Advertising costs

There are two expense issues here: 1) The cost of what 's called the creative piece, which is the actual ad itself; and 2) The expense of getting your creative in front of prospective customers, or the media in which your ad will appear.

The cost of developing advertising creative pieces depends on how elaborate they are. If you can live with the basics, often the distribution outlet -- radio station, newspaper, TV station, etc. -- will include developing the creative for you. During these conversations, you'll also be given the cost for the actual ad placement.

If you want to more than the media outlet is capable of delivering, contact several advertising agencies and ask them to help you with this process, including development of the creative and the ad placement.

With either, be prepared to talk about your advertising budget and whom you consider to be your target audience.