MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS!
Published January 30, 2010
It’s a Catch-22 isn’t it?
You work hard to get the information out about your business. You spend a lot of time searching and researching potential clients. You even throw a bunch of cash into the effort. And then…
You get busy.
The marketing push pays off. You get clients out the wazoo (whatever that means). And you find yourself working 10 to 12 hour days to keep up. You smile all the way to the bank. And then it happens…
You get un-busy.
Why? Because you didn’t have time to keep the marketing effort going.
One time when my youngest son, Jordan, was very young, I told him to clean up his room. And as with most kids, I had to tell him again. And again. To the point where I told him to go in his room and not come out until it was cleaned up.
About an hour later I checked in on him. Nothing. The room was still a disaster.
Finally, I was so frustrated with him that I sat him down on the bed, looked him in the eye and asked why he hadn’t cleaned up his room?
He looked up at me with that perfect innocent look of a 5 year old and said, “Dad, you made me stay in my room. I can’t play AND clean up the room at the same time!”
That’s what happens in business also. A lot of us get so busy working that we don’t take the time to keep the business coming. It’s a big, costly mistake that too many companies make. And then when business does slow down, the pressure is on, attitudes change, stress goes up, and revenues go down. Because some of us don’t know how to play AND clean up the room at the same time.
I’m in the voiceover business. And while each business is a little different, there are a lot of basics that work for all business. I have a theory that works for me. I use the 10-10-10 method.
Once the business is flowing, I spend 10% of my time each week to generate new business; I spend 10% of my revenues on marketing strategies; and I expect my business to grow by at least 10% each year. It works for me.
And there is actually another 10 in there. I’ve found I spend 10% of my time cleaning up my studio. Because I can’t play AND clean up my room at the same time.