One of the biggest oversights I encounter with my clients is that they don't have a marketing plan. It's a common problem among small business owners and is in fact the primary reason I developed The 10stepmarketing System.
But lately, I've received quite a few questions from small business owners regarding the difficulty they are having implementing their marketing plans. It seems that for these business owners, writing the plan is easy, but executing the plan is the challenge.
If you find yourself in this situation, here are three tips.
(1) First, make sure you have a marketing activity calendar that goes along with your marketing plan. This calendar should lay out all of your marketing activities, by month, for a 12-month period.
(2) Then, look at the activities that you feel comfortable doing yourself. Schedule those activities into your daily calendar, setting aside time to do them every day, week or month as appropriate. Treat them with the same diligence as you do servicing your clients, paying your bills and other important business tasks.
(3) Then, look at the activities you either don't know how to do yourself, or know you'll avoid because you don't enjoy that type of work. And, find someone else to do these tasks. That may mean hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA), or a writer, web designer, sales person, or any of a whole host of other marketing and sales support people.
While you may not believe you can afford to hire help, what you need to realize is that you should spend your time doing what you do best and generating revenue. And the more time you can free up to do that, the more money you'll make. In my experience, if you take the step to hire help, you always find a way to pay for it. It just isn't an issue.
Where can you find help? Ask friends or business colleagues for referrals. Post your project on Elance where service providers can bid on your project - this is a great way to find inexpensive, qualified support. Check out AssistU to find a VA. Hire a college intern. Be creative.
Once you find help, delegate those projects you don't want or know how to do. I think you'll find that your business will grow and you'll be a whole lot happier.
Have you taken the step to hire help and delegate. If so, how has it worked for you? Post a comment and share.