Some will say that they never advertise all their custom arrives via recommendation or word of mouth, but isn't word of mouth just another way of describing free advertising! When we think about advertising many images are conjured in our minds, the most obvious being television we are bombarded with these images every 10 - 15 minutes.

Many small business owners see advertising as an unnecessary expense one they can ill afford, advertising is something that large companies do because their budget can sustain advertising campaigns we cannot. But the funny thing is when these same small business owners start to have problems and business starts to slow down what's the first thing they do you guessed it advertise!

What they fail to realise is the unmitigated truth surrounding advertising,(sometimes all to late) that advertising is without question the single most powerful medium there is period!

Think about it everything we do is at some level linked with advertising. In fact our whole capitalist society and economic structure is dependent upon advertising without which, the system would collapse. So you see to dismiss advertising as a luxury or a unnecessary expense is complete madness and any business owner that does should be certified.

Before entering into advertising it is crucial that you actually have a fundamental appreciation of what advertising is, unfortunately most don't. They use it in the wrong way, do not get any results and then decide it is not worth the expense. Most businesses, (and you too may be guilty of this) place an ad in a newspaper or yellow pages explaining about their product or service giving contact details on how customers can reach them,and then they wait for the orders.

when they are not forthcoming a decision is made either to forget about advertising altogether or leave the ad in place for a while on the off chance that somebody interested in their business will see it, and anyway its good publicity at least the company name is out there. This is not the way to advertise this is a way to loose money.

Advertising is a science and to fully understand the principals of this science you must examine the origins of advertising. It is crucial for anyone contemplating using advertising that they understand the foundations, you have heard the saying "in order to know where your going you need to know where you come from" well in respects of advertising this statement rings true.

The fore fathers of modern day advertisers originated in America at the beginning of the 20th century, these giants designed and sculpted the landscape of advertising to reflect an image of ultimate professionalism and innovation. And the greatest exponent of this art, and widely acknowledged as the father of modern advertising was Claude C. Hopkins.

His methods, strategies and techniques laid the foundations for advertising to be seen to be profitable. His revolutionary idea on research had never been witnessed, ideas on testing were all new concepts at the beginning of the last century.

Therefore if you which to really grasp the true power of advertising and what it can do for your business look back so you can see forwards.