Tough Marketing Lesson: Sometimes It’s Better to Fire a Client or Customer!

You were probably shocked to read the title of this post. It was a hard lesson that I’ve learned these past few days, but it’s true. Even I am guilty of always trying to go the extra mile to please customers, no matter what the cost to my own business. But in reality, there are situations in which it’s best to simply let a client or customer go. Here’s why.

I have a client who pays a ridiculously low rate. I accepted this assignment because I felt bad for her and her inability to pay more, and her obvious need for marketing assistance. My other clients pay, literally, five times the hourly rate that she is paying. Yet, she has been the most demanding and difficult client I have ever worked with. A self-proclaimed “self-taught” html-coder, she did not agree with the W3C compliant standards I adhered to when creating pages and templates for her website.

When she asked me to create a PowerPoint presentation, I took very specific instructions on exactly what she wanted the design to look like. After following her exact specifications of “plain white background with nothing but the text and the logo in the lower right-hand corner of every slide”, her response was that it needed more “design work”. She then proceeded to inform me that she felt I lacked the experience that she needed. I laughed.

After spending countless hours of unbillable time trying to please this client, and then being insulted by her, I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I must actually fire this client. I have far too much other work to be doing for clients who appreciate the value of my time and expertise to be wasting that valuable time trying to please someone who will never be happy. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she asked me to help drive traffic to her internet marketing pyramid scheme site that she firmly believed was going to make her rich. I have an ethical concern promoting a product that tries to take advantage of the many people who are seeking desperately for a way to support their families during these difficult economic times and asking them to invest money in a ridiculous scam.

The lesson here is that at some point while building your business, you may have to make a similar difficult decision. If you find that 10% of your clients or customers are taking up 90% of your time but making up 5% of your total income, the unfortunate reality is that you are actually hurting your own progress by continuing to work with these people.

If a customer or client has a legitimate complaint, by all means, you should attempt to resolve it in any way possible. But, if you find yourself continuously jumping through hoops to try to please one or two clients who ar paying very little in comparison with much easier to work with clients, it’s time to re-evaluate what makes sense for your business. Cut your losses and move on to the positive people who will help you grow your business and be successful – and to those who understand the value of your time.

How to Start a Business

With unemployment rates soaring, some out-of-work professionals wonder how they’ll make ends meet if they can’t secure another position. It may be a scary time to start a business, but when you’re faced with few alternatives, the motivation to succeed is even higher. Learning how to start a business is not as difficult as it sounds.

First, you’ll need to decide on an industry. In the current economic conditions, it would be wise to choose a recession-proof industry. Think about goods and services people will need and continue to buy even during difficult economic times. Your second step is to create a business plan. Consult with an attorney to determine what forms you’ll need to file to establish your business and file your business name. After the paperwork, work on creating a brand identity for your business, have business cards and marketing materials created, and start advertising your products and services.

Gold Alliance Group offers a much more detailed range of resources describing the different aspects of starting a small business. Depending on the type of business you’re starting, there may be other steps involved, such as setting up physical office space or ordering a supply of products. If you plan carefully and make wise decisions, starting a business during a recession could be the smartest thing you’ve ever done!

Persistence Pays Off!

“Persistence Pays Off.” It’s a phrase that’s been used by inspiring entrepreneurs and successful people under a variety of circumstances, yet it rings true in each and every one. Persistence does pay off, no matter what your goal is.

Entrepreneurs, athletes, people on a mission to get fit or lose weight, sales professionals trying to land a great deal, business men and women seeking a promotion, new position, or raise. In each and every one of these situations, persistence pays off. It rings true.

Persistence pays off in marketing, too. Persistence – and consistency, which we’ve discussed before. You will see results if you are persistent in your marketing efforts, no matter what your marketing objectives are for the year. If your efforts are persistent and consistent, they will pay off.

Don’t give up on your new marketing plan one month into the year because you haven’t reached your goals yet. My life coach taught me yesterday that when I look at my goals for the whole year, the rest of the year seems like plenty of time to get it all done. Not everything needs to be accomplished today! Great things sometimes take time to accomplish, which is an unfortunate reality for those of us with Type-A personalities who want everything done yesterday. Practice exercising patience, and keep being persistent with your plan, and give it a chance to work!

Dedicate Time to Building Your Business

You’ve got to dedicate time to building your business.  Business isn’t going to be knocking down your door without any effort on your part. Unless, of course, you’ve got a niche market totally cornered or you’ve been around awhile and are the absolute best at what you do, and everyone knows it. For most of us, that’s not the case (well, at least the part about everyone knowing we’re the best).  You’ve got to make a consistent effort at marketing your business, or you may end up a casualty of this awful economic crisis that’s happening all around us.

You can’t allow yourself to become distracted by the day to day operations of your business. While those tasks are extremely important, you absolutely must set aside dedicated time each and every week to work on business development activities. If you truly do not have the time, hire someone!  If you’re really that busy working that you don’t have time to work on building your business, you can afford to make an investment in a marketing consultant – such as Stringfellow Creative.  It’s an investment, not an expense, because it should net you a solid return if you hire well.  The great thing about consultants is that they’re not employees, and they can handle short or long-term projects.  If you develop a good relationship, you’ll probably find yourself passing on regular assignments, but if it doesn’t work out, there’s no obligation to continue working with that person.

Otherwise, if the situation above doesn’t describe you – as in, you really can’t afford to hire outside marketing contractors, or you’re truly not that busy working, you’re just busying yourself with other things that could be rearranged – then you need to reevaluate your priorities and your daily routine. In the current economy, it is absolutely essential for any small business to be on top of their marketing efforts. Only the strong and the savvy are going to come through this economic crisis unscathed.

There are simple tasks that can boost your brand recognition that you can easily be conquering each week. Update your blog, submit an article for publication, make a few cold calls. Re-design your website, send out a few brochures in the mail, or attend a local networking event. Work on improving your search engine positioning.  No effort will be wasted.

The bottom line is, no one is going to do it for you. You’ve got to advance yourself towards your own goals, and you can only do that by taking action.

What Motivates You?

I was just sitting at my laptop, trying to decide which of the many things on my seemingly endless to-do list I should tackle first. My mind wandered to my tendency to procrastinate certain tasks, and why? Some items on my list jump out at me and I dive right in and get them finished, but others seem to linger there for weeks at a time.

Apparently I have somehow categorized my list, mentally, in order of priority, using criteria that are not obvious to me at the moment. Suddenly, I realize the importance of being aware of what motivates you. I’ve always been the kind of person with internal motivation, yet now I find myself neglecting the items on my list that are important only to me and my own business. I have no problems completing work for my clients well ahead of schedule. To me, that sounds like external motivation.

So what is it that motivates you? Learning what motivates you to take action can be hugely helpful when you’re trying to reach a goal. Does money motivate you? Opportunity? Prestige? The simple fact that you don’t like lingering items on your to-do list? You want free time with no obligations hanging over your head? You don’t like to fail?

Whatever it is that motivates you, try to pinpoint exactly what it is. Then try to manipulate situations so that your motivating force is present and can help you reach your goals. If you’re motivated by having to answer to another person, let someone else in on your plans and ask them to hold you accountable. If you’re motivated by opportunity, set a goal to find a new opportunity – there are plenty around for the taking, despite what the media might have you believe. The best opportunities are those that are created out of a challenge.

What motivates you into action? I’d like to hear your ideas.

Take Calculated Risks for Growth

As a business owner, you’ve already had experience with taking risks. Starting a business is always a risk, because there’s no guarantee your business won’t fail. Even if you’ve been in business for awhile, you have to make an effort not to fall into the “play it safe” trap that we all get sucked into every now and then.

Playing it safe might seem like a good strategy, but if you really want your business to grow, you’ll have to learn to take calculated risks. There’s no need for you to have to shoot blindly in the dark, although for some, that’s their style, and that’s okay too. But if you learn to take calculated risks, you can minimize your chance of failing while still taking advantage of great opportunities.

So if presented with an opportunity, playing it totally safe might mean you’re missing a chance to achieve something really big. Evaluate your options and determine ways that you can still take advantage of an opportunity that has come your way while minimizing your risk. Analyze your worst-case scenario, and develop a plan to overcome that obstacle if the worst-case scenario were to become reality.

Sometimes the greatest opportunities come with the biggest amount of risk. While betting your last dollar might not be the best idea, there are smaller risks that you can take that will help your business grow. You’ll win some, and you’ll lose some, but you will most certainly achieve long-term growth. Best of all, you’ll become a stronger person for learning to overcome your fears and your obstacles.

Generating Passive Income

Is your business generating passive income, or is it strictly fee-for-service, or fee-for-sale? Many business owners are passing up the opportunity to create automated cash flow without much effort on their part. Passive income is income that you do the work for once, but get paid for over and over again. A great example is rental income. Rental income is passive, and it’s not subject to self-employment tax. Most of us aren’t in the real estate business, but we can still create passive income that helps us maintain a steady cash flow during the peaks and valleys of income that can come with business ownership.

There are a couple easy ways most business owners can generate some passive income. If you have a business website, is it making you money? I don’t mean by getting you new clients, although it should certainly be doing that. You business website can be making you money through advertising revenue, affiliate products, or sales of your own information products.

Your website doesn’t have to turn into one of those outrageous sales pages in order to make you money. A few strategically placed ads can earn you some extra cash each month without affecting the integrity of the other content on your site. You can also promote one or two relevant affiliate products without your site turning into a full-fledged internet marketer’s paradise. By keeping your ads and your affiliate products relevant to your target audience, they won’t be intrusive and can actually be more successful than some of the more blatant affiliate marketing sites.

The other simple thing you can do to generate some passive income through your business website is to create and sell your own information products relevant to your business activity. If you’re not skilled at writing, you can hire an outside consultant to write your material in your name, also known as a ghostwriter. The targeted audience that is visiting your website already has an interest in your product or service, or at least in your general industry, and generally won’t be offended or turned off by your offering an additional resource at a minimal cost.

Prospering During Tough Economic Times

Our current economic crisis has most of us afraid for the future.  Small business owners seem to be in the most delicate balance of the whole situation, and political campaigning has small business at the forefront.  What can you do as a small business owner to remain prosperous during these difficult economic times?

The mistake most businesses make during a slow economy is that they immediately cut back on marketing.  Now is the time when you need to focus more on your marketing efforts, because other businesses will be cutting back on their marketing budgets, which leaves an open opportunity for your business to be top-of-mind.

There are ways to increase your marketing efforts without spending more money.  The internet is rich with opportunities to advertise your business free or for a very minimal cost.  There are free directories that you can submit your website to, free article directories that allow you to publish articles showcasing your knowledge to your potential customers, discussion forums for you to participate in, social networking opportunities, and much more.

If the web atmosphere is unfamiliar territory for you, seek the advice of an internet marketing expert. Many marketing consultants, such as Stringfellow Creative, can teach you how to use the internet to run a successful, low-cost internet marketing campaign that will drive sales even during periods of economic crisis.

Create a Plan

If you’re like me, you frequently have tons of ideas running through your mind, different ways that you’d like to try marketing your business. My problem is, I never have nearly enough time to implement them all. That’s why it’s important to have a plan. By having a plan, you can be sure to devote the proper amount of time to all the various marketing strategies that you want to try. Giving each idea the time and effort it deserves will really give you an idea of whether a particular method has been effective.

The good news is, you don’t have to try all your ideas at once. Without a dedicated marketing team, it would be difficult to implement too many marketing methods at one time, and even more difficult to determine which ones were working and which ones weren’t. Creating a strategic plan will allow you to clear all those great ideas out of your head and put them on paper. One good way is to try one or two new techniques each quarter. Three months is usually enough time to get an idea of the effectiveness of a marketing technique. If one method is showing signs of promise, you can continue it.

When you come up with new ideas, write them down and add them to your plan. That way you’ll have a few months to prepare in advance, and you can continue your proven marketing efforts while trying one or two new techniques at a time. This will help you eliminate the confusion of trying to try out all the new and exciting marketing ideas at one time, and over time you’ll develop a base of marketing strategies that are successful in building your business.

Consistent Marketing Efforts

Well here we are at the end of September and I haven’t posted to the “new” blog since March. I’m ignoring my own best advice that I always give to clients: Be consistent with your marketing efforts! Many marketing strategies don’t produce immediate results, and a lot of businesses miss the boat by giving things a try for a very short period of time and then giving up on them too soon because they didn’t receive this amazing response after very little effort. If you are continuous and consistent with your marketing strategies and your message, you will see results over time. Unfortunately, there’s no magic pill in the world of marketing, and it often takes a combination of strategies over a period of time for a marketing campaign to achieve its full potential. In some cases, it may be possible to acheive a tremendous response from a single message, such as sending a hot new offer to a huge list of email subscribers, but that kind of response requires a lot of back-end planning and building. It takes time to build a subscriber list, to build a brand, and to gain name recognition among your clients. Be consistent with your efforts and your message, and one day you’ll reach a point at which you can boost your sales by sending a single email!

Too many businesses fall into the trap of thinking they don’t need to advertise because business is booming. Any business will experience periods of feast or famine, and maintaining a consistent marketing campaign throughout both busy and slow times can make your income stream a little more consistent. Marketing only when times are tough will only exacerbate the feast or famine syndrome we all hate. You can certainly ramp up your marketing efforts a little when you have extra time between clients or when business is slow, but you should have a plan that you stick to regardless of the amount of business you have coming in at any given time.

My commitment now is to follow my own best advice and start maintaining this blog to provide my clients and visitors with the advice that I’ve promised. During times of feast and times of famine, you’ll now see regular blog posts from me!