Your greatest potential for sales is to your local market.
Even though people use the Internet to find products and compare prices, their preference is to buy offline. And when they buy offline they buy locally.

If you are just starting your business, start up locally. And even if you have a web site now, you can improve your sales by going local and focusing your advertisements on local customers.

Studies show that at least two-thirds of the people do the research online and by offline.

There's no doubt that many sales are made on eBay, through Amazon and through many other large web sites. But there are more made through local shops and local home businesses and trade shows. There are many reasons behind this. One, of course, is the fear of Internet fraud. And the lack of delivery of products.

But above all, people want personal service and they want to see first hand what they are buying. Recognizing the benefits of dealing locally, internet companies are stressing the importance of local purchases.

The popular craigslist advertising service specifically admonishes people to buy locally. This is what craigslist posts on every advertisement. Please you may add to this post if you have any other ideas of starting a small business online/offline.

http://www.chamberofcommerce.pl/business_information/sales-are-local.html