Expert: Peter Gabany - 11/26/2007

Question
Hi!  We are a family of teachers trying to advertise our 12 student preschool, and I'm afraid we are better at teaching than advertising.  We started it at a slow time of year (Holiday time), and could really use some advice:

We have under $1000--really more time than money--to advertise this preschool in a small rural area with few businesses in the vicinity, so what would you suggest we spend our time and effort doing?
(The preschool will cater to 2 1/2 - 5 year olds and cost $700 per month per child)
Our local assessment of the area businesses/housing/ nonprofits:

Housing--There are new subdivisions nearby
Businesses- Ballet school, mechanic, realtor and one restaurant are the closest businesses.  About 15 minutes away is a large mall, community college and shopping a center with Kohl's/Petco/WalMart/HomeDepot/Target/Shoe Place/Bakery.
Nonprofits- Churches, schools and a huge ball park for kids are very close. This ball park is less than 5 minutes from our preschool, which is on the corner of two busy roads.  

Thanks so much for any ideas you have to offer.  We are stumped.

Answer
First of all you budget points to only one solution - direct response marketing. Create a brochure and deliver it to the local area. Target the new residences and businesses are the quickest solutions. BUT creating a brochure that will work and getting it out for $1,000 is a stumbling block.

Your small business is very small with prospective revenues pegged at about $100k. I highly recommend that you read the book E-Myth by Michael Gerber. You can also buy the audio book and listen to him as he goes through the challenges of being an entrepreneur. Please take the time - you will be thanking me more for that piece of advice.

One of the reasons that I bring his name up is about one of the business cases he discusses where an individual needed to do some important step to build his business but did not have the funds to do it properly. Gerber's advice? Find the money!

In my humble opinion your preschool is a job not a business. One of the 1st questions to ask to determine if a business is a job or not is - can I leave the business for a time and will it work on its own? My guess - it can't. Read Gerber's book and discover how you can turn this around.

Also, find some $$$ - I would recommend approximately $2,500. Hire a professional graphic designer - please - for your business' sake - not a kid with a computer but a true professional. Have them come up with a unique direct mail piece for your school.

If you would like us to do this for you - I guess we could but it not my intention to solicit work. I prefer you find a strategic partner in your own community first - please hire a graphic designer - and I would recommend a female at that as they would be best suited to create something that would appeal to your key target influencer - the mom.

Please let me know how you make out.

Pete