Answer: That is a loaded question! There are so many facets to planning to promote your company at a trade show, and the trade show booth and graphics are only a portion of what you need to consider in your preparations.

If your company already has brand recognition, which is unlikely unless you’re working for a major consumer products company, your marketing department needs to know what is working to attract clients in other advertising venues, such as billboards, emails, online advertising, magazine and/or newspaper advertising.

If you’re getting business from these venues, that’s great! But if you don’t know which one or more your clients are responding to, and you may have lots of different approaches to varying markets, you could choose the wrong message for your trade show display graphics, which would be costly not only in terms of the graphics and booth (about half the cost of attending a trade show is typically the booth and display graphics), but also in potential client lost revenue.

If you are using direct marketing techniques, such as advertising codes when clients respond to specific ads, then you may already have addressed this most important aspect of attending a trade show. If you have tested many advertising venues, then you’re ahead of the curve, so to speak.

As a hypothetical example, let’s say your company sells golf clubs. Not just any clubs, but a revolutionary design with a grip that has been endorsed by a famous golf champion, and your company is growing by leaps and bounds. You have advertised online using Google’s AdWords, and with testing found out which phrases and headlines out pull other advertising. Google Analytics is a great tool for doing this without having to use the old-fashioned method of promotional codes.

However, you know that not all golfers are technically savvy, or maybe they just don’t like shopping online for various reasons. So, you’ve placed ads on strategically located billboards near golf courses, in golfing magazines, and in the sports section of various newspapers offering a free DVD to golfers who called in to request the DVD and mentioned the code.

You’ve targeted the phrase, across all forms of advertising that is the most successful with your customer groups, though possibly you’re unsure what type of trade show to attend, but your marketing staff, who are obviously savvy marketers, research golfing demographics, and determine that most stock brokers play golf, so you make your target a convention of financial managers and brokers. This is the type of trade show that will attract high wage attendees, just the type of people you want to target.

Since you’re obviously a company that knows how to advertise, and you have “the phrase that pays” at your fingertips, you can now have your ad agency create your booth graphics. Because this is your first go, but you have a decent budget approved by the CEO and the Vice President of Marketing, you’re able to procure a 10′ x 20′ corner booth in a good location near the entry and across from a major car brand that has a good reputation… location, location, location!

The typical way to calculate the cost for this trade show booth is to figure the cost at around $25 per square foot, multiply that times 3, then multiply the total times the square footage of the booth, which in this case is 200 square feet. So, the calculation should look like this – (3 x 25 = 75) x 200 = $15,000.00. That will be your approximate booth budget. Note that I said approximate. There is a lot of variety available for trade show displays and graphics, so you could easily spend double that amount without much difficulty. But since your VP of Marketing approved $30,000.00 for the show, and this is your first dance, so to speak, you can still get a very attractive booth with collateral materials, retractable banners or similar on the aisles to beckon passersby, fabric banners in the booth, attractive cloth table runners, and a multimedia display or two within your budget without much difficulty.

Again, the main success factor is not stunning graphics, though done well, they won’t hurt anything and can definitely catch the show goers’ eyes, but that one phrase that has worked in all your ads, front and center, will almost certainly create success for your company at this trade show. We’ve seen it, over and over, where the booth graphics are OK, but the advertising headline has a great hook, so the show is a success. We’ve also seen stunning graphics cost a lot money and potential clients when the message didn’t resonate with passersby. The message, then, is what we’d consider to be the key element to a successful trade show booth.

The first question you should be asking yourself is: “Am I the type of person that can manage a home based business?” The reason you need to ask this question is because, although the idea of being your own boss sounds lucrative, not everyone has an owner mentality. An owner mentality would be someone who possesses the following traits: self-starter, self-motivated, organized, detailed, aggressive, and disciplined. Let’s add one more for good measure: committed.

You absolutely must be committed to starting your own business. Someone who is committed is going to take action and not procrastinate about things that need to get done. This is so important to the success of your business. There is a big difference between someone who is interested vs. someone who is committed. The interested person may or may not follow through on key initiatives, while the committed person will absolutely complete the task required.

OK, so now you perceive yourself as committed to managing your own home based business. Now what? You’ll have to make the decision to register yourself with your state as Sole Proprietorship or perhaps start a Limited Liability Company (LLC). A ‘Sole Proprietor’ is someone who owns an unincorporated business by himself/herself. The owner receives all profits and is responsible for all losses and debts. An ‘LLC’ is a business structure allowed by state statute. LLCs are very popular because, similar to a corporation, owners have limited personal liability for the debts and actions of the LLC. There is also the benefit of pass-through taxation.

Decide which one you’d like to be and be aware there will be filing fees involved when you register with your state. You should not make this decision on your own and it’s highly recommended that you consult with your income tax professional.

Next in line is deciding what type of business you want to run. There are many factors to consider before you make your decision. For example, what do you like to do? Do you have any hobbies or special skills you can turn into a business? Can you turn your earlier working knowledge into a business? Your first task is to find out what you really want to do. Something that you will enjoy doing and can see yourself promoting with unrivaled excitement. For our purposes we will focus on non-franchise home based ideas since franchise businesses usually carry a high monetary investment with them.

Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking:
Bookkeeping – keeping a client’s financial records
Collection Agency – you’ll need excellent communication skills for this one
Computer Training – one-on-one or in groups
Computer Tutoring – one-on-one and your client comes to you
Copywriter – create marketing brochures for customers
Desktop Publishing – providing printing services to clients/organizations
Medical Transcription Service – produce typed reports from doctor’s dictations
Online marketing – selling your own or other company’s products
Technical Writing- technology products that need descriptions
Video Production Services – take old videos and make them professional quality
And many, many more… Home based businesses have gained in popularity in recent years. You can say there is a close relationship between the recent economic hardships and a booming interest in working from home. Aside from the above list, you’ll find such things as paid surveys, mystery shopper opportunities, and several others. You can make money filling out online surveys right from a laptop on your kitchen table. There are thousands of companies around the world that invest large quantities of money in trying to figure out consumer trends. These companies are interested in finding out how consumers behave and why they are more apt to purchasing certain products and not others. While this may not be able to pay for the rent or mortgage, a few dollars here and there can’t hurt. With a little luck and plenty of research you can find these companies and sign up to receive their surveys.