Successful businesses have an End Goal – Do You?

I don’t know about you, but I see this New Year as full of opportunities and promise! And I hope that like me you’re feeling excited, confident and bullish about your future.

Like most people, now is the time of year that I (with the help of my team) re-visit our marketing strategy and activity plan for the coming twelve months.

If you’re keen for your business to perform better than last year, I thought you might like to see the process that we go through here at Common-Sense Marketing…

So the first question is, where do you start?

Well surprisingly – I recommend that you start at the end!

Create Your End-Goal First

Before you get involved in the nitty-gritty of your plan of marketing actions, it’s vital that you first re-consider exactly what your business stands for, and what your turnover aspirations are for the year(s) ahead.

I have seen so many companies fall into the trap of ‘doing what they have always done’ year after year, simply out of habit (or laziness). Or they only ever market reactively as a knee-jerk response to a slump in business.

Rarely does a company sit-down and work out the reason for their existence in the marketplace; their main objective; the value and results they introduce to their prospects, and what their business will actually be when it achieves this ultimate objective. By this I mean how many staff, how many customers, profit levels, how many hours you’ll be working each week, and what lifestyle your business will afford for you and your loved ones etc.

You MUST have an end goal, a clear picture of what you want your business to be, and what you would like your business to achieve. And what do you personally want to gain from all the time, skills and hard work that you put into it?

Without this clear, documented picture, you’re very likely going to experience yet another year of being a victim of market forces, and being the subject of somebody else’s plans.

If you’re ready to take back control over your destiny, please read on…

If you have not thought about your business this way before, I suspect you’ll be familiar with one or more of these three scenarios:

One:   If you don’t clearly describe your business, know what it stands for, and the value and advantages it brings to the market, then it’s even more certain that your customers and clients won’t know either — and your lack of sales enquiries and responses will be the evidence of this.

Two:   Your business will not be growing at any real or significant pace, and you’re unlikely to see increased profits either, because you have no clear or specific destination or objective to aim for.

Three:   The large personal pay-out that you deserve for all your passion and hard work will not materialise, because you’ve not defined what you want your enterprise to deliver for you, personally.

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of helping many entrepreneurs define their ‘master-plan’, and lots of them have had a real epiphany when they realise that they can quite easily achieve far greater success and profitability, simply by creating clarity and a vivid picture of what they want their specific business to achieve.

Similarly, your ultimate pay-day will come much, much quicker as soon as you recognise and define precisely what you want, personally, business-wise and wealth-wise, (and then reverse-engineer a blueprint for achieving it).

Much bigger success does not mean that you have to work harder or longer, or invest more of your money. It just means that you have to work smarter.

So start now, and write down…

• What is your business or practice going to BE? – i.e. What’s its reason for existing in the market-place, and what does it STAND FOR? – What value or results does it bring to the market?

• What will your business look like when it has reached its ultimate destination? How many people will it employ? What will the premises look like? How many locations (or channels) will you operate from and how wide an area will you service your customers?

• What will your business TURNOVER AND NET PROFIT need to be each year for the next 5 years to make its full contribution?

Now write a list of requirements your business must deliver, in terms of your PERSONAL GOALS:

• What would you like to BE, and what kind of person would you like to BECOME?

• What would you like to DO in your personal life, and what EXPERIENCES would you like to have?

• Make a list of everything you would like to OWN – (don’t be shy or ashamed of this… you will only achieve these rewards when you business has first benefited many, many other people and allowed them to enjoy their own benefits)

• Finally write down how much WEALTH and MONEY you would like to accumulate whilst running your enterprise, at the end of year One, Three, Five and in Ten years’ time.

Only when you have BUSINESS AND PERSONAL targets fixed firmly in your mind do you stand any chance of attracting the PEOPLE, SITUATIONS and OPPORTUNITIES you need, to draw these results to you.

(As your business evolves and grows, so your personal goals and desires will change, and you adjust these end goals as you go along).

Based on this very specific and detailed picture of your future business and personal life, you will now be ready to create your marketing strategy and plan to help you to achieve these goals.

Would you like some help with creating your
ultimate marketing strategy and plan?

Well, every few months we take on a new tranche of members into our Marketing Mastermind Club, and one of the first priorities we offer is a full one-hour telephone consultation with me to work through your best marketing strategies and a plan of activities and priorities for you to put into action.

(You will also receive the ongoing help of one of my team as your personal marketing mentor, to help you with implementation throughout the year).

To take a tour of the Marketing Mastermind Club, and how it will benefit your business, please go here.

Regards

Richard Lomax

If you would like to discuss membership of the Club (which is only £39 +vat per month), and how to arrange your private one-on-one marketing strategy consultation with me, please email sally@common-sense-marketing.com, or give her a call on 01692 538800.

For more free advice and downloadable reports go to
www.common-sense-marketing.com
Tel: 01692 538800, email: sally@common-sense-marketing.com