I have a small wedding business based out of my home. As a wedding professional I have been invited to attend wedding trade shows. As a small business I have found that they are wayyyyy too expensive!! I have partnered with another wedding-related small business to create a small business Bridal Show.

So far the people I have talked with are very interested seeing as we are all small businesses and trying to make our advertising dollar go as far as possible. The problem I am running into is locating these small businesses. Short of driving around all the small towns in the area and looking for them (which doesn't make sense at the price of gas!) I cannot figure out how to locate them. Alot of businesses are based out of there home as well, so driving wouldn't do much good to find them.

If anyone has any ideas or knows of small businesses in the Dayton/Troy Ohio area I would be most greatful for the help.

Thanks in advance!

Susan
Waymire Wedding Creations

Hi Susan,

I'm assuming the business you are targetting are wedding related???? Start with your local yellow pages. Most have a section that is specifically for wedding related services. Ring up whatever you can find in this section and you may be pleasantly surprised at what referrals you gain.

For example, a wedding gown boutique may have connections with a company that specialise in wedding favours, jewellery, hair and makeup, invites, car hirage, marriage celebrants, caterers or general bridal party gown hirage. Word of mouth can be a very powerful tool so make a few calls and see what info you can garner.

Google wedding services in your area and wider community. Call your local Chamber of Commerce. They could possibly put you in touch with other businesses.

Good luck with your search.






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You may just want to post ads on places like this and craigslist.com or craftersbuzz.com to see if you can get referrals. I imagine there are probably wedding forums as well right? Post on those.

You could also do a search on google for people who have websites.