Tweet

New Marketing Plan Resolutions!

Guest post by: Karen McNulty

Article Overview: This isn't an academic look at planning for your business, more a look at the way that we do it at MarketingPlanWiz that will, hopefully, give you some ideas for your own business. At the beginning of a new year we traditionally make personal "resolutions", but rarely think about these for our businesses. Now, the beginning of a new year shouldn't be the only time that we plan for our business; at any time planning can give us the opportunity to stand back and look at what we have achieved and changed in the past year and to look forward to what we would like, and need, to achieve and change in the coming year. Why not do this with your business?

New Marketing Plan Resolutions!

This isn't an academic look at planning for your business, more a look at the way that we do it at MarketingPlanWiz that will, hopefully, give you some ideas for your own business. At the beginning of a new year we traditionally make personal "resolutions", but rarely think about these for our businesses. Now, the beginning of a new year shouldn't be the only time that we plan for our business; at any time planning can give us the opportunity to stand back and look at what we have achieved and changed in the past year and to look forward to what we would like, and need, to achieve and change in the coming year. Why not do this with your business?

Planning = "boring and too much hard work" in many people's minds and is often connected with someone such as the Bank Manager! Consequently it often doesn't get done formally unless we are forced to do it. But... we do plan: we see that we can change a product; we decide we need more finance; we decide to employ more staff; we wonder vaguely about what our business might look like in two years time. All of these ideas and decisions have knock-on effects for our businesses and could do with some sort of structure, but most of the time we haven't written our planning down: it's just swimming around in our heads.

The point about planning for your business is that you should be doing it for yourself, simply because it is so useful and throws up opportunities that you probably didn't know were there!

Whether it is a marketing plan, a financial plan or a business plan, at MarketingPlanWiz we actually enjoy planning for our business as it gives us the opportunity to spend time on our business and think about where we want to take it. Planning takes us away from the daily grind! We make a conscious decision to address our planning at regular intervals throughout the year and then get the results written down.

We begin by individually jotting down our own ideas about what went wrong and right during the previous period and what we think we should change, and we also note our 'dreams' for the future of the business; then we get together and discuss everything formally, with an agenda and a template plan so that we don't forget anything. (If you are on your own, the old saying that "Two heads are better than one." is useful here, as you can feel quite isolated when running a small business. Try and find someone you trust to discuss your ideas with: another business person, your Business Link or Local Enterprise Agency adviser (see links) or your bank manager. It's also useful to have a chat with your staff, if any, before you begin the formal part, as they are on the "front line", have a different perspective of the business and can often contribute really useful ideas that you can use to your advantage.)

We like to give ourselves a day for the discussion; we get away from our usual place of work and turn our cell phones off - the less distraction we have, the better. We have found that the local hotel lounge is a good venue - they provide us with excellent coffee (and lunch if we want it), it's comfortable, they leave us in peace and it's not too expensive.

When we've finished one of us will write it up. The final plan will span at least two years. This is where word processing comes in useful, as some of the plan will remain as before, so can stay in, whilst other areas come out and the new plans added in. (You have to make things easy for yourself!) The benefit of a written plan is that you can see it; read it; use it as a guide; change it when you need to; and other people have access to it (it's no longer only in your head). We add an Action Plan at the end so that we can easily see what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and who is going to do it. Even with only two people it is easy to trip up on this one! We revisit the plan every couple of months or so and change it if we need/want to. It is dynamic, after all.

So, make a resolution (and not just at the start of a new year) to take a day out of your business on a regular basis and plan where you are going with it; you'll be amazed what opportunities you come up with. And don't forget to enjoy yourself in the process - it really shouldn't be a chore!

Related Articles
  Don't Set New Year's Resolutions - Take Action in The New Year
  HOW TO KEEP YOUR RESOLUTIONS AND REACH YOUR GOALS
  Resolve to stop making resolutions!
  The Best New Years Resolution is to never make them again!
  New Years Resolution, Do Not Make One This Year?
  What's your New Year Resolution? 5 Steps To Help You Achieve it
  Goals Out of Reach? Broken New Years Resolutions? Reach Your Goals More Easily
  5 New Year's ReSOLUTIONS - To Turn Your Business On Its Head!
  New Years Resolutions
  The Best New Year Business Resolution is NO Resolution
  Personal Growth: How Are Your Resolutions Holding Up?
  Guarentee Your New Year's Resolutions by Turning Them Into Goals.
  A Different Kind of New Year's Resolution
  Happy New Year!
  Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions
  Ten Ideas to Help You Keep Your Resolutions Or Goals
  Making Resolutions Work!
  Bring in 2010 with an Exciting and Compelling Goal
  Career Resolution Tip
  Does your New Year’s resolution include buying or selling your business?

Article Tags: marketing plan, marketing planning, new marketing, resolutions



Related Forum Posts
Starting a New Business - Congratulations on the first step of deciding to create your own business. First, you have to ascertain if you are going to be selling your products or services to people or to businesses. People purchase products and services for three basic reasons: •To satisfy basic needs •To solve problems •To make themselves feel good. You have to determine which of these three categories your product or service is the solution to. Businesses, unlike individuals, buy products and services for three reasons as well: •To increase revenues •To maintain the status quo •To decrease expenses. Knowing the reasons why people/businesses buy, you should have a picture emerging of who you think your "Target Market" (or ideal customer) is. Once you have zeroed in on your solution, you are ready to create your Marketing Strategy. If you look at any company that has grown rapidly over the past few years, (i.e. WestJet and Starbucks), it should demonstrate to you the importance of Marketing. In simple terms these companies have: •Clearly defined what makes them different; •Who their ideal customer is; •How to reach them; •Why customers should buy from them; •And most importantly why customers should come back again. It is strong Marketing Awareness that singles out the best companies. I can not stress enough how important it is to create a "living" Marketing Plan before you even start. I hope this helps a little in the creation of your plan. All the very best of luck. Remember: "A Goal without a Plan is just a Wish" Miles of Smiles, Marketing Maven
I could use some help with my Marketing Plan Objective - Hi guys, Well I'm off to the UK be back to work on April 10th. In the meantime, I could use some help. My Marketing Plan Objective is definitely not SMART. It doesn't have anything specific, or measurable, it is achievable, it is realistic and it is timed. You're help will be appreciated. Hope to tallk to you in April and see you in May. Judi
Business Innovation - Hi Simon If you can finish off the Business Plan and think about your strategic direction or how you are going to use your product to convince people it's a great idea, it will set the foundation for your programming project. You see, when you are looking for funding you will need a Business Plan and Strategic Plan that will convince companies to invest into your new idea. Has anyone achieved this idea before using another industry besides health and fitness that you know of? You should also design some mockups as a "preview" for your programming project. This will also help reduce your programming costs as everyone will know exactly what you want if you have detailed mockups already completed including any functionality you require. Starting mockups for websites and software applications on paper is the best way if you're not a guru in graphic editing software.
New Year's Resolutions? - It's getting close to the New Year. Do any of our Young Entrepreneurs out there care to share their Resolutions...or goals...for the upcoming year? And what plans do you have to make those goals become a reality?
New Small Business Topic - Hello everyone, I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section? Here's a list of what we currently have: Angel Investors Branding Bank Loans Business Coaching Business Plan Franchises (New) Insurance Legal Marketing Public Relations Sales Small Biz Loans Venture Capital


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Word of Mouth Marketing Tips Fuel Success

Is the iPad useful? One CEO tells all ....

Soda Vending Machine = Energy Hog

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.