for croupiers on cruise ships is that they only work when the ship is in international waters, in port, the casino must close, and casino staff are free to do pretty much whatever they want. Casino staff have a cabin steward who cleans their cabin and takes away their dirty laundry and brings it back fresh each day. We did a 103 day world cruise which included stops in places like Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town, Hawaii, Mauritius, Nagasaki, Tahiti and Singapore to name a few. I managed to do some amazing excursions like diving in the great barrier reef, quad biking in the Namibian desert, and dining in all sorts of fine restaurants, trying delicacies like Springbok, Kangaroo, Crocodile and Kobe beef. We made stops in 5 continents, crossed the equator and even experienced living a Tuesday in consequetive days when we crossed the world timeline. Imagine that, you go to bed on Tuesday night, wake up the following morning and its Tuesday again, but this was far from groundhog day.
The role in the casino was not about taking passengers’ money like in a land-based casino, it was about providing them with fun and entertainment. The passengers were friendly and pleasant, many of them being extremely successful people (I understand the lowest cabin cost for a world cruise on the QE2 was about $50,000 in 2003). A lot of the passengers had never played in a casino and were fascinated to learn and experience the one onboard. Just getting to know some of these people was an experience in itself, and a large part of the role in the casino was simply to entertain them whilst they were in the casino.
There were also celebrity passengers. We would finish work and go to the crew/members bar where we would have guest entertainers like the late Des O’Connor and the magician, the late Paul Daniels down to have a drink. God bless them both.
Was my job the best job in the world? Maybe not for everyone, but it was beyond even my wildest dreams and the 6 month experience, as well as the amazing people I met will be something I treasure forever. I was very lucky to have lived this experience and will always be incredibly grateful for it.
Many years have passed since then and I’ve always missed the buzz of casinos which is how Fun 21 Casino Hire was created in 2021. My celebrities now are anyone who hires the No Money Fun Casino that I provide for parties and celebrations, and I aim to give the same experience that you would expect onboard the QE2.