Not to mention balancing family life. I know you can relate…

We often times get stuck in the “What Should Be” vs. “What Is” mode. We start looking at things through rose colored glasses, especially when it comes to our marketing efforts.

Many small businesses stop measuring and just sit back and assume that leads will pour in. Sound familiar? You launch a one off promotional effort, then wonder why the heck you aren’t getting any leads. The copy was killer, the graphics were spectacular, and still little or nothing in return.

When you start looking at “What Is” you start doing things like measuring your results. You look at how each marketing dollar is returning value to your bottom line. You stop “wishing” that leads would come in, and you start actively getting on with testing, tweaking, and seeing results. You stop doing one time promotional efforts, and you build a marketing plan and marketing system.

Marketing is a contact sport. You have prospects that you have to move into motion and take action from a dead stop most times. You need to capture their interest, create desire, and then get them off their a@@ to take the next step with your product our service.

I’m gonna bet that you are spending time or money in areas that are promotional that you aren’t getting any results from. You keep “wishing” (there’s that word again) that some day that ad will yield results. Again, What Should be vs. What Is.

I am as optimistic as you, and quite honestly don’t enjoy what is all the time. But quite frankly there really isn’t a choice. “Should” isn’t going to help you reach your dreams and your goals in your business.

Now…

Go Target, Attack, and Profit.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLN2k0b3g70

Of course you do. You are a technician, professional service provider, or maybe a retailer right?

BZZZZZZ…Wrong Answer!

You are in the marketing business. The reality is that we are all in the same business. Our job is to get prospects and suspects to know, like, and trust us. Regardless of what service we provide, or product we sell we are all in this together. Without that, you don’t have a business.

Often, small business owners ask me if I provide marketing coaching to their specific type of business. My answer, “Yes, I provide coaching to your business because you and I are in the same business”. If you are familiar with Pareto’s law (or otherwise known as the 80/20 rule) you understand that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort, your clients, you name it…

Here’s the problem…

Many businesses forget that they are a marketing business so they go on spending 80% of their time DOING their thing and not marketing their business. No strategy, no plan, no time spent investing in marketing knowledge, diving into tactics without a strategy, and approaching each event as a one shot pony PR event.

The result…

Lack of leads, lack of revenue, and never truly achieving their dreams with their small business. It all starts with realizing you are running a marketing business. Sure your target, niche and message is different but the fundamentals are the same.

If you really want to reach your goals in 2010, stop right now and think about how that one simple shift in mindset from doing your THING to building a marketing company will explode your growth this year.

Remember, what you focus on will expand.

Go Target, Attack, and Profit!

Are you going to GO BIG this year? Are you going to stretch yourself and see what you can really accomplish? Or..are you going to hunker down in your bunker and wait for the storm to blow over? Hopefully the former, and not the latter…

Here’s the deal…As a small business owner and operator you have a huge advantage over the larger businesses in many ways. You can react quickly to change, create transparent relationships with you and your company and not just a brand. People like this, and so do your prospects. The marketing tools online have level set the playing field for the little guy, but you have to big, and think bigger than you are currently.

You have the entire globe at your fingertips. They are looking for products and services from businesses regardless of location. The world is flat, and getting flatter by the day…

THINK BIG, think about how your can morph your product or service and reach businesses outside your local area. Transform your business, start providing valuable information about your trade or skill. Open up opportunities for your business and listen to your prospects.

Hopefully your marketing strategy for 2010 includes GOING BIG! If not, tear it up and think bigger, have some fun and challenge the boundaries of what your brain tells you is possible.

And more importantly, quit listening to the bad news, fear mongering, and BS on the TV and focus on what you are going to get done in this new economy.

Now…

Go Target, Attack, And Profit!

One of my favorite thoughts was that our income is directly porportionate to the amount of VALUE we provide others. For those of us marketing our small businesses on a daily basis, this is one to live by.

God Speed Jim!

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

Pity the man who inherits a million dollars and who isn’t a millionaire. Here’s what would be pitiful: If your income grew and you didn’t.

The key factor that will determine your financial future is not the economy; the key factor is your philosophy.