Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker… and Marketer?

Smart business owners and independent professionals think and act differently than their less successful counterparts. They don’t differentiate between their vocation (doctor, consultant, widget maker) and marketing. They know that to have a profitable business or practice, they must integrate marketing into virtually everything they do.

Of course, a large professional practice or larger business can delegate or outsource their marketing. There might be a dedicated marketing “team” but the most successful enterprises know that marketing is everyone’s job.

Marketing is simply telling people what you do, repeatedly, in as many ways as possible. Each time you’re asked “What do you do?”, you have an opportunity to compellingly convey your message. There are literally hundreds of ways to tell your prospective clients about you and your business.

In my experience, the problem lies in the negative mindsets that many business owners have when it comes to marketing. Here are a few common beliefs:

• Marketing is not my “job”. We just covered several reasons why marketing is your job.

• I don’t know where to start! Many entrepeneurs are inundated with resources on marketing so it’s not a lack of knowledge but a case of information overload! That’s why you need an actionable marketing plan which can be systematized and measured.

• I don’t have the time! Is this really true? Are you doing things that you could easily delegate to someone else? Figure out how much your time is really worth and ask yourself if it’s worth doing yourself or hiring someone to do it for much less.

When you see marketing as a primary, indispensable part of your job, you can start putting systems into place which will make it easy to choose simple, effective strategies and do them consistently.

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