Are You Making This Mistake in Your Business?

I’m a big believer in systems. I hate the idea of “reinventing the wheel” every time something needs to get done. It’s a waste of time, money and resources – all of which are usually in short supply in small business. Small business owners are great at systems when it comes to shipping it, fixing it, billing it, hiring or the day-to-day operation of the business. Where they fall short is having a system for marketing their business.

For one reason or another, small business owners believe they can be successful without a marketing system. Well, I’m here to tell you it won’t happen and here’s why. A system keeps you focused and gets you results and a good marketing system generates qualified leads on a consistent basis. Without a marketing system, business owners fall prey to the age old “promotion of the week” or promotional panic as we like to refer to it. You know what I mean. It’s the latest and greatest idea you saw at a recent tradeshow or that “thing” that a friend told you about over coffee that you just gotta try.

Why a marketing system? A marketing system will help you turn suspects into prospects and prospects into clients and clients into raving fans. People do business with people they know, like and trust and in today’s busy world, it takes more than 10 ‘touches’ to get someone to know like and trust you. What are you doing to get people to know, like and trust you? With a system in place, it can be working even when you’re not.

Back in university, I did Business 101 (seriously, that’s what it was called) and the first thing that we were taught was the four key functions of business (today there are five if you include information technology). You have finance, operations, human resources and marketing. All of them key to any business’ success. Building a business with only three of the keys is like building a house on sand. It’ll stand for a short while but eventually it is coming down.

So you decide! Do you want your business built on sand or on a solid foundation? If you chose a solid foundation, you might want to start building your marketing system because it’s probably the only one that you are missing.