What is the function of your business?
Most of you will answer: “To make money”.
WRONG!
The function of your business is not to make money, it is to get and keep clients.
The goal of your business is to make money. The more clients you have the more money you will make.
If you confuse your business goal with your business function you will most certainly just scrape the barrel or fail.
To get more clients you need to market. And when you market you must get as many clients as you can for every penny you spend.
No matter what business you think you are in – you are in the marketing business!
Show me a business that is not doing well, and I will show you a business that is not marketing scientifically and effectively on a regular basis.
Marketing is the *elixir of business life. Marketing is the life blood of your business. To advertise is to “feed” the business in the same way that you need to eat three meals a day. You cannot just eat once a month and expect to survive and stay healthy.
Peter F. Drucker, who became famous for writing books on managing non-profit organisations actually defined a non-profit organisation, as an entity that does not market. He defined a business as an entity that does marketing and advertising. What do you run – a business or a non-profit organisation?
Regular marketing also means automatic public relations. The better the image you can create in the minds of your clients, the more clients you will get. It trickles down to:
- Do people like you?
- Can they trust you?
- Are you an expert in your field?
- Do you deliver when they demand?
- And finally once you deliver, does it satisfy the need or desire?
I’m sure as an honest, ethical businessmen you are all of the above and more. But if someone do not know you, they will never know that you are all of the above. Through repeated effective targeted marketing efforts they will get to know you well. And through your service and products your clients will do goodwill word-of-mouth marketing that will guarantee you fame and fortune (or the opposite if you bungle).
Now allow me to get a bit soppy, spiritual and wet in the eyes.
I firmly believe that you will not make a change in your life or business if you do not:
- Set clearly defined goals and targets for your business.
- Believe in your product or service.
I know for a fact that one’s thoughts and words create one’s physical world.
It is vital that you adopt a positive attitude towards life and mankind.
Forget that you can be all things to all people all of the time.
Concentrate on your target market and accept that even then, it will be impossible to please all.
Take some time off. Life is not just work and money. Life is doing the things that make you happy. You need to increase your wealth easier, because one of the things that makes you really happy is financial independence.
Never fear the competition
I want you to stop worrying about your competition immediately. You are just wasting your precious time. The truth is your competition does not market, or market effectively either. The only time we will ever need to look at the competition will be when you create your U.S.P or Unique Selling Proposition, a concept that will be discussed later on in this blog.
Even better news! The bigger your competition the slower they react. You are the guy or girl in the nifty little sports car – you can be well away on route to your next venture by the time the big boys finally come to a decision after umpteen boardroom meetings. (Trust me, I deal with the corporate’s – it’s painfully slow to get anything to happen).
So concentrate and get cracking on what’s important. It really is a waste of energy to live in fear about what the competition may be doing. Stop procrastinating and start learning. “To know and not to act, is not to know“(-Author Unknown-).
DO NOT COPY WHAT YOUR COMPETITION IS DOING!
“Copycat, copycat” goes the children’s rhyme…. but if you are not first or at least first in the minds of the clients, your copying is worthless and a complete waste of time. DO YOUR OWN THING! Never be a “me too” marketer or producer of products.
*Elixir – A substance believed to cure all ills.
entrepreneurial -“Willing to take risks in order to make a profit”.