Can Bad Marketing Make You Fat?
March 22, 2011
OK, so bad marketing can’t really make you fat. BUT it can cause your business to be out of shape, inefficient, sluggish, and unhealthy.
Leading a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. If eating right and exercising were easy we’d all be svelte, fit, slenderellas. But the fact is we’re not. For many of us choosing healthier alternatives is a learned behavior and it takes practice, dedication, and commitment. It means saying “no” to the convenience of Big Macs, Little Debbies, and elevators and “yes” to fish, broccoli and the stairs. In short, it means changing old habits, and doing what is right instead of what’s easy and focusing on the bigger picture instead of immediate gratification.
A Healthy Body and a Healthy Business
The same is true of building a successful business: in order for our businesses to be the best they can be we need to take care of them. But many business owners get bogged down in old habits, convenience, lack of education, and a real understanding of what it takes to effectively and efficiently get customers in their doors. Like our bodies, we have to give our businesses the proper nutrients and exercise if they are to be strong and healthy. The marketing “nutrients” a business needs are: planning, strategy, continuous education and research. And the “exercise” is the execution of the proper tactics = doing the right stuff, not just thinking about doing the right stuff. So, I’ve made a list of 4 practices for marketing a successful business.
4 Diet Strategies We Can Apply To Create Strong, Healthy And Sustainable Businesses:
1. It takes planning – If I don’t plan what I’m going to eat, when I get hungry I’ll grab whatever is convenient – whether it’s good for me or not – simply because it bears a small semblance to actual food. This is exactly what many small business owners do: without a plan they latch on to any marketing or advertising idea that comes along because it bears a semblance to “marketing” or promises to satiate a need for more customers. Buy buying the wrong advertising to get more business is just like grabbing that chocolate cupcake to nourish your body; you’re just consuming empty calories to stop the gnawing hunger pains, losing sight of the bigger picture, and hoping for impossible results.
2. It takes imagination – Broccoli and chicken breast get old fast. If I had to live on that for the rest of my life, I’d have thrown in the towel long ago. In order to be a success with a new food strategy, I need to get creative and try out some new flavors, new spices, and new recipes. The same is true with your marketing. Don’t get bland! Don’t copy what your competitors are doing. Take some risks; try some new combinations, new words, new packages, and new offerings. Spice it up!
3. It takes discipline – Does one day of eating well and exercise get you to your ideal weight or optimal health? NO! Well one ad, one direct mail campaign, or one promotion isn’t going to get your business where you want it to go either… You need to make a commitment to the process. If you don’t have the discipline to stay focused on the big picture you’ll be tempted to fall back into old habits; purchasing those 1000-callorie marketing cupcakes that do nothing but send you on a sugar roller coaster!
4. It takes time to see results – we don’t get overweight and/or unhealthy overnight and we don’t get healthy overnight. We also don’t build businesses overnight. Building a brand, credibility, and trust takes time. Don’t give up too early…don’t get desperate and grab that 1000 calorie marketing cupcake = an expensive ad or campaign you know deep down isn’t right for you but fills a momentary need for instant gratification…
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!! Leave your comments here.
By the way – if you like this post, I would REALLY appreciate your ReTweet! Thank you!!!! 
Are You an Entrepreneur or an Underpaid & Overworked Employee of Your Own Business?
January 17, 2011
I think there comes a time in our careers as business owners/entrepreneurs/self employed folks that we have to ask ourselves – “what do I really want out of this?”
Do I simply want to go to a job every day? A job that’s all mine, where I make the rules, the hours (or I delude myself into thinking I do), and I don’t have to answer 
to anyone but myself? The problem with this is that this job becomes totally reliant upon me being there, doing the work. There are no sick days. There are no paid vacations. This job ends up being the lowest paid job I’ve ever had because of the sheer number of hours I put in. This job, instead of freeing me, ends up enslaving me. And I become an employee of my own business – not a business owner.
Or do I want to be a REAL business owner/ entrepreneur? The type of entrepreneur we envision when we think of the word – the guy on the golf course on a Wednesday afternoon, the woman relaxing on the beach in Hawaii. Both content and secure in the fact that their companies, their staff, and investments are working on their behalf, even if they aren’t there to doing the work themselves. These happy business owners in our fantasies are living the dream; their business is working for them – not they for their business.
Unfortunately, most business owners I meet end up being in the first category. I don’t know if that’s what they wanted all along – or (most likely) – they just kind of got stuck along the way and don’t know how to get out.
I read that over 400,000 businesses in the U.S. fail each year (Source: “E-myth Revisited”) because owners just don’t know how to take their businesses from infancy to maturity. When it starts to grow and things get too uncomfortable, they either give up or fail.
I don’t give up and I certainly don’t want to fail.
So, then, what does that mean for those of us who work endless hours in our businesses? Well, that means we have to take risks. We have to take that leap and hire someone when the volume of work gets too overwhelming; even if we feel we aren’t quite ready for the responsibility of employees and payroll. That means we have to make the capital investment when we need to expand or buy more equipment to get the job done. That means we need to put our necks out there – we need to move out of our comfort zones!!!
That means we have to take ourselves OUT of the tactics of running our businesses and into the strategy of growing our businesses.
That means we have to stop doing and start thinking.
In the “E-Myth Revisited” Michael Gerber writes, “The work of the Entrepreneur is to wonder, to imagine, to dream…”
That means if we want to be true entrepreneurs and not just underpaid, overworked, and unsatisfied employees in our own businesses, we have to constantly be thinking about ways to improve and tweak and progress our business and our processes. How can we make something different and special? How do we become in our industries what Starbucks is to coffee or what McDonalds is to fast food? As business owners/entrepreneurs THIS is where our focus needs to be if we don’t just want to be slaves to our businesses.
According to Gerber, our jobs as entrepreneurs (if that’s what you really want to be) is “to educate {ourselves} sufficiently so that, as {our} business grows, the business’s foundation and structure can handle the weight.”
So, what do you want to be – an entrepreneur or a slave? And if it’s the former, what are you doing to learn and prepare for that? I’d love to hear from you!
By the way – if you like this post, I would REALLY appreciate your ReTweet! Thank you!!!!
Leave your comments here.
5 New Years Resolutions for Small Business Owners
January 5, 2011
How was your 2010? If you’re like most people I know, it wasn’t exactly a banner year. to put it politely. So, what are you doing to make 2011 better? Have you reviewed, analyzed and tweaked your business or marketing plan? Have you committed to a new strategy?
If you don’t know where to start, here is a great article written by my friend and colleague, Kelly Weppler, Principal and Owner of WH & Associates called “5 Simple Marketing Resolutions“.
Now’s the time to make plans or resolutions for the New Year. Have you put down any plans or goals on paper—for you personally or for your professionally? Writing them down and making them tangible is the first step. Here is a list of 5 key marketing resolutions that you may want to think about as we move into the New Year.
1. Build a routine to market your business. Think of marketing as a system and build a routine to help yourself create some consistency in marketing your business. All too often small business owners look at marketing as a ne event rather than something they are doing on an on-going basis. Schedule regular appointments on your calendar to ensure that you’re working on marketing your business. And be sure not to cancel them–you wouldn’t cancel an appointment with a potential client, so why are cancelling an appointment to work on marketing your business?
2. Get better educated about what’s being said about you online. Create Google alerts to keep on top of what’s being communicated about you, your products and your business online. This is becoming more and more important to address any potential negative comments that might have been made. I also encourage my clients to create Google alerts on their competitors, the experts in their industry and some general terms that people looking for search on.
3. Create a marketing calendar. Think about a theme for each month or quarter of the year and then you do something surrounding that theme. No doubt this will help you better plan the year out and you’ll know exactly what you need to do ahead of time. Then your monthly newsletter will follow the theme and you’ll spend less time worrying about what kind of content you need to come up with.
4. Let your existing customers know you appreciate them. Send them an email, give them a call, just make a point of contacting them and thanking them for their business.
5. Send out 5 handwritten notes each month. This is a simple task that more often than not rekindles a business relationship with a past client and results in additional business or the past client referring you to someone else.
Just pick one of the above and implement and execute. Number 4 is very simple and anyone can implement this with a minimal amount of time and an extremely limited budget. Just doing this one thing and being consistent is what counts and produces results.
*Posted with permission by Kelly Weppler of WH & Associates to view the blog in its entirety, click here.
What New Years resolutions have you made for your small business??? Tell us!
Leave your comments here.
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+Carolyn Higgins, President of Fortune Marketing Company
- Carolyn Higgins, President of Fortune Marketing Company specializes in helping small to medium sized businesses get the customers they need to sell more, increase profits and achieve all of their business and personal goals. We do this by implementing and managing marketing systems based on data and strategy - there is no guess work. For more information visit us at: FortuneMarketingCompany.com. We'd be glad to help!
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