by Jean Knill

Created on: March 10, 2010

If you are an entrepreneur running a small business, either alone or with just a few helpers, setting up a marketing plan can easily be put on a back burner while you get on with the business of the day. That’s fine when there is a feast of work but inevitably there will be times of famine when the business just dries up. If you are following a simple marketing plan, that is less likely to happen. If it does, it will probably be short lived and have a lighter impact on your bottom line.

To make your marketing plan effective, you need to set some clear objectives for it. It doesn’t have to be complex to be effective. And you don’t have to put hours and hours of effort into it. As long as it’s dynamic, it can be really simple and still serve you well. Its purpose is to find and keep enough customers to keep your business running and developing, and achieving its specific objectives will ensure that keeps on happening. 

If you are short of time, the way to arrive at these objectives is to keep marketing in your mind whenever you don’t have to be thinking about something else. If you have the luxury of working with a team, get everyone thinking when they can, and find ways of sharing your ideas and making decisions, whether in meetings or by phone, email or teleconferencing. 

We can all find short bursts of thinking time, but we don’t always use it effectively. When you can, take a short break from whatever you are doing, and move somewhere different. You’ll be fresher and more productive on your current task after turning your brain to marketing just for a while. When you take the dog for a walk morning or evening, or go out for the weekly shop, you can use the time on these mindless activities to think about your marketing plan. Just remember to always have a notebook and pen to hand.

If you need to travel, you can think about it while you’re driving instead of listening to a CD, or to your car radio. When really crucial ideas come to you, you’ll need to pull over to make a note, or use a Dictaphone, or use your hands-free phone to leave a message at your office. Find a way to capture those ideas so they are available to you when you stop travelling. Going by train is even more useful, as you don’t need also to concentrate on driving and where you are going.

Of course, just thinking isn’t going to get the job done. You do need to know what to think about. Looking for the answers to a

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