How do I advertise a new online business?

How to advertise a salon/new business in your local area?

• My mom always wanted her own business, she's been in the medical field. So she had this idea to start a salon despite she has no prior experience in this field. She opened a salon and it looks quite nice, it offers all types of services from eyebrow threading and stone therapy messages and jacuzzi time. It's located in Fresh Meadows, Queens, New York City.It is infront of a busy keyfood which is a plus (So people can see that it is there) It opened 3 days ago and we haven't had many customers, not nearly enough to cover expenses + make profit. I know it's only been three days but we are really short on cash because of all our living expenses PLUS expense of business & paying the workers, shes paying them out of her own pocket ...I am a freshman in College and plan to pursure an economics degree and have not taken any business courses so I too am inexperienced in this. Please give us advice and help us out on how to make this a successful business with advertising and how to get customers. Our services and staff are great =) we just need to be known now.. Feel free to share personal experience as well Thank you!

• Answer:

  You can make a Squidoo lens about your salon in your neighborhood and relate it to the local area. The founder of Squidoo (Seth Godin) is also a New Yorker. Very inspiring marketer. This would be a free way to go about it. While you're on Squidoo, you can do a free search to see what other hair salons are int he local area. You can also post in online classified ads or online yellow pages. Put an advertisement in your loca newspaper. Put flyers on billboards in areas where people would likely see them, provided you have permission to do it. Of the few customers who have used your salon, if you have their contact details, ask them if they wouldn't mind (after you create your Squidoo Lens) to leave a comment. Here's an example of a Squidoo Lens. It's not meant for advertising. It's meant for connecting with people and showing you're an expert in something in an unique way and getting the word out. Dig around on the Squidoo site and see what other people have done to a topic similar to yours to give you some ideas. Most of all, give your business some time...many months, even. You just started. I really, really recommend you read Seth Godin's blog, and check out You Tube videos on the Dip. It'll help you with a nice long-term marketing strategy.