I get asked a lot of questions about how to make a company more money. And when I tell them what it’s going to take, I get the stare…

You know the one I’m talking about… the one that reads something like “dang, that’s a lot of work”

Yeah, that stare.

There seems to be this mis-conception that I can come in and provide some sort of magic pill, and all will be better.

Sometimes, a successful business does just need some Asprin… but most of the time the business has more than just a headache.

When I mention that a company could be blogging and providing their customers great content that shows who they really are,  9 times out of 10 I get the “we don’t have time for that…” response.

OK. Fine.  Then pay someone to do it for you.

“We can’t afford to pay someone to blog for us… ”

OK.  At this point I sometimes wonder what their true marketing intentions are…

So let me state some  simple facts here about marketing.

1. Marketing is what drives business to you.  Without marketing, your business has little chance of success.
2. There are 2 primary methods of marketing

• a)  Spend Time
• b) Spend Money.

To sum it up, you need to market, and you will either spend time or money doing it.

Simple, right? It should be, and is if you decide that marketing is important to your business.

But when a marketing plan doesn’t include any allocated resources (either time or money) for marketing, then the marketing plan will fail – always.

Remedy? Allocate the proper resources for marketing. Both time and money. Shift resources around to get the right balance.  If you are hurting for clients, then you have extra time on your hands, use it wisely, and you can fill you schedule up. Be creative, and your marketing will pay for itself 10 times over.