I know this is a cheeky question but at present my head is not all there (for reasons I can't go into at the moment!) and with severe lack of funds heading my way in the very near future I really need to start promoting the decor side (and the rest) of my business effectively on a budget of £0 to start getting actual paying work in.  I've not got much time either as although I know it will all go quiet in Jan I still need to get up and running as quickly as possible.

I would really love to hear what methods of advertising those of you that do decor have used and what you have found to be effective.  

In reality I can probably scrape together a small amount of money to do things like printing flyers etc but I certainly cannot afford ads in the Yellow Pages or any other expensive advertising especially if they turn out to be a waste of money.

I am trying to work on my website but at present don't have enough pics of my own but plan on dealing with that as soon as I can.  I am planning on talking to my priest to see if I can use the church hall (more like a large converted garage but bigger than my front room) but that won't happen until the new year.  For any of you that are QBN's do you know if it is okay to use images from their website (the bits for promotion) on your own website?

Finally what do you think would be the best way to display options for balloon deliveries?  I had orginally thought laid out like an on line shop but the range of foil balloons is phenomenal so I thought perhaps it is better to show a couple of examples and then if people have a specific request they can call me.  Would it be better to show 20 different foils for balloon in a box and say if they cannot see what they are looking for to contact me but I suppose my concern here is that I know Anagram have severely underestimated the demand of their Christmas foils and I am worried this will happen on a regular basis that the balloons I have displayed will be discontinued or unavailable and then what do I do?

One idea I have had is to see if schools will let me advertise on their newsletter and I could perhaps give then 10% off balloon deliveries for birthday's etc. (obviously for a limited time only) and I also thought to approach a few pubs and restuarants to see if they would be interested in offering my services to their clients booking tables for special events.

Good ideas Yvonne - dont forget Valentines is 6 weeks promotion for 2 days sales and this year it is on a Sunday so hotels and restaurants will be looking for decor to last both days. so start talking or writing to them mid January - foil hearts are usually sold at about 40/50p each if you buy 100.

Our restaurants only ever want plain red foils and then only 1 per table - deep joy - but they pay for the double heart weight as well and we when you dp 4/5/6 restaurants with 1 per table and at least 20/40 tables each it can soon add up as no brain work involved - just deliver the balloons and take the money.

Hotels will have a valentines promotion area offer to add an air filled display to it - with some of your cards - a simple 5" air filled spiral column with air filled red heart foil saying 'Happy Valentines Day' on the top - will last the time and they will think you are wonderful...

Do the same withlocal radio station  - they may even buy or promote you in exchange for balloons in boxes for valentines.

We also write to all the local high schools in January with regards to the proms in May/June or July write 2 letters one to head of year 11 the other to head of year 13 as both 16 & 18 yr olds have proms - a lot have their dresses and tiarras for christmas so as soon as they return to school its how much shall we charge and what shall we do with the money time.

All not that expensive and promote you where you locally reducing your travel & time expenses also

Pam
xx

I hate to say it but you need to spend to make there is no quick easy route in any self employed business