I’m not good with strangers.
Your real problem is you don’t understand the nature of marketing: it doesn’t necessarily require you to become a media personality or to personally interact with others. While you and your business are closely related, they aren’t identical. It’s possible, and quite often sound practice, to market the business rather than marketing yourself. Even a personal service business can be promoted without turning the principal into a media personality. That being said, if you’re in a business that deals with the public and you’re uncomfortable with strangers you’re going to have lots of problems. No matter how big your family or how large your circle of friends, at some points you’re going to need to reach beyond your immediate circle to get customers and clients.
I’ll look pushy (or) It’s unsophisticated.
You’re viewing this problem emotionally rather than rationally. Marketing consists of far more than “hard sell” advertising. Much of what you can do to promote yourself will give you an even more refined image in a very subtle way. You could simply wear better suits, or buy better stationery. You could publish an article in a peer-reviewed professional journal. Sponsoring a program on your local public television or radio station, or donating to a local theater or concert group can give you a cultured image in an eminently tasteful manner.
I won’t have the time.
Your real problem is you don’t understand the nature of marketing: it’s not something you do when you have the time, it’s an essential element of your business and should be a fixed part of your schedule.
If you spend all your time “doing” work, and none “getting” work, you’ll soon run out of work to do. You need to realize that if you want to succeed, “getting” work must be as much a part of your work as anything else. If you don’t spend a regular portion of your schedule on marketing you’ll eventually be forced to throw yourself into a full-time marketing program. If you don’t integrate marketing into your daily or weekly business life, then you’ll find your business, and income, running in fits and starts.
What if I get more work than I can handle?
You’re putting a roadblock in your own path to success. Having more work than you can handle, or selling more products than you yourself can produce, simply means you need to either farm out work or production.
You’re viewing this problem emotionally rather than rationally. Having launched a small business, perhaps just a one-person operation, you’re afraid of getting any larger. The fact is that your business’s share of a market can either grow or it can shrink, it cannot just stay the same. That would be like playing a game not to lose. Either you can continually reach out for a larger share of your existing market, and expand your operation to match it, or you can charge more and try to get a larger share of a smaller, but more profitable, market. The moment you stop trying to get more business, you’ll run yourself out of business.