Marketing Planning is too important to leave to the marketers!

I hear it all the time ‘Why do I need a marketing Plan?’ or ‘We are too small to spend time planning our marketing sure it’s only for big companies!’. Wrong: marketing planning is for companies of any size who are serious about building their business, their brand and making money.

Let’s start with talking about what is Marketing? Simply put: It is a matching process between on one side what the market needs and on the other what a company can supply or deliver (it’s capability) with the goal of delivering a profitable competitive advantage. The other way of looking at it is how can you attract potential customers to consider what you are offering and to get them to buy from you while creating some form of competitive advantage.

As Peter Drucker, the Father of business consulting said: “The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer" he also very wisely said “Marketing is not a function, it is the whole business as seen from the customer’s point of view.”

Bottom line is that without attracting customers a business will not survive. And to attract customers you need to understand the process of marketing and marketing planning along with the benefits it can and will deliver for a business.

Marketing planning should be a logical sequence of decisions and actions, helping a business develop products and services that meet the needs of a target market. The actual marketing plan is the driver of the business which will help a business grow or die! It’s objective is to turn strategy into tactics, bridging the gap between ambitions and actions.

To kick off any planning process you need to know the desired result: what exactly do you want to achieve, is the objective to launch a new product or service, generate new leads, increase sales, build brand awareness. You need to set specific and measurable goals that inevitably will be a sales number you want to achieve. Simple, well not really, many business owners start spending money without a thought on what they want to achieve so they end up with no means to measure if the marketing was a success and delivered an acceptable return on their investment (ROI).

A key fundamental to any marketing planning process is research and planning. Starting with market exploration: is there a gap in the market or put it another way: is there a market in the gap? And if so what is the market size and how much of the market are you looking for.

Who are the competitors, what are their strengths and weaknesses, what areas of the market are they not fulfilling, how will you compete against them in terms of quality, service offering, value, performance, reliability, innovation, convenience, location, price, delivery, brand, packaging, promotion, advertising and messaging.

You need to clearly define your target market. Who exactly will be buying your products or services, what are their needs and wants, how are they currently fulfilling those needs and why should they think about buying your products or services. What are their buying behaviours, interests, demographics, likes, dislikes. The research process is a time to listen and learn with the goal of making a better commercial decision leading to a more successful and profitable outcome.

How are you going to reach out to your target audience, what marketing channels are you going to use: traditional off-line advertising, trade shows, events, promotional offers or online campaigns such as Facebook advertising and social media?

By planning your marketing it will help the day to day running of the business allowing you to allocate resources and budget, focussing effort, improving products, launching new offerings, motivating your team, rewarding performance, increasing brand awareness, evolving and building your business.

How long should the marketing plan be? Well no one has the time to spend reading War and Peace! Write it so it will be read and used and not placed in the bottom drawer or on the top shelf in your office gathering dust. It should be as long or as short to be effective – why not aim to get it down on just one page – here is an link to the Get 2 Growth One Page Marketingplan site – worth checking it out.

If you are looking for help to work on your business growth or marketing strategy why not call or email me. (M: +353 87 2555263, E: howard@kentconsulting.ie)

13 Proven Social Media Marketing Tips for Small Businesses & Entrepreneurs

5 Tips for Finding the Perfect Business Idea

There are so many things to consider when you're trying to decide what kind of business to start. No matter the size of business you want to own, if you give thought to these five areas you'll be able to choose the business that's right for you.

One of the biggest challenges I had when starting my business was actually coming up with the idea. I wanted something that was scale-able as well as in demand. For years I went through hundreds of ideas before settling up my first business, in fact the idea was always there but needed three of us to come together to make it happen. Through this period, I uncovered what I believe are the five most important concepts in determining what makes the perfect business idea.

So, what is a perfect idea? Each individual entrepreneur has their concept of the perfect business. While Google is a great business for the founders of that company - it may not be a great business for others that are non-tech savvy or who do not want to run such a large organization.

Therefore, each perfect business is defined by the business owners. Keeping this in mind, let's start on the following five tips of finding the perfect business:

1.  Understanding your customer

This might seem strange to start here as how do you know your customers before you have a business idea in place. The answer is simple - your customers make the business, therefore without customers there is no business. If you have a business idea don't try to develop the idea around what YOU think potential customers will like or need, but find out what your customers actually want. Too often business owners get an idea in their head and jump right in with both feet. However, they soon find out that their target market does not want what they are offering. Spending both time and money on a project just to see it languish is not the perfect business idea.

Moreover, let's say you don't already have an idea - getting out and understand consumers (those who will eventually become your customers) may lead you to the perfect idea. Knowing what potential consumers need and building products to meets those needs will get customers beating a path to your door - that is a perfect business idea.

2. Passion

Passion here does not mean being fanatical about your product or service. But, it does mean having some interest in what you do. More times than not, you will be spending 15 to 18 hours a day working on your business in the beginning - usually for the first 12 to 18 months (more like 2 years in this economy). You have to constantly be thinking about ways to improve and grow your business as well as be out talking about it to everyone, everywhere. If you end up starting a venture that you don't have passion for, something that does not make you jump out of bed each morning, it will be very hard to put in the hours and energy to make it successful - thus not a perfect business idea.

3. Understand Your Competition

Every business has competition - either direct or indirect. Think about the cinema. They have direct competition from Net Flix, DVD rental and of course television. They also have indirect competition from any other activity that consumers spend their disposable income on like bowling, leisure activities, golf, etc. Anything that people do in their spare time.

Further, some competitors are ruthless. Meaning that if you promote and offer a product that is similar to theirs but at a lower price, these competitors will just lower their price to match or beat you. If they are already established businesses - they may be able to undercut your price enough creating a price war to drive you out of business.

If you don't know your competition - what they are willing to do to keep you out of their market - you may be spending more of your time in a pricing war then growing your business - not the perfect business idea.

4. Cash Flow

Lots of entrepreneurs enter the business world with great ideas but very poor understanding of the capital it will take to get their venture off the ground. Most will prototype their product or service and understand what it takes to make the product or provide the service but they don't understand the capital it takes to manage the rest of the organization - including marketing (big investment but vital for growth), employees (more than just salaries or wages), insurance or supplies and all the little miscellaneous expenses that add up very quickly like phone, internet, computer services, etc. Knowing your total cash flow will help ensure that all of your costs (variable and fixed) can be covered by the business - the perfect business idea. I have seen way too many businesses with great ideas fail because they could not cover simple expenses like rent or utilities.

5. You and your mindset

Know who you are or as Plato said ‘Know thyself’. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Know that you are ready, willing and able to do what it takes to make your venture a success. Many business owners think all they have to do is open the front door and hang out a sign and ‘bang’ they have it made. But, when it comes down to actually running the business day-to-day - they are unwilling to invest the time, energy or money necessary for success. The question is to know how hard you are willing to work and how much ‘skin in the game’ and not just money are you prepared to invest in YOUR business.

Moreover, know your personal financial situation and what you need the business to generate to cover your lifestyle. If you think your business will pay you a great salary from day one - it will not. And, if you need it to, it is not the perfect business idea for you. Take away outside distractions like your personal financial situation - get those in order - so when your business concept does materialize - you will be able to solely focus on its conception and growth. In the end providing you the financial security you are seeking - it will be the perfect business idea.

Regardless of the level of your desire for your business - a lifestyle mom and pop operation or a multi-national conglomerate - if you develop a business idea with these five concepts in mind - your idea will be the perfect business idea for you.

Source: https://www.businessknowhow.com/startup/findbusinessidea.htm

"Time Management: What It Is And Why It's Important"

Have you really got what it takes to run your own business

A number of years ago I bought a copy of the e-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber – I found the book and the whole concept to be a real game changer as far as my coaching business was concerned. If you have not read the book I urge you to buy a copy this weekend and make plenty of notes.

Michael Gerber says it as it is, he does not hold back with his ideas and thoughts – one of those was all around what he called the Entrepreneurial Myth where most businesses fail because they are not founded by a true Entrepreneur but by a Technician who suffered what Gerber described as an ‘Entrepreneurial moment or impulse’.

The problem is that for most the ‘Entrepreneurial Moment’ is literally just that – the business founder who is probably working for someone else comes up with an idea which turns into a business, sadly there the Entrepreneurial spirit dies. What happens to the individual is when reality hits home the dream begins to fade, in turn they lose their vision and they fall back into their comfort zone of either being a Technician or a Manager. Now there is nothing wrong with that because every business needs not only the Technician and the Manager on board but they also need the Entrepreneur. Let me explain the various roles:

• The Technician
  This person represents the present and all that needs to be done for the physical aspects of the business building process. They are the “doer”. This is usually the most visible person of the entire operation.
• The Manager
  This person represents the past and works to fix problems through learning from past mistakes. They are the practical side of the business, craves order and are in charge of putting together the business and overseeing the planning.
• The Entrepreneur
  This person represents the future and the vision for the business. They are responsible for the creative side of the business and are always considering ways to enhance products/service, improve the business image, processes, people, branding and more.

All three of these characters are essential for the success of any business and to build a solid foundation from the start. If you as the founder of the business do not possess all of these skills (and you probably won’t) you need to work harder to find the right people to put in these roles. Obviously, you need to be one of these key people, but ensure you find the role that fits your skills and talents, not necessarily what you THINK you should be doing.

As the person who started the business, this may be a hard process for you as you will need to relinquish some control over the business and instill trust in people to allow them to do their jobs. The true entrepreneur builds a business that runs itself in the hands of the successful manager.
Remember your mission from day one is to build a better business not a bigger business

What every start up needs and in fact every business needs is what Gerber describes as ‘3 people in 1’ Business Founder or a complimentary team of people, each taking responsibility for the various functions needed to run a successful business.

If you are struggling with any areas in your business why not let us help you through this entire process and teach you how to avoid falling victim to the e-Myth why not contact me: Howard@kentconsulting.ie for some friendly advice.

Why Fast Action Means Greater Success

Online marketing often times requires that fast action be taken due to the dynamic nature of the internet. In fact it can be argued that taking action very quickly will actually increase the amount of success online you experience. Although this may seem to contradict the need for being deliberate and prudent when making business decisions our discussion here will explain the benefits of quickly taking action when working online.

Better Use of Time

Instead of pondering about the 'what ifs' and maybe convincing yourself to not even bother taking action, you are going to get more definitive answers and much quicker! Speculating about how to address every 'possibility' takes time. Now your time consuming speculation is turned into 'real life' experiences from which you can learn something based upon fact and not second guessing.

Success Comes Quicker

Many opportunities are subject to trends and demands which can ebb and flow over time. By capitalizing on an opportunity early on you can take advantage of a strong demand and likely less competition as well. In doing so it only stands to reason that your success online will come quicker to you while also allowing you to profit for a longer duration.

Failure Comes Quicker

Now how wants to fail and why would failing quicker be of any benefit to you? With 'failure' also comes lessons learned! Sometimes making business decisions leads to failure but what could be even worse is if a lot f your time or resources were invested into making the decision. By taking action quickly you can determine if you should invest anymore of your efforts and if not you have learned some valuable lessons and can now move on! What you have learned can be of great value to you in the future therefore all was not lost!

When working online it is often very advantageous to take fast action when making business decisions. The internet is a constant whirlwind of change which calls for the need of taking action very quickly if entrepreneurs expect to experience any degree of success online. As reckless as this may seem there are some obvious benefits, as discussed above, that come with being decisive and fast acting. Working online is not like a casual stroll through the park being the environment is very dynamic and the competition is plentiful. On the other hand opportunities are boundless for those not afraid of making business decisions followed up with quick and decisive actions. If this sounds like you than very likely success online will be yours!

http://www.articlebiz.com/article/1051401712-1-why-fast-action-means-greater-success/

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