So... Tell Me What You Want!

“So, tell me what you want, what you really, really want!”
“I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want!”
- SONG LYRICS –

How many of you can definitely, absolutely, unequivocally, tell me right now, exactly what it is that you want and what you want your business to achieve?

For most of us who run a small business this seems quite a fluid thing. What you want or what you think you want may change fairly frequently. It may depend on who we have been talking to. It could depend on what new opportunities have come our way.

We often find ourselves caught up in the here and now, this moment. We go to work and just start doing what is in front of us, what we need to do, to survive and pay the bills.

Surely having a vision is not so important for a small company. After all “we are our business”! It was our “big idea”, our dream, that made us start the business in the first place!

It was at that point when we made the decision what we wanted to do, and which direction to go in. Surely now it is just a case of working towards it?

And by the way “What has all this to do with marketing?” I can hear you asking.

Answer – everything!

If you are like 90% of the self-employed people that I know, then you don’t really have a clue about where your business is going. You may have a few budgets & keep an eye on your turnover, but you have no real idea what you want to achieve and no real plan as to how you are going to get there.

Without a goal, a dream, a driving passion is it surprising that your business is just muddling along?

If you don’t know what you want – how do you expect to communicate it to others?

In the last couple of weeks I have been asked by a couple of people to have a look at some of their marketing materials and websites and to give them some feedback. What I have noticed is that everything looks pretty good, the logo’s and design are professional, the web sites work & are easy to navigate.

But!

What I am finding is missing from the formula is the strategy. There is no clear idea, the message is muddled, it gets lost or it is just plain confusing.If you tried to sell in a face-to-face situation, the way most of us are communicating in writing, you have to know that you would be out the door so quick, you wouldn’t know what had happened.

So this week ask yourself just one question – what is it that you want for your business? Write it down where you will see it and share it with at least one other person.

Keep looking at it each day – you can refine it if you need to – and use it as your benchmark for making decisions.

If what you want to do supports your business goal – great – go for it! If it doesn’t, then the choice is yours.

Choice, not chance, leads to the greatest success!