The biggest problem I see with small business lead generation is the budget of both time and money.
When you are first starting out, the number one rule is not to put all your faith in one marketing technique unless you have your own, independent proof that it is a highly effective small business lead generation technique.
Small Business Start Ups tend to be new to business and they believe that marketing will work on the first try.
For example, you may have $5,000 of start up money and decide to do a direct mailing – figuring if only 5% of those people buy your product, you are doing great.
But remember, it is possible that no one will respond to your mailing. And unless you have a honed sales process, closing the few leads you generate is still going to be difficult. So now if that small business lead generation budget was all you had, you are in trouble.
Before you pick a tactic for your lead generation, design a lead generation strategy. What communication avenues are your prospects using most? Is it yellow pages? The web? Direct Mail?
Then go do research on how to get the most out of the small business lead generation tactics in those mediums.
Then, do small tests and trials to see how it works.
But do not give up after one trial.
The reason is that your skill at doing these things will improve over time, and most marketing efforts take repeat exposure to work well. The web does not take repeat exposure as often because it can draw a hot lead to you at the time that they are ready to buy. However, the competition is often fierce and it takes a long while and a lot of effort to build a really good lead generation website.