Dear fwm,

I am a small business owner. I have a gutter cleaning company. Once I get clients I always retain them due to my work ethic. The problem I have is advertising and getting my name out there. I have had tremendous difficulty in getting clients after advertising several different ways. As a single mom with three kids, no child support, and a mortgage, I have to put food on the table. Any suggestions for what works?

Amy M.
ProPerfection

Hello, Amy! Thanks for posing this question to us—we’re sure that you will find just the advice you need from our expert contributors and of course from our community—many of whom are small business owners just like you.

We’ve decided to ask an expert to jump in here and provide a few pointers. Meet fwm Expert Contributor Christina Blenk, President and CEO of WomanOwned.com and a business owner herself (she also founded afsweb.net).

Here are a few suggestions for you:

First, you should get listed on http://www.angieslist.com if it covers your area and have your clients who love you rate you highly. It’s a great way to get those direct referrals for a business like yours.

Second, if you have a bit of money and are able to purchase some advertising such as Google Adwords, you’ll need to focus just on your city – which will save a lot of money.

Third, I don’t see that you have a web site--you could use an inexpensive system like Yahoo’s to get something started. Good pictures will be the best thing you can do for your business to tell the story. Clogged v. unclogged.

Fourth, I had a client who installed decks and got great response from a cheap flyer that he would print up and put in mailboxes in neighborhoods where the houses were nice. He said that was the best marketing he could do.

Becoming a “local expert” works if you know that the local paper might run a story on you. You could call the little local paper (they are doing much better with readership than the big ones and will actually talk to a business person) and see what they think of the story idea. Something like “Avoid costly gutter and landscape damage “ or “How gutter cleaning service will save you money and frustration in the long run” would be great article ideas to bring exposure to your business.

It sounds as if you have mastered rule #1: Take excellent care of your current customers!

Best of luck to you!
Christina Blenk