My target market is fairly small and well defined. Probably a couple thousand people in a small region of my country. Also I am definitely not selling a mass produced item. In fact I'll spend at least 4 hours for each customer.
But they don't all talk to each other, and I don't get to meet them in person before the sale. Also, they are unlikely to require my services more than once a year, if at all.
How would you suggest I let them know about my services?
You could say they will look me up, but they don't. In fact, they sometimes don't even know they need the service. It's only when it's too late that they realise they needed it. But it's too late.
And even if they look someone up for the service, others are paying for ads. So unless I do it too, I never show up.
So yeah, ads.