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Answer:  Yes. If you’re doing it right, you don’t own a small business – it owns you.  And when it comes to marketing, there usually isn’t a big budget (or a lot of time), so you’ve got to make every effort count. While the internet has been the great equalizer on some fronts, small businesses still havethe ability to stand out with their customers in a personal way that big businesses just can’t compete with.  So don’t forget my top five never-fail, no-cost tips for promoting your small business:

1. Get out of your office and visit your customers.
2. Join the local Chamber of Commerce and really participate.
3. Serve on two or three not-for-profit boards and offer your industry expertise.
4. Write opinion columns for your local paper (yes, Virginia, people still read the paper and look at photos).
5. Offer yourself to local organizations to speak on your specific industry expertise.

A friend of mine (who worked for a very large organization) once said to me after I’d issued a press release about a new big contract we’d signed, “My God, Paula, that’s just shameless self-promotion!”  My response:  “You bet it is.  Thank you.”