Starting, owning and/or operating a start-up or small business in this day and time is challenging at best.

All around, both online and offline companies are closing their doors including giants that should be able to muddle through this "recession" or economic distress. As a small business owner, this is disturbing and scary. For someone considering starting a business, it can be downright terrifying.

Yet, more people are starting their own businesses today than ever before. Why? To me, it declares something about the human spirit. Our refusal to be held down or oppressed by conditions and situations beyond our control. We have an undeniable and unwavering need to rise above external circumstances and prove everyone "wrong".

As a small-business owner myself, I am often asked by others why I don't just, "...go to work for a big company that is more secure?"

But as we just said above, with even huge companies and firms going bankrupt and/or closing their doors, is there such thing as "security" even with a company that has10 times (or more) greater earnings than my own?

You see, they have expenses I don't have. They have overhead - sometimes MASSIVE overhead. They have rent or mortgages on big buildings, have to pay big utility and large tax bills. They have to pay unemployment tax and workman's comp, health, and dental insurance for often hundreds of people. They have MANY Executives and Chief Officers who make more in a year than I will probably make in the next 3 - 5.

This all means that they must also charge more than I can charge and they have to maintain and acquire many more customers as well. They also have to consistently ensure that ALL of their employees are helping - maintaining and increasing - things like customer service and customer loyalty...and not hurting those efforts. I simply have to make sure that myself and just a couple of others are treating you like the valued customer you are - like family. I can also respond immediately to any issues that may arise in that arena. Whether I need to give myself a swift kick in the butt or someone else who represents my company but whose desk is a good pencil-flick away from my own. Something I think some big businesses totally underestimate.

To many big companies, the customer is just a number in a ledger. Granted, there are some big companies where this is most certainly NOT the case (think www.Zappos.com; one of the BEST BIG BUSINESSES out there for treating customers well in my opinion). Thus, that is one area in which we small-business and startup business owners need to capitalize on and WOW our customers.

In the blog on www.crowdspring.com (you will see me quote them a lot because I am a faithful follower of their blog and it has some great stuff), they posted an article on June 14th called, "Saying “thank you” – why startups and small businesses should listen to mom." They say:

"...one time-proven marketing strategy that increases customer lifetime value, cements loyalty, and drives word of mouth, is simply doing what your mom tried to teach you to do always: say “thank you.” It is a truism that it costs more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, and this simple strategy goes a long way towards this."

So, how do you do this on a shoestring budget? It's not as hard as you might think.

• Send a card. If you are a small, small, business, it may be feasible to just send a regular, store-bought, "Thank You" card. Or, you can go to somewhere like Overnight Prints and use their simple designer tool to create and order cards with your own logo. If you have a little bit higher budget, using a service like Send Out Cards can be very a very cost-effective and efficient means of managing your customer appreciation.

• Create a referral or affiliate program where you give customers a gift card, coupon code, or discount when they refer a new customer. You can do this in an offline business or easily online as well. For an online business, consider starting your own affiliate program using a software tool I love called idevaffiliate.  Or let a company like Pepper Jam, Commission Junction, or Linkshare manage your referral program for you.

• Send your own logo on merchandise as a gift. Cafe Press is a great print-on-demand site that is simple to use. You can even create a free one-page "store" and upload your own images for print on a variety of merchandise from all sorts of t-shirts (including organic cotton), to mugs, to infant apparel, and even dog bowls, and calendars.

These are just examples. The key is "appreciation". And remember...because you are a smaller business, you can afford to be more personal. Think about your specific customer or customer segments and what they would find valuable.

Also, make sure to make the "gift" do double-duty. You send it to display your thanks for their business, yes. But...a few weeks after you have sent the item, this is probably also a great time to request a testimonial about your service too! Testimonials add great value to your printed materials and especially, your web site. But that is a whole different post.

The only caveat to all this gift-giving goodness is to watch your ROI. As the Crowdspring blog says:

"Make sure that the payouts you are offering are generating more than the cost. It would be silly to offer every customer a $100 gift card if the increased value of that customer were only $50. Be careful here and make sure you end up profiting on these efforts."

I guess the bottom line in my mind is remembering it's not size that matters. It's the effort and imagination you put forth that will create the memories and emotions that say, "Thanks. You mean the world to me."