Carberry Sandhills Consulting - Blog
A reader tells me….
I received an email recently from a self-employed business person in response to my recent post Your 2011 Marketing Plan in 7 Easy Steps
The entrepreneur said, “I have no time to work on my business, I’m too busy working in my business – producing the products. So where is the time supposed to come from for me to create a marketing plan?”
I answer…
As I said in that previous post (and it’s been proven time and again), “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Upwards of 75% of new start-ups succumb from failure to plan. Lacking a well thought out overall business plan, which should always include a marketing section, is the number one culprit in the demise of most new businesses.
I know it’s tempting to want to “shoot the messenger”, but the reality is that it’s a question of setting priorities. What I said to the entrepreneur is, “You are your own Vice-President of Marketing and if you are not doing it, then who? What’s going to happens when all those products you are so now so engrossed in producing are all gone? Where will the consumer demand come from for your next set of products?”
My advise to the entrepreneur was, “Set aside a block of time on your weekly calendar for marketing. If you can’t spare a big block of time such as five hours out of one single day per week – then how about setting aside one hour each day, when you are not burnt out from producing your products? Could you manage getting up an hour earlier, before you start your “real work” and dive into that marketing plan for 2011? As soon as your plan has been fleshed out, use that same hour each day to implement the strategies you identified in your plan.”
Lesson learned…
I’ve learned this important lesson from experience in my own business. If I devote all my time to completing the current web design project at hand, when I’m done there will be no new projects lined up for me to start on. Being suddenly faced with an empty in-basket can lead to entrepreneur panic. Desperation can influence you to take on unsuitable and/or unprofitable projects to solve the immediate cash flow problem, further compounding business problems.
Only when I’ve taken time out of working in my business, to work on my business by actively prospecting for future projects, am I able to level out those undesirable peaks and valleys of workloads and cash flows.
As always, I invite readers to comment on this post, and/or to contribute their own strategies for scheduling time for essential business planning activities.
Hi Marnie,
There is a typo in your link, I think it should read "Your 2011 Marketing Plan….."not 2001.
I would like to respond to the second paragraph of your answer just to play devil's advocate. If I spent an extra 5 hours per week producing product instead of planning, I would not run out. If I don't run out of product, peaks and valleys are diminished. Planning is certainly necessary but can be overdone and become a big, bloated weight in paper, costs and time spent slowing down productivity too, like big government.
Business today, needs to be sleek, agile, adaptive and efficient first. After 37 years in business for myself, I have noted that I can run a lot faster with a notepad, a little money to make change and a receipt book than I can loaded down with a laptop, Blackberry and the filing box containing my business plan and marketing stratagies.
There is also something to be said for having your attention focused outside of your business and less within so that you stay relevant to your customers needs and are open to new opportunities. Focus on the target, eye on the ball.
I'm sure that I am not the only entrepreneur who had to prepare a business plan for a financial or government institution and finished feeling that it was partly a good idea, partly bureaucratic file filler and largely "navel gazing". Just a thought.
Comment by Shirley Klassen — January 7, 2011 @ 11:28 am
Hi Shirley! Thanks for pointing out the typo, I have fixed it in my original blog post. I appreciate your input as devil's advocate. The trick I think is to find that happy medium between working too much "in" and not enough "on" your business and visa versa
Comment by Marnie Somers — January 9, 2011 @ 2:25 am