Running a business, even a lifestyle business, without an up-to-date and written Marketing Plan is like driving your car with no destination in mind and no directions.

You just wouldn’t do it – would you? Well, 8 out of 10 of you are doing just that.

So, how’s that working for you then? If you are one of the 8 then chances are you are going round in round in circles, burning fuel and getting nowhere fast.

Your Marketing Plan starts with your destination…..how many Clients do you want (can you manage), when do you want them and how much time and money are you prepared to spend to acquire them.

Clearly define who is in the market for what you do and where do you find them.

Scrub up your Value Proposition (why would potential Clients do business with you rather than your competition)

Then, and only then, move onto to how are you going to broadcast your message to your chosen market.

Rocket science? Hardly!

So, get off the roundabout and start heading somewhere – get yourself a Marketing Plan!

So to start us off I’m asking the question: to outsource or not to outsource?

If you woke up tomorrow morning with toothache, what would you do? Have a swig of whisky and grab your pliers from your toolbox and have a go at pulling it out yourself? Probably not! Isn’t it more likely you’d call a dentist?

If your TV started playing up, would you take the back off and fiddle around inside with a screwdriver? Probably not, more likely you’d call the TV repair man!

So, if your marketing isn’t working and you don’t have enough sales leads why are you choosing to ‘fiddle around with it’ yourself when you could get a professional in to fix it right away?

You show me a successful business and I’ll show you a business owner that planned for it.

Bigger companies are bigger because they planned to be.

So, if you want to be bigger do what the big boys do – get a plan!