Marketing is not just a subject we learn about in school.  As small business owners, it is important to continuously think about what you can do to promote your products and services.  We know typically, the salespeople are the ones who actively market the products and services to the clients.  Today, it is actually better and more genuine if it comes directly from the owner.  After all, who will stand behind the business more so than the business owner him/herself.  The experts or the mavens, also have a key role in marketing for the business.  Technically speaking, it is easier to speak directly to the client’s needs if an expert helps to problem solve how to do that.  After all, you are speaking the same language.  Finally, the connectors are the ones who know someone who needs your products or service.  They provide the best referrals and are trustworthy sources of continuous business.

You can learn every day from businesses that succeed and from those who fail.  What are the essential elements that make a business succeed?  Is it the superior products, excellent services, personable customer service, and/or online and in-person business reputation?  As a small business owner, it is important to become one who continues to learn about how to improve all aspects of business delivery.

Recently, Edge Marketing put forth an article full of questions meant to enlighten readers on how to think about their business plans, it went something like this: What do successful businesses do to promote business?  Think about your business cards, website, staff, business plan, existing customers…..Do they utilize all of these resources to the best of their ability? What is the team like?  Who are the brains, the heart and the hands of the operation?  Each person has a role in actively marketing the business and this includes your customers, existing, repeating and new ones.

This excerpt examines the process of how a business is run and what makes it succeed or fail?  As an avid reader of Malcolm Gladwell’s work, he has inspired me to question what makes business work well, especially for the small business owner.  Looking at old ways, new ways, traditional and modern, store front and online business and reputation.  How does it all work so that it is working at its highest potential? The best businesses are those who continue to examine what works and what doesn’t.