If you’re a business owner, one of the biggest obstacles in your way is often the amount of business you’re bringing in. After all, a business is nothing without clients to spend money on them.
If you aren’t getting the amount of business you’re hoping for, your first instinct may be to reach for the phone and call your local online marketing company to get the word out.
Good idea. But before you do, it’s important to make sure you’re even ready for marketing.
What does that mean?
Timing Is Key
In the world of business, timing is all-important. Make the right move at the right moment, and you can profit enormously. But if you make that same move only a month or two later, you may have missed the opportunity altogether.
On the other hand, make that move a month or two early and you’ll squander that opportunity. At best it will deliver you poor results, but it can sometimes actually damage your business.
Look at it this way. If you start a marketing campaign, it’s with the idea of bringing in new business. So you start bringing in new business…then what?
If you work with a good marketing company, you should be getting a wave of new clients coming your way. In fact, here at Cloud Surfing Media we’ve had some of our clients tell us they see several of their own new clients EVERY DAY.
This is, of course, a fantastic thing. But only if you’re ready for it.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself to discover whether your business is ready for marketing.
Is there really a market for what I’m doing?
Do you have a great idea that could change the world? If so, it doesn’t matter.
Wait, what?
It’s true. So many great ideas end up dead in the dirt, not because the idea was bad, but because there just wasn’t a market for it.
Your product or service is only as good as the number of people willing to pay for it. And even if your new whatchamacallit can change lives for the better, what good is it if no one wants to buy it.
So before you pull the trigger, do some market research to discover if people will actually pay for what you’re selling. And if they aren’t, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
It might be a buzzkill to go from the enthusiasm of having such a powerful idea to discovering the hard truth that no one really cares about it, but you’ll be glad you discovered it at this point, before you invested thousands of your hard-earned dollars on a bunk idea.
Are you prepared for your business to grow?
Money is important, but what may be even more important is time. Do you have the time to devote to building your business?
If things start to really take off for your business, are you prepared to devote more time to it? Are you prepared for your business to grow?
If you’re developing this project as a gig on the side, are you willing to quit your day job if your business becomes profitable enough?
Watching a business grow is a beautiful thing. And if you ask any business owner if they’d like to be more successful, the answer is ALWAYS yes. But business growth brings challenges with it as well, and if you aren’t prepared to meet those challenges, you may end up with more than you bargained for.
Entrepreneur magazine ran a great article on how to prepare for the growth of your business. Take a look.
Is your fulfillment system in place?
This goes part and parcel with the last point. As your business grows, you’ll need a fulfillment system in place.
Will you be able to handle the steady flow of new business on your own? Or will you need to put things in place? Do you even plan on fulfilling yourself?
In some situations, you may be able to get away with fulfilling on all the new business yourself in the early stages. But eventually, as your business grows, you’ll need some sort of plan to grow along with it.
Will you hire new people? Bring on independent contractors? Outsource things to the Philippines?
No matter how you decide to move forward, without a fulfillment system in place you risk disappointing your new clients. And that’s just no good…
Am I confident enough in my services to be able to close the new leads that come my way?
But maybe you’re sure your business has a target market. Maybe you’re a dentist, a chiropractor, a lawyer, or in some sort of other industry with an obvious target market. And maybe you’re positive you’re prepared for growth, both in your business model and mentally.
How confident are you in your ability to sell yourself?
The above point is the most important business. Robert Kiyosaki, the famous multimillionaire author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, had this to say about selling.
The ability to sell is the number one skill in business. If you cannot sell, don’t bother thinking about becoming a business owner.
Look, a marketing company can deliver you hundreds of new leads. But they can’t close them for you. If you aren’t able to sell your leads on your services, what good are they?
What’s the point of all those people coming to your door if you can’t convince them to do business with you?
If you’re not confident in your ability to close your clients, start there.
You’re all clear kid, now let’s blow this thing and go home
If you’ve got a ripe market, you’re ready to grow, and you’ve got a solid fulfillment system in place, you’re probably ready to start marketing yourself.
But if you’re still not sure, why not drop us a line for a FREE 30-minute marketing consultation?
During the consultation, you’ll get direct access to the skills and expertise of a dedicated online marketing team. We can help you understand where you’re at in your business development, where any weaknesses lie, and what you can expect when you start marketing yourself.
Marketing can seem overwhelming, but after a 30-minute consultation, you’ll feel much better about what’s coming your way.
So contact us today.
