|
Poor Folk Marketing.com
|
marketing iedas internet marketing online marketing offline marketing | |
|
Featured Business, Start a Personalized Candy Wrapper Business: Wrapcandy.com |
|
|
| |
| |
| Home | Small Business Information | Pay Per Click Advertising | Affiliate Revenue | Web Promotion | |
|
|
|
Are You a Small Business Lone Ranger? Take My 10-Question Quiz To Find Out!
So what exactly is a "Small Business Lone Ranger?" A "Small Business Lone Ranger" is a business owner who does all the work themselves. No matter how big or small the project, the Lone Ranger handles 100% of it. Either because they're afraid to let go of control or because they feel they can't afford to hire help. Can you relate? I know I can! So what's wrong with doing everything yourself? Well it's tough to grow your business if you're busy managing every single detail. I know it's a bit scary to let go of control or to consider actually hiring help, but I also know it's necessary if you want to grow your business to its fullest potential. Take my 10-question quiz to determine if YOU are a Lone Ranger. And don't worry if you are, I've got some suggestions to help you rid yourself of this business-stifling affliction! 1. Do you work alone? 2. Do you feel no one can do your work quite as well as you? 3. Do you often feel there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done? 4. Do you maintain your own website? 5. Do you do your own accounting and billing? 6. Do you write your own sales and marketing copy? 7. Do you get your own mail? 8. Do you buy your own office supplies? 9. Do you create or deliver all your products and services by yourself? 10. Do you fulfill and ship all your sales yourself? I think you can see this list could go on and on and on, but you get the idea. So if you answered "Yes" to most or all of these questions, guess what, YOU ARE A LONE RANGER! That's okay, I've been one, too. When your business is small you have to wear many hats because you can't afford to hire help. But at what point do you make a decision to start delegating tasks to someone else? ANSWER: When the time you're spending on administrative tasks involved in keeping your business running prevents you from spending time growing your business. As a business owner, you should aim to spend at least 60% of your time marketing. You are the BEST person to market your product or service. And marketing is the only way your business will grow and flourish. So if you're too busy paying bills, getting the mail, responding to email and running out to pick up office supplies, then guess what? You don't have time to market. And your business cannot grow. So what's a Small Business Lone Ranger to do? Here are 6 tips: 1. Make a list of all the tasks that don't require your specific expertise or talent (things like sorting mail, buying office supplies, and filing). 2. Make a second list of the tasks that consume a lot of your time but are OUTSIDE your specific area of expertise (things like maintaining your web site or managing your business finances and accounting). 3. Determine how many hours per week you spend doing these tasks. 4. Determine what additional sales and marketing, or other business-building activities you would have time for if you didn't have to do these other tasks. 5. Estimate how many additional clients or sales you could generate with this extra time spent on marketing and building your business. 6. Make a decision to hire an assistant, bookkeeper, web site manager or whatever specialists are appropriate to handle these tasks. Determine what you can afford based on your results in Tip #5. I know you're probably wondering how you'll be able to afford it. But really, we can't afford NOT to hire help. Unless we are satisfied with keeping our business small. And don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that - I've done it for seven years. But if you have a bigger vision (like I do now), then you need a team to help you make that vision a reality. To start with, your team should include an assistant to do the work that is not a good use of your time. This doesn't have to be a full-time employee; I'm starting out with someone just a few hours a week. You'll also want to get a bookkeeper and a CPA to manage your finances - they'll not only free you up from your accounting tasks, they'll also help you keep more of what you do make. So take a moment to get a clear vision of what kind of business you want to create. And if that vision is larger than you can accomplish on your own, take the six steps above to get a team to help you make it a reality. (C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa 20-year marketing veteran Debbie LaChusa created The 10stepmarketing System to help small business owners successfully market their business, themselves, without spending a fortune on marketing. To learn more about this simple, step-by-step program and to sign up for her FREE audio class and FREE weekly ezine featuring how-to articles, tips and advice, visit http://www.10stepmarketing.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Small-Business - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Protect Yourself & Your Business As a business owner, you already know how important it is for your customers to feel safe about doing business with you. After all, if a customer even suspects he may not receive everything he was promised, then chances are he's taking his business elsewhere. Wichita KS; Anything is Possible in Wichita Business Just when the entire state was kissing Wichita goodbye, economically speaking, they turn around their economy like a hammer-head stall. The BTK is caught and has gone away and the Aircraft Industry has decided to stay. How To Get Slightly Famous in Print Early in my career, I wrote an article for a small business magazine about self-publishing as a marketing tool for businesses. Because I specialize in helping businesses get into print, the article only took a few hours to write. Why The Carwash Industry is Stagnant; What You Can Do to Change Your Field Many years ago, I had warned the carwash industry of problems brewing in customer dissatisfaction as we continued to grow our car wash company into a National Franchise Chain. I warned of environmental controls, speed of wash, water usage, quality of labor, price points, car wash fundraisers, car damage, up selling and hot wax. Top Ten Blunders Business Owners Make In today's marketplace the words 'job security' have become an oxymoron. So more and more people are venturing on their own. How to Sponsor an Event for Fun and PROFIT How do you sponsor an event and get personal introductions at the same time?So how can sponsoring help you to be visible to the business community and gain the right contacts? It is actually quite simple, you need to find events that are visible to the audience you are interested in.Find out: Whom you wish to do business with Which sports they like What community events they likeWhere the upper management families live and their community involvementThe events that they watch are the ones that you should sponsor. New Habits, Rebounding Economy Help To Sell Giftware and Collectibles Just a few years ago, when one thought of a home-based sales business, Tupperware, Avon and a host of multi-level marketing schemes might have come to mind. Today, however, changing market conditions and evolving consumer habits have converged to make home-based selling businesses a realistic opportunity with real profit potential. Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Joining a Professional Association I'll be the first to admit that I went a little nuts when I moved I moved recently in terms of going all-out to participate in a variety of professional associations. I had some experience with most of the groups that I visited in other places I had lived, or had clients who had positive experiences with certain groups. Obtain Maximum Results For Your Small Business Through Better Time Management Most small business owners are faced with so many responsibilities and an unbelievable workload throughout the day. Mainly because of the many different roles that we have to play. How To Start a Small Business Not sure how to start a small business? This guide will offer you some useful tips on the basic requirements of starting a small business.Initially, there are two types of businesses available to you, Sole Trader or Partnership. Beating the Small Business Cash Flow Blues Small business owners can relieve a lot of their own cash flow problems, according to Caroline Jordan, small business advisor and author. "Small business owners have more control over their cash flow than they realize. Small Business Marketing Secrets: Look Like Sizzle, Be The Steak You've heard marketing and advertising gurus quip, "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Advertising initiatives best reach their target audience with benefits and the "wow" effect, not the value or features of their product or service. The Key to a Successful Business Where would a business be without a business plan? A business plan sets the course for the future of the business. It gives the business owner or manager a sense of direction, listing the objectives and goals of the business from the outset. Virtual Assistance for Healthcare Professionals Administrative and clerical tasks are the bane of every industry. No matter how small or large your business is, you will eventually find yourself with stacks of paperwork that need your attention and phone calls that need to be made. Franchise Buyers Lying On Forms The Federal Trade Commission which governs the franchise industry thru the franchise rule, which enforces Franchise Disclosure laws seems to think that consumers need to be protected even when they lie. Often The FTC takes complaints from consumers who claim they had been ripped off or lied to from someone selling a Biz-OP or some corporation, which sells franchises. How to Profit Handsomely From a Secret Business Model Virtually No Small Business is Using! Have you been searching for the perfect home-based business? I have spent nearly twenty-five years searching for the holy-grail of home-based businesses. Now this article is not about a business, but rather a system that Fortune 500 companies always use but it's rarely used by home-based businesses, affiliate or network marketing companies. Reverse Merger: Have They Taken the Reverse out of Reverse Merger? Are the promoters and consultants destroying the market for Reverse Merger? First lets take a look at reverse merger. In a Reverse Merger, an operating private company merges with a public company that has little or no assets, nor know liabilities (the "shell"). Business Valuation is Critical What is Business Valuation?The term business valuation is the method by which the business worth is determined. This usually happens when the business is for sale, when the business is looking for extra funding from the banks, when the business is considering taking on extra investors, or where the business is looking at merging with another organisation. What Help is there for Veterans Starting a Business? Some of the very qualities that attract people to the military life are what make them good candidates for an internet based home business. What are these qualities? A sense of adventure, an attraction to signs of leadership and the ability to discern what constitutes a good leader, courage and idealism and an understanding of the joy of testing one's own limits. Data Loss - Can Your Company Survive? (Most Do Not) Data. Most people think it is a term relegated to the kingdom of geeks.
|
| home | site map |
| PoorFolkMarketing © 2007 |