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What are business systems and do they benefit your company? Starting, building and growing a business is exciting. But often things get out of control. Balls get dropped and what was once fun and exciting can become a dreary chore. Why? Because of a lack of business systems.

Many founders find themselves working longer and longer hours for little pay.

You might start wondering whatever possessed you to start a business. After all the goal was freedom, wealth and independence. But now it feels like you’re treading water and going nowhere. Sadly some owners end up throwing in the towel.

I don’t want this for you. That’s why I’m going to show you how systems can change your company for the better. It might be just what you need.

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What Is A Business System?

A business system is a series of interdependent tasks or documented procedures that outline exactly how to do something in an organization to achieve a business objective. Good business systems streamline workload, improve productivity and get results.

A business process (also known as a series of checklists) can be given to a new employee and implemented without training. Not only does it improve onboarding new people, it also massively improves customer service.

For example, a system could be a step-by-step guide to writing blog posts. Think of it as best practices for getting eyes on your content marketing.

Here's what that might look like:

• Step one, keyword research.
• Step two, review the top five blogs ranking for that keyword. Note down which questions are routinely answered.
• Step three, write the blog post.
• Step four, place the blog into SurferSEO for keyword optimization.
• Step five, submit the optimized blog for editing and approval.
• Step six, submit the approved blog post to the developer to place into the blog template.
• Step seven, add imagery, include alt text, a meta description, and internal linking.
• Step eight, take the blog live and submit it to Google Console to crawl.
• Step nine, share the blog post on your social media accounts.  

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Are business systems and business processes the same?

No. Business processes are what I like to call standard operating procedures. It's a series of linked tasks, checklists, and activities—business systems—that work towards a singular business goal.

Every business owner needs systems. So, now that you understand what a business system is, let’s look at the benefits of implementing business processes.

Why Are Systems Important In Business?

In my 1-Page Marketing Plan Course, I talk about the three E's of business systems—expansion, escape, and exit. Without systems, the "know-how" of running the business is siloed between a few select individuals' ears, and achieving the three E's is impossible.

What happens if you get sick, or a vital employee leaves, does your company stop functioning optimally?

Systems negate this, and I’m going to show you how.

Here are five major benefits of implementing a business system.

1. It builds a valuable asset. Investors can buy your company and know that they've got a committed customer base, a set way of doing things, a guaranteed annual income, that sort of stuff. Check out this article to see the types of assets you should be building.
2. You can leverage and scale your business more rapidly. Once you've got systems in place, you can focus your time on creating new products that cater to your different customer segments. So you increase your profit margins.
3. Consistency. Systems allow you to deliver a consistent experience, which is super powerful. It means whenever a customer interacts with your business, they get a world-class experience. And happy customers make for happy business owners. A business system can also be useful for managing multiple sites. By creating a documented procedure for each site, you can ensure consistency and quality across all locations. This is especially important if your business is expanding rapidly, as it can be difficult to maintain control without clear guidelines. With a system in place, you can easily onboard new employees and ensure that everyone is following the same processes, improving productivity and results.
4. Lower labor costs. You can reduce your staff number because technology can handle most of the more mundane and repetitive tasks.
5. It can improve efficiency. Your employees are more productive because they have a set way of doing things which really makes business activities a synch.

To recap, systems are essential for expanding your organization, improving business functions, adding new people and products, growing your revenue, improving profit margins, escaping your business and taking a well-deserved holiday, and potentially exiting your organization one day.

If you want to learn how you can find and hire great remote talent, check out this blog post.

Why You Need To Systemize Your Business?

If you're wondering why many small businesses don't adopt systems, it's because they're considered back-office functions or boring.

It's not something that requires your attention today, particularly when you're in the startup phase. You're so focused on building your company that there are other more pressing tasks that you need to deal with.

So there's a perceived lack of urgency.

Thing is, without business systems, you don't own a business – you ARE the business. If you want to double revenue, you need to double the hours you work. Since you only have so many hours in a day, that limits how fast and how big you grow.

By automating, delegating, and systemizing your business activities and business functions, you gain leverage, which is the key to creating and scaling a high growth organization.

Even if you're starting out, you need to get into a systems mindset long before hiring your first employee or subcontractor. It's the critical difference between being self-employed and being an entrepreneur.

Don't wait until your organization is in crisis mode and spinning out of control. It's much easier to begin creating your systems from the start than retrofit your business later.  

Are you building a coaching business? Click the link to learn how to start and scale your coaching business.

Getting Started With Systems

Before we can transition from self employed to entrepreneur, we first need to create a subtle but vital mindset shift. Self-employed people ARE the business, whereas entrepreneurs OWN the business.

If you’re ever going to experience financial freedom in your company, the key ingredient is leverage. If I had to pick only one thing that sets apart wealthy business owners from average ones, leverage would be it. You can find out more about The Best Kept Secret Of The Rich here.

Perhaps the only thing more important to an entrepreneur than financial success is freedom. Are you setting up your business in a way that facilitates that kind of freedom? You can read up on Why A Lack Of Systems Is Stunting Your Business Growth And Costing You A Fortune.

Building Your Systems So You Can Be Free

Now that you’ve made the mindset shift from self-employed to entrepreneur, it’s time to start actually building the business systems that are going to run your organization and set you free.

If we’re going to create the kind of speed that’s necessary for a high growth business, we need to eliminate all bottlenecks – starting with you.

You shouldn't be working non-stop, day and night. Build a team and delegate. Try these top time management strategies for better productivity.

What Are Examples Of Business Systems

One of the poster children for good systems is McDonald's.

McDonald's is a multibillion-dollar operation run by young teenagers who can't even be trusted to make their beds. How does that happen? It happens with business systems.

Their operation manuals cover everything from hiring to product delivery to customer interaction. What these systems do is allow McDonald's to provide a consistent experience.

You know that when you walk into a McDonald's, The Big Mac, the fries, the nuggets will always be the same. And it's because they've got those systems in place.

Whether you like the food or you don't, you always know that any McDonald's you go to will deliver a consistent experience.

How Many Types Of Business Systems Are There?

While virtually anything can be systematized, there are four main types of business systems that you need to build. Getting these running is like adding rocket fuel to your startup. I'm going to touch on these below, but you can find out more in this article: Products Make You Money, Systems Make You A Fortune, and you use this to generate a consistent flow of leads into the business.

1. There's your marketing system, and you use this to generate a consistent flow of leads into the business.
2. Then there's your sales system; this is what you use to nurture leads, follow up with them, and hopefully convert them into paying customers.
3. The third system is your fulfillment system, and this is the actual thing you do in exchange for the customer's money.
4. Lastly, there's your administration system, which encompasses accounts, reception, human resources, etc. It supports all the other business functions.

If you had to start with just one of these systems, the one which will give you the biggest returns on time and money would be your marketing system. Click here to learn how to build your marketing infrastructure and assets.

How To Write A Business System In 4 Easy Steps?

So now we're going to cover the best practices for writing a business system. I've built systems in all of my businesses. These are companies I eventually exited for a tidy profit so I like to think I'm qualified to share my expertise.

When you’re building systems there are three questions you need to think about:

1. Who is going to do it?
2. What are they going to do?
3. When are they going to do it?

Some processes will be handled by people, for example outreach to journalists, podcasts, responding to LinkedIn connections, website maintenance, writing emails, how to order equipment, etc. Some will be handled by technology and automation, so a CRM will send an automated series of emails, Google Analytics will track website visitors and opt-ins.

Knowing this early on is important because it influences the processes you create and how you write your business systems.

But before I get into writing your business processes or standard operating procedure, I want to focus on how you can document your systems.

• You can use text and imagery. For instance, you can use a Google or Word document to list the various steps that someone needs to follow. I like to add screen grabs to illustrate my point. So if I am writing a best practice document for writing a LinkedIn post, I'll take screen grabs of some of my top-performing posts. This graphically shows what emojis to include, how to write a question that draws attention, the position of hashtags, etc.
• You can use audio (where appropriate).
• Or you can document your system with an instructional video. I particularly like using a screen-sharing program like Loom to explain how to do something. I just hit record and can walk through the process step-by-step.

Now that you know how to document your business systems, it's time to map out your process or workflow. And really, there are four stages to writing a standard operating procedure.

Here is what I like to do:

Step 1: Come up with a process.

My team and I will get together, and we will try to define what the best method is. So what is the gold standard? During this brainstorming session, we want to identify who does what. Who is going to compile the data? Who will design the document? Who will film an instructional video? That sort of thing.

Step 2: Document It.

For instance, my copywriter will note down in a document exactly how to pitch media on Haro or Source Bottle. She'll write the process, taking screen grabs of each step. Then my designer might create visuals to illustrate each step. And my marketing assistant will take all of this information and compile it into a branded SOP document.

Step 3: Implement It.

Let's say my copywriter leaves, and I hire a new copywriter. They can take the media pitching business system, read it, and hit the ground running. I can also share it with my 1:1 clients, and they can implement the same process into their organization, so that becomes very powerful.

Step 4: Adjust when necessary.

So sometimes we find, "Hang on, there is a better way of doing it" and then we adjust and course correct.

For best results, show your employees and clients how to put a business system together, then let them do it. Make sure you watch them and provide guidance when needed.

Virtually everything in your business can and should be documented in a business process.

You might think that as a solopreneur you don't need to build systems. You'd be wrong. I show you how to start systemizing as a one person business here.

Four People Business Systems Are Valuable To

Now that you know how to put a business system together let's look at the strategic advantages it gives your organization and who values your systems.

A system is valuable to:

1. Business Owners Value Systems

A business system is valuable to you, the business owner, solopreneur or startup founder.  

• With systems, you're not reliant on people.
• You can expand and escape your business.
• You can franchise or license your company which is an additional cash injection that you can look forward to.

2. Employees & Incoming Staff Value Systems

You or management want to be able to pass something over to a recruit and say, “This is how we do it here, this is our checklist, this is our process, this is our procedure," and it’s very, very important that you're able to do that.

You don’t have to train employees up. All they need to do is follow the procedure outlined in the document. And because you’ve mapped it out, it’s easier to pick up and run with.

• This removes unnecessary frustration.
• It improves the quality of work delivered.
• And it means you’re not people reliant.

Someone can decide to leave, and your business won't stop functioning. The recruit can pick up where the last person left off, and that's a great place to be in.

3. Your Customers Value Systems

Customers want consistency. When you implement systems in your business, each process ensures you deliver consistent results with every interaction.

Your customers know what to expect, and that builds loyalty.

But you can also use your systems document as a byproduct which a coaching client, for example, can implement into their business.

So you’re not only advising your client, but you’re saying, “Look, this is how we’ve done this. It’s our gold standard. We’ve had great success using this methodology, and you can too.”

So that’s a big motivator for clients to choose you over a competitor.

4. Potential Investors Value Systems

They're not just buying the customer base, which is really a historical document, or the revenue, which again, is a historical metric. They're buying a system that generates new leads, prospects, and customers, and a process for delivering products and services. Now that makes the business dramatically more valuable to prospective purchases.

And this is your ultimate customer. It's the person who puts you out of business and writes you that big check that makes you leave and do something else.

Some of the biggest fortunes have been created when owners have sold or licensed their companies.  

But if management depends on you to be present to get things done, it’s really a self-made job and worthless to investors.

So Start With The End In Mind and remember, technology has created more millionaires and billionaires than anything else.

Click How Smart Entrepreneurs Use Technology to create value in your organization.

To Recap

Systems provide solutions for common organizational problems.

The startups and small businesses that win in marketing are the ones that do the simple things consistently. They get them done not because of willpower but because of a business system.

I want you to think of systems as your secret weapon—your Iron Man suit that will help you punch above your weight. Systems let you put much of the repetitive and tedious tasks on autopilot, and that's exciting because it frees up your time to focus on coming up with a new vision, a new way of doing things, a new market to serve, whatever.

So like Jim Rohn says, "Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day. Failure is a few errors in judgment repeated every day."

Don't repeat your errors of judgment daily.

Just put in those few simple disciplines: start documenting your processes, start putting together your marketing system. Make sure you're using technology to reduce friction, create a more consistent experience for your clients, and deliver a wow experience.

Those systems will free you. They'll help you expand, escape, and eventually exit your SME and that, to me as an entrepreneur, is super exciting.

Every team needs business processes. And every entrepreneur needs a team. Learn why here.

The statistics vary on exactly what percentage of businesses fail within the first 5 years.

Some estimates put it as high as 90%. However, I've never seen this statistic being quoted at anything less than 50%.

That means that if we're being super-optimistic, you have a 50/50 chance of still having your doors open after 5 years.

However, here's where it really gets worse. The statistics only take into account businesses that completely cease trading.

They don't take into account the businesses that plateau at a low level and slowly kill or make the lives of their owners miserable.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my new 1-Page Marketing Plan Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

Tell Me More

Most Small Businesses Suck

Have you ever wondered why most small businesses plateau at a mediocre level?

At one end of the spectrum, there’s Pete the plumber who works 16 hour days, weekends and never takes holidays while barely making enough to keep his head above water.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s Joe who runs a plumbing company with 20 plumbers working for him. It seems like his primary business activity is counting the huge sums of money that keep rolling in.

It's very common for small businesses to never grow past the point at which they generate just enough profit for the owner(s) to make a modest living.

It seems that no matter how hard the owner(s) try, their efforts to get to the next level just lead to frustration. At this point, one of two things happen. Either they get disillusioned or they just accept their fate - that their business is nothing more than a low paid self-created job.

In fact, the reality is that many business owners would probably be better off just finding a job in their industry. They would likely work fewer hours, have less stress, and enjoy more benefits and more holiday time than in the prison they created for themselves.

On the flip side, there are a few business owners that just seem to have it all. They work reasonable hours, have a fantastic cash flow from their enterprise and enjoy continuous growth.

The Blame Game

Many business owners who are struggling blame their industry. While it's true some industries are in decline - examples such as bookstores or video rental stores immediately come to mind. If you are in one of these dead or dying industries it may be time to cut your losses and move on, rather than torture yourself to death financially. This may be particularly difficult if you have been in the industry for a long time.

However for the most part when people blame their industry they are just playing the blame game. Some of the most common industry complaints I hear are:

• It's too competitive
• The margins are too low
• Online discounters are taking customers away
• Advertising no longer works

However, it's rarely the industry that is truly to blame, after all there are others in that same industry that are doing very well. So the obvious question is what are they doing differently?

The Business Owner Versus The Technician

Many small business owners fall into the trap described in Michael Gerber’s classic book, The E-Myth. That is they are a technician e.g. plumber, hairdresser, dentist, etc. and they are good at what they do.

Naturally, they start to think to themselves, why should I work for this idiot boss of mine. I'm good at what I do - I'll start my own business.

This is THE major mistake made by most small business owners. They go from working for an idiot boss to becoming an idiot boss!

Here is the key point - just because you're good at the technical thing you do does not mean that you are good at the business of what you do.

So going back to our initial example, a good plumber is not necessarily the best person to run a plumbing business.

This is a vitally important distinction to note and is the key reason that most small businesses fail. The owner of the business may have excellent technical skills but it is the lack of business skills that will cause their business to fail.

This is not meant to discourage people from starting their own businesses. However, you must resolve to become good at the business of what you do - not just the technical part of it.

A business can be an amazing vehicle for achieving financial freedom and personal fulfillment - but only for those who understand and master this vital distinction.

One of the major things I have always concentrated on in all my businesses is creating systems.

After first reading Michael Gerber’s book – The E-Myth, I was hooked. The penny dropped inside the business part of my brain. Good thing too because I’ve done very well out of business systems.

In fact this is one thing that took me from struggling and broke in business to doing well and able to successfully exit multiple startups.

If you’re new to business systems or could use a quick refresher, I’d encourage you to read my two previous articles introducing the topic:

Why A Lack Of Systems Is Stunting Your Business Growth And Costing You A Fortune Eliminating The Bottleneck In Your Business – YOU

In this article, I want to take you on a bird’s-eye view of this vital part of your business success and the four major types of systems you’ll need to build within your business.

But before we dive into building your business systems, I want to remind you that you really need to have mapped out your marketing plan. This is the first step to business success.‍

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my new 1-Page Marketing Plan Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

Tell Me More

Build Replicatable Systems

The most valuable business systems are those which are replicable. If your business relies on a genius or superstar talent at the center of it, then it’s difficult or impossible to replicate.

It also means that you're working all your time in the business, which leaves little free time to strategize ways to expand.

That’s one of the reasons inventor Warren Buffett only invests in “boring businesses” – ones he can understand, that deliver a staple product, that have solid management and generate a lot of cash – how boring!

Among his portfolio you won’t see any high-risk technology startups, highly speculative biotech companies or concepts you can’t understand. These often rely on one or two superstars that would kill the company should they leave. Instead you’ll see solid businesses that have systems which deliver excellent products consistently over a long period of time.

Systems allow mere mortals to run an extraordinary business. Here's how to build a systems as a solopreneur.

Just look at McDonalds – a highly successful multibillion-dollar business run by pimply teenagers who can’t be trusted to make their beds. This is business systems at work.

Once you have a business system that is replicable, people will want to pay you large sums of money for it. This will come in many forms but the most common are:

• Customers wanting to do business with you because you deliver consistent results
• Licensees wanting to license your system
• Franchisees who want to buy into your franchise system
• An investor or competitor wanting to buy out your business

The Four Business Systems

There are four main types of business systems you need to create regardless of what type of business you’re in. You’re almost guaranteed to make a fortune if you can create scalable and replicatable systems in these four areas of your business:

1. Marketing system – Generate a consistent flow of leads into the business.
2. Sales system – Lead nurturing, follow up and conversion.
3. Fulfillment system – The actual thing you do in exchange for the customer’s money.
4. Administration system – Accounts, reception, human resources, etc. Support of all the other business functions.

Regardless of what business you run, these four functions will be relevant to you.

Focus On The Systems That Make You Money

Many small businesses get bogged down with fulfillment and administration while neglecting their marketing and sales systems.

After all, no one is pressuring you with deadlines to get you to do more marketing. All the seemingly urgent issues generally fall into the fulfillment and administration functions.

This causes the common situation where the business is struggling, even though they might be offering excellent products and services.

The problem is that customers don’t find out how good your products and services are until they make a purchase. And if your marketing and sales systems aren’t in place, they will never buy in the first place and find out how good you are. It’s a vicious cycle.

Some rely on reputation and word of mouth. While these are great, it takes a very long time to generate enough leads and convert to customers purely on reputation.

Smart businesses, on the other hand, go to great lengths to perfect their marketing and sales systems. They build marketing infrastructures and craft clever direct response ads.

Very few business problems can’t be cured with more money coming in.

You may have heard of the term “cloud computing” – usually along with claims that it is set to revolutionize the way businesses use technology.

We're going to cover this trend and separate the hype from the reality.

Traditionally when you ran a business, you also needed to run a bunch of computer systems (called servers) to run business applications.

Depending on how big your business is, we could be talking about:

• accounting software
• an email and calendaring system
• customer relations management (CRM) system.

For a small business, this can be a huge cost and headache. The cost goes far beyond the initial, often expensive, purchase of hardware and software. It encompasses software and hardware upgrades, taking care of backups, and ensuring software is kept up-to-date.

Because many small businesses don’t have dedicated IT support on staff. This means downtime when something goes wrong.

As a business owner you have to go through a bunch of IT headaches to get the benefit that software applications gives you.

It was always just a cost of doing business.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my new 1-Page Marketing Plan Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

Tell Me More

‍‍Enter "Cloud Computing"

The idea behind “cloud computing” is to give you the benefit of these business applications without all the associated IT management responsibilities.

You then access these applications via the Internet.

Think of cloud computing in a similar way to electricity. To get the benefits of electricity you could run your own generator. Most people let their electricity service provider worry about the technical details of how electricity is generated and delivered.

We just want the benefits of electricity without all the hassles. So we pay them a monthly fee to take care of it.

Cloud computing is the same thing applied to business software applications. We just want the benefits of the software while letting someone else worry about managing the IT that runs it.

Understanding A Cloud Computing Model

Under the cloud computing model, we pay a service provider a monthly fee for letting us use applications that run on their computer infrastructure.

Some service providers might offer their applications for free in exchange for:

• showing you ads
• hoping you'll purchase a premium version of their service.

Contrary to popular belief cloud computing is not new.

“Cloud computing” is just a nonsense marketing term. It's also been called “network computing,” “hosted applications,” or “software as a service” (SaaS).

Other than the obvious cost advantages, another big benefit of cloud computing is the ability to access your applications from anywhere.

Because the application is delivered via the Internet, you are no longer tied down to your office.

This allows you to access your data from home or even on the go with smartphones and tablets such as the iPhone and iPad.

Example Applications

So what type of software applications can you purchase this way?

Pretty much anything.

In fact, as it stands I pretty much run my whole business “on the cloud.”

To give you an idea here’s just a few of the cloud-based applications that I use every day in my business:

• Email and calendaring: Google Workspace
• File storage: Dropbox
• CRM: Ontraport
• Email marketing: ActiveCampaign
• Web hosting: SiteGround

There are many more but time and space don’t permit and the above would cover the needs of most small businesses.

The Risks And Downsides Of Cloud Computing

The advantages of the cloud computing model are obvious – you don’t need to buy, maintain and upgrade hardware or software yourself.

However, as with anything, there are also risks and downsides.

With cloud computing, you're basically trusting an external third party to properly manage, backup, and secure your data.

And sure like any business relationship where you put your trust in a supplier, there are risks involved.

But the question I ask myself is – could I run this application better than, for example, Google’s army of thousands of Ph.D. propeller heads? Unlikely.

Just like I trust the bank to secure my money, I need to trust my cloud computing service provider to ensure my data is secure.

This makes it vital to deal with a reputable service provider.

Even if they don’t breach the security of your data, you don’t want to be left high and dry if they go out of business.

Closing Thoughts

Cloud computing dramatically reduces the barrier to entry for startups and small businesses – giving them access to applications that would have otherwise been cost prohibitive.

Smart use of technology is essential to running your business successfully and cloud computing is a great tool to that end.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article on Building Business Systems. It will help you to skyrocket your sales and attract investors.

What's your business story? Would anyone care?

Storytelling is something humans have been doing for thousands of years. What began as sand drawings on rock walls has evolved into high-definition, 3D movie marathons. It's the ability to transport a reader or listener somewhere else, or to make them feel something, and that's powerful.

Creating copy that sells is the master skill of marketing. It can easily set you apart from your competitors. So too can personality.

Over the years I’ve met many business owners who’s lively personalities were at odds with their stuffy and overly formal marketing collateral.

No customer walks away thinking what a professional advertisement. They turn the page or change channel, and you’ve lost a sale.

That's why I'm going to show you how to create powerful storytelling.

What is Storytelling?

Storytelling is the art of engaging the mind and capturing your audience's attention with words. It's sharing stories that entertain, educate, and elicit an emotion.

Some might say it's sitting around a fireplace listening to your granny recounting a moment in her life that she's carried with her for nearly seven decades.

Others might say it's watching a theatrical production or reading the news.

Stories create new worlds (think Star Wars, Comic Book heroes like Superman and Thor, J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.)

Brand Storytelling: Why sharing your business story is so important

People connect with brands that tell a story and create an emotional connection. This, of course, does not mean you should be afraid to change your company logo or anything like that.

For example, a children's brand will likely tug on your heart strings, a food brand like Nandos might make you laugh or an adventure brand can help you to experience freedom and thrills.

Facts tell, stories sell.

Consumers are wired for communicating and listening in story form. It's no wonder that so many influencers share personal stories. They know, it's what creates meaning connections and leads to meaningful conversations with their audience.

Also, the truth is we're more inclined to remember story.

Knowing how your brand got its start in life is pretty powerful. Facebook was launched to connect Harvard students. It now connects people across the world.

Uber was born when two friends couldn't find a taxi home. They wanted to give people a way to call a cab via your phone.

So think about your brand story. What emotion do you want to inspire? What do you want to be remembered for?

Learn how to implement storytelling in your marketing emails here.

Storytellers - Why you want to control the narrative

When you control the media, you control what gets published.

Now that’s a really powerful position to be in.

Just think how much easier it would be to get the word out about your brand or new product - not to mention the cost savings. Buying media space is expensive, but not when you own the channel.  

You also control the narrative.

Let’s face it; most of the media has an agenda. They’re not impartial. They’re spinning stories in their favor, and that’s why you need to think of yourself as a media company.

You want to reach your audience as directly as possible, and you want to control the narrative.

You could become the go-to person that people hire to get high yield returns. We’re seeing this a lot on TikTok, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn right now.

Your average Joe is becoming an internet superstar overnight. And that’s because 4.7 billion people use social media everyday.

Half the world’s population.

In America alone, 82% of people consume social media content, and that’s why you need to have your content machine up and running.

Your customers are on these sites. They’re actively scrolling, looking for content that can solve their problems, entertain, and engage.

If you’re delivering value, if someone sees you and takes that advice, they’ll know who to call when they have a problem.

What makes good storytelling?

Have you ever asked a friend what they thought of a particular movie, and the response you got was, "the cinematography was incredible."

Effective storytelling understands that you don't need all these high-tech gadgets to tell a great story.

In marketing, you need these four key elements:

1. Relevance

Before sending anything ask yourself, "Is this relevant to my audience or customer?" If it has no relevance to their business or personal life, they're not going to read it.

That's a wasted marketing opportunity. You want to send content they'd care about. It needs to educate, entertain, and inspire.

2. Interesting

What is an interesting story? It all depends on your audience. If you don't understand what motivates them to buy, you might post the wrong type of content.

But often you can create interest by posting something outrageous or even clickbait.

It's all about hitting consumers' curiosity buttons. For example, numbers are compelling. If you posted an interesting stat about the number of business owners that close their doors in the first five years, that's something I'd be interested in.

So what can you share that would generate interest.

3. Controversial

Nothing can spark conversation quicker than a controversial opinion.

Think back to the time when Elon Musk raised concerns over bitcoin. Overnight the popular investment platform tanked.

Or the other day, when a CEO posted a photo of himself crying on LinkedIn, explaining how difficult it was for him to let three staff go.

That post went viral for all the wrong reasons. People were outraged that he'd wasted a chance to find good people a new job, instead using the opportunity as a pity party.

His story was featured on mainstream media like the New York Post, Market Watch, and Buzzfeed. It garnered thousands of comments, with some praising and others vilifying the CEO.

But if you're looking for an emotional and visceral reaction to your marketing story, consider sharing something controversial. Just be prepared for potential backlash.

4. Unexpected

Can you share something unexpected that will keep your audience glued to every word you say or email you send?

Maybe it's a limited offer, or a chance meeting. If you can surprise your audience, you can delight them.

Email is my preferred media for sharing stories. It's the car that drives my inbound marketing strategy.

Learn more about how I use email marketing in my business here.

An example of a successful brand narrative

After spending an evening with my parents-in-law (enough said), I was driving home, looking forward to a nice relaxing end to my Saturday night when I heard those dreaded words from my wife, "Let's stop off at the supermarket, I just need to pick up a couple of things."

I groaned and pulled into the car park.

Hating shopping more than almost anything else I tried my old classic line, "I'll wait for you in the car" - after all she was only picking up a couple of things and I could use that time productively on my iPhone to catapult some angry birds and complete that level I've been stuck on. But she would have none of it.

I finally found myself in the last aisle of the supermarket, holding a shopping basket heavy with the broken promise of "just a couple of things."

While my wife was busy deciding between grapefruit or coconut shampoo (that's a marketing lesson in itself), something caught my eye - a brilliant marketing ninja move, perfectly executed. Storytelling!

Can you see the huge difference between the two bottles of shower gel on the right versus the one on the left?

The two bottles on the right are one of the best uses of product packaging I've seen in a long time.

The one on the left is boring, safe and almost indistinguishable from the 100 others on the shelf.

Are you telling your backstory?

Here's the lesson - tell your audience about all the effort that goes into delivering your product or service.

In your sales copy and even in your packaging, give them the details of how you painstakingly prepare or manufacture your product.

This applies equally if you deliver services. Tell them about your skills, how you acquired them, all the checks and balances you have in place and how you train your staff.

The back story of your product or service is an absolutely essential part of your marketing. Don't let your efforts and skill go unnoticed.

It gives them an assurance that there is substance and quality behind your product. This is especially important if you are pitching a premium product or service.

Looking back at my photo of the shower gel above, you can see that the backstory here takes up the entire space on the bottle. There isn't even a logo or company name - very smart and very good use of prime real estate!

It will also help to build your brand.

Let's get real

The fact is, no one cares about your logo, company name or some dubious claim about being the leader in your industry. They want to know about what your product will do for them, and your backstory is essential to this.

So there you have it, I went from being an unwilling participant in a shopping trip to seeing a new twist on a valuable marketing principle - good things indeed come to those who wait.

Now back to assisting my avian allies topple those thieving pigs - they don't stand a chance!

If you enjoyed this article, check this valuable piece entitled, What is Direct Response Marketing? As a small business owner, it’s one of the brilliant ways to market your business.

There’s a secret marketing strategy I’ve seen over the years that makes and breaks more businesses than any other.

The reason I say it’s ‘secret’ is not that no one knows about it. Nope, it’s because hardly anyone does it. And yet it’s so important it can mean the difference between eye-popping sales or a foreclosure sign.

I know this can be too overwhelming for someone who's just started to get off the ground. So I'll start with:

What are the Four Basic Marketing Strategies?

You may have heard about the 4 Ps of marketing. I know it sounds like a boring textbook topic, but trust me, it'll bring a lot of value to your business.

And it's not only for large and fast-growing businesses. Small businesses can benefit from this too.

So, the 4 Ps of the marketing mix are:

• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place

Now let's see how it works.

Product

In basic terms, a product is a good or service that you offer to your prospects and customers.

As an entrepreneur, you must have a clear concept of your product as a whole. Think about how you can understand what you're selling, how it meets the needs of your target market, and what makes you different from the competition.

Now if you want to have a successful product, start answering these questions:

• What features of your products and services meet your customers' needs?
• How, where, and when do your customers use it?
• What more do prospects and existing customers want from your products and services? What can you improve?

Price

As everyone knows, price is the cost you pay for a product or service. Implementing the right pricing strategy can be tricky. You must consider different factors before coming up with the numbers.

It's a constant battle between choosing to raise the price and attract more high-value prospects or lower it down so more consumers can try what you offer.

And as an entrepreneur, you should know this is very important. It will affect your profit, supply, demand and other variables. So if your product costs too high or low for your target market, you might compromise your business's success.

When it comes to pricing, ask yourself.

• Are there established price points for your products or services in the industry?
• What value can your products or services provide to buyers?
• How will your price compare to your competitors?

Place

Once you know your price point, the next decision is to strategize the right place to sell your product. And this comes back to your marketing plan, knowing where your target audience hangs out online and which local businesses they shop at.

When you 100% understand your customer base, you can easily determine the right marketing strategies to reach your audience and which marketing campaigns will deliver the best returns.

Whatever your decision, place is a matter of providing convenience and enough access to your target market.

While thinking about the right place to market your small business, ask yourself.

• Where does your target market buy?
• Which is more convenient for them? Buying at a physical shop or online?

Promotion

Having sorted your product, pricing and placement strategies, how do you make your audience aware of services?

The 4 Ps of marketing would be incomplete without promotion—how you market your small business to the public or your customer base. The goal here is to show is twofold.

1. Show consumers why they need your product or service.
2. Explain why they should buy from you. So what result are you selling?

How do you make this happen? This is where you use various channels under digital media and offline media. Both types of media can boost your strategy but digital media has definitely changed how businesses promote their products today. You can now create advertising that target a specific audience.

When it comes to promotion, rev up your marketing strategy by answering the following.

• How can you reach your target market? So do you build a product landing page, or use Facebook advertising? Perhaps your small business marketing media strategy includes Google My Business, Pay Per Click, digital marketing (for example, email marketing campaigns, social media, content marketing), placing ads in local publications, whatever.
• What type/s of media should you use to promote your small business? You want your business to appear in search engine results so it's vital that you create quality content that ranks on Google. Typically this is a combination of content marketing (writing blog posts on your website), PR, and social media marketing. You want your brand to appear in search engines. So content marketing really is a great strategy for small businesses.
• How and where do your competitors promote their small businesses? Maybe your competitors invest tons into Facebook ads or local media outlets like a radio station or community paper. Broadcast is an expensive marketing strategy and one that small businesses should avoid. Instead, add direct mail to your small business marketing strategy.

See which strategies are trending now.

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Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses: Embracing New Concepts

Hunting Versus Farming (From a Marketing Perspective)

Imagine yourself as a hunter. You wake up in the morning, gather your weapons and head out to the hunt. Some days you come back with a kill and your family eats a feast. Other days your family goes hungry. The pressure is on every single day to hunt successfully – it’s a constant battle.

Now imagine yourself as a farmer. You plant your seeds and wait for them to be ready for the harvest. In the meantime, you nurture them and treat them with care. You water and tend to your crop. When they’re ready you start harvesting.

In my experience, most businesses are hunters – not farmers:

• They cold call to generate new business.
• They spend huge amounts of time and energy trying to get a new customer and do anything to close the sale as soon as possible.
• They’re advertising reeks of desperation as they try discounting and competing on price just to make a quick sale.
• They waste huge amounts of time pestering people who are not interested in their product or service.

I'm not saying hunting is generally bad. What's bad is when you solely rely on it.

When it comes to lead flow, you can get these two things from farming:

• Predictability. When it comes to lead flow, no one wants to be stuck on a feast and famine roller coaster ride where today, you're doing great; the next day, you're not.
• Consistency. What you need is to get a consistent lead flow and fill your sales pipeline with prospects that you can nurture for future conversion.

Why You Need to Transition From Pest to Welcome Guest

How do you feel about a dear friend who shows up at your front door? Contrast this with how you feel about a stranger selling door-to-door who interrupts your dinner or family time.

What’s the difference? The former is a welcome guest, someone you have a relationship and connection with. The latter is a pest. You don’t know who he is, where he’s from and most likely you don’t even want or need what he’s selling.

The welcome guest brings value to your life, whereas the pest is just there to interrupt you and to take.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could approach a prospect and be treated by them as a welcome guest rather than a pest? Selling suddenly becomes much easier and more pleasant when you are welcomed with open arms and when the prospect is deeply interested in what you have to offer.

This is the transformation I’d like you to make in your business and in your marketing. Transition from being a pest to a welcome guest. Here’s how…

The Real Goal of Advertising, It's Not What You Think

Most business owners are clueless about the purpose behind their marketing. They slap the name of their business on their ad with a pretty logo and some meaningless slogan claiming to be the leader in their industry or area.

If you ask them what the purpose of their advertising is, most will say it’s to sell their products or to “get their name out there.” This is WRONG! Dead wrong. They may as well be flushing money down the toilet.

The whole purpose of your advertising is not to immediately make a sale – it’s to find people who are interested in what you do and put them on your follow up database so that you can build value for them, position yourself as an authority, and create a relationship built on trust.

After doing this, the sale comes (if it’s right for them) as a natural consequence.

This will take a mindset shift but is an absolutely vital concept to understand.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my new 1-Page Marketing Plan Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses: Three Ways to Sell More as a Marketing Farmer

1. Position yourself as an authority

So how can they see you as a welcome guest instead of a pest? Position yourself as an authority, a trusted figure—someone who can bring genuine value to your prospects' lives. The best way to demonstrate this is to help them before they become a paying client.

Think about it. From a prospect's perspective, would you rather buy from a salesperson constantly following you up for his next commission? Or would you buy from someone who actually listened to your concerns and gave you great advice? It’s a no-brainer.

2. Don’t pressure your prospect

On the sales side, a lot of marketers always think about ABC (Always Be Closing) and all that sort of stuff. But if you're on the customer side, how would you deal with a salesperson doing tricky, weird closes? What would you do if he’s pressuring you to buy right now?

You might have been on that side too before building your own business.

In sales, you want to diffuse pressure. Pressure is a major turn-off. It triggers people to stay away from you. Bombarding their inbox with multiple follow-up emails creates pressure. And they won't reply back because you introduced pressure into the situation.

Stop selling and start talking. Have a conversation. Get to know them. Discover what they’re struggling with, and help them in advance. Make the sales process natural and authentic for your potential customer.

3. Delay gratification

Stop trying to sell from your ad. It’s true that some people reading your advert might be ready to buy immediately. But the vast majority of people won’t be ready to make a purchasing decision on the day they read your ad – even if they are interested in what you do.

If you don’t put them on a database, you’ve lost them. They might have been ready to buy in a month, six months or a year. But since your advertising was “one-shot” you’ve completely wasted that opportunity. Your chances of them remembering your one-shot ad from six months ago is extremely slim.

This also has a secondary side effect with the people who are ready to buy immediately. They see you’re not desperate to sell or discount your product or service. They see that you’re interested in building a relationship first rather than just going for the jugular.

This kind of marketing is similar to farming. It is an investment in your future because as your database grows, so will your business and your results.

Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses: Implementing Your Own Strategy

Before anything else, I'd like to clarify one thing. There's no magic marketing strategy. There's no ultimate, magic bullet that will revolutionize your business.

If you're planning to launch a mind-blowing small business marketing strategy that skyrockets your company in one shot, think twice about it.

That's not how you run a small business. It's more than that. If you want to hit your goals, you have to take a multimedia approach.

Small business owners can implement two or more strategies, as long as they're prepared to run, manage and improve them. Here are some of the most effective marketing strategies for small businesses.

SEO

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is one of the most important marketing strategies for small businesses and it falls under content marketing. This is where you optimize your site structure and content to rank high in search engines. Higher rankings help you gain more visibility, which can further turn into conversions.

So how do you improve SEO for your small business? There are a lot of ways to do it. It covers a broad part of digital marketing.

But for small business owners like you, this can be a great to-do list:

• Run a website audit. This is the first step in identifying where your website and content stand when it comes to search engine optimization. It comes as a report where you'll see your strengths and areas of improvement.
• Learn more about on-page and off-page SEO and see what practices can you implement to produce great results. SEO is categorized into two: on-page and off-page. Depending on the website audit, take a look at areas of improvement and see what SEO practices work best for those. It can vary from keyword optimization, link building, and more.
• Optimize for local SEO. Since you have a small business, you should start local. And with that, think about optimizing for local SEO. This helps you appear more often in local web and mobile search results, reaching more of your target customers. A good place to start is to advertise in Google My Business, use Google AdWords for keywords, and create a listing for Google Maps.

PPC Advertising (Pay Per Click)

This is a type of online marketing strategy that allows you to display your ads on a search engine.

The idea is simple. You have to bid on keywords that might be relevant to search results. Then the search engine identifies which ads will show up.

Google AdWords is a good place to start with your PPC advertising. The key here is to expand and refine your keywords, content strategy to get a massive return.

Email Marketing

Another marketing strategy that you can implement is email marketing. Instead of solely focusing on new customers, you can generate and nurture leads until they're ready to buy.

This won't only help you get more sales, but also build relationships with your customers.

You can start by growing your email list by using a lead magnet. A lead magnet will help you attract more people to sign up for your list. Then, build an email lead nurturing sequence and adjust your marketing strategy for the best results.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is never an option. It's a must-have in your marketing strategy.

This is the best way to build an online presence and expand your reach to your target market.

So in a nutshell, here's how you can build a social media marketing strategy for your small business.

• Find out what channels your target audience use.
• Choose which channels to use on your strategy.
• Build a content plan and strategize on when and how often you post.
• Once the systems are up and running, engage with your target audience and consistently post content that's attention-grabbing and valuable to them.
• Be consistent and track results.

Content Marketing

This is considered the heart of most marketing strategies for small businesses.

It's what ties SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media marketing altogether. All of these marketing strategies will need you to create and publish high-quality content that's relevant and valuable to your target audience.

In a nutshell, your content marketing strategy should include:

• Defining your target market by using a buyer persona
• Create content in different forms. It can vary from blog posts, social media posts, videos, podcasts, and more.
• Deliver content on the right platforms.

Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses: Key Takeaway

Accept the fact most people will not buy right away.

Put them on a database – and the database could be email or physical direct mail (preferably both).

Mail them something regularly to stay in touch, positioning yourself as an expert in your industry or field.

And like a farmer, wait until the prospect is ready for harvest.

This growing list of prospects and the relationship you have with them will become the most valuable asset in your business. It’s the golden goose.

Now when the potential customer is finally ready to buy, you’re a welcome invited guest rather than a pest.

The most important thing you can take away from this message is to become a marketing farmer. It’s a simple three-step process:

1. Advertise with the intention of finding people who are interested in what you do. Do this by offering something free like a report, video, CD, etc. Any kind of free information that presents a solution to a problem they have. This positions you as an expert and as an educator rather than a salesperson. Which would YOU prefer to buy from?
2. Use your website to attract qualified leads. Whether that's through a lead magnet, blog posts, a landing page, whatever. It makes sense to offer something free, for example, a worksheet, template, infographic, how-to guide, anything that gets them to subscribe to your newsletter
3. Continually nurture these potential customers and provide value. For example educate, entertain. I like to focus on marketing tips for small businesses. Most importantly, avoid the temptation to sell. A constant sales pitch is a terrible strategy for small businesses. It'll become old very quickly.
4. Keep in regular contact – at least once a month. If not, you will have wasted your marketing efforts. All of those potential customers will forget you and your relationship will then be relegated to that of a cold prospect and pest salesperson.

If you become a “marketing farmer,” you’ll have a rich and continual harvest as your database grows in number and quality.

I’m here to warn you about the most dangerous number in your business. No this is not about numerology or some woo-woo nonsense like that.

I’m talking about a number that makes businesses brittle.

That is the number 1.

Does your business have only one source of leads? One major supplier? One major customer? Rely on one type of media? Offer one type of product?

To borrow a computer system term, does your business have “a single point of failure”?

If so, your business is brittle and a small change in circumstances outside of your control could have a devastating effect.

That’s a very tough situation to end up in.

The Google Slap

Many online businesses were hit hard when Google changed its search engine algorithm. These businesses put all their marketing budget and effort into search engine optimization and literally overnight found themselves with no other source of leads.

Similarly, when Google started to make changes to the types of paid ads it wanted to show, even advertisers who were paying Google enormous amounts of money each month were hit with the “Google Slap.”

That is Google started to charge them four, five, sometimes even ten times as much as they did previously. This change forced the advertiser to stop their campaigns and try to fix the issue or find another source of leads. In the meantime their business virtually stopped.

Fax broadcasting was effectively outlawed in the United States and many businesses who relied on that as a sole source of leads went bust.

Build on a Solid Foundation

Some wise words of antiquity recommend that we build our house on a rock mass instead of on sand. That way when the storm inevitably comes, our house doesn’t cave in.

The first step is to identify any scenarios where the number 1 can potentially hurt you. Here are some examples:

• What if your largest customer leaves you for a competitor or what if they go bust?
• What if there is a change of government legislation and the product you currently offer gets outlawed?
• What if your main advertising strategy stops working?
• What if your advertising costs rise dramatically?
• What if your currently high search engine rankings disappear or pay per click rates rise sharply?
• What if your biggest supplier raises prices, has a supply shortage or goes out of business?
• What if you rely on email marketing and the government cracks down further on this strategy?

All of these scenarios can and do happen.

If you rely on one of anything, you are leaving yourself in an exposed position – you’re effectively building your house on a sandy foundation. When the storm comes and the floods rise, the house is going to collapse.

Identify and eliminate single points of failure in your business.

That way, if the laws change, if the advertising rates go up, if all of a sudden one specific strategy stops working as well as it used to, your business will be safe.

You’ll be the one with the power because you are not reliant on one of anything.

The late great Jim Rohn had an excellent philosophy on the matter:

“You’ve got to think winter in the summer. It’s just too easy to get faked out when the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy. You’ve got to prepare for winter because it’s coming, it always does.”

In the meantime even if none of these scenarios come to pass, at least you’ll have built a more resilient and valuable business.

What is the key to small business success?

If last year was one you'd rather forget then I have some good news for you - it's history. A new year is here and with a new year comes new possibilities.

But there's a caveat - if you continue to do what you've always done, you'll continue to get the same results you've always gotten.

The last year was a difficult year for many businesses and unfortunately many have not made it into the new year intact and some have not made it at all.

I know that some of you wish business was easier, however instead I'd ask you to wish you were better.

In fact, don't just wish you were better - make the commitment to become better. Make the commitment this year to improve your business skills and thrive in a year that is likely to have more changes and more opportunities than any other year in history.

Here's how.‍‍

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my new 1-Page Marketing Plan Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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The Key To Small Business Success

In my observations of and discussions with many successful entrepreneurs over the years, I have discovered the one trait above all others that leads people to build successful businesses.

That trait is persistence - the ability to get up and try again and again after failure.

The formula is: try and fail, try and fail, try and fail...then finally success. Many entrepreneurs take years of failure to become a so-called “overnight success.” So small business success requires persistence.

Would it surprise you to learn that on average the number of times most people will try something before giving up is less than one? This is particularly a problem in sales.

That's right, most people don’t even try once before giving up; while others give it the half-hearted single try. Fear of failure has them paralyzed like a deer caught in the headlights.

It is so rare to see someone achieve spectacular success on their first try, that it can pretty much be discounted or put down to blind luck. More often than not, you'll encounter several failures prior to experiencing success.

Real entrepreneurs are a very different breed from most people. They will try 3 times, 10 times, 100 times until they achieve the result they are after.

This is the single biggest trait that sets entrepreneurs apart from other people. Having failed so many times they start to lose, or at least manage to tame, their fear of failure.

You might also want to check out the Formula For Rapid Business Growth.

Fear Of Loss Is Holding Your Small Business Success Back

The average person is more motivated by fear of loss than hope of gain. My take on the matter is there are basically two options when it comes to deciding whether or not to pursue a desired goal:

• Option 1 - Do it and there is a chance you will not achieve the desired goal
• Option 2 - Don’t do it and you are certain not to achieve the desired goal

To most entrepreneurs it's a no-brainer - option 1. You've got to be in it to win it.

However, while this kind of attitude is accurate, it does not take in to account the corresponding losses that sometimes accompany not achieving the desired goal.

This fear of negative repercussions is what stops most people from even trying. This could be loss of pride, loss of money or what is perceived as wasted time or effort.

So what to do? How do we keep the fear of loss from paralyzing us?

The best way I know is to simply play out worst case scenarios. Playing them out in detail puts you in control. Once you start playing them out, you often also start coming up with possible solutions and countermeasures which make them far less scary.

The last thing to do is ask yourself two questions; how likely is the worst case scenario to occur and if it did occur what could I do to reverse it so I am no worse off than when I started. You’ll be surprised how often this will be enough to neutralize your fear of failure.

Most people play not to lose. You should play to win.

Practice The "Until" Philosophy For Small Business Success

All of the most successful people I know practice what I call the “until” philosophy. This wonderful philosophy drives you single-mindedly until you smash down every barrier between you and your goal.

They've told you the mountain is too high, it's too far, it's too steep, it's too rocky, it's too difficult. But with an unshakeable resolve you say, “You'll soon see me waving from the top or dead on the side, because unless I reach the peak, I'm not coming back."

This is one of the key philosophies that separates the masses from the top 3%. The masses are seduced and distracted by the  that comes along. Their efforts are weak and scattered and their results are the same next shiny new thing that comes along. Their efforts are weak and scattered and their results are the same.

If it takes a hundred different things to try to solve my major problem, why wouldn’t I try every single one? How many books would I read? How much advice would I seek? How long would I work at it? As many or as much or as long as it takes. That is the “until” philosophy.

Adopt this trait and I promise you'll never be the same!

Or consider hiring a coach? Business coaching has massively helped me to hone in on priorities and scale my business. So if it can work for me, it can work for you.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article on Building Business Systems. It will help you to skyrocket your sales and attract investors.

The two make or break activities in every business is innovation and marketing.

Pretty much everything else you do in your business is a commodity, which can (and often should) be outsourced or delegated.

Your time as a business owner is extremely scarce and valuable. As such you should be laser focused on the two highest value tasks in your business - innovation and marketing.

Do You Want to Grow Your Business Rapidly?

Then you need to market it. But not just any marketing will do. In my new 1-Page Marketing Plan Course, I show you the exact techniques I've used to start, grow, and exit several multi-million dollar businesses, so you can too.

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Innovation In Business

Firstly a word about innovation – by innovation, I don’t mean re-inventing the wheel or coming up with something completely new.

In fact, I seldom recommend that, as it is expensive, risky and time-consuming.

I would much rather take something existing, which I know works, and simply replicate it with predictable results.

Innovation simply means having some unique advantage which differentiates you in the market. Something to present you as different so that you are not competing solely on price.

This could include how it is presented, packaged, financed, positioned, delivered or even what sort of guarantee or bonus comes with the product or service.

Marketing Your Way To Success

Secondly marketing. No matter how good or how different your product is, it will make no difference if your marketing stinks or is non-existent.

History is littered with examples of technically superior products that failed to gain acceptance in the market - primarily due to poor marketing. Some examples include Betamax, The Newton, and LaserDisc to name just a few.

Good, even great, products are simply not enough. Marketing must be your other major activity for business success. In fact, it should be what you, as a business owner, spend most of your time on.

I often speak to business owners who are in need of help with their marketing. Often they will start by telling me how good their product or service is - the amazing features and benefits they offer.

I often respond with this question: "When does a prospect find out that you have a great product or service?" After some umming and erring, the penny finally drops, and the reluctant answer comes out: "When they buy it."

So here's the point. No matter how good your product or service is - no one will ever know unless they actually buy it. You need to get people to buy from you so that they can experience how good your product or service actually is.

To really get good at the art of marketing you need a marketing plan. This tells you exactly what to do at each stage of the buyer journey. Make sure you've got your marketing plan locked and loaded.

Marketing & Innovating Your Business Success

So while a great product is vital for keeping your customer. You need to be an excellent marketer to actually get the customer in the first place.

If you are not yet an excellent marketer, I would urge you to develop this vital business skill.

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy our article on How to Create a Lead Magnet that Converts in 6 Steps. As a small business owner, it’s the smarter way to acquire leads for your business and build your authority.