Advertising your small business

[MyPacifier]

So it has now been just over 6 months since I started my small business. It has been tough. I have a great product, personalized pacifiers. I have little to no competition for my product. Advertising and marketing are the biggest competition. I searched many years to find something that I was passionate about so that I could stay at home and raise my family. I missed out on this with my first two girls, now 15 & 13 and regret that someone else got to witness their first tooth, first steps, first whatever...

I spend hours on the computer searching for ways, sites, blogs and directories to get my product noticed. Twitter has become a great tool but still have little in results when it comes to orders. I know that I cannot be the only business these days finding it hard to get the word out, especially with the vast kilometers across Canada. Little by little, it continues to grow and I am now seeing repeat customers. I still get excited to see "order" in my inbox and love to see what my customer has personalized their pacifier with. I love my company!

The company that I partnered with is E-Baby out of Denmark. They are the original inventor of personalized pacifiers, even though there are other companies that make this claim. In Europe and even the U.S. other companies have found the uniqueness of personalizing a pacifier and have created their company based on ours. We offer very high quality pacifiers, they do not, we have the most styles and colours to choose from, they have limited styles, we have never had a recall, they have. Even with all of this great background, we still fight for market share. Our pricing is competitive, but a little higher but our quality is a lot higher.

I contact every possible baby associated business and request media kits (advertising rate packages) and sometimes I gasp at the price. One magazine, a good baby magazine, wants $4500 for a 1/8 black & white ad that will be available for one month...wow, or should I say "ouch"! I am not a guru when it comes to advertising but I am not a virgin either. I know that advertising should not run you more than the sales you expect to generate from the ad. So I have focused my advertising on many ads at a small price rather than a large ad at a large price...more eyes should see it if it is advertised in many venues, right?

Every day I receive emails from PR professionals wanting to market my business..."for a mere $$$, we will get the word out for you"...does this really work? I would love to be able to pay someone to do work that I can do and not have to look at my computer other than to process the orders. I was not and am not looking for "the easy way out". I realize owning your own business, being able to work from home & making your own hours comes with a price, but I think it is worth it.

Here is my confession...I have seen a lot of great online retail sites offering great products. I have seen a lot of unique items that you cannot find at Walmart or Zellers or Sears or...but I have not bought anything either. Why? Because all of the profits that I make go back into advertising my products. Someday I hope that this changes and that my profits can be spent on all of these adorable items, made with love (not from China!).

[MyPacifier]

Hi Kelly,
Thank you for the offer. I just checked out your website and would like to advertise but see you are out of the US. I am wondering if you know how many of your followers are Canadian? I have no problem advertising with you as I would include the US website but if you have no Canadians, I am not sure we are a good fit...please let me know and again, thank you for contacting me.