Set Goals

I don’t know how many times I’ve read or heard the phrase “set goals for yourself”.  Most people shrug it off, but if you are going to run a business you can’t afford to.  One of the most important things you will do is set goals for your business.  Start simple, goal number one should be your start date.  Sounds easy and it may be, but keep setting goals and they will get harder and harder to reach, the satisfaction and profits will be well worth the effort.

 A System

One major thing small business owners forget to do or get so busy they forget they did it, is implement a system.  Many small business owners, even big business owners don’t have a business or accounting degree.  What they have is determination and that’s great, but if that determination doesn’t have a goal or a road to follow on the pursuit of that goal, then it’s wasted.  Get a system in place, stick to it and keep track of what you’ve accomplished.  If you’ve set the goals this is the map of how to reach them.

 Partner with a non-profit

Locate a local non profit in your area, for example find your local Breast Cancer awareness group and ask what kind of events they have going on in your area.  Depending on your business you could increase sales by offering up a pledge for certain items sold, this not only raises money for the cause it also gets more people through the door.  It’s never a bad thing to be socially conscious or donate to a cause.

 Press Releases

Send a press release to your local newspaper about special events, business news or anything exciting you have planned.  Starting with a grand opening or even a re-grand opening, don’t stop there, keep going with employees of the month, anniversaries, sales or new products.  Your community won’t know what you’re up to unless you tell them.

Website

The internet has put small businesses on the map, saved many from ruin and it can help you too.  Create a dynamic and informative website, put your products online, hit the free advertising sites and springboard into the world wide web.  Get on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and the dozens more networking sites out there.  With the potential to reach millions versus hundreds, creating a website is a no-brainer.

If you start an advertising campaign you may start by putting an ad in the newspaper or on the radio.  You may even have a budget big enough to afford a commercial or billboard.  While these are great strategies, they only work if you are targeting the right people.  The average person may not be interested in the fact that you offer copywriting services to the technology sector, rather you would have more success from a marketing strategy rather than an advertising campaign. On the other hand, are you a dog groomer in a small area that has no other dog groomer, then these traditional methods would make more sense.  Just make sure before you jump into a “big expense” advertising campaign that you look at your key demographic not the frills and want to be in the spotlight.

Let’s go back to the copywriting scenario for a moment.  A marketing campaign would be ideal for this type of business.  You could create a better more “targeted” campaign that is also easy to follow up on and track its progress.  Go to your trade magazine or yellow pages and think about what type of companies could benefit from your services.  Now from that targeted list send out your marketing materials such as postcards, emails, or faxes.  Quickly track your responses and change what may not be working in your campaign before you continue.  You can also taper the campaign; say sending out 15 postcards at a time instead of 100, saving you both time and money.    

Getting a business up and running and keeping it running is a gigantic task and expensive to boot so make sure that you research the best ways to get your name out there for your business to make sure that you get the best bang for your buck. You don’t have to go it alone, have a virtual assistant help with the marketing plan and getting everything set up, you will see return on your investment!