No man is an island. This adage is especially true in business. Without the community, you would have no business.

Always remember that community members are the customers for life of a home-based business unless these members move out of the area. The business relies on them for its lifeblood; on the other hand, the customers rely on the business for their needs, either product or service-wise. There is an inevitable interdependence between the two.

It is beneficial therefore to the entrepreneur to pay heed and contribute to the community’s well-being. This means not only money but time and effort too. These may be donated by the businessman to further the physical and mental health and stability of the community who are the company’s customers.

Here are the various ways to promote business in the community :

1. Comprising the clientele of your business are members of the community and many of theme are affiliated with community service organizations like the Rotary Club, Lion’s Club, YMCA/YWCA, Christian Charities and others. They belong to these civic, religious, and charitable organizations and are consequently active in the service of the community.

2. Pay attention to both the individual members and their collective clubs as they can propel your business to greater heights. The service clubs can patronize your business as they undertake their avowed community task which may generate more revenue for your business than the individual customers.

3. Be on the lookout for chances to be of service to these community service clubs. In the long run, this may pay off more than what you actually put in. You would have done the community some good at the same time. Perhaps you can donate a little of whatever you are selling, whether goods or services. Or you can contribute banners, announcement fliers or certificate awards.

4. You might be requested to become a candidate and serve on the board of one of these organizations. It will be financially and spiritually worthwhile to put in a little time and effort to help in the community projects.

5. There are little things, yet of big help, that you can do for organizations in the community. One of these is simply allowing them to post their flyers on your window or door ; putting up a bulletin board where they can post their meetings or fund-raising notices. You can also offer your place or a part of it if you have enough space for their meetings or gatherings

6. Participate in media promotions such as offering your product or service as a prize.

7. Join or spearhead a community project. It may be simple as a clean-up campaign or as involved as auctions, flea markets, medical missions and the like.

8. Accept trainees, volunteers in your business. They will help you and and at the same time, you help them.

9. A low-cost way to promote your home business is to try to gather email addresses of every resident within a given city. E-mail is essentially free. It is important to compile a list of e-mail addresses and constantly update that list. Using personal emails rather than spamming would help your target audience be more trustful to your intentions and therefore would result to a greater chance of your potential customers purchasing your product or service.

10. A good way to do some advertising and make some money at the same time is to offer to teach a class at your local college. When you teach a class at your community college, you get to network and build your list of potential clients.

In closing, these are further useful tips: some customers may or may not look at your calling card. Your name, position and company might not ring a bell. Yet, they would want to hear directly from you to know who you are and how noble your intention is.

Greg Montenegro is a 15 year veteran in international marketing. His firm has been exporting computer parts to Asia since 1992. He is also the webmaster of http://www.12homebasedbusiness.com, a website that how to go from zero to making real money online in about a month.

pexcor@yahoo.vom