Putting It All Together to Create Success

by Lori Osterberg

Published on this site: August 17th, 2004

Building It Bigger and Better

All you have to do today is open up a newspaper, or drive down the street, or in some cases talk to acquaintances and you will find people that have shut down their small business because they just couldn't make ends meet. They had the drive to sell their product or service, but they didn't follow through on getting out there in front of the people that would actually buy from them. So the businesses cease to exist.

Having a great idea is what starts a business. Marketing is what drives the business. Marketing is the only thing that keeps a business in business!

Yet so many business owners just don't seem to understand the importance of marketing. It's easier to avoid the whole process of marketing. After all, there are always more important things to deal with; like answering the phone, filing papers, and creating new products.

There will always be someone else with your same business idea. There will always be other people to fill a niche in which you could have grown into greatness. What separates good businesses from failures is the ability to market.

Marketing comes down to focusing in two directions: look for interesting and unique points in your business, or look for interesting and unique qualities in yourself.

As the owner of the business, you are in the frontline of promoting. You live it, and breathe it, and carry it with you 24/7. You are always marketing the way your business works. The more fun you have and show the rest of the world, the more they are going to want to find out why your product makes you act and behave the way you do!

There are literally hundreds of ways a company can use marketing to help grow their business. Unfortunately most businesses don't use more than four or five techniques, and even those are sometimes weak efforts.

The key to getting known is to focus all of your energy on bringing your name into as many conversations as you can. When people think of your industry, your name automatically comes out. Combine your efforts with others around you, and create dynamic offers that people simply can't refuse. Always be watching for ways to catapult your business with the use of a current trend. Then sit back and watch your business thrive!

The easiest way to find new business opportunities is to work together with other businesses. It's more efficient; you can have access to thousands of more potential customers simply by combining your client lists. It's more economical; you can combine your money when creating marketing pieces, renting space, promoting, and advertising. And it's more fun; isn't it always more fun to be around a bunch of equally motivating people as yourself!

How can you apply this to your own business? Let me use an example from a recent trend happening in my hometown of Denver, Colorado. We have been living with drought conditions for the past several years. The newest rage throughout our area is Xeriscaping, which is simply landscaping using waterwise plants. Because we are on severe water restrictions this year, everyone is finding ways of teaching and helping people reconfigure their landscaping to include more of these plants.

One of our local chamber of commerce's put together a Xeriscape festival at the beginning of the planting season this year. Many local landscapers, nurseries, architects, planners and designers combined efforts to put on this much needed festival. The chamber is getting a lot of press simply by being the host. The small businesses are getting free publicity by being a part of the event. Even other small businesses gained exposure by helping put together this timely event: rental companies, marketers, and printers-the list goes on and on. By working as a group of motivated people, the chamber and many local businesses are increasing their own business simply by combining efforts, and giving people what they want!

There are two things that make this idea so exciting. First, your exposure to other people and businesses is amazing. Instead of working within your own comfort level, you are out interacting in a variety of ways with a mixture of different levels of business opportunity. This alone will help you expand your business in directions you may have never even thought of before.

And second, the best way to get known is to put yourself in front of others that can help you. Simply by working with the many people that make it possible to pull off a major event will build a trust level. If you help someone, and provide him or her with something that makes their day a little easier, they will bend over backwards to reward you. It's the "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" theory. It works. It's worked for hundreds of years. Give it a try.

Lori Osterberg is an idea builder and marketing expert. Lori is also a successful mentor and author, writing for the Denver Business Journal and currently finishing her second published book. Sign up for her free ezine at http://www.VisionOfSuccess.com and receive her dynamic report on Creating a Better Client Base.