Follow these six strategies if you hope to fly high during this rough economy.

1. Begin an email newsletter

Maintaining an e-mail newsletter keeps your business at the top of your customer’s minds. This cost-effective strategy has the potential to increase sales by nearly 50 percent. The amount of time you invest into sustaining a relevant, appealing, and informative newsletter will financially benefit you. The most important section of your newsletter is providing customers a call to action so that they keep their eye on you.

Last Friday I attended an after-work mixer for small business owners. While making my rounds, the president of a local company expressed concern to me about spending money on his website in this slow economy. He was unsure as to whether improving or maintaining the website would lead to more customers for his service-oriented business. (I was happy to give my advice, despite the fact that this particular small business owner was a competitor’s client).