Marketing for a Local Business to Become Profitable
Marketing to local businesses can bring in lots of money and be fun at the same time
A great place to start in this day and age is online, even if their business has nothing to do with computers or the web. Armed with the knowledge you likely already have you can take these skills to a web-clueless local business to help them out. With the basics of SEO, PPC, Social Media, Article Marketing and more you can help them big time. You should think of generating new income for this local business, not just charging them a hefty price. It should be profitable to both parties
You'll never run out of possible businesses to help unless you are in the smallest of towns that has no competition (like one plumber for instance.) A great place to start is your local Chamber of Commerce where many small business people get together at their regular networking mixers.
Get business cards made that tell others all that you do.
Get your own website up and cranking. This way people can find you online and they'll be ready to buy if you do what you preach. In any case you'll have to meet face to face to go over the details and outline a proposal.
The place to get started is someone's whose products or services you already use locally. Maybe you have a friend or relative who needs help setting up their blog and using social media to promote their small businesses. Do your best to make them the go-to person online and that way you have proof for all future clients.
But you can't just be a master salesman. You need to deliver on what you promise. This means optimize their site and making it show up in the top results. Getting them in the map results. Also setting them up and running on any social networking sites to further expand their reach.
Just continue to work on and grow your own Internet business while helping others with theirs. You stand to learn a lot more in the process.