When you first think about starting a business, you really need to be sure you are suited to this endeavor. You must evaluate your particular skills, your time commitments, and your personality. Even if you are expanding a business, you should reflect on your uniqueness. What drives you to pursue a particular endeavor? Owning your own business or managing a franchise requires many resources. This book explores some of the requirements for a successful business. Strategies and techniques that have helped others promote their business to a higher level will be identified. A variety of marketing methods to encourage current and new customers to use products and services will be explained. Customers must remain satisfied with a business. Retaining the best employees is also crucial for ongoing customer service and support. Since all businesses have varied products and services, they may need different techniques in marketing to communicate their primary message. Each business is valuable to its customers and gives countless supports and benefits. This book will assist you in enhancing your current business and in creating new ways for you to attract and retain customers in the future. Many tools are provided in the various chapters. Is your business growing? Is it a vital, energetic, and exciting place? Do you find and retain decent or above average employees? Many ideas were gathered from research and experience and compiled in this book. It covers staff meetings, hiring and firing procedures, attitudes of employees, as well as customer service. In one sense, marketing a business is experimenting with different methods to get new customers. Some strategies included in this book are evaluating and improving your attitude toward new customers and new employees, planning more unique products and activities to attract clients, planning publicity so more people learn about your activities, promoting the purpose of your business, designing the right employee relations, critiquing your communication methods (newsletters, brochures, websites, and client resources) and recognizing what support mechanisms might help retain customers as well as employees. Numerous communication and public relations methods were gathered from personal use as well as observations and experiences of other businesses. Some of these techniques might help you attract and retain customers in the future. Understanding accessibility issues for customers with disabilities is also discussed. How successful is your business? What do you consider success? Do you keep your clients and employees for extended periods of time or do they lose interest? Does your business draw new customers continually? Is your business prepared to make changes in order to expand at a faster rate? Is expansion what you really need or want? Is customer/client or employee retention important? What is the main purpose for your business? Are you consistently making strides toward your mission and your goals? Are customers excited and encouraged by your products and services? Do employees see the viability of your products or services? Answering these questions is the secret to image building, customer and employee development, and growth. Clear and consistent communication is crucial. Any business wishing to add or retain clients as well as employees needs to be willing to make some improvements as your situation warrants. If the image of your business already portrays a positive message, you should be able to draw a significant amount of outside interest. Drastic changes may not be necessary but some of your current practices and services may need some modification to promote substantial growth. This book will help you to evaluate your business right now. Once you feel your image is positive and easily understood, you can market your business more effectively. The same products, the same services, the same public relation efforts, and the same "tried and true"