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[A283]Advertising For Small Business

by Vita V., Vit

If a small business owner had a choice of paying $1000 a month for advertising that brought in a guarantee of at least $2000 a month profit, or paying $500 a month for advertising that brought in $750 worth of profit a month, there would be no hesitation. That savvy small business owner would gladly shell out $1000 each month for the advertising.

Small business advertising has no such guarantees however. It's not like buying a refrigerator that is guaranteed to keep the milk and eggs cold. $1000 of advertising might bring $8000 of profit, or it might bring in zero. So, what's a small business owner to do, especially if faced with a limited budget?

The best answer is to use small business advertising that only charges the owner when and if it works. There are several ways of doing this.

The primary method is called pay per click. This Internet option is available with numerous online merchant sites as well as hundreds of newspapers across the country and the globe. Simply put, a small business agrees to pay a specified amount to the publisher, or the merchant site, for each ad that entices a consumer to come to the small business site. The price paid is generally an amount that the small business owner has bid on. More and more newspapers are offering this option as they struggle to maintain competitive online with eBay, Craigslist and other pure play classified and marketplace sites.

Another option for pay per click and inexpensive advertising for a small business that wants to concentrate on local customers is with regional publications or some of the larger metropolitan newspapers and groups that are introducing citizen media sites. These zoned products offer a much less expensive buy because the small business advertiser is buying the local neighborhood instead of the total metropolitan circulation of the metropolitan paper.

Companies such as YourHub, a product of the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, are licensing these citizen media sites to other newspapers in other areas and those welcome small business advertising and discount the price. They also encourage citizen journalism. The small business owner can contribute articles, photos and local stories, although the paper will undoubtedly edit something too unabashedly self-serving. This is still a great way for a local entrepreneur to introduce himself or herself to the neighbors in a friendly, casual and soft sell way.

As a small family business anytime we needed more help, we would check for the nearest niece or nephew looking to work, we didn't need a background check on them so we never even had considered the idea. So when we decided to hire a young man to help run our store during busy season, I never even though of running a background check . I now know better. I bugs me even more to know you can get absolutely free background checks all over on the internet.

“Steve” as I will call him was a clean cut young man who walked in one day looking for some part time work to put towards college that fall. He filled out a basic application for employment, (a standard form we picked up at the office supply store) that looked pretty good. He just seemed like such a polite clean cut kid, I have to admit, I didn't check his references, much less run a background check.

Steve took to the business right off and had a great way of handling customers, everyone left with a smile and we had many good reports on him. It wasn't more than a month before he was running errands for us with the company truck (something I never would have done if I had run a background check on him) including taking the daily deposits to the bank for us.

Steve seemed to be so honest. His third week with us, I made a mistake on his paycheck, for whatever reason, I had figured his hourly rate at .50 more an hour than he was supposed to get. He came right into my office and showed me the mistake and asked me if I would make him a different check. I said no and turned the mistake into a raise for him telling him how important me it was to have someone as honest as him working for me. Man, he was good!

So, now it's the end of the summer and Steve gives me not 2 but 3 weeks notice, letting me know it's back to college and even asked about coming back to work the holidays on his breaks or maybe on the weekends if I was in a bind. This guy was the ultimate employee. I would always ask my wife, “so still think we need to run that background check? I think I trust him more than you, maybe I will run a background check on you! I know a place where you can get absolutely free background checks”

Two weeks before Steve was supposed to quit, he “lost” his paycheck and asked for a duplicate. Two days later we came in at the normal time, but our company truck was gone as was our computer, cash drawer and about $5,000 in merchandise from our store. It turns out, “Steve” came in early that day! He had apparently made a spare key for the truck, cashed his “lost” paycheck and the replacement check, charged a full tank of gas and headed for a college far far away.

That night, my wife ran a background check, an absolutely free background check. Turns out Steve has more work experience than he listed on his resume. If we would have seen just one of the issues on his background check, we never would have hired Steve and I wouldn't be writing this story.

Does your business need to run a background check on new hires? You better believe it. And why wouldn't you when you can get an absolutely free background check online? You have put a lot of time and sweat into your small business, don't make the mistake of cutting corners on something as simple and potentially important as a background search.

Article Source : New York Advertising Agency

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Both Vita V. & D. Leroy are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Vita V. has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cars, Web Development and Allergies. . Vita V.'s top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.

D. Leroy has sinced written about articles on various topics from Advertising Guide, Computers and The Internet. D. LeRoy is involved with several small business in both a consulting and marketing role. Click here to see how easy it is to get a as recommended b. D. Leroy's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.