We all know the saying, Failing to plan (prepare) is planning (preparing) to fail. I truly believe in this statement and I hope you do as well. Building your service business, including marketing it must be planned and does take work. I dont happen to believe that there really are magic bullets or black magic boxes. My advice quit looking. This stuff does take work, but you can certainly do it. If youre like most people I meet, then planning is something you know is important but doesnt always happen. We are generally doers. We need to feel like were doing something to be productive whether its going to networking events, sending out mailers, or making calls to try and set up meetings. And all that planning sure doesnt feel like were doing anything. Its time consuming when there is plenty of day-to-day work to be done. And truthfully, not everyone knows the best way to go about it. But being unprepared in your business and life creates stress, problems, headaches, and sleepless nights. When youre unplanned, life can be a real pain. You lose clients, create unhappy ones, and find it hard to attract new ones. You end up doing a lot of things. And that makes you feel a little better because its not for a lack of trying. But the results are often less than what you hope for, and that can be pretty draining. To make matters worse, the longer this goes on, the less you feel you can afford to take any time to slow down and plan. If you dont get some business in the door soon, all the planning wont matter for squat. Dont let your business or your efforts become reactive to current conditions. If you are failing to plan, then you are planning to fail. Ive seen it all too often, where even good intentions fall victim to poor execution. Because were doers, its sometimes easy to short circuit or skip the planning all together. You start drifting whichever direction the winds blowing because that last idea didnt work. It seems rare to admit that it might be the lack of planning and preparation that caused the marketing campaign to fail. But there is hope! Looking for a place to start? Spend some time working on the most basic, yet valuable elements of your marketing such as clarifying your niche, defining your most ideal clients and prospects, articulating your strategic differentiation, creating an attention getting message, success stories, etc. Dont be afraid to start thinking differently and then taking actions based on that new thinking. Book a regularly scheduled appointment in your calendar for YOURSELF or with a trusted resource. Dont let anyone infringe upon this time, not even your best client, except under the most extreme of circumstances. When someone wants to book an appointment with you that overlaps this time, tell them youve already got a very important client appointment booked and see where their flexibility is. They dont need to know that this very important client is you. Hold yourself accountable for making this appointment on time, every time, and making the most productive use of the appointment. Your marketing may not be in need of a major overhaul, but you should always be striving for continuous incremental improvement. You owe it to yourself and your ideal clients to take time for regular planning and preparation. Youll come to look forward to this time as you begin to build greater business success and increased satisfaction from your work! Your clients will take note of the effort and appreciate the difference for themselves. |
