To avoid watching profits slip away unnoticed, never let anyone talk you into discounting your work. Either charge full price or (if you want to support the cause, the person or whatever) give it for free. Making that dividing line clear will help YOU see whether it is worth it to you to support them, and it will make it harder for them to ask. In business as a graphic artist/typesetter I found that many people asked for discounts for a "good cause," but few will ask you to work for free. Makes it clear that it's your decision and that you value your time and work.

 Find out about potential client's families, i.e., how many children they have, their hobbies, ect. You will have a common bond if your child also plays softball, for example.

 Send out cards at Thanksgiving. Many times it is the only one they get.

 Send out a birthday card and call them on their birthday to ask what special plans they have made. Many times you are the only one who remembered.

 Send out a card if you know your client is ill or has been hospitalized.

 Take your customers out to lunch once a year and don't discuss business.

 Follow up with past clients for future business.

 Keep your name in front of them at least four times per year with some sort of mailing. Possibly a 3-hole punched newsletter would say "save me".

 Don't bad-mouth your competitors- they can be of help to you.

 Don't defend your price.

 Whatever you do, do it well and with pride.

 Don't expect a return on all actions. Look beyond the current benefit.

 Get involved in your community.

 Stock what you sell.

 Stick with positive people.

 Start business woman's networking group. If you start it, invite those whom you want to attend and ask them each to invite one more person. A dozen or so is a good number to start with. Book the room for it (at a hotel if you can), make sure you have Hello my name is tags, pens a table for brochures and business cards and some one else to help you with the sign in sheets.

 Have a loose agenda - how often to meet, when, what to accomplish, and make sure everyone has a chance to meet everyone else.

 As a publisher, I am always looking for a way to increase public awareness and interest in my business, I wrote a Disaster Guide Electronic book in cooperation with a volunteer group I belong to. ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services). We provide communications for local government and the American Red Cross in times of disasters or local emergencies. I thought publishing an Electronic Book that could be downloaded free from the Internet might help sales. I placed the E-book on my FTP site and placed links to it from different ARES web pages so if they wanted the e-book, they would have to come to my web site to get it. Once they were there, I allow them to download the e-book and then explore my site where I have my for sale publications listed. This concept worked so well, I am now starting a free news letter for the same organization. The news letter will be e-mailed to over 1500 amateur radio operators each month. Sense they are already into electronics, and our business guides are in the electronics field, I have a way to target many possible customers for a very few hours a month. All I do is take the articles submitted and place them in a news letter format and edit it. Then I send the news letter to another ARES volunteer that handles the e-mail list. By placing my company name, URL, E-mail address I get my company name into the public where I need it to be. In the case of the news letters, I know of about 25 people on the list that are going to print it for people that are not on the Internet, or do not have a computer. This has another advantage in that I can write off the R & D cost of the book because it was done for a non-profit organization.

 Business Cards: I suggested getting 500 business cards printed and visiting EVERY business that could possibly help you in your area to promote your business. Leave 2 cards with each person (one for them to keep - one to give away).

 Corporate Image: It needs to be consistent. It should be reflected in everything from how the phone is answered to the paper your brochures and business cards are printed on.

 Discount Card Marketing: Discount cards are a great way to gain repeat customers. Consider having small cards printed up the size of a standard business card and have them designed to reflect your unique business. A specialty coffee shop - their cards have a small graphic of a steaming cup of coffee -ten of them - and each time someone purchases a coffee the card is punched -10 purchases later the customer gets a free cup. 

Getting things published about your firm: A media calendar. This is your timetable for preparing publicity pitches and directing them at specific targets. You'll use the media calendar to make sure you have prepared press materials and story ideas for any particular media target and have sent them off in time to have an article actually written before the publication's deadline.

 Incentive Ideas: The best reward ever come upon was a roll of stamps. These guys would work hard all week to try to earn the ceremonial roll of stamps.

 Increase Web Site Traffic: Ask readers for advice and then use it! Run an online contest asking for suggestions on ways to improve your site and offer a nifty prize for any idea you use.Of course, prizes should carry your logo, phone, website and address information!

 Building a mailing list: Check with the county to see if there is a registry of home-based businesses that you can use as a mailing list.

 Selling Business Promotion Ideas: Do you have a successful promotion that you use? If your business is localised, why not license the promotion to other businesses similar to yours who are outside of your area of business? Some businesses who have done this have actually made more money from the licensing than they do from their regular businesses.

 Customer Testimonials: They send out a customer satisfaction survey after they finish a job and for permission to use comments in their marketing. They also offer a free dinner to anyone who refers a new customer to the company.

 Yellow Page Advertising: Put your ad in a couple of different categories; create your own new category and you will have no competition - at least for the first year.

 Choose a business name which is easy to remember, reflects yourself and the type of your business. I come so often across a business with a wonderful name, which has nothing to do with the type of business. That's why I've chosen the name Billi"s Craft & Design Studio. Billi is a short form of my Christian name, so people know straight away who owns the business.

 I send every customer a little sheet with 6 vouchers on it. For every customer he brings, he fills out the voucher with address and name and sends it to me together with his next order to get a percentage off. This is a nice incentive to come back and to bring referrals as well.

 Home based businesses tend to be a little bit tacky. It's hard to keep up the work for hours because of distractions in your own home. Here my tip: Don't hear what the others say. As long as you don't get customers in on a regular basis, make your office/workshop a cosy as you like. Create an atmosphere. There is no need to clean it up every day or keep things so orderly, that it looks like nobody has worked in it. I have my craft room, which also includes my computer. I can't clean up the room every day. Lot's of things lay around, but I find everything and I like the atmosphere. I can spend hours in this room without feeling being shut out from the house.