Written By: Cheryl Ellemberg, www.abdpromotions.com, www.ABDwebsiteDesign.com

Marketing for your small business can be challenging at times.  In order to be a successful business, one needs to decide how to prioritize how to spend your time.   Jim Rohn once said “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”  This includes the ability to know what you want to do which should also be what you are good at.  There are only 24 hours in a day and thus, picking and choosing carefully what we spend our time on will help propel a business forward.

For example, if you open a business selling smoothies.  You have the best smoothies around according to Yelp reviews.  You have perfected the various assortment of smoothies you are offering to the general public.  Your problem, however, is that people are not coming to your store and/or they are not visiting your website.  Marketing is something every business should be actively doing.  Whether your do it yourself or ask for help, really depends on a few questions. In the book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, he asked if you were a maven, a connector or a salesperson.  If you are all three, you will have no problem marketing your business on your own, given enough time and effort.  Self discovery and Self learning helps to identify what your role should be and how to spend your time.

1) Do you know everything about your products and services? (maven)

2) Do you know what makes your business better than your competitors (salesperson)

3) Are you involved in networks? (connector)

Answering these questions will enhance your ability to move leads into actual sales.

Your team’s knowledge, skills and abilities will also determine the success of your business.  Which category do they fit under (maven, connector or sales)?  Placing people in appropriate roles will help ensure that your business operations flow smoothly.  Again, make sure your team is passionate about what they do AND they are good at it!

As a business owner, you should always monitor your business reputation – on and offline using Twitter , Linked In , YouTube, Facebook ABD , Facebook GPP, Foursquare, Google+.  These should all be ways you are reachable in addition to your contact information: name, address, phone number, fax number, email, etc. and best ways and times to reach you.