One of the biggest challenges of any service business owner is the balance between doing and marketing. Very often, the doing supercedes the marketing, until the client flow dries up, then the business owner quickly markets, trying to get clients, and the cycle repeats.
This is a very stressful way to build your business.
The difficulty of balancing doing with marketing is one of the most significant challenges business owners face, as it is directly responsible for the ups and downs in cash flow.
What are some ways to better balance doing with marketing? You could wake up earlier and try to cram more into each day.
You could forego some personally fulfilling activities so you can work harder.
Or you can find ways to provide the same (or better) level of attention, customer service, and professional services for the same (or less) effort.
Which way sounds better? I hope you picked door #2.
Here are some strategies I implement in my business to help me balance doing and marketing.
- Schedule yourself differently. Set aside at least 8 hours per week for marketing activities. If you can’t do 8, do 4. Just do something. If you can’t decrease your service hours, find ways to make each service hour double as a marketing activity. For example, you might leave “tell a friend” cards in your waiting room.
- Meet face to face with potential referral sources. Yes, it takes extra effort to meet for lunch. It can also significantly increase the speed with which you receive referrals.
- Leverage technology. When your time is the main source of money generation, you need to use technology to help your business grow. Use voicemail, autoresponder messages, and email text cut/paste to help you complete routine tasks faster and with less effort.
- Track your results. 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts. You need to know which 20.
- Package your expertise in many forms. Offer multiple delivery options for your knowledge. This will allow you to capture more of the market, with a one-time effort.
There are other strategies you might consider, but these should help you get started. Adding even just one of these to your business efforts will help you balance better between doing and marketing.
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A special request from me to you:
If you have questions or comments about growing your business, would you let me know what they are? I would like to take this information and utilize it to offer better advice and content here on the site. With so many new subscribers (welcome!), it is helpful for me to check in, now and then, and find out what you’d most like to know about. Lead generation? How to sell your services 1:1 or to groups? How to balance better between your professional and personal responsibilities? All of the above?
None of the above?
Please let me know.
You can leave a comment below, and for everyone who does, I’ll have a special “thank you” prize.
Thanks in advance!
