Yes, times are tough.  Definitely no sense saying otherwise.  At the same time, it’s still a FANTASTIC time to grow your business IF you plan, focus, and execute.

What exactly do I mean by that?

First, you’ve got to have a solid plan of action in place. And I’m not just talking about “I’m going to print up another 2,500 postcards and mail them out” kind of plan.  I’m talking about a solid, built from the bedrock of good, sound marketing principles plan.  The kind that has a clearly defined strategy at its core and is carried out via carefully selected tactics.

Second, you’ve got to be focused on your goals and objectives. You can’t be distracted by every bit of ‘bad news’ or propaganda you read about in the news or hear about on TV.  You’ve got to shut it all out and focus on building your business one carefully planned out step at a time.

And as long as you have a solid plan in place to guide you, you should be just fine.

Finally, you’ve got to execute. You can’t forget to market your business.  You can’t put the task of contacting your target market, or developing a relationship with your existing customers, or looking for JV partnerships to nurture get put on the back burner.  You’ve got to be out there EVERY SINGLE DAY doing something to grow your business.

Yes, I know you’re busy.  I know you’ve got a TON of stuff on your plate, but that can’t be an excuse.  Business is tough.  It’s supposed to be like that.  That’s a small percentage of businesses do extremely well while a large percentage struggle and in many cases die.

Don’t be one of the ones that struggles and dies!

Sure, this all sounds easier than it really is, but at a very high level those are the three steps to success during these tough times.  And keep this in mind, these are the same steps you should take if we weren’t in the midst of one of the toughest economic periods we’ve seen for a while.

These principles are TIMELESS. They work in good times, they work  in okay times, and they work ESPECIALLY WELL in the times we find ourselves in right now.

Embrace the challenge and go out and create some great!

I trust you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving Day feast and weekend. And if you’re from outside the US and don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, don’t worry, I ate enough turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie for everybody!

With the end of 2008 now clearly in sight, now’s the time to really begin reviewing the year that’s past so you can use that knowledge and experience to plan for an even better 2009.

As the old cliché goes, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” and if you don’t make your plan with the knowledge you’ve gained from recent experience, in my own humble opinion, that’s just plain dumb.

So, what are the areas you should be reviewing as the end of the year approaches?

Well, while you should review EVERY aspect of your business from this previous year, here are a few of the marketing items and numbers you’ll want to review:

• # of customers retained
• # of new customers added
• # of referrals received
• Total marketing expenditures
• Cost of customer acquisition – how much, on average, did it cost to gain a new customer?
• Conversion % from the various types of marketing you did
• Average value of a customer – how much, on average, is each customer worth to you?
• Identify who are the 20% of your customers providing 80% of your revenue
• What marketing methods produced the highest ROI?

Now, this most definitely is NOT a comprehensive list, but it is a good start. As you’re going through your numbers and reviewing the year, I’m sure you’ll come across a few more areas you’ll want to look at.

That’s good because the more insight and information you have about what worked, what didn’t work, and how much you invested, the better prepared you’ll be to make smarter decisions next year.

Well %$firstname$%, that’s all for today. As I said, I’m working on some big things that I’ll be telling you about in the coming week or so, so be sure to stay tuned to your inbox or my blog as that’s where you’ll be able to get all the details.

Have a fabulous day and as always, be sure to make your marketing magical!