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How to Unlock The Potential Of Your Small Business

by Charlie Cook
Copyright 2005©. All rights reserved.

The key to growing your business could be in your answer to the following question. Are you the captain or the crew or both?

Your business is like a ship. Whether you're a physician, a lawyer, a realtor, a web entrepreneur or own a handful of physical therapy clinics the purpose of your business is to take you where you want to go, whether you're headed for riches, want to have fun doing what you love, or both.

Are you at the helm setting a steady course, or are you trying to be the crew, the cook and the captain of your business all at once?

Whether you sell products or services you need to know how to create a small business marketing plan that works and how to implement it. You need to know how to make use of advertising and PR and how to follow up on all these activities to increase the number of prospects that become clients and repeat clients. And then there are all the activities involved in actually providing services, billing for them, keep your accounts up to date, etc.

Marketing, managing and delivering your products and services is way beyond multi-tasking.

For your marketing alone to succeed, you'd need to be expert at developing marketing strategy; writing compelling marketing copy; designing ads, brochures and your web site; collecting testimonials; search engine optimization and managing pay-per-click advertising campaigns, and writing and distributing articles and press releases.

Are you trying to do all of this on your own or with a very small staff? Are you leaving out critical activities because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done?

The sooner you get the expertise you need to run your marketing effectively, the sooner you can get back to being the captain and plot a course for greater profitability.

You may be saying to yourself, "I'll hire a marketing consultant/ copywriter/Virtual Assistant when I reach my sales target for the month and start bringing in more money."

Aren't you already working at 100% or more of your capacity?

With the existing time in the day and your existing expertise you’ll achieve the same results you have in the past. If you want to take your business to the next level, you’re going to need help, whether it is with your small business marketing strategy, search engine marketing, copywriting or simply making follow-up calls to prospects.

Mary from California understands this well. When she called to order my book, "Opening Doors with Your Articles", she had two follow-up questions. First, she wanted to know if I would recommend someone to write articles for her. Second, she wanted a recommendation of someone to distribute the articles online.

Mary's objective was to pin down her strategy, understand how to apply it and then get the help she needed to implement it. That way she could stay focused on delivering her services and making a profit.

Take a Good Look At Where To Get Help
Are you ready to improve your marketing and grow your business? Start by doing a quick analysis of your marketing tasks. Make a list or a spreadsheet with three columns.

List the marketing tasks that only you can do in the first column. In the second, list tasks that you can delegate to a qualified employee. In the third, list tasks that you or your employees need expert assistance with.

Expert Marketing Resources to Get You Started
In order of importance, I've listed resources you can use to get help and take your business to the next level.

Marketing Strategies – Discover the 5 marketing principles you can apply that will generate a steady stream of clients. Click Here >

Web Site Marketing – Use this roadmap to increase your online sales by 1000% or more. Click Here >

Marketing Messages – Find out the fastest way to get attention and business. Click Here >

Marketing Copywriting – Find the words that will prompt prospects to contact you. Click Here >

Using Articles to Grow Your Business – Discover how and where to distribute your articles to get free publicity. Click Here >

Distribute Your Press Releases – PRweb is easy to use, inexpensive and a great way to get your press releases found and picked up by the media. My most recent PR release generated over twenty thousand reads the first day! Click Here >

How to Create and Promote Your Small Business Blog – Get attention and traffic for your site with your blog. Click Here >

Gain Credibility – Use Audiogenerator to collect testimonials like the compelling ones at MarketingForSuccess. Click Here >

Automate Your Online Business – This is the system I use to
manage my opt-in newsletter, email broadcasts and online sales.

Virtual Assistance – Hire a VA to do your mailings, make follow-up calls, collect testimonials etc. Hire help when you need it for the particular tasks you need done, so you can focus on work that is profitable – and enjoyable! Here's a collection of directories to use to find a VA.

Search Engine Optimization – Pay an expert to put your site at the top of the search engines. Contact me to be referred to a reputable firm.

More Small Business Marketing Resources

Do you want to run your business instead of having it run you? Take the helm and put your business and your marketing on course. As captain you can delegate the mundane tasks to others and get the expert advice and assistance you need to reach your business goals sooner.

Find out how Charlie can help you improve your marketing
strategy, your marketing copy and your sales I can work
with you one-on-one to show you what to do or if you’re too busy managing your business, I can advise you on marketing strategy, review your marketing materials and write your marketing copy resulting in more leads and sales.

Small Marketing Services: Coaching, Consulting, Copywriting

Write me to discuss your needs and objectives, but only if you're ready to have your phone start ringing off the wall with new customers. I take on a limited number of clients, so if you're serious about growing your business, get in touch with me as soon as possible to make sure I can fit you into my schedule.

Get started by calling 1-800-795-1858 or use this link to tell Charlie what you want and what you need.

"I love your marketing books ... my favorite being 'Creating Web Sites that Sell'. I used to see marketing as a puzzle; now all the pieces are falling into place.

Your book has helped me be more productive and get many more clients. Highly recommended."
Susan Robichaud, Visual Communications Inc.

"One of the best investments I ever made in my business... Your marketing manual absolutely improved my marketing!

Charlie, because of the way you wrote this small business marketing manual, I can read a chapter on Tuesday and put it into practice on Wednesday. I will be telling all my clients about this marketing tool."
Dionne Carver, Owner, Accounting Firm

"I am thrilled with the marketing manuals I ordered! You are a master of making the important very easy to understand and implement."
Dave Eller, House Guy, Inc.

"With Charlie's help we've seen our web leads jump from 10 a week to 150 a week. In the first month we increased sales by hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'll be recommending Charlie to all our other business units."
Mike Trowbridge
VP Marketing, Fairfield Resorts

"We called Charlie because no one was responding to our ads. We ran the ad Charlie wrote for us, and within three weeks, we added nine new clients and increased our income by $180,000."
Jose Lopez, Rent4me

"Thanks to Charlie's coaching with using the telephone, I achieved a 50% conversion rate on my sales calls … his ideas and practical knowledge have been incredibly helpful."
Suzanne Falter-Barns, Get Known now