Sometimes the best market for our value-added products is people in our local community.  So operating a value-added business that sells to customers in your hometown may be the right situation for you.  But marketing products in your hometown requires the same business acumen as marketing in metropolitan areas.

For more information on this topic, see the links listed below of articles posted on related Web sites.

• Hometown Business: Keep Them Coming Back for More — Customer Loyalty – University of Missouri Extension -- Retail business is based on customers. This may seem obvious, but sometimes retailers get so involved in stock turnover, cash flow, taxes and payroll that they forget the reason for all that activity is to bring customers into the store and sell the merchandise to them.
  
• Hometown Business: Increase Your Sales — Invest in Advertising – University of Missouri Extension -- Advertising is essential in today's business world. The question is not, "Should I advertise?" It is, "How can I effectively advertise?"
  
• Hometown Business: Plan and Control Your Inventory – University of Missouri Extension -- Retail planning is known by a variety of names: dollar planning, inventory planning, dollar control or merchandise control.
  
• Hometown Business: Let's Make a Deal — Vendor Relations – University of Missouri Extension -- One of the most important ways retailers can serve customers is by having merchandise on hand when customers want it. There are few things more frustrating than making a special trip to the store for a specific item only to discover that it is out of stock.
  
• Hometown Business: We All Pay the Costs — Stop the Shoplifters – University of Missouri Extension -- Shoplifting negatively affects your financial future as a retailer. Estimates show it to be the primary cause of one-third of all small- business bankruptcies.
  
• Hometown Business: Put Your Best Foot Forward With — Dynamic Displays – University of Missouri Extension -- The way you display your merchandise can have an impressive impact on your sales. In a study done by the National Retail Merchants Association, one out of every four sales occurred because of the way the merchandise was displayed.