Spotting Advertising Opportunities

Last year a friend of mine brought an internet/lan-gaming cafe in a nearby suburb; this year it went bust.

A few months before it went bust I asked him “hows business?” and he said “slow”. I recommended that he put out some more advertising and he responded with “I cant afford it”. This response will make the jaw drop of any business owner who has survived the first two years because they understand how important advertising really is. If one does not have the funds to put out any advertising then it is very important that they do put some out because if they don’t, it will start a cycle of death for the business. If you dont advertise you wont get more customers, if you don’t get more customers you wont get any money, if you don’t get any money your business will die.

Money does not need to be an issue with advertising if you are creative. There were still many advertising avenues my friend could have perused which are very inexpensive.
For example, he could have gone down to the local highschool/university and hand out flyers with a coupon for 1 free hour of internet/gaming usage (only valid on his slowest day of course). While they are in the store, make sure they have a good time and chances are he will come back sometime as a paying customer and hopefully, they will bring his gaming friends with them. The cost of this to my friend would have only been basic photocopying costs. Also, he isn’t losing any money by giving a free hour away because the seat was empty to begin with which wasn’t earning any money anyway.

During my own traveling I am constantly looking out for internet cafes if the hotel im staying at doesn’t provide internet because I need to check my emails and run my sites. My friend could have made a deal with some local hotels/motels (who don’t supply their own internet) to place some flyers in each room and get some customers that way. The cost to my friend? basic photocopying costs and few bucks for the manager. If he can manage to sweet talk the hotel/motel its possible to get them to place the flyers for free as a value added service for their patrons (eg. Exclusive deal, 20% off at the local internet cafe for all hotel/motel patrons).

You are probably thinking that those are good ideas for my friend, but what about us computer techies? Well, do you know anyone who only builds or resells computers? Perhaps computer repair techs who dont sell new computers can make a deal with them. If anyone who needs repairs comes to the new computer place, they will send them to you. If any of your computer repair clients need a new computer, send them onto the other business.

There are many ideas like this that you could be doing, you just need to keep you eyes open.