Say what you want, have a feeling tourists very rarely make a decision to visit a land mark whether its three minutes or ten minutes away. Crazy idea, crazy waste of tax payers money and irrational decision making by managers who focus on busy work not real work.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of “jab marketing.” Jab the customer with a little bit of info one month and then six months later, jab them again with the same message. It’s not that we lack ideas, its just we lack time for creating those ideas.

If you were wrecked on an island in the middle of the Pacific, you wouldn’t send out one mayday and then wait a few months before you realised your message hadn’t got through and try again! It’s the same in marketing, we must continuously reinforce the communications we are sending out and repeat what we want to say. People forget easily. Distance doesn’t make the heart grow fonder in these situations, all it can lead to is feast and famine.

A key role for anyone running a small business is to let people know you are out there and that you are still around. Find ways to keep the messages alive, fresh and energising. Explore opportunitites for expressing the messages in novel and personalised ways that highlight new ideas, different styles and new behaviours. Get it into a plan that ensures you implement it.

Reinforcing and keeping up the momentum in your marketing communications is essential. If we were sat in a room now, we could create numerous, interesting ways of shouting out for help from that desert island that would capture attention. It’s not difficult, it just requires a little imagination. Not that  we are lost, we just haven’t been found yet!

To quote the oft quoted Benjamin Franklin, “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” there is perhaps another to add when you run an entity such as a small business – low moments. You could use the phrases, hard times, difficult issues, frustration and boredom!

At these times, it’s imperative to dig deep and motivate the soul. Searching deep into the memory to recall why you set the business up in the first place can be enlightening. It’s a common myth that small business owners set up their business for financial reward. In most cases they didn’t. If they did, they can come unstuck quite quickly.

In troubled times, it is the intrinsically satisfying things that keep you going, freedom, not working to schedules in the same way. Choosing what you do, who you do it with, and how often, are the motivating factors. Running a small business gives us choice. It allows us to express ourselves creatively in a way being an employee is denied.

We can make decisions without the cloudiness of committees. Without people who think they are more important and knowledgeable because they work long hours, have that big car, are tired and own a second home in South Devon. In reality, they are just a slave to external pressure.

If you want your business to reward you extrinsically (the material stuff) it should be as a result of delivering great product/service generated by your happiness, the choices you made, your creativity and the freedom it brings. The extrinsic stuff does not help motivate you on those terribly lonely days. If you say to yourself on a morning “Ah but I do this to pay for this” what the hell are you doing? Go and work for someone else, get paid double the money and have stability and security plus, you can walk away at any time.

Running your own business often means feeling isolated, feeling very down. But you often sacrifice wealth to be completely free, motivated and inspired rather than be as dependent as a slave. If your business hasn’t been making you happy for a while, its time to change. Time to consider why the balance has gone and how the motivation can be re captured. You set this business up to be free not to be tied! Leave that to your friends and colleagues who are employees.

Pricing is always viewed as that issue in small business that’s sensitive and difficult to identify. It makes people uneasy especially if they don’t value their work. In the past some pricing has been based on supply and demand. Some companies look at competitors prices and fix theirs based on that benchmark. Others look at their overheads and stick a margin on top to ensure profit.

Rarely do we consider our true value based on competency, ability, knowledge and craft. Invariably, we stick our finger in the air and decide the price based on which way the wind is blowing (perhaps a little unfair but very true.) What we need to do is understand the power of establishing price in the minds of our customers and acknowledging our value.

Setting price is obviously important especially when we acquire a new customer. Once we give a price, we have established that price in a customers mind which is then very difficult to change. That first figure shapes your present and future pricing structures. It shapes how much your customer thinks you are worth and what they are willing to pay.

It’s called an anchor and, as customers, we refer back to that first anchor whenever we buy more. That’s why it’s critical to save yourself a lot of hard work later on and identify your true value right from the beginning. You can’t set you day rate at £500, only to realise a few months later your actually worth is £700. It will take you ages to hike the price up to what you really feel it should be and, where you feel valued enough to motivate yourself towards the customers aspirations.

The first price you give to a new customer influences not just today but for the rest of your relationship with them. Really understand what the customer values and make sure you deliver those values in an unusual, different way. Then you can charge a valuable price for your product/services.

This a great, simple post explaining what social media is and how to manage it:

http://lornali.com/online-reputation-management/6-steps-for-creating-a-social-media-marketing-roadmap-plan

Social media should, at least, be considered in any marketing strategy you devise.

My latest article on how we focus on customer satisfaction rather than employee satisfaction first.

http://EzineArticles.com/?id=2012809