I have been in Business now for about 10 years. I have gone from doing craft shows with our woodworking to doing fleamarkets, to Manufacturing a product, to owning a store.

Life has never been boring, thats for sure.

The biggest drawback I have found for our store is being able to afford to advertise our businesses. Our stores The Northern Edge, Candy Caboose, and P.I. Planning are all located in a beautiful renovated train depot, that is unfortunately not located on a well traveled road. People tend to forget we are here.

To Utilize our advertising money in the best way, we have turned to Co-op advertising.

What is Co-op advertising?

It is simply putting together a group of small businesses that share a common theme, such as say party and events. Each individual business of this group pays to be a part of the said group, then all that money is pooled together, and used for different advertising venues. This gives a small business a better way to advertise more effectively.

My new business P.I Planning is a event and party planning and management company, and I am using this innovative concept for our advertising, along with other creative ways. Such as filling out for every free Ad I can manage to fin, linking our websites to wherever I can, and well short of dressing up in a monkey costume, I have probably tried it all. Sometimes life for a small business is filled with just trying to make ends meet, but at the end of the day, I can say, “Hey this is mine!”. The best way for a small business to stay afloat, is to be innovative,have good loyal friends,and provide the best customer service on the planet. No matter what, the best advertising is plain old word of mouth.