A marketing plan is a huge document detailing strategies for the fiscal year. It may include competitor analysis or a sales forecast. While these elements are important to a large business, do you as a small business owner have the time or energy to devote to putting together a huge document? Unless you are trying to get a financial loan, probably not…
In creating your Internet Marketing plan, we have to back you up to the beginning, before you even considered building a website.
A website is a dynamic, interactive, functional entity which exists within a community of interconnected resources. Yes, it describes your business. But it can do so much more. Is your site a…
But that does not mean you should totally scrap the idea. A marketing plan can be a wonderful tool to help you refine your focus. You have heard the old saying If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. That’s because when you do not plan you lack intention and attention.What strategies will you use?
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Viral marketing Internet Marketing ProcessResearch – We seek to engage and involve your clients, prospects, partners and employees in a community built around your business. The first step is an evaluation of your business and your marketing efforts to date, including a detailed analysis of your Internet efforts.Analysis – We learn what your clients, prospects, partners, and employees want from you. We tell you precisely how people are using the Internet to find products and services related to your business.Development – We develop media and web applications to provide your clients, employees, partners and prospects what they are already searching for online.Placement – We ensure that your message is seen, and measure its effectiveness going forward.Partnership – Mir seeks to become your long-term partner and counselor, reacting to your needs with solid advice and project implementation. We offer a full range of services today, and will evolve with your business going forward.Budget – While some folks think this should be the first step, realistically y/ou can better create the budget for your marketing plan when you have a good idea of the costs involved. That can only be done once you have figured out your targets. You probably already have a figure in mind of how much you can really spend, so go back to your marketing campaign sheet and total up the costs of all the ad spots you would like to do. Chances are that total will exceed your overall spending limit.

Entrepreneurship is self-improvement.  When people think of self-improvement, starting a business is not the first thing that comes to mind. But to be a successful entrepreneur you need to mold yourself into a better version of yourself. Not only do you put yourself at a better position financially, you’re also forced to challenge some negative assumptions about yourself and the world around you. The entrepreneur grows on his road to success, not when he finds it.The first thing that the burgeoning entrepreneur needs to acquire is a sense of self-direction. When you take on building a business,  you do it on your own – there is no boss telling you to do this. With that you also need to start taking personal responsibility for your successes and failures. You no longer have any excuses to fall back on; no “my boss is an idiot” or  “I didn’t get much time” or “I hate my co-workers”…etc. You stand and fall on your own merits. You become the captain of your own financial destiny.As you move along the road of the entrepreneur, you start to realize the importance of managing your time and money. You really start to appreciate the 24 hours you get in a day and the 7 days you get in a week. You realize that time is valuable and cannot be frittered away. The same with the money you have on hand to invest in yourself and in your business. After realizing these things, learning how to effectively manage both your time and money is a no-brainer. You take it upon yourself to learn how to be efficient with your time and frugal with your money, two very admirable and useful personal traits. When you start your own business, it is necessary to learn how to actually run a business. That means education. You educate yourself to learn how to run a business and how to better your product or service. But acquiring specialized knowledge is not the only thing you get from learning about starting a business. One acquires a different mindset, a different way of looking at things. You begin to see failures as stepping stones to an eventual success, persistence as the wings that would take me to that success. What you were once afraid of you start seeing them as growth-inducing challenges on the way to success.But perhaps one of the most profound ways entrepreneurship brings growth is by how it changes long held beliefs. The best example I can give of this is the commonly held belief that you need to take so you can make money. In fact, I found the opposite to be true. In a paradoxical sense, you start need to give and give so you can make money. When you have a money centered mentality, seeing each customer as a dollar sign instead of a person, you decrease you’re chances to make a sale because you’re not focused on giving them anything, just parting them with their money. But if you start viewing your customers as people with needs and wants, you start giving them things of value, sometimes even for free, and that’s when you start raking in the money. It’s a very important lesson that can be applied to almost any aspect of  social life; give more to get more.At the end of your entrepreneurial journey, you don’t only have a new source of income, you also have a new you. All of it stemming from the requirements of the nature of entrepreneurship. You are forced to grow when you become an entrepreneur.

At a recent economic forum hosted by the Bethel Baptist Church in Kingston, a young man came forward to ask the panel of financial experts for tips on how he could be successful in his new business venture. As he made his passionate plea for guidance, I recalled the challenges of my first entrepreneurial effort at 23 years of age.

With the adventurous spirit and eternal optimism of youth, I enthusiastically pursued my business idea, but after a couple of years, I realised that having an innovative concept was not enough to attain business growth. I didn’t know enough about marketing, sales, product development and strategising; and I remember feeling confused and frustrated as I searched in vain for answers on how to build a sustainable business.

Today, with the lack of employment opportunities in Jamaica, many young people are forced to try to make an income for themselves. However, despite the emergence of several organisations designed to assist business development, thousands of young entrepreneurs still struggle to turn their inspirations into profitable ventures, and a large percentage of them will not be successful in their endeavours.

Regional Focus on Youth Entrepreneurship

Youth entrepreneurship is an area that is now of great importance to governments and developmental agencies in the region. The Young America Business Trust (YABT), an arm of the Organisation of American States (OAS), estimates that there are 140 million youth aged 18-30 years in Latin America and the Caribbean, with some 60 per cent of them living below the poverty line.

According to the YABT website, while young people can be a source of growth and development, “youth at risk are prone to becoming victims or perpetrators of conflict, violence, poverty, and/or exclusion, which in turn threatens the economic, social and political well-being of their countries”.

In Jamaica we are reaping the bitter harvest of too many idle young hands which are not being channelled into projects to supply them with steady income and hope for the future. It is crucial for us to use the tool of youth entrepreneurship to provide opportunities for our young people to escape the chains of poverty and crime.

Barriers to the Growth of Young Entrepreneurs

While the powers-that-be and civil society may agree on the need to get our young people gainfully occupied, achieving this goal is not a simple task.

Firstly, our educational system does not do justice to the field of entrepreneurship. Business studies in high school are often delegated to those who aren’t considered smart enough to pursue traditional science subjects. Many school curriculums focus on rote learning to secure exam passes, but entrepreneurial stimulation requires the encouragement of innovative ideas and thinking outside the box.

For the small percentage of graduates who genuinely aspire to own their own businesses, there is no structured educational outlet where they can learn the tools and techniques to successfully operate an enterprise. Some people believe that running a business just takes a little common sense, and that with a few short courses in business planning and marketing, the new entrepreneur should be ‘good-to-go’.

Financing for start-up ventures is always a challenge, and obtaining funding is even harder for young people. With the high failure rate for new businesses, it is understandable why many financial institutions are reluctant to lend to inexperienced entrepreneurs without a track record of success. This is a catch-22 situation, as many businesses actually collapse because of a lack of sufficient working capital.

Fostering Entrepreneurship for the Youth

If we are serious about nurturing our youth towards income creation, we have to start implementing relevant programmes within the school system. Vocational guidance to identify entrepreneurial potential must be provided and teachers should be trained to make all subject material relevant to real-world earning opportunities.

One of my pet peeves is seeing creative efforts by students that are not coupled with entrepreneurial guidance to help them reap financial benefits from their hard work. For example, students often design viable inventions for science fairs that could be produced and marketed for profit, but the value that they create is never channelled into a business venture. Unfortunately, many of these students turn around and leave university without job options.

Successful business owners need to give back by fostering the development of a new crop of young entrepreneurs. Mentoring is a vital tool to teach youngsters how to navigate the tricky waters of business, and established entrepreneurs can provide this support in association with past students’ associations, service clubs and church ministries.

Along with mentoring, I encourage progressive business owners to consider providing venture capital support to young persons with solid business ideas. This financial assistance and managerial support will help to ensure a higher success rate among youth entrepreneurs.

The government should also look at establishing business incubators for young entrepreneurs where they can receive individual guidance, continuous business training, support facilities and tax incentives.

Copyright © 2010 Cherryl Hanson Simpson

In order to get the most out of any marketing activity you implement, you need to be clear on 6 specific areas. By answering these questions, you’ll ensure that you are focused and on-track with exactly what you want and need to accomplish in implementing a particular marketing tactic.
Let’s take a look at each of these 6 questions:
1) Who is your audience or target?
What group of people is this marketing strategy aimed towards? Is it your main target group or a subset of them?
You need to be very clear about who this specific marketing strategy is targeted towards in order to ensure that the content, distribution and promotion of it are actually reaching the people you’ve intended it for!
2) What is your main objective?
Before you start to figure out and follow the steps required to implement this marketing tactic, you need to be very clear on your objective(s) for undertaking this.
It’s perfectly okay to have one main objective and several smaller, complementary objectives. This makes sense as marketing strategies do not exist in a vacuum – they are all intertwined and work together. Just pick the objectives that are the most compelling reason right now for implementing this particular marketing tactic.
3) Is this part of another marketing tactic or strategy?
Many of your marketing tactics work in conjunction with each other. The ideal is to have everything work together and feed into each other to gain the most momentum and leverage with your marketing.
If this particular marketing tactic is part of another marketing strategy, then keep focused on that while creating your marketing plan. You want to make sure that everything you do is aimed at reaching all of your objectives – general and specific.
4) How much time is required, and how much time do you have, to implement this?
The time needed to create, produce, distribute and promote a marketing tactic is dependent on you and any other persons you use as a resource (i.e. copywriter, design company, Virtual Assistant, and so on).
There are many things that can impact how long it takes to get something done, such as:
* being a perfectionist
* procrastinating
* not planning ahead
* not having enough money allocated
* not giving people enough notice
* unrealistic deadlines
* not having the tools readily available
* emergencies and unplanned events
* personal commitments
Depending on what you’ve got going on (big promotion or launch, personal vacation or event, busy time of year, etc.) and how much of the work is dependent on other people, try to determine how long it will take to complete all the steps involved in getting your marketing tactic up and running.
5) How much is it going to cost and how much money do you have to spend on setting up this?
This is a hard question to answer as it depends on how much of the work you farm out to other people and your existing resources. Many marketing strategies can be done for not-too-much money.
Depending on where you are at in your business, you may already have some of the software and products needed to get this marketing tactic up and running, and therefore it won’t be a new expense for you. If you have extra money you can hire outside help, but many of the steps and activities can be done relatively inexpensively by you.
6) Do you need this implemented by a specific date?
When you plot out due dates for your plan, start with any hard deadlines that you are working towards. This usually ties back into your objectives for the marketing strategy.
For example, do you want this tactic to be up and running a couple months before you have your big summer sales promotion? Or do you want to get in on a great Joint Venture opportunity and need to have this strategy in place before then?
Take the time to answer these 6 important questions before you even attempt to put together a marketing plan. This will ensure that the marketing strategies are aimed at the right people and are easily, quickly and affordably accomplished by you.

Now the small business owner can get a line of credit with no hassle. Even in today’s economic climate with banks faltering and the stock market declining, smart banks and credit companies are still looking to invest in small business opportunities. Oftentimes, a line of credit can mean the difference between success and failure for a small business. Lines of credit can be used to purchase inventory, pay utility bills, manage payroll, advertise, or to fund expansion projects. A line of credit can also allow a small business to weather downward trends in sales without having to make painful budget cuts and unpopular layoffs. A line of credit also allows a small business to avoid high interest loans from traditional banking institutions. Lines of credit are also much simpler to manage than typical loans or financial advancements, and securing a line of credit for your small business has never been easier. While traditional banking institutions offer lines of credit for your small business, there are also other options. Conventional credit card companies are great resources a line of credit. They usually offer introductory low interest rates, flexible payment options, and are usually easier to secure than small business loans from a bank. The Internet is great tool to utilize when searching for an available line of credit for your small business. There are several web sites that offer searchable databases of credit offers. You can limit the search by any number of criteria, making each search specialized to your particular needs. These details can include credit limits, payment options, interest rates, and credit company options. Also, by applying online, many credit card companies offer different and better credit line terms for small businesses. These better terms can mean the difference between success and failure in a competitive business environment.While credit card companies are a great and easy way to secure lines of credit for your small business, a bank can also be a good place to look for a line of credit. The terms may not be as good initially as a credit line issued from a credit card company (especially from an online application for credit), but banks a generally more trust worthy and the credit line terms are more predictable. When applying online for credit lines, there can be hidden terms or stipulations that are hidden in pages upon pages of small print. It is often difficult to realize all the terms and limitations of an online credit line. Interest rates are a good example. While introductory rates can seem excellent, once those introductory rates expire, the interest rate can skyrocket. This increased interest rate can cost your small business thousands of hard earned dollars, thus straining your business’ bottom line. Credit lines issued from banking institutions are more straightforward, and while their introductory interest rates are not generally as desirable as online credit institutions, the increased rate is generally much lower. When trying to secure a line of credit for your small business all aspects of the credit line are important. While credit lines can help your small business purchase inventory, pay employees, and weather downturns in sales, the wrong terms for your credit line can cost your small business thousands of dollars. 

Behind every successful product or service is a well-researched marketing plan. A marketing plan guides a company how to market a product or service to a specific target market and helps a company remain focused on its marketing objectives.
A Guerrilla Marketing Plan is a condensed version of a corporate marketing plan. It focuses primarily on the most powerful income producing strategies needed to generate sales. While a Corporate Marketing Plan may be 20+ pages long and full of detailed market research and competitive analysis, a Guerrilla Marketing Plan is short (3-5 pages) and focuses on the marketing strategies you will use to produce sales immediately.
A Guerrilla Marketing Plan should include the following strategic marketing information:
1. Define your product or service.
2. What major problem does your product or service solve?
3. Determine who most needs the product/service being sold. Who is your target market?
4. Describe the #1 most important benefit a customer will receive from your product/service.
5. Why should a customer buy from your company instead of from a competitor? What benefit will a customer receive from doing business with your company?
6. Determine your company’s position in the marketplace. Are you the company that focuses on extreme quality, low price, the largest inventory, the safest product, the best guarantee, etc.? What powerful slogan will you use in all of your marketing materials to convey your position?
7. What is your guarantee to your customers?
8. Determine a measurable sales goal for the next 12-months (i.e., $250k in sales).
9. Determine a marketing budget to achieve your 12-month goal. Your budget should be a minimum of 10% of your projected 12-month sales goal.
10. Determine the most powerful and cost effective marketing and PR strategies for marketing your product or service to your target market and achieving your 12-month sales goal.
For more information, you can download a free ebook on how to write a marketing plan and 100+ strategies for marketing your business at http://www.marketing-consulting-company.com.