Nine Common Small Business Mistakes and Cures*
Every small business makes mistakes in the journey to success. Stay alert to the pitfalls by planning ahead and taking steps to avoid the common mistakes.

Can You Relate To Any of These Mistakes?
1. An over-reliance on the “vision” and an underdeveloped plan to get there. Your goals are the easy part to define. Work tirelessly on a disciplined strategy toward achieving these goals.

2. Not sustaining your passion for your business through the tough times. We all have times that “test us.” This is the time to dig down deep and remember why you are in business and renew that hunger for success and passion for what you do. Remember, Thomas Edison had about 1,000 failures before finally inventing an electric bulb that worked.

3. Coasting when things are going well and becoming lax about sustaining an aggressive business model.

4. Not diversifying. You should always have new plans and look for new ways to expand on your initial offerings.

5. Not budgeting enough money for branding, advertising and marketing. Business owners frequently fail to set aside adequate funds to get the word out and look credible.

6. Not setting your business apart from the competition. Actively make your product or service distinct from your competition and use this distinction as part of your marketing and advertising.

7. Neglecting loyal existing customers. Word of mouth is powerful free advertising, so keep your good customers happy and content. Always try to improve customer relations. However, if a customer becomes a major distraction to your business, find a diplomatic way to let them go and move on.

8. Not being focused on efficiency. Time is money, so let others help you reach your business goals if they can do a task better and faster. If you know the best possible way to do something, teach those around you. This will free up your schedule to focus on business growth.

9. Doing things on your own, when you need help. Sometimes we let our ego cloud our judgment and we don’t realize that we would have been better off hiring an expert. While often times cost is the true inspiration for doing things on our own, there are times when doing things on our own proves to be costly.
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*Source: Matt Chansky  http://www.momentum18.com/common-business-mistakes.html

The economy is down. Make the most of it by reading the signs. Call it economic uncertainty. Call it a full blown recession. Call it opportunity comes-a-knocking, especially for those companies with vision, a remarkable message and the desire to grow.

When the business winds blow south and everybody gets tight with marketing, advertising and selling, what does your company do? Hunker down, cut to the bone, hope and pray you’ll ride it out? That’s your cue to step in and step up, snatching your competitors clients. Slow and steady isn’t going to win this race. Neither is short-term business think.

There is a massive amount of research to support this kind of thinking. A McGraw-Hill study of 600 companies showed that those who cut advertising during the recession of the early 80′s, saw sales increase by 19% between 1980 and 1985. Companies that continued to advertise, market and connect during the recession had sales increases of 275% during the same period. That’s right, a whooping 275% increase. Now what are you going to do?

Think about it. When your competitors decide to hide in the woodshed, it’s time for you go for the remarkable connection and win the competition. Because if you decide to hide out along with them, you’re going to suffer, right along side them. If you decide to wait it out, there is one thing you can depend on – companies that wait during the downturn, spend more money over a longer period of time just to get even.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_S_OGrady

Segment your Market -
All customers are not the same. They have different needs, preferences, and budgets. Segmenting the market into a group of similar customers can help you develop a successful marketing strategy. Trying to satisfy every customer with the same approach is not going to be effective and profitable.

Examples of ways to segment your customers:
- location
- age
- income
- education
- previous buying habits
- how they respond to different advertising promotions

Competition -
Make a list of your competitors. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who are the major competitors in this market?
- How different they are in delivering their products and services?
- How do they make money?
- How much they charge and what they offer to the customers?
After you answer these questions ask yourself what they do better than you do.

Value Proposition / Unique Selling Proposition (USP) -
In order for your market approach to be successful you have to offer something different. You need to develop an effective value proposition or unique selling proposition. In your value proposition you will list your products and service features and the benefits they deliver to your customers.  Now you need to communicate your value proposition to your target market by:
- Advertising: print media, TV, radio, internet ads, search engine optimization, website marketing
- Public Relations: press releases, events
- Sales Promotion: special offerings, discounts, customer loyalty programs
- Community Involvement: sponsorship

Marketing ROI -
Key to effective marketing is measuring your promotional activities. For example, how many customers do I get from my ad in newspaper and how much did it cost me to get these customers. Now you can compare different alternatives and improve your marketing return on investment in your next promotions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ivo_Legenda

Many people are often confused with the words marketing and advertising. Marketing and advertising are two closely linked factors of an organization. The basic difference between marketing and advertising is that advertising is a key element of marketing. Marketing includes all basic functions of promotions and advertising is one of them.

Marketing:
In simple terms, marketing is a wide range of activities that a firm undertakes to place its products or services to fulfill the needs and wants of customers. Marketing is the exchange of goods between buyers and sellers in a mutually beneficial manner.

Marketing includes four controllable factors such as product, price, place and promotion. They are collectively called marketing mix. The management of a company has keen interest on these terms, because they determine the success of a firm company in market place. These parameters are designed based on the company’s resources and constraints. They even determine the acceptance of your products or services in the market.

A firm adopts certain methods to communicate with the target audience. These methods are collectively called as Marketing communications (Promotion Decisions). A mix of marketing communication includes:
1. Advertising
2. Sales Promotion
3. Personal Selling
4. Direct Marketing and Sponsorship
5. Publicity and Public relations

Advertising:

Advertising is the basic form of promotion decision. It is the most effective mass communication method. Advertising is a paid form of communication by an identified sponsor. It conveys non- personal, public messages with non-personal presentation of features to both existing as well as potential customers.

Advertising is the presentation of an idea, product, place or a person to induce the attention of customers. It is a part of the communication strategy, which communicates the firm’s offerings with the target group. Target customers get the ideas of products through advertisements published in newspapers, direct mail, billboards, radio, internet and television.

Advertising also addresses key decisions of placing ads and determining their frequencies on various forms of media. Advertising is the most expensive communication as well as promotional method. The cost of placing advertisements varies according to the selection of the media. For instance, advertising on television and internet are highly expensive.

In short, advertising is a small part of marketing, but is one of the key marketing functions. On the other hand, marketing refers to all the processes that facilitate deals between buyers and sellers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christopher_Clarke

The Value of Effective Networking

Networking is about building good relationships in a more formalized way. The key to being an effective networker is to see a relationships’ progression as more of a slow burn, rather than walking into a group and seeing who is instantly available to sell your products or services to.

The key to effective networking is to see what you can do for the other person. The most effective networkers are the people who are genuinely on the lookout for their fellow group members. By establishing how you can help the other person, without looking for anything in return, enables your fellow networkers to feel confident about your integrity. The person who is generous in this way will stay in people’s minds as someone to be trusted and valued.

Having follow-up emails and meetings with associated service providers after networking meetings are useful to maintain the continuity. These meetings can be relatively short, say an hour in length, but are a good way for business people to discover if there are ways that they can support each other. This is often a win/win situation as one person gets some business and the other is able to offer a more comprehensive service to their clients, and so appear more professional.

Staying in peoples’ minds means that it is important to attend meetings regularly. Some network groups require a membership commitment and this entails an annual subscription fee. Other groups are more informal and allow people to visit as and when they choose, paying an attendance fee for each visit. If you are a member of a group it is important to maintain the continuity of your presence. It strengthens the group dynamics and it also enables you to be seen as someone who is committed to your business and the group as a whole.

Also, some networking groups have web sites that allow members to contribute their articles or join forums and discussion groups. All these are opportunities to introduce yourself, spread the word, and establish yourself as someone who is experienced and knowledgeable in your field. This enables other networkers and potential clients to understand more about what you do. It is a further way to reinforce the relationship and peoples’ confidence levels in you and your skills. It is the way to give you an edge, something for potential customers to see as making you special from the competition, a reason to choose you.

Asking for warm leads is important. If someone does have a recommendation for you, ensure that the potential client knows who you are and is expecting your call. Maybe even arrange a meeting where you are able to be introduced properly. This strengthens the confidence that the potential client has in you. After all, we all our more positive about buying from someone who comes warmly recommended.

All it takes are one or two really good leads to make all the effort worthwhile. These could be the leads that really set your business on its feet and sustain it over many years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susan_Leigh