Small business owners can weigh in on a multitude of marketing strategies during this economic cycle. The key is not to allow fear to outweigh the desire to move forward. Once the decision is made to continue investing efforts toward Upscaled Marketing, the scales will tip in the right direction.

Four strategies to weigh in on despite downscaled budgets:

Social Media - Champion your time and invest in learning to navigate the social media networks. Viral is the way to go these days! The return on investment can be huge, rivaling the best word-of-mouth campaigns. Get familiar with Twitter, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Sphinn, Stumbleupon, FriendFeed, Facebook, MySpace, popurls plus more.

Newsletters - Create a "living" newsletter that sprouts new, refreshing, and varied information outside of your area of business expertise. Allow readers to become familiar with YOU, the editor. Encourage readership to appreciate your Love Affair with Life, which may encourage readers from leaving your fold.

Community Service - Volunteer to share your expertise via the myriad of community organizations and government agencies charged with supporting the small business community. Service providers are, for the most part, aligned and share marketing streams. Your contributions allow for infusion into existing marketing streams - free publicity - in other words.

Customer Service - Conduct all networking, professional, and promotion/sales activities with the utmost care. You have the opportunity to shine and remember that First Impressions are the Only Impressions in customers' eyes. Word-of-mouth marketing can flourish through proper practice and training of your frontline personnel, ensuring polished customer experiences.