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Guest post by: Andrea Travillian Become an Author

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Have you ever faced a marketing problem, realized that it needed fixing, but had no idea where to start? If you are anything like me, not knowing what to do can leave you feeling confused, frustrated, or even hopeless. Getting your money on track can be the same. You may know that you have a problem and realize that solving the problem will enable you to fulfill more of your goals and dreams, but you just have no idea where to start. So how do you solve your marketing problems? You develop a five-step process to help you deal with marketing today and tomorrow. You can solve your money problems with the same five steps:

1. Determine where you want to go.

2. Assess where your problems are.

3. Create a plan to solve the problems.

4. Add plan items to your daily tasks.

5. Adjust and revise as needed.

Let's stop and look at each step individually.

Determine where you want to go

You can market all you want, but if you don't know where you want to go you may end up headed in the wrong direction. When that happens, you will quickly lose your motivation to keep going. Likewise, with money you can work on it all you want but if you do not know why you are trying to reduce your expenses or make more money, then you will run out of steam and erase all your progress. So the first step is to sit down and figure out why you want your money to be healthy. Write it down, draw a picture of it, or do whatever else it takes to make it real for you.

Assess where your problems are

Sometimes this is the hardest part because it means you have to admit that something is wrong. It is one thing to say "I know I need to change" but a completely different thing to say "I spend more than I make." Sit down and list the problems that need to be fixed. For marketing, this might be "My ads are targeting the wrong people" or "I do not follow up on leads." For your money, this could be "I spend too much," "I don't make enough," "I don't have an estate plan," or "I do not have life insurance." Get everything on paper.

Create a plan to solve the problems

Now you know what the problem is, but you still have to make a plan to solve the problem. If you know you want your marketing to add five more clients by December and that your problem is lack of a website, you still won't make much progress if you do not have a plan to get a website. So your plan would look like this: register domain, create website plan, hire designer, publish site. Money is the same. I can say, "I want $2,000 invested by December so I can go on vacation with my sister," but without a plan that details it out, I likely will not save enough money for the trip. So your plan might look like this: open savings account, set up automatic withdrawal to savings, and cancel HBO to get the extra money to put into savings.

Add plan items to your daily tasks

I know that adding items to your task list seems simple, but many of us do not take this step with either our marketing or money. We do not understand the value of adding items to our daily calendar. If you don't add "Cancel HBO" to your calendar, you most likely will not do it.

Adjust and revise as needed

With your marketing you need to try something, adjust it when it is not working, and then re-try. Money is the same way. If you find that you cannot live without HBO and want to instead try skipping one pizza a month or a manicure, adjust your plan to make it work for you. What if you decide instead that you would rather pick up one extra client a month and not skip anything? As you work your way through your plan you will discover things that are going well and others that are not, and you may hit an obstacle or two. Don't get discouraged-remind yourself that making changes is part of achieving a goal. The key is to adjust and keep going!

It's time to stop feeling confused, frustrated, and hopeless with your money. You can achieve what you desire and get your money headed the right way!

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Referred by: http://www.SohoMarketingGuru.com

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