I worked with my printer, my wife helped design the card, the printer helped put the design on paper. Don't invest in advertising if you can help it. You are starting part-time. Word of mouth is the BEST advertising you can have. It may take two or more years to grow enough that you can go full time. You might want to try joining your local Chamber of Commerce. If they have a website, you might get to put your info online and see if you can put some business cards in their office.
I get a lot of customers that want to hire local. I don't have a web site, I'm not on facebook, I don't even have a listing in the phone book. I just got a new customer last week. She is legally blind, so she called 411, asked for a local company, and the operator gave her my number. She lives 15 miles away, and there is another company, based in her town, that wasn't even considered. They do mostly commercial work and I don't think they are on the internet at all.
I've been in business for ten years now. I tried Yellow pages, I got two jobs in three years, I tried the local shopper paper and again about covered my costs for the year. Membership in the Chamber costs $165 a year. I am listed in their directory, which goes to every new resident and I'm the only company in my category on their web page. When you search Pest Control, North Branch, MN, I am at the top of the page. Orkin, Terminex and some other national names may have sponsored links, but the people that want local look past them.
Hope these tips help you out. You can go broke advertising if you don't know how to do it. You might get swamped with more business than you can handle if you do it right. Start small and see how it goes. Good service and word of mouth plus time will make you successful. Once you get some experience and make some money then you can look at adding a website or some other kind of advertising.
This is just my opinion. Lets see what others can tell you.
