Market Your Business or Community like It’s on an Island
Just imagine that small business you run, or your town or community is on a small island, every personal and business interaction that takes place matters, and every visitor and customer you make contact with is to be treasured.

Having a strategic plan is one thing, but the other half of the equation is of course the implementation of the plan and for the entrepreneur, implementation is at least as important as the development of a sound strategy, and indeed for many entrepreneurial firms, superior execution can be the strategy, so let’s look at what the best entrepreneurs know about strategic execution.

There has been a lot of conversation fixated on how big companies like Dell, Southwest Airlines, Comcast, and most recently Best Buy and others use Twitter and Facebook to promote their products and services, and answer customer’s questions, but not surprisingly today small businesses outnumber the big ones by far on the free micro-blogging service and social media platforms, and they have adapted and proven in many ways that Twitter and Facebook are even more useful tools for businesses and communities of their size to use.

*Not Disclosing any Weaknesses:
It is a difficult aspect of writing a good business plan, the dealing with problems, obstacles, and weaknesses is part of the planning function, but every business has weaknesses without exception and savvy investors to their due diligence in seeking these out. The best way of handling such issues is to just get them out in the open and to have a detailed action plan that effectively addresses these problems.

*No Strategy for Distribution:

Imagine if you are given a huge list of ingredients and asked to prepare an elaborate dish, and without a recipe your chances to complete it successfully would not be very good. In any business, the ingredients are the product, the employees, the inventory, customers, the suppliers, the software, etc., and the recipe is the strategy by which the ingredients will be combined to execute the overall plan of the business.

“Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.“
Thomas J. Watson

A business plan is required to gain entry for investor capital, as it’s the future story of your business, and many entrepreneurs have a great story that are not sure how to tell it. If you’re unsure get help, but since no one can create your story for you, experienced advisors can show you how to structure your plan to present your story effectively.

Start with a terrific idea/concept that should be big enough to make a difference, small enough to be achievable and something you believe in, something you’re willing to dedicate your life to, and it should be something that will attract the interest and energy of others.

Next consider the market size and whether the market is large and growing and does the market have a demonstrable need for the product or service, and will the company the market driven, or basically will anyone care about the product and the fact that it is available.

To cope with the product explosion, people have learned to rank products and brands in the mind and perhaps this can be based visualized by imagining a series of ladders in the mind, and on each row is a brand each different ladder represents a different product category. Some ladders have many steps (seven is me) and others have few, if any, is a competitor that wants to increase its share of the business must either dislodge the brand above (a task that is usually impossible) or somehow relate its brand to the other companies position.

Word-of-mouth doesn’t affect all businesses in the same way, and the role it plays in your business depends on four factors including the nature of your products, the people you are trying to reach, your customer connectivity, and the strategies used in your particular industry.