If you're running a small business in a competitive market, then you need to take every opportunity to promote your enterprise, to give it an edge over your rivals. After all, if a new prospective customer is faced with a large number of companies offering similar goods or services, there must be something that draws them specifically to your company - even if your product is of a higher quality than your competitors', or if your customer service is ahead of the game, consumers still need to be attracted to your business for the first time.

An attractive visual appeal can make a huge difference, whether online, in traditional advertising, or within a physical high street presence. However, this can prove to be very expensive - it's not for nothing that there are so many marketing agencies out there. Creating advertising on commission can be a very profitable industry. But how do you create the visual impression that you need without handing over large amounts of your hard-earned cash to marketing men?

You can do it, quite simply, with two things - a digital camera (not necessarily a very expensive one), and Adobe Photoshop.

We'll imagine, for it makes as good an example as any, that you run an independent toy shop. You want to make an advert, to be displayed in the local press and online. You need an advert that shows the deals you have on some of your most appealing toys; this will have to be clear, simple, and bright. You're selling products that are aimed squarely at children, so you it must be colourful and fun.

To start off with, you take a camera, and get a few photos of the toys you want to be featured - and from these simple beginnings, Photoshop can help you come up with the ad that you want. There are some basic steps that can enable you to reach this end, although a short training course can help you take the most advantage of the opportunities Photoshop offers.

Firstly, you'll need to lose everything other than the toy that's found its way into your picture; furniture, background, shadows, other toys - whatever may have been in the vicinity of the toy you photographed. Photoshop comes with a range of eraser tools to help you get rid of what you don't want, including a 'magic eraser' that can only remove items of one colour whilst preserving other objects unharmed.

Once you've isolated the toy itself within the picture, there's a whole lot else that Photoshop can do for you. Colours can be easily brightened or dulled, or changed completely, to make your product stand out more (and bright colours are always a sound choice for a toy shop); similarly, the colours or contrast can be dampened down in any background you've left attached to the image, so as to give your product an even more eye-catching position. You can also easily blur any part of the picture to draw the eye better, or give your products a bright light to shine on them.

Also, if you find a way of processing your pictures that fits the bill, it can be saved as an 'action' - this is a series of effects that the software can put on to your image, in sequence, and at the touch of a button. What's more, if you need new ideas, countless actions are freely available online, allowing you to get every more impressive results from your work without wasting more time or money.

The tools and tricks with which Photoshop can improve your pictures are almost limitless - and can be used with ease. After all, it's designed to be used by ordinary computer users, not just experts and boffins. Once you are familiar with the software, you'll see a huge improvement in the attractiveness and effectiveness of your advertising, and all with little expense and in a short amount of time. Why waste valuable funds on contracting out this work, when you can do so much yourself?