Over 70% of small businesses fail in their first few years.  This is because of a fundamental lack of understanding [ on the part of the business owners ] of how a business should be run.
These core concepts are essential for small business success:

1. Vision

You must have a clear goal. What is your business going to ultimately look like? Think big and bold. Where will you be based? What is your business model? How much do your want to be paid? How much day-to-day involvement do you want? How many employees will you have?

Write down you answers.

2. Strategy

Now you’ve got your goals. The next part is to take a frank and honest look at where you are now. If you’re just
starting…it’s fairly easy to work out. If you’ve been in business a while, it may take a little time to make a brutally
honest appraisal.

This will give you your direction for your successful small business.

Given where you are now, decide how you’re going to get to where you want to be.

Have intermediate goals. Time Lines. Determine what will constitute successfully reaching your goals.

3. Plan out your strategy

Create a detailed blueprint of how step-by-step you will achieve you goals.
Critical details to include:

Marketing

What front end products will your use to attract new customers?
How will you convert them into customers?
What are the exact steps to your marketing funnel?

Fulfillment

Product development, research, and reporting.
Product delivery.

Operations

Customer Service.
Finances…reporting and cash flow.
Systems creation.
Human resources.

4. Mindset

Every business will have problems and crises. To deal with these requires determination for small business success…never give up.

It is important to have an eye for detail. Little mistakes compound themselves. Have great systems in place so that your employees simply follow your systems.

A curiosity and hunger for knowledge is essential. Always be on the lookout to see what successful companies are doing in other industries…adapt it to your own.
Constantly strive to improve your skills and business know-how.

5. The role of the successful small business owner

Provide the vision and the direction for your business. Then measure the performance. What are you doing right? What needs to be improved? Seek to make constant improvement in all that your business does…but none more so that in your metrics.

You must know the answer to the following questions or it is only a matter of time before disaster strikes.

How much does it cost you to acquire a new customer?
What is the average lifetime value of one of your customers?

These two questions tell you how much you can spend to get a new customer. All things being equal…whoever can spend the most to acquire a new customer becomes dominant in their niche/market.

6. Productivity… for personal and business success

Guard your time. Have a ruthless gatekeeper. Plan everyday, week and month for the next year.
Concentrate on the top 3 activities that produce the most profits for your company.

Automate as many processes as possible using software and machinery.

Focus on your role as the business owner and delegate or outsource all non-essential time consuming tasks.

Hire great talent. Be quick to fire those that are not producing. And remember to hire slow and fire fast.

If you haven’t already, go back through this list and make notes. Jot down ideas as they come to you. Then…use them in your business straight away, or block out a time in your calendar to do it.

What are the real secrets to small businsess success. To find out now click below.

small business success system

You can use a marketing plan template… but I think when brainstorming a new marketing action plan  it is always best to start with a blank page.

1. What are Your Goals?

For your business?

You and your family?

How much money do you want to make?

How many hours do you want to work a week?

How much holiday. Do you want to take each year?

How many people you want working for you?

2. Where are You Now?

For each of the goals you set in the first section… what is the difference between where you are now and where you want to be?

The trick is to start bridging the gap.

Gradually working in increments/milestones plan your way to your desired future.

Remember this is only your best guess. There is no right or wrong answer. It’s a matter of giving yourself intermediate targets to aim for.

3. Milestones and Targets

Set these monthly for the next two years.

Include numbers of new leads, new customers, and profits.

4. Who are Your Ideal Customers?

The answer to this question should be based on market research and customer research… of your present and past customers.

How old are they?

What sex are they?

What job do they have?

How much do they earn?

What are their problems, frustrations, needs, wants, and desires?

What are they presently buying?

How much of it?

Who from?

5. Why Should They Buy From You?

How do you solve their problems?

How do you prove it?

What is you guarantee that your solution/product works?

What do you offer that your competitors don’t?

How do you create extra value for your customers?

6. What are Your Marketing Strategies:

To attract new leads?

To convert these prospects into new customers?

To increase the average lifetime value of these new customers?

To delegate and outsource all non-critical time-consuming tasks?

7. What Marketing Tools will You use?

There are potentially hundreds of different marketing tools to use in your small business marketing plan. But don’t make the common mistake of doing one off, inconsistent marketing actions.

Use multimedia… online and off-line. Use multi-step sequence approaches. Mix-and-match. Whether it be direct mail, fax broadcasts, e-mails, and person-to-person telephone calls… follow-up must always be rigorous and consistent.

8. Create Your Own Marketing Calendar

This will act as a visual marketing action plan.

Block out specific times for each tactic.

Record goals and budget.

Record who has responsibility for this action.

Do this for the next entire calendar year.

Make sure it goes on the company’s electronic calendar.

Create a wall chart for everyone to see.

If you’ve made it this far, and actually carried out all the steps… well done! You should now have 4 to 5 pages  that will form the basis for your strategic marketing plan.

Take a break and then sit down and go through your ideas.

If you’ve just read this article on how to write a marketing plan without doing the brainstorming… go back and do it now.

You have now got all the marketing ideas, tactics and strategies you will need. Not only that, but in a convenient marketing action planner.

Don’t Miss This FREE Offer

 For those of you who would like to know more and get it done faster and easier… a free step by step how to write your own marketing plan video, and  a downloadable free marketing plan template.　

2. Break big projects into smaller tasks

This makes getting things done more manageable. It will reduce the risk of you becoming overwhelmed by your workload.

Use project management software such as Mindmanager. This gives you an excellent visual overview of the tasks that need to be successfully completed. You can also see:

In what order they logically need to be done.

• Who has been given responsibility for each of them.
• When they need to be completed.
• And how you will measure successful completion.

3. Prioritisation

Prioritize the importance of the tasks. This depends on not only what will create the most profit for your company. But also what tasks need to be completed before others can even begin.

4. Outsourcing/delegation

Outsource or delegate all non-critical, time-consuming tasks. The only tasks you should be doing are the ones that create the most profit and value for your company.

Do the tasks that you are best at and most enjoy… and offload the rest.

5. Systematization

This applies to any task or activity which needs to be repeated within your business.

Document step-by-step, the most efficient way to carry out the task. Make this documentation available to all your employees.

As more efficient and effective ways are discovered to complete this task…update your documentation.

The ultimate goal is that every task is carried out in the same efficient way every single time.

6. Time planners 

Have one for every working day, week, month, and the forthcoming year. Put the tasks that need to be completed into your planners based on your previous prioritisation.

Stick rigidly to these planners. Make sure you that you successfully complete each day’s tasks. There will always be times when this is not possible. Update your planners appropriately.

Cross off each task is its completed. Move on to the next task straightaway.

7. Set a time limit for each task

Your accuracy of judging the required times will get better with practice. Unfortunately, the human mind as a habit of filling the allocated time you set for any activity. Tell yourself you need an hour to complete it. An hour it will take. Tell yourself you need all morning, and surprise surprise, all morning it takes.

Use an egg timer. Find out what the most efficient working period of time for you is. For most people it is between 40-90 minutes.

When you complete each time period, get up and walk around for five minutes. Get the blood flowing. Move on to the next allotted time period.

These may sound like relatively simple time management techniques. The fact is they are incredibly powerful. You don’t need to over complicate things.

Sit down next Sunday and plan your working week using these seven steps. The following Saturday review how much you have achieved. I think you’ll be shocked and pleased at how much you’ve achieved in your business.

 Click here to discover step by step how to get more done in your business

Time Management Techniques Video

 Click here to discover step by step how to get more done in your business

Email Direct Marketing is fast, very cost-effective and can reach thousands of prospects with the click of a button. Despite these inbuilt advantages  the vast majority of business owners make the same critical mistake that destroys their chances of success.

They believe that the primary goal of email marketing is to make the sale. This is fundamentally wrong. Your focus should be on building long-term relationships. Achieve this successfully and sales will follow automatically.

I think the main reason for this error, even in highly targeted email marketing, is the technology. We forget we are talking to real people. All we see is the autoresponder software in front of us. We would never attempt to talk to a prospect or customer in person as we do with email.

How do we correct this fundamental error? It is quite straightforward. Remember that each name on your list is a real person. Speak to them as if they are people you’ve just met and want to form a friendship with. Don’t try to be too friendly straight away… it will come across as inappropriate and false.

These are the elements you must include when forging relationships with direct email:

1. Focus on helping your email list

Make a list of their problems and wants. Concentrate on talking about these [rather than what you want] and you will be more interesting. Answer their problems. Give them free information…information that will help them achieve their goals.

2. Create interaction

This must be a two-way conversation. Ask questions, ask for comments, opinions and feedback. Get them involved. Make sure to show your appreciation when they do.

3. Be genuinely interested in them

You must put their interests first. If you only pretend to be interested whilst trying to sell to them, it will be obvious. You will make less sales and have more unsubscribes.

4. Tell stories

We are all conditioned to listen to stories. They entertain us as well as teach us. Think of the point you want to make and then decide how you can illustrate that with a story that has happened to you… whether personally or in business.

5. Be honest

You are going to be making long-term relationships with the people on your list. If you start to be dishonest in your email marketing, you will get caught out sometime in the future and you will lose their trust.

6. Give gifts

Everyone likes to risk receive free gifts. Give something of genuine value. Something which you could sell.

7. Add personalization to your Email Direct Marketing

Talk in a conversational tone. Reveal something personal about yourself. Tell them what you’ve being doing that week. Something you’ve gotten up to with family or friends. Reveal a small weakness.

As your email list gets to know you they will start to think of you more as a friend and less so as someone who is trying to sell to them.

This brings down the natural cynical barriers that we all have towards advertising. This is critical to your success in direct email marketing.

8. Continue the conversation going on in their head

When you’re writing emails look at what’s happening in the news

•  recent film releases
•  sport events
•  the entertainment industry

 Use it in your e-mail. This will get your list agreeing with you. 

Start today. Change your mindset about the way you approach your direct email marketing. Make it your goal to build long term relationships with your email list…and put their needs first. The result will be a loyal list of hungry buyers. People who will trust you and respect your offers and recommendations.

Email Direct Marketing

I constantly hear from small business owners that their Yellow Pages advertising does not work. That they are wasting their money.

Nothing could be further from the truth. When people search the Yellow Pages…they are ready to buy. This is unlike most advertising when you’re attempting to interrupt people going about their normal daily routines. This time they are actively looking for some business like yours.

Where most people go wrong when they advertise in the Yellow Pages is that they make a mistake of ‘Me-Too’ advertising… they copy what all their competitors are doing. Unfortunately, most of them are doing completely wrong.

How often do you see a yellow pages advert with the business name and their logo taking up all the prime real estate at the top of the advert. People don’t care about you, your name or your logo.

People [where advertising is concerned] are only interested in what you can do for them:

• How can you improve their lives?
• How can you make their lives easier?
• What can you do faster? Better? 

 
Yellow Pages ads have only one goal… to get the people reading the ad to take action now.

In Order to achieve this you must:

• Get their attention
• differentiate yourself from your competitors
• make them an offer

Here’s the key to effective Yellow Pages advertising

1. Research

• see what your competitors are doing
• the ad size and colour
• the categories they pick
• what catches your eye?
• speak to family and friends for what they look for and how they search 

2. Yellow Pages ad Design

• Must be bigger than your competitors
• use colour if they are not and vice versa
• use a border
• good quality pictures
• relevant pictures with a caption 

3. Have a headline

• make it big and bold
• must grab attention
• have a big benefit [ what your product or service will do for them]
• a big price
• a special offer

4. Benefits

• not Features
• how you’ll make their life better
• use bullet points to save space

5. Make them an offer

• give them a reason to act now
• discount
• special offer
• bonuses
• free gift
• free quote when they telephone
• free special report 

6. Have a guarantee

• guarantee price
• or guarantee performance
• guarantee speed of delivery
• guarantee quality
• or guarantee all four!

7. Have a call to action

• get them to call a special number for a free quote
• go to your website for a special offer
• bring in a coupon to your store today
• post a coupon in the mail 

8. Contact information

• 24-hour voice mail
• telephone hotline for free quote or consultation
• website address
• map directions to your store
• physical address
• e-mail address

9. Test

• test 3 potential new yellow pages ads in your local paper
• see which pulls the best results
• use it to advertise in the yellow pages

10. Extras

• tell them you take credit cards[ you do don't you!]
• tell them they can contact your voicemail and website 24 hours a day

When you follow these steps you will notice any profound difference in your results. You’ll stand out from your competitors. Your offer and guarantee will make people take action.

Most importantly you will attract more new customers and profit with your yellow pages advertising.

If you want a shortcut..take out all the guesswork and testing…step by step yellow pages advertising will transform your ads for you with  how to videos and action planners. This is part of The Fast Start Action Profits System for Small business owners who want simple but effective step by step low cost tips and tactics to booste their profits fast. It is currently being offered for 30 days for just 1p.

Yellow Pages Advertising Video

Getting referrals from your past and present customers is one of the fastest ways to build your business… and also one of the cheapest. 

It is essential to your business success that you get all of your satisfied customers to refer to you their friends, family and colleagues. Anything that somebody else says about you is  infinitely more powerful than anything you can say about yourself.

Robert Cialdini PhD , wrote in his book ‘Influence:’The psychology of persuasion’ that social proof was powerful , because we look to others to guide our behavior  [ even though it may be done Unwittingly].

The perfect example of this is restaurant and movie recommendations. We are much more likely to act on the enthusiastic recommendations of a friend or family member than we are on anything we read in a newspaper.

When someone is referred to you from an enthusiastic satisfied customer they are already presold on you and your company. It is much easier to convert referrals into new customers[ some sources quoting as high as 40%] compared to converting a new lead who doesn’t know you into a new customer [ approximately 1% on the Internet].

Getting your referrals must be systemized. It must be done in the same way every time. And at the same point after the sales process.  

How this is done will depend on the nature of your business:

• phone script
• email
• snail mail
• person-to-person

An example of a referral system you can use in your own business.

1. Ensure that your product or service is excellent

If it isn’t… fix this first. This is true of any marketing. Getting new leads when you have a poor product or service can be disastrous. It just spreads the word quicker about your poor offering.

2. Ask every satisfied customer for referrals

Do this directly after the sale has been made and you have checked that they are happy with their product  or service.

3. Recognize and Reward

Recognize a customer every time they make a referral, either send them a  thank you note or give them a call.
Send an appropriate gift whenever a referral buys your product or service. The value of your gift will depend on how much each new new referral is worth to you.
Examples… A bottle of wine, flowers, theatre tickets etc.

You could go to the next step and hold a monthly luncheon for all your customers who refer. Make sure they bring along any friends or family, who they feel would be interested in your business!
Consider holding an annual awards dinner way you give out prizes to all your customers who give the most referrals. Make sure to invite the press along for picture opportunities. Invite local celebrities, present and past customers and potential new ones.

4. Tracking

Record and monitor your system:

• who refers
• how many they refer
• how many go on to buy
• the lifetime value of each referral
• whether they are referred by mail,email, phone or person-to-person.

5. Keep records

Follow up with all your new referrals. Use a sequence of multimedia marketing to convert them into a new customer. Once they buy add them to your customer database and follow up with them rigorously.

Other things to consider:

• decide on how many referrals you want from each customer
• what the criteria for a good referral is
• decide how to contact your customers
• write a thank you note template
• write a referral letter template
• decide on the reward to give

Referral marketing has been proven to work across all industries. You have the basis for a system for your own business here. Set yours up today. Aim to have your system up and fully running with referrals coming in by the end of this working week.

If you are keen to start getting new referrals but are not sure how to go about it, then check out my  1p offer , which has a  module with a step-by-step referral system as part of ‘The Fast Start Profits System’.  The referral sysetm comes complete with:

• pre-written referral letters
• thank you notes
• action templates
• how to videos
• Everything you need to have your own referral system up and running today!
  

Referral Marketing Video

10 Free Small Business Marketing Strategies including:

1. How to attract new Customers
2. Increasing customer profitability
3. Using the Principles of Direct Response Marketing to inrease your business profits
4. 18 ways to boost  your website marketing conversion
5. Critical components for every website
6. How to raise your prices successfully
7. Developing great customer service
8. Getting more done in less time with outsourcing and delegating
9. How to overcome buyer resistance and cynicism
10. Testing and tracking to increase sales conversion

Click the start button to watch the video now.

Small Business Owners: What is the most burning question that you have about your Small Business?

Email your Question to: mark@thelocalbusinessdoctor.co.uk 

I will do my utmost to answer it for you and email you back.

The best questions receive a prize.

1. The Emyth Revisited by Michael E Gerber

2. Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples

3. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey

4.  Influence ‘The Psychology of Persuasion’ by Professor Robert B. Caildini

5. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene M. Schwartz

6. The New Pyscho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz

7. Getting Things Done by David Allen

8. Secrets of Closing The Sale by Zig Ziglar

9. There’s a Customer Born Every Minute by Dr. Joe Vitale

10. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris

Paid

Pay Per Click Advertising…Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Adcentre 

Banner Ads…make them yourself or outsource. Have a clear call to action.

Ezine Ads…contact the owners of ezines you like. Search “your keywords + ezine”.

Outsource…Rentacoder, Guru.com, Elance etc.

Buying Links…from the authority sites in your niche OR make them affiliate links

Press Releases….do it yourself, PRweb.com or a specialist company

Paid Directory Listings…e.g Yahoo

Competitions…online or offline. Broadcast through local papers and radio for offline. Get the word out with social media e.g. Twitter and Facebook

Blogging…Add keyword rich articles to your blog. Make them unique, interesting and actionable. 

Ads on Authority Sites…contant the owners direct. They may have an ‘advertise with us’ link or ’contact us’.

Sponsor an event…Sports, arts, local school or newspaper competition or charitable event.

Write and publish your own book and offer free resources at your site…Sell the book on Amazon. Have your website URL on the cover.

Offline classified ads…trade magazines, newspapers

Yellow Pages Ad…Use direct response principles i.e. have a headline, offer and deadline

Radio and TV Commercials…make sure your conversion rates are good first!

Hoax / Publicity Stunt…offline or Digg.

Free

SEO..take time and is a long term traffic strategy

Article Marketing…online directories and offline trade magazines

Free Directory Listings..search Google

Classified Ads on Craigs list…use multiple. Link to different pages on your site.

Forums…seach ‘your keywords + forum’. Get involved and help others.

Yahoo Answers…defined by category. The trick is to take enough time to give the best answer.

Form a Google Group or join one…like forums, offer value to others

Leave comments on other blogs with a link to your site…don’t just say great post! Add value e.g. add a point, agree, disagree, ask a question.

Trackbacks…find great posts in your niche and create a trackback.

Trade links…with relevant sites in your niche. Specifiy the anchor text you want [the text in the link].

Include your URL in all your communications and marketing…receipts, email signatures, shop signs, flyers

Social Marketing…build a following, add value to their lives and market to them sparingly.

Satellite Content linking to your main site…Squidoo, Hub Pages, Weebly, Blogger, Wordpress.com

Free Publicity

Networking…offline [chambers of commerce etc. Online…social media.

Public Speaking…local organisations, trade organisations, business organisations.

Support/Host a Charitable Event…get media coverage.

Video blogging…your site and free video sites. Titles and keyword rich descriptions essential.

Give away valuable content for free…Viral Ebook, special report, videos, articles

Add a podcast channel to Itunes…subscribers will automatically receive new content as you add it to your podcast channel.

Internet TV and radio…Ustream.com for your own free TV channel. Create your own radio show from your site.

Guest Blogging on Authority sites…in your niche. Quick way to get known fast.

Form your own Facebook Group…add value.

Sell products on Amazon…books, CD’s, DVD’s

Add RSS feed to your site…sign up at Feedburner.com. Subscribers will automatically receive new content as you add it to your site. 

Ebay Auctions…hold listings on Ebay. Link to your site in your profile

Borrowed

Find Strategic Alliances / Joint Ventures…with the top players in your niche who already have big active lists.

Start an affiliate program…your own or using a 3 party source such as Clickbank.com

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