DON'T JUST WORK "IN" THE BUSINESS - WORK "ON" THE BUSINESS

Today's business manager is short on time and therefore must prioritise the most important tasks. However, many business owners and / or managers become caught up in the day to day "workings" of the business such as closing sales, invoicing, staff rosters and so on but neglect the strategic aspects of running the firm.

Many managers can be accused of being a bit short sighted when it comes to their goals for the business. Marketing is often seen as "non chargeable time" and may not be prioritised as a result. As such it's important to focus on the impact that marketing has on the business. The goal of the marketing function is to generate business / sales - after all, if nobody knows who you are / what you do, you won't have any customers!

Successfully marketing your business entails focusing on what you want the business to achieve, what type of clients you want and the way you target these clients. There are many different strategies for achieving your business targets but the question we are asking here is can you afford not to increase your firm's profile?

The answer to the above is inevitably no - you need to increase your firm's profile in order to attract new customers. Therefore business owners / managers need to devote time to working "On" the business.

If you don't already invest time and resources into marketing then it's time to build a marketing plan for your business.

The plan should include the following:

Ø  Identify your target market

Ø  Identify your goals for the next 12 months (sales targets, market share, etc)

Ø  Identify strategies for achieving these goals

Ø  Build a month by month marketing plan to enable you to successfully implement these strategies

Ø  Identify the likely cost of the above activities and set this in stone (this is your marketing budget)