Think Small.

Hand picking your customers.

Customers don't choose you, you choose them. You choose them with nearly every decision you make: Pricing. Product offerings. Sales. Customer service. Store appearance. Location. Every decision you make appeals to some customers while repelling others.

So choose wisely.

Start by looking at your current customers. Single out the ones you like doing business with and the ones you'd like to get a lot more business from: How valuable are customers like them? How demanding? Can you find more of them? How difficult will it be to reach them?

Then look at your business decisions and how they appeal to these customers.

You can't have everyone as your customer. But you can choose the customers you'd like to have.

Be fly on the wall (or "How to turn a pest into marketing gold").

Found this on YouTube. A German company ties actual banner ads onto the legs of flies, then releases them at a convention. The banners weigh the flies down, keeping them at eye level and causing the flies to rest more often. It's brilliant! The flies draw attention just by being flies. The banners keep them periodically grounded so that the message can be read without actually handling the flies. By the looks of the convention goers, a fly with a banner tied to it leg is more pet than pest. 

Are fly banners right for your small business? Probably not. But it's a great reminder that you don't have to spend a huge sum of marketing money to get your message out. You can get generate attention. You can get people talking about you. You just need to think like a fly on the wall.