If you operate a home-based business, there are more demands on your time than time to go around. But there's one business activity you can't afford to defer if you want to stay in business: That activity is "marketing". For any small business, marketing has many facets, and it's a more complex proposition than just selling what you're already offering customers.

Marketing is the set of activities that attracts customers to your product. In a home-based business, that's not going to be signs in front of your house and a parade of customers coming through your doors every day. The challenge is to adapt sound marketing techniques to your business's unique circumstances and offerings. And that takes time.

Here are six tips for making time for marketing:

1. Convince yourself that marketing is worth the time. When you don't think a task will contribute to your bottom line, it's easy to go on to the next item on your to-do list. If marketing is outside your so-called comfort zone, examine why you feel that way.

2. Have a marketing plan. Invariably, a good plan is at the heart of personal productivity. Examine your business goals and determine how marketing can help fulfill them. As a new business owner, you may need a crash course in marketing. If so, that becomes part of your plan.

3. Be open to new ideas. How are competing businesses getting noticed by customers? If they're using techniques or media you never considered, take time to study and learn about new approaches. Experiment with marketing ideas that are low cost and low risk.

4. Dedicate the time. By reserving the time, you're less likely to procrastinate. Once you're committed to marketing, block out time for it just as you would any other important task. Whether the task is market research or cold calling, know what you want to accomplish in that period of time, and anticipate the distractions that are most likely to interfere.

5. Stay connected. Take time to be at meetings and other gatherings of your professional and community groups. Yes, this presence takes time away from other business activities, but it keeps you in front of prospective customers and creates opportunities for you to sell yourself as well as your business. A home-based business is especially likely to benefit from this exposure.

6. Celebrate your marketing successes. Pay attention to when your marketing pays off. You'll discover that as effective marketing leads to better exposure and more sales, it becomes easier to justify the time you spend to promote your services.

"Work smarter, not harder" is an expression that applies to marketing as well as other facets of entrepreneurship. Make time for marketing, use that time wisely, and you'll hone your competitive edge.