[doula and mom]

I had a booth at a Women's Expo a few months ago and got... zero clients from that. I had a beautiful table with a lot of info on pregnancy and gave out emery boards with all my info on it. I do get a lot of hits and visit on my site but no clients. I've also been on the cover of the health section in our local newspaper, attended a birth prep class, go to LLL regularly, and advertise in the local Marine Base newspaper every other week.

And NO clients.

Anyway, this is an expo for local businesses in our small town, and I think the people who attend are my clientele. I'd like to do it, but it's $175 and I've put out a lot of money with very little in return. Plus, I'm a little demoralized by the entire situation. I live in a VERY small town and I'm the only doula here.

What do you all think?

 

[BirthFree]

Well I don't know what you charge but I try to think of it this way... if I spend $____ in expenses and time, if I get __ clients, it will pay for it. Usually for me the number of clients I need to cover my expenses and time is one or maybe two. So much of our exposure where I live is mouth to mouth that advertising is the first step even if nothing shows up for a while. I just had a client referred to me this week from a birth I did a year ago. So sometimes turn around depends.

Try not to take it pesonally... if few people know what a doula is or what kind of difference they can make it will take longer to get clients. Once the word gets out it just goes from there. I don't find a lot of return from the booths I've done, but I HAVE found that it educates, so I try to spend the time and money with that in mind. The less we get, "What's a doula?" because people *know* what they are, the better. It's the first step.

But only you can say if the expense and time would be worth it for you.

 

[Rockies5]

Babies R Us offers the same benefits, and it's FREE. Try that for a few months. They do it the second weekend of EACH month.

I was having a hard time too (things are still slower then I am satisfied with), took a short break, went over my approach, costs, time invested and how to get interest and had fun and got a few clients at the last one.

 

[doula and mom]

We don't have BRU. We are a SMALL town. I think I'm going to do it. I played Bingo tonight and won $30. Woo hoo. But it's something.

ETA: I'm also going over my approach, and for this town, where nobody knows what a doula is/does, I'm trying to be REALLY concrete when I explain what I do, with examples.