6 Highly Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

6 Highly Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses by Duncan Brodie

All small businesses have a passion or desire to make a real difference through the products and/or services they offer. For many marketing is an area of real challenge. Even if you actively marketed on behalf of your business when in employment, it some how feels different when you are marketing for your own business. As a small business owner myself who does not have a background, there are a number of strategies that I have found to be highly effective personally or for others.



1. Utilising contacts



When you start out in business, the initial challenge is to get some clients. So often people start with a blank piece of paper and forget about all of the contacts they have made in the past through work and socially.



By listing all of these people you can probably identify 100 people who you can drop a letter or e-mail to let them know what you are up to and asking them to look out for any opportunities. You might even meet some for lunch or coffee. This is what I did to get my first 3 clients.



2. Focussed networking



There are plenty of opportunities to network. Some of it is very structured like BNI while there are other events that are less structured and more informal. What is vitally important is to find networking events that allow you to connect with your target clients. For example, if your target market is female business owners, then a specific networking events aimed at that market will be more focussed networking. I work with professionals so a branch meeting for accountants is an excellent place to network.



3. Writing



If you enjoy writing and sharing your knowledge and insights, writing can be a highly effective part of your marketing activity. As well as magazines, local papers and professional journals, there are now lots of options for submitting articles online. One of the real benefits of online articles is that they give you exposure to a much wider audience than a local or national publication.



4. Speaking



If you are a consultant, coach, trainer, accountant, lawyer to name a few, speaking can be a highly cost effective and time efficient way of marketing. Yes it takes some time to pull together a speech but you can use it over and over again. The other major benefit is that your marketing is one to many rather than one to a few with networking.

5. Blogging



This is not one of the strategies that I have used myself but is incredibly popular. Some people just blog while there are others who combine a blog with a podcast.



6. Trade shows and exhibitions



With trade shows and exhibitions you can either decide to exhibit or just even visit. This can be one of the more expensive options but can be highly valuable for product based businesses or service businesses that are well understood like telemarketing or banking.



There are numerous options open to you when it comes to marketing your business. Get creative and start identifying at least 3 channels to market that will have the greatest impact for your business.


Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with professionals and progressive organisations who want to achieve more success. Sign up for his free e-course and monthly newsletter at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/


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Your 10 Best Home Based Business List

Your 10 Best Home Based Business List by Marl Atkins

Do you know that if you *really* want to, you can work for your own business from your own home - even if you're UNDER SIXTEEN!! Literally thousands of people have home based businesses, many of whom have no other jobs. If they can do it, so can you.



Before you decide what to do you need to educate yourself on the many different opportunities that exist, on the basic mechanics of running your own small business and at least briefly on five or six different types of business. From there you can compile a list of the best home based business opportunities for you and then simply select your top choice.



Here are a few ideas and examples to get your creative juices flowing:



When I was 12 years old, I had a paper route. Now paper routes are considered small businesses and they're available for sale. I got just a little older and dropped the paper route. I put an ad in the local newspaper offering services as an 'odd job guy'. I got calls and soon had a regular clientele, mostly of small businesses who needed clean up work done at regular intervals. At the time I was too young to realize that this was a very viable and potentially VERY lucrative business. You can very easily start a business as an 'odd job guy' or a 'handy man'.



I had friend who worked in a document printing shop. She started creating decorative stationary packages on the side. She sold them to friends and small businesses with whom she was aquainted. Soon afterward she had an e-commerce Website developed for her new business and started marketing it more. Soon she was selling a whole array of products that were related to her stationary. Before the end of a year she had to quit her job. She said she was losing too much money by working there. You could start a business selling products that you can make yourself.



As far as e-commerce Web 'stores' go, you don't have to make anything. Many companies offer businesses an opportunity to sell their products for a profit. You can sell trinkets, clothes, kitchen items, cameras, clocks, insurance!; the list goes on and on. You don't even have to buy stock in bulk, store it OR ship it. You can buy items as you sell them and have your supplier 'drop ship' the items directly to your customer.



Here's a twist: you can expand the above idea to include international buying and/or bartering. You could start an international bartering company.



Both my wife and I had normal jobs working for companies. My wife worked as a technical editor. She got layed off from one company and started work for another. Soon after, the first company started hiring her on the side to do work after hours. Before long she was working evenings and weekends for a few companies. We decided to start a small business offering technical writing and graphic design. At one point her company went through a major lay off and she along with a few hundred others was layed off. I determined that it was a good time for her to start working for our business full time and I launched a major mail marketing/cold calling campaign. Within one year we had so much business that I had to quit my job just to keep up with the work. Not long afterward I acquired a Microsoft® certification for software development. I started developing software for the clients we already had. We've made more money working for ourselves than either of us ever made working for a company. If you can write you can start a business as a 'writer'. If you can develop software (or can learn how to) you can start a business as a software consultant.



In our small business we contracted a bookkeeper. She had been working for a company as a customer service rep. and as their bookkeeper. She was very personable and had a reputation for being very trustworthy. People she knew from her customer service work started asking her to do their books for them on the side. Before long all her weekends and evenings were taken up doing bookkeeping. The company she worked for went bankrupt. She had to get another job. Instead she called every small business owner she knew and also went through the phone book calling businesses, offering 'off site bookkeeping services'. She never did get a job. She still has her own business offering bookkeeping services and makes more money than she ever did working for a company.



The same girl, now very excited about having her own business, started buying materials and studying other home based business opportunities. She learned of a popular business: 'Bill Auditor'. Unfortunately, many utility companies (phone, water, electric, etc.) consistently overbill their clients 'by accident', especially when the client is a business. Because their internal staff is too busy to check, most of these 'oversights' go undetected costing the company thousands of dollars over the years. She started offering 'bill auditing' which basically amounts to checking every single bill and then forcing the companies to fix any 'mistakes' and resend their bill. She also handles all of the bill paying for her client. She can easily market this service because she can offer it to them for BETTER THAN FREE! because of the the savings from the billing 'mistakes'. In the long run her service costs them NOTHING and instead they actually SAVE money.



I know a girl who worked for a medium sized business as a secretary. She started to get intrigued with the idea of working at home and started buying books and did some research. she learned that she could start a business in 'secretarial services'. She bought a computer with a built in fax and Internet capability. She studied enough to learn how to market it and put a few ads in some newspapers. She got enough response to gain the courage to quit her job and launch her business full time. She sent out a few mailings to small businesses and then called the same businesses. Soon she was getting more work than she could handle. Now she has employees who also work at home but for her business. If you can type and have a computer you can pretty easily start a 'secretarial services' business.




I know many people who learned to buy real estate as investors and soon after quit their jobs. You see infomercials on TV all the time about techniques for becoming a real estate investor. We're all skeptical but it's TRUE. You really CAN buy properties for 70% of market value, with NO MONEY DOWN (out of your pocket), even if your credit is less than perfect. In fact, the United States is currently in the middle of a foreclosure crisis. This misfortune is creating a very unique opportunity to cash in big on foreclosures while helping alleviate the problem. The banks are all but giving these properties away. YOu can do a little bit of research on how to buy a house with a 'short sale'. Basically, you convince the bank to let you pay off your seller's loan but at a very deep discount (as low as 50% of the loan balance). Where do you get the money? Do a little research on 'hard money lenders'. YOu can get the money VERY EASILY!




I have friends who are 'day traders'. That is, they buy and sell stocks at home, for themselves. This business does not involve offering products or services to anyone. You simply buy and sell stock all day, trying to make a profit on each transaction. This business does take a significant amount of start up capital (50K to 100K) and nerves of STEEL. I did it for awile and made pretty good money but the stress is very high. The trick is to NOT GAMBLE. That's right. Basically, I used a technique called 'technical analysis' and ALWAYS played WITH the odds. If a deal went south, I baled out quick. If it went my way I stuck with it until I EXPECTED a probable change and then baled out even if it was still going my way. I have friends who do this full time and make very good money doing it.




Many home based businesses exist. You can start a 'mobile car care' business. You would wash and detail customers' cars at their place of business while they work. You could start a lawn care or snow shoveling business. How about a 'mobile dog grooming' business. You can groom animals (cut their fur, shampoo, etc.) at their homes. If you don't mind a little education you can be a 'medical transcriptionist'. Are you a Certified Public Accountant? You can start a business as an accountant or maybe a 'tax accountant'. I have a tax accountant. You could start any number of construction companies. Many do not require special licenses. For example, you could be a drywaller or a tile setter. You could do pressure cleaning or run a concrete pumper. Some of these businesses would require some start up capital. Others really only require initiative.




So you see, if you have just a little bit of 'vision' you too can work at home in your own business. Chances are high that you can make more money than you ever will by working for another company. After all, they're taking all the 'profit'. Where do you start? Buy a few books and a few 'home business packages'. EDUCATE YOURSELF. Then start creating a list of the businesses that you think are the most appropriate for you. Study those businesses further until you've got a clear idea of what you're getting into. Then pick your top choice and GO FOR IT!!


Marl K. Atkins is an Internet marketing consultant specializing in the promotion of small to medium sized businesses.

A Premier Florida Web Design Firm, Orlando


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Think Like An Entrepreneur!

Think Like an Entrepreneur!
By Gary Ryan Blair

There was a time when being the biggest, most experienced corporate
kid on the block guaranteed success and dominance. However, in the
new economy, organizations that lack the commitment and capacity
for leveraging size and experience strategically will see these
attributes as vices instead of virtues.

The new economy will require an entrepreneurial mindset. Competition
will come from anywhere at anytime. Technology will empower smaller, nimbler competitors dramatically.

The days of sitting back, waiting, and depending on corporate size and reputation to attract business are effectively over.

To be clear—the relationship between size and entrepreneurial
behavior doesn't have to be an inverse one. People like Bill Gates
have already demonstrated convincingly that huge companies like
Microsoft can be as proactive and aggressive as the most
entrepreneurial start-up. In fact, entrepreneurial behavior can no
longer be the exclusive preserve of just the young start-up.

Everybody has to get in on the act!

Entrepreneurship is a bit like dieting: Everybody's in favor of it in
principle, but only a few have the intestinal fortitude to do what it
takes to reap the rewards.

In my view, the major source of the problem is cultural and is rooted in our fear of failure.

The new economy calls for a far more entrepreneurial corporate
culture, one where experimentation, risk taking, and even failure are
not only tolerated, but also actually celebrated. After all the only
real alternative to experimentation and risk is decay and decline.
The essence of risk is the possibility of failure.

Honor your errors. To advance requires a new frame. But the process
of going outside the conventional method is indistinguishable from
error.

Evolution can be thought of as systematic error management.

Scratch a successful entrepreneur and what you'll find is someone who failed a time or two or... get the idea?

The emerging rigors of the new economy leave us little choice. We
must experiment, and experimentation carries with it the near
certainty of at least occasional failure. In a truly entrepreneurial
culture, failure tends to be regarded as a learning opportunity, a
necessary pre-condition to eventual success. The status quo is simply
not a viable option any longer. You can stand still if you like, but
your competition certainly won't.

One other critical point about entrepreneurs. They are above all men
and women of action! Entrepreneurs instinctively understand the
importance of real-world experimentation, trial and error, and speed.
Experimentation, feedback, failure, learning, adjustment,
action—that's what successful entrepreneurship is all about.

Entrepreneurship, like innovation, is a profoundly relative concept.
At its core, it implies a willingness to risk challenging
conventional wisdom and prevailing approaches.

A company may employ you, but you work for yourself! Two defining
qualities of an entrepreneur are an appetite for risk and a strong
bias towards action. For many years, business conditions operated
strongly against the entrepreneur.

Size, stability, and industry experience were the only commodities recognized as having value in the business world; without them you could forget about making an impact. That's changing.

The business landscape of the new economy will be more hospitable to the entrepreneur than any we've seen before. The volatility and unpredictability of global competition have completely devalued most existing corporate currencies and virtues.

What good is size if your organization is too slow and muscle bound
to capitalize on new, fast-moving opportunities? What use is lengthy
industry experience if your most ferocious competitor is likely to
come at you from out of an entirely different sector? What's the
point of conducting exhaustive market surveys if the market changes
so fast they're obsolete before you've analyzed them?

Under these kinds of conditions, what counts is the willingness and
ability to take risks, get real-life feedback and react quickly. In
short, the ability to be entrepreneurial.

As a genuine entrepreneur, either inside an organization or
independent of one, you should prove to be ideally adapted to the
evolving imperatives of the new competitive environment.

Emboldened by its competitive dynamics and liberated by new
technologies, entrepreneurs will build not only bridges to the new economy but castles on the other shore!

Everything Counts!

Gary Ryan Blair is President of The GoalsGuy. A visionary and gifted conceptual thinker, Gary is highly regarded as a speaker, consultant, strategic planner, and coach to leading companies throughout the globe.

He helps business owners, corporate executives and sales professionals manage their time, set their priorities, and stay focused so they can achieve their goals, grow their business, and sustain a lasting competitive advantage. Learn more at http://www.personalstrategicplan.com

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