It's understandable too because entrepreneurs devote most of their startup energy to designing innovative products and services. While most don't believe that their idea will "just sell itself," not enough attention is ever paid to the tedious details of securing enough paying customers to cover monthly operating costs.

In last week's column I addressed the inclination of ambitious entrepreneurs to get ahead of themselves and hire big name, big budget advertising advisors. These firms are not usually accustomed to serving customers who could easily go out of business if the first few marketing campaigns fail to attract customers. While the ad firm might lose a customer, the entrepreneur loses a business.

Remember the dot.com hype? Well, I believe part of the feeding frenzy was created by ad firms that were more than happy to spend an unconscionably high proportion of a startup's working capital on unproven media campaigns.

So, how can a local reader who is starting up a trendy retail store create enough customer traffic to qualify for a venture capital-backed national rollout? What types of advisors can help him achieve his goals?

Clearly this reader has to demonstrate local success before moving on to bigger challenges. For ideas on how to search for first customers using search marketing tactics, I called direct marketing expert and President of SearchWrite, Larry Sivitz.

Sivitz confirmed that local search technologies have become more advanced and cost-effective for small business owners who serve local communities. "Google, Yahoo and many other sites have new tools in place for local retailers to generate new customer momentum. It's worth it for business owners to spend some time learning about each search engine's resources because they keep getting better everyday."

Here are a few SearchWrite recommendations for improving local marketing results:

• Optimize web sites for local search engine visibility by including address information on a web site's "title tag" to help search engines pick up retail store information.
• Register company profile information with Google, Yahoo!, Superpages, Local.com, InsidePages, TrueLocal and Judy's Book.com, among others.
• Conduct several small tests of pay-per-click advertising at sites that can narrow the campaign territory by zip code. Compare results and keep track of this information to determine a company's estimated "cost of customer acquisition." [Note: Venture capitalists are impressed when a CEO knows this useful measure of business performance]
• Pay attention to customer ranking services offered by Judy's Book and Yahoo! Businesses with customer comments will rank higher in search results than businesses without any customer feedback information.
• Upgrade the content quality of a web site's primary "landing" pages. Google has adjusted its scoring system to favor more relevant content over lower content quality index sites. Updating web site content frequently also increases Google search results.

Sivitz acknowledges that the average business owner doesn't have the time every week to test and tweak search advertising campaigns. For this reason, marketing firms like SearchWrite are introducing new time-saving advisory packages to help business owners keep pace with Internet advertising trends in an affordable way.

Finding first customers usually requires startup entrepreneurs to find great advisors. Interview at least three candidates before making budget commitments. Compare services, fees and each firm's experience serving clients who have similar needs. If a search optimization firm is not certified by, at a minimum, Google and Yahoo, then assume the firm is not going to be your most knowledgeable, professional resource.

Keep your money until you find the best. You can do it!