“I just lost my biggest client because of a corporate cost cutting mandate. I was getting 60% of my business from them! What do I do?” - Bob, Minneapolis MN

I hear more and more small business owners worrying about a business slowdown, if they aren’t already feeling the effects of one. Have you ever lost a major client unexpectedly or seen your sales drop over a short period? It can take your business months or even years to recover. How do you keep this from happening, especially in an uncertain economy?

My daughter lives in New York City and works across town from her apartment. Now that it’s June and stays light later, she likes to walk home through Central Park.

When she heads out the door in the morning, she pops a small folding umbrella in her bag. That way in case a passing summer rainstorm catches her in the park, she can stay dry.

Keeping your business from getting drenched and your profits dry also requires planning and preparation.

What’s the secret to growing your business in any economy? Find out >>

Umbrella Marketing
There are always opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs - it just takes planning and preparation to create them.

If you lived in a place where afternoon rain showers were common, or if you looked out the window and saw threatening rain clouds, you’d take an umbrella with you when you left the house, too. Here’s how to provide your business with the same protection so you can keep a steady stream of profits coming in.

Want to maintain your profits, even in a downturn? Discover how >>

Here are a few examples:

In May, GM’s sales were down by almost 30%, Toyota’s on the other hand were essentially flat. GM and Toyota are both in the same industry. How is it that one’s sales are down by 30% and the other’s sales are holding steady?

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for the last 20 years, you knew that oil supplies are dwindling, new sources are harder to tap, and demand from China and other developing countries is growing fast. Gas prices were going to go up. GM’s response was to keep selling their gas guzzling but highly profitable SUVs. Only now that sales have tanked (sorry, bad pun) and they’re shutting factories are they talking about making smaller, fuel efficient cars.

Toyota, on the contrary, has been designing and building fuel efficient cars as well as SUVs for the last decade. They’ve profited on both ends, when gas prices were lower and SUVs were in demand, and now, when gas prices are going up and consumers want better fuel economy.

What kind of business do you want to be running, a GM or a Toyota?

With banks tightening credit, it’s harder and harder to get a loan for that new car you want. Here’s what one car dealer did to keep his sales up; a year or so ago he saw the start of the credit-tightening trend and refocused his marketing on selling used cars. His business doubled in the past twelve months.

Residential real estate sales have dropped by 15 to 50%, depending on location. That took a bite out of one realtor’s income.

Then she noticed that while U.S. buyers were less likely to buy more and more foreign buyers were showing interest thanks to the dropping dollar.

Customers from Canada, Germany, Norway and elsewhere see the dropping value of the dollar as a great real estate investment opportunity. When she target these buyers, her sales shot up.

Do you have a client who provides you with 60% of your sales, like Bob did? What should you do to protect your business? Find the answer here >>

I doubt that I’m the first one to warn you about the problems with building your business around one “gorilla” client. What you should know if that there is a good chance that you’ll lose that client through no fault of your own sometime in the future.

To keep your business growing, you need to pack a small business marketing umbrella. Create a small business marketing plan that keeps new business coming in so that when the economy falters or existing clients sign off, your business keeps growing and you stay dry, comfortable and profitable.

You’ll be amazed at how much more you can make in any economy with a simple umbrella marketing strategy. Get the details here >>

To your success,

Charlie
Providing Proven Small Business Marketing Ideas You Can Use

P.S. It happened to me 3 years ago. I lost one client who had reserved 25% of my coaching time. When a senior VP shut down all consultant spending, my contract went out the window even though it was providing a huge return on investment.

It didn’t make me happy but thanks to a diversified small business marketing strategy my overall sales continued to grow. What to know how I did it? Here’s how >>

P.P.S. A few simple steps can help you grow your business in any economy. If you don’t take them who will? Start here >>

I finally gave myself a promotion yesterday. Have you earned one as well?

No, I’m not just patting myself on the back for growing my business, I’m firing myself from all administrative tasks and promoting myself to focus on the few parts of my business no one else can do. Should you be doing the same?

Are you up to your eyeballs in work? Are you spending dawn to dusk doing marketing, administration and fulfillment? If you are, you’re wearing too many hats and it’s time to relinquish most of them.

When I first started my marketing business, I spent my time writing, building and improving my web site, boxing and shipping my marketing courses, providing one-one-one coaching and a host of other tasks that kept me busy six days a week. My hard work paid off and my business grew - up to a point.

When administrative and operational tasks started taking time away from writing and coaching, I fired myself from the web work and fulfillment. I hired a webmaster and a virtual assistant to get orders out on time. Are you in this position too?

Some small business owners have a hard time delegating substantial work after being in control of every aspect of the business, but take it from me; the assistants I hired were faster and better at doing the web work and fulfillment tasks than I was.

Delegating administrative tasks and web site maintenance freed me to focus on the core of my business, where my real passion is, and to pursue another passion. I was able to work from my ski home in Vermont for the first time last winter.

The result? I skied a (personal) record of 30 days last winter and achieved record sales.

Want to free up more time so you can grow your business? Use this link to find out how >>

Yesterday I reorganized again and virtually kicked myself upstairs to a corner office. I let go of all administrative and operational tasks and hired my new assistant, Ros, to manage email broadcasts, product delivery, customer service, project management, PR and new product development. I’m confident she’ll do a better job than I’ve been doing.

Why would I fire myself from all administrative jobs?

With the 10 or more hours a week I’ve just given myself I can take on more coaching clients, finish the next book I’ve been writing and start a new service which could grow my business by another 100% next year.

How should you focus your time to grow your business? Use this link to find out how >>

Focus your time on your marketing strategy , developing new products and services and delivering the services that need your personal expertise.

How can you get relinquish all those time consuming administrative tasks?

Start by creating a job description of your next assistant. Look over your To Do list. Ask yourself, “Could someone else do this task or is this something only I can do?”

I spent two weeks doing this exercise. Every time I spied a task on my list that fell into the administrative or operational category, I added it to my job description for my new super assistant.

Find out how to free yourself from being your business so you can grow your business >>

Once you’ve defined the job and the skills your business needs, how can you find good people? What do you do if you don’t want employees? How much will it cost? Where can you find the answers?

If I’d had the time I would have written ‘Outsource & Delegate‘. It’s that good. Use this link to to claim your copy of this book >> >>

You owe it to your business to download ‘Outsource & Delegate‘
right now and start implementing these time-saving, life-changing
techniques right away. Use this link to find out how >>

- Charlie Cook
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Make Sense

Want to flood your business with more leads and sales?

- Charlie
Small Business Marketing Ideas That Get Attention and Sales

What’s the benefit of using a small business marketing system?

If you live in an area where it rains sporadically but you want to keep your lawn green you may have or have considered installing an automatic sprinkler system. When you have one, your lawn and shrubs get the amount of water they need every week and keep growing.

Your business is the same. Without a small business marketing system the flow of your leads and sales is beyond your control. Install a simple system for growing your business and instead you could have a constant flow of new businesss every month. Isn’t that what you want?

The Insider Secrets to Highly Effective Marketing gives you a simple system for growing your business so that you generate more leads and sales each month with less wasted effort. Use this link to discover a business building system that works for you >>

For most small businesses the first bottleneck to growing their business is generating leads and attracting new clients. Thanks to top search engine placement a web site that converts like crazy, and a track record that clients love, my marketing business is bringing in more leads and clients than I can handle.

In order to continue to grow my business, my bottleneck is the way I spend my time. I need more time. How is that possible given that they’re are ony 24 hours in the day. Its actually easy, and I’m working on it as you read this. I’ll be offloading all the mind numbing, time eating tasks that keep me from finishing my next marketing book and having more time for clients.

I can easily see 6-8 hours a week I could give myself simply by hiring someone else to do things like editing, ezine production and web page production. You may be thinking you couldn’t afford to hire staff, part time or otherwise.

For me its simple math. I can hire someone to do my production and adminstrative tasks for $25 an hour, freeing me to develop new products or work with clients. Let’s see, with 2 hours I can write a newsletter that generates a couple of thousand dollars in passive income and another coaching or consulting client.

If you’re like me, you probably have waited too long and spent too much time doing stuff you could farm out via elance or to people who would love the work. Do it and you’ll be able to focus your time on the activities that really make you money.
- Charlie Cook