Simply putting up a website is not considered marketing. If you want to thrive, you have to do more a lot more than that. You need to identify your target market, determine how to appeal to them most effectively, and build your brand. You need to find opportunities to get the word out about your business, whether it's through free publicity or paid advertising. And you need to constantly evaluate your results to make sure things are moving in the right direction. It's all very important but it can also be very overwhelming.

Running a marketing campaign can be all-consuming if you let it, leaving little time for you to concentrate on the moneymaking aspects of your business. But if it's gotten that far, something is wrong. By finding out what the problem is, you can fix it and get more rewards for your marketing efforts. Here are some tips to help you do that.

• Look at your conversion rates. Do you have to reach hundreds of customers just to get one sale? If so, perhaps you're not targeting your marketing efforts well enough.
• Do some more research on your target market. Send out surveys to determine how they respond to your marketing efforts. This will allow you to reinforce and expand on what you're doing right and quit what you're doing wrong.
• Have a professional analyze your sales copy. There will be a fee, but if you're doing your own copywriting, it's worth it. A pro can point out things that could be hurting your sales that are not obvious to the average person.
• Make tracking your results as easy as possible. Give your customers incentives to tell you where they saw your ads, and add tracking codes to your URLs in online marketing. This will cut down on guesswork and help you market more effectively.

These steps can help you fix your marketing so it's more effective and less time-consuming. But what if it's not broken? What if you're getting plenty of prospects and conversions, but you're still feeling overwhelmed? You could cut back on your marketing efforts. But if things are going well, why not outsource some marketing tasks? This will allow you to continue doing what works and have time to concentrate on other business matters too.

Marketing is essential to any business, but it's important not to let it get out of hand. By taking the time to evaluate your efforts and make changes when necessary, you can spend less time, energy and money on marketing in the long run.

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"No" seems to be the hardest thing for us to say. It could be that we are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings or that it will negatively impact our business. But saying no is helpful to our business in many ways.

Earning more money at the expense of customer service is always a step backwards. Initially, your business may be able to accept a new client, but the initial contract is only the beginning. You must continue to provide a good product and answer any questions and concerns that crop up. This may get harder as you go along.

Consider your other clients. They have been with you for a while and have been loyal. Their quality of service could suffer as you try to find more hours in the day to accommodate them and the new clients you keep taking on. Don’t be fooled into thinking that they will forgive shoddy service so that you can make more money.

Refusing to take on clients is a turning point in your business. This can be the time for you to consider the idea of expansion and hiring employees or contractors. These additional people will allow you to expand the number of clients that you can accept. You will be free to delegate more tasks to others and handle the administrative or marketing duties of the business.

A client that wants to use your services will contact you about work. A polite response that you are not accepting any new clients at this moment but will be in the next few months is a signal to them that you are doing good business. To be on a waiting list for anything means that others are willing to wait for a good thing. That potential client will want to know more about you and may be willing to wait like the others until you can handle their business.

Growing your business is not only achieved by new clients but also by an increase in repeat business. A client may expand the work that they want done or will buy more products than they did before. Offering new services entices current clients to use you for more of their needs. In that way, your business is also growing.

Learn to say no when you have to. It may be time to expand so more clients can come on board. Waiting until you are ready will keep current and future customers happy.

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If you have been diligent in your work ethic and practices, there are still alternatives available to you even though you may experience a bump in the road during this economic downturn.

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Backup plans allow companies to absorb the shock an emergency brings by focusing on the structure that helped to create the company. A backup plan can be thought of as a living business plan. A top-down approach based on an organizational chart affords the company the ability to address the particular needs and concerns of each department while framing it in a big picture.

Transferring institutional knowledge from people to paper is the basis of the backup plan. Over years people amass a wealth of knowledge that often gets overlooked. Every office knows who to go to for to remedy certain issues. This approach will only work as long as guy or gal they want to go to isn't gone. Backup plans are an action-oriented approach to fostering knowledge transfer and creating department surrogates.

Knowing who the new "go to" person is immediately allows crisis management to start. Thus when a crisis rears its head, the company won’t be left wondering “what next?”; instead they will be able to consult a comprehensive plan that will guide them through the crisis. In turn, this will take some of the worry and stress off of an already potentially tense time for the company.

Backup plans don’t have to be limited to the general operations of a company. They can be broad enough to address any concerns that may arise. Keeping a list of client and third party contact information is another valuable way to make sure that the knowledge transfer of all information is stored in one place.

The owner of the plan can lead both its inception and maintenance. Storing the company’s backup plan on a shared drive allows easy accessibility for any member of the team that needs to access or update it. It is then necessary to make sure that this vital company document is backed up regularly as well.

Overall, backup plans can help alleviate the stressors associated with times of transition or times of unexpected events. The living document can be the differentiating factor in whether the company is flexible enough to handle the challenges that it will certainly face.

Documenting the key components of your business using the Smart Business Company Manual will ensure you've covered all bases and that nothing is left out.

Organize! Time searching for things is wasted time. Utilize task lists, time tracking software and calendars, however only utilize them to the point they’re saving you time by keeping you organized. If it takes you three hours to set up your day on a software program that’s 2 hours and 55 minutes wasted.

Multi task when appropriate. Have phone calls to make and chores to do? Grab a headset, clip the phone at your waste and get busy. Clients and business prospects probably don’t want to hear dishes being loaded into your dishwasher but your sister probably won’t mind.

Watch less TV. "American children and adolescents spend 22 to 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV."
– The Kaiser Family Foundation. Imagine what you could do with those 22 hours! That’s another complete day.

Spend less time aimlessly browsing the internet. Like television, the internet absorbs many hours. Set aside specific internet browsing time – if you need to shop online then shop online, if you need to read email set aside time each day to read email, if you need to learn or participate in social marketing set time aside to take care of it.

Ask for help. Yes, partners, spouses and children can only do so much however they can help. Make Sunday afternoons make-ahead day and create and freeze five meals for the week. Have children help and make it a family activity. Now, rather than spending 30 minutes at the drive through or an hour making dinner, all you have to do is pull it out of the freezer and pop it in the oven. Voila – time saved and healthy home made food on the table.

Wake up 30 minutes earlier every day – or if you’re a night owl go to bed 30 minutes later. Use that extra 30 minutes to plan your day and get organized.

Prioritize tasks and focus on them. Yes, earlier multi tasking was mentioned as a way to save time however many tasks are accomplished much more quickly and efficiently when you can focus on them independently. Walking the dog and calling your mother who you haven’t talked to in a month is certainly two tasks which can be combined however paying bills, writing that report, or reading an important document for your presentation tomorrow are best accomplished with focused attention.

Simplify. Taking clothes to the dry cleaner saves time ironing. Running around your neighborhood saves time driving to the local gym. Instead of making pancakes or waffles every morning, make them for the week and pop them in the freezer or substitute cereal once in a while. Set your coffee pot to brew right when you wake up rather than waiting in line at your local coffee shop. Small steps to simplify your life not only save time – they are often less expensive. Go to the grocery store with a recipes and a list – this will mean you don’t have to run to the grocery every day to pick up dinner and planning and shopping for meals often means healthier dinners and a less expensive grocery bill.

#Do fewer chores. Seriously. The house doesn’t need to be spotless. A good routine and some simple organization will reduce clutter. Set time aside, recruit help, and clean once a week. The day to day stuff can be minimized with organization. If possible – let it go and simply hire a maid.

Create wind down time or personal time. Too much scheduling and work often results in procrastinating and a lack of interest in the task at hand. Don’t forget to have fun. Schedule days off or time off so you can relax and simply enjoy the things you like to do. It’ll make the time you need to spend working much more efficient.

Now you have all this extra free time, what are you going to do with it? The options are endless. Enjoy more time with your family, devote more time to your favorite hobby or pastime, or the inevitable…fill it up with more tasks.

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Outsourcing is contagious. You could be on the Home Depot website trying to get customer service help and your customer service representative could be answering your questions from India. Computers and the Internet allow us to perform a number of tasks from anywhere in the world. Now, email is becoming the newest thing we decide to outsource. Here are some of the pros and cons of doing so.

Pros:

Outsourcing saves time. For highly successful businesses, email inboxes can receive upwards of thousands of emails a day. If you were to sift through that yourself and answer each one, there wouldn’t be time in the day to do anything else. Your emails would dwindle, but nothing would get done on the marketing side of the business.

Outsource to an individual that you trust. You can hire a virtual assistant whose job it would be to answer these emails. This person would have to spend time with you learning how you think and what types of responses you expect. As a business professional, they would know what messages needed your attention and which ones they could answer. Their expertise would have to include setting up email servers and folders to effectively manage the emails.

You may outsource to an email service that does nothing but handle email. Their services would provide the servers needed to handle multiple email accounts and the features that make organizing that mail easier. Because they deal with email exclusively, they continually implement technology that will benefit you.

Cons:

Can you trust another person reading your email? Any other source that you use to deal with your email has to be secure. You wouldn’t want sensitive material being accessed by just anyone. Using an email service that is not secure is asking for trouble.

There is something to be said for reading your own email. An assistant or email service can answer for you but they are not you. There is the potential for emails to be answered incorrectly when someone else is doing the job. An email may get filed into the wrong folder and missed.

Outsourcing is not always necessary for smaller businesses or businesses with only one email address. To solve the problem of massive emails, choosing an email provider who has the features you need is a more viable option. It could be a matter of filing them automatically so that they are easy to look at later when you have time.

Depending on your needs, outsourcing email is an option to pursue. But, before deciding on a plan, it is wise to consider the pros and cons of all options.

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You need to know what to look for, not only in looking at the prospective person's temperament but also looking at their experience, how they handle certain situations, what their referees say about them, and how easy it is to confirm their references. We'll talk in more detail about what to look for when seeking a project manager.

The very first thing you want to notice is how they apply. Did they apply in the way how you asked them to apply, assuming you gave specific instructions? Was it timely?

Another thing to look for is their personality, as they will be dealing with a lot of the public, other business owners and employees.

More things to look for in a project manager is whether or not they have practical experience as well as education. Verify their references. How well can they manage stress and scheduling? Can they multi-task well?

In an interview I also pay attention to how they talk about previous employers or other people. I always ask the question “Why should I hire you?” A good answer to this question can set a person apart and can show you whether they think outside the box or not.

You should be able to get a feel for how well they look in advance, to offset unforeseen issues. Find out what their potential plans would be for meetings, what kind, with whom and how often. Are they familiar with management software and if so what kind and how familiar are they? Do they have examples of solutions that they have used in the past that have helped with certain circumstances? Throw out a couple of scenarios and ask them how they would respond.

The information you gather should be able to clearly show if your potential project manager can strategize – whether or not they have the ability to keep to schedules yet know when to cross the line of having to redo the schedule to accommodate everyday changes, both within the company and the market changes and technology. Communication and collaboration will be a major key player.

Be creative and tough in interviewing prospective managers as this is your company and it is your right to be able to make sure you have the best you can find. You must be able to trust the person you hire as they will be your right hand, if not also part of the left.

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I used to love it when my AOL chimed, “You’ve got mail.” It meant that someone wanted to contact me. With a business, however, email can seem like the enemy. I closed my eyes when I hit INBOX because I was afraid of how many new messages I had to look forward to.

Getting emails from customers, potential clients, and the like is a major part of your business. Don’t be afraid of it. But, it can be overwhelming when there are other issues to deal with, like marketing your business to others. So, let’s look at some ways to lessen the pressure.

Decide when you will check your email. Some may think that this is a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people check their email when they get a free moment. This could add up to about ten times a day. No one has time for that if they are actively working their business. There are other things that need to be tended to.

Check your email at set times. At most, check it three times a day. It goes without saying that if you are in an active correspondence with someone that you will have to check it more often, but on a normal day, email can be checked in the morning before you begin your day, in the afternoon, and in the evening before you close up shop.

When setting up your email, use a separate account for business. Using your personal email is a lot like using your home telephone number for business. You can miss messages or accidentally delete ones that you think are SPAM. A personal email account is set up to filter differently than a business email account would be.

Email providers offer more features than we normally use. Mostly, we use the features that we are familiar with when we set up the account. If your email is getting out of control, explore these other features to see if they can help. Microsoft Outlook has many features that are perfect for handling business email. Emails can be flagged to view later and they can be filed in folders that you set up so that you can deal with similar issues all at once.

Create templates that can be used to answer emails. If you just don’t have the time to deal with customer service issues at the moment, having an automatic email template that can be sent out will save you from having to write a new email for each customer service one you receive.

Email doesn’t have to be the terror of your day. Organize your emails by using the various features offered by your email account provider to make the job easier.

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What is a savvy entrepreneur to do? The daily administrative tasks need to be done as well as the marketing and business strategy. Once clients start to roll in, a new set of variables is added to the equation. Your day just got a bit more hectic.

You are not the first person that this has happened to. It is normal to be overwhelmed when you are the chief. At the beginning the work is plentiful but the money is such that you are the only employee the business can afford, especially if this enterprise is an Internet business.

For a physical office, the pot gets a bit stickier. Use the extra funds that you built into your business plan to get some help. Identify where you have the greatest need and tackle that area first. With employees that will be coming into the office, there is also the matter of benefits, insurance, disability, payroll checks, and other issues. Having this paperwork in place when you develop your business plan eliminates that as another pressure heaped on your head.

Even one person working with you can lighten the load. The object is to grow your business so that a positive cash flow situation is created. There aren’t enough hours in the day to handle every task every day. But, two heads can do double the work.

For an online business, the task of finding someone to help you may come faster. Advertising in forums can yield someone with the right expertise to complement your business. Since you may not need them all the time, hiring contractors is often a good idea.

A contractor means less paperwork at your end. They are working their own business and you are a client. With tax obligations, they are responsible for that. As far as paying them, researching current pricing will help you offer a competitive wage for their work. If they agree, you are ready to delegate.

Being overwhelmed is normal for new business because there is so much to do. You may have learned to survive on little or no sleep and have made it through this phase without the assistance of another. But, the time is coming when the business will grow. That is what we all want — to be more and more successful. At any stage of the game, asking for help can make the bittersweet job of running a business that much more enjoyable.

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Newsletters -As a business owner, you have to communicate with your client, prospects and affiliates. A newsletter is a great way to do this. However, if you’re not comfortable writing a newsletter each month, you can outsource this task to someone who is more suited to it.

Autoresponders – Autoresponders, an automatic system of sending pre-written emails to your contact list, are great for saving time and money. You may not understand the concept, but there are people that would be willing to set up your autoresponder system for you. They will be able to create emails for nearly any reason you would send an email, all without having to personally attend to an email system.

Direct mailing – Keeping in contact with your client on a regular basis is a must. Having someone create your mailing material and do the actual mailing for you will make keeping in touch a breeze.

Outsourcing is an excellent way to get more done in your  business. There’s no reason that you, as the business owner, must attend to each and every task. Your time and effort would best be spent completing tasks that will help generate a higher income. Even though you may be putting out money by outsourcing these tasks, it might be some of the best money you’ll ever spend.

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