By Brad Shorr from Get Real Marketing
How’s this for strategic planning? In October 2005 I left a high-paying job I hadn’t enjoyed to begin a consulting business I hadn’t defined. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and now, ten months later… maybe it was!
I knew my practice would involve writing, humor, and marketing, because those are my passions. I knew it would engage small and midsize business, because that’s what I know. But how would it all fit together? Not a clue. So, contrary to conventional wisdom, I decided to skip the business modeling and strategic plan, and just work.
Through guru.com, I found a phenomenal illustrator, Mark Hill, and had him draw a bunch of my business-theme cartoon ideas. I developed ten characters and about a hundred pages of text for a fictitious company, Mold Unlimitedâ„¢. As all this material came together, I pieced it into a Web site to promote business cartooning and sell cartoon-imprinted merchandise. Cartooning emerged as an effective lead-in to stimulate marketing conversations with possible clients.
Speaking of conversation, I networked like crazy, talking to anyone with ears. I joined a couple SMB networking groups. I listened and learned what kind of marketing issues were on people’s minds. I shared whatever insight I could offer, whether or not I thought it might lead to an assignment.
Fortunately, people did start giving me workâ€â€white papers, articles, brochures, Web content, email blasts, market analysisâ€â€the stuff I’d been doing for years, only now, I wasn’t on autopilot, I was digging in. I even stumbled onto a couple book projects.
On the upside, every assignment was fascinating. On the downside, I was all over the place; every time I explained my business it sounded different; I still seemed miles away from a business plan. Unsettling.
But then, about four months ago, Mark Hill got me thinking about blogs. I’ve been discussing them, studying them, and writing them ever since. Here at last was a focus.
I’m convinced that blogs are the future of business communication. The benefits are irresistible – they enhance customer relationships, attract new customers, boost search engine rankings, provide new revenue streams, simplify internal processes – the list goes on.
I’m finding that SMB’s are quite curious about blogs, but they need lots of help understanding, planning, and executing them. That’s where I can fit in.
My entrepreneurial journey has now reached the stage where I can start to cobble out a model. I’m concentrating on -
- Web content, especially optimized content.
- Business blog consulting for SMB’s.
- Blog management and writing for SMB’s.
I’m encouraged by the response. Most people dread writing, so they don’t. As a result, many SMB Web sites are outdated and poorly optimized, and the company knows it. So, SMB’s are often eager to outsource the content, and that discussion can quickly expand into one about online marketing strategy. More and more, blogs will be integral to the strategy.
Conclusions? I’ve seen many entrepreneurs (and big businesses, for that matter) spend so much time planning they never get anything done. A big company might be able to absorb a long countdown and no liftoff. An entrepreneur can’t.
Clients will tell you where you fit in the marketplace – if you ask them. Yes, defining your business that way takes time and can be a bit nerve-wracking. On the other hand, it takes even more time and sweat to continually change your model because it never meshed with reality in the first place.
© Brad Shorr, Step-Up Marketing, Inc.
Company site: www.step99.com
Marketing blog: www.in-sidemarketing.blogspot.com
Business humor blog: www.corporatecartoons.blogspot.com
Store: www.cafepress.com/moldunlimited
Good articles, Brad.
I came accross these 2 quotes recently that might interest you:
You can’t overestimate the need to plan and prepare. In most of the mistakes I’ve made, there has been this common theme of inadequate planning beforehand. You really can’t over-prepare in business!
Chris Corrigan
I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It’s done on gut feeling.
Richard Branson
For the average business, it’s about finding the happy medium between these 2 polar opposites. And it’s for the business owner to recognise their natural tendancy, and try to make themselves do what they don’t like to do.
Figuring out a business plan is something important when you want to starting out. I guess that in this case, there is already some ‘shape’ as to what the business will be like though it wasn’t totally concrete in the beginning. Working out what that ‘shape’ would finally evolve into would take a bit of time though. But if people see you work at it, I guess you will be rewarded as in this case
Yaro, thank you for posting my article! Dave, Clair, thank you for thoughtful comments. Entrepreneurship is harder than it looks. I’m finding the best help comes from people like you, who “walk the talk”.
I have for some time subscribed to the philosophy expressed by Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow Technologies who observed “You only have a business when you have paying customers.” I think this helps streamline the question of how much planning to do before starting up. If you have money coming in, you’ve got a business. If you don’t, you don’t. Growth and focus are different issues, but bootstrap start-up is about cash flow.
Shawn, thanks for that
Hmmm, interesting article Yaro! I know of too many clients who took forever to get “lift off” because they had trouble filling out all of the ideas of their business plan… So, just getting out there to “just do it!” is a good momentum-builder. I also think that some initial planning, especially the “researching to make sure that you have a market for your products/ (or products for the market you’re reaching out to)” is always a good idea. It doesn’t have to be complex. Keep the business plan simple: with your overall vision, your market-research, your research on how you will market (I agree that blogs are a growing and profitable medium- and appreciate all of your tips in this area!), growth and implementation plan (i.e. the “just doing it!” part). When you do this, you’re bound to get lift off. ‘So glad that you’re getting lift-off in this industry ’cause you’re a great addition to it! Keep the good stuff coming!
-Jennifer Carter
p.s. To get some great tips on simple business plans and ideas on empowering women in business, go to http://www.empoweringwomeninbusiness.com