GoFaxer Blog

You’ve decided to start your own small retail store. It’s a great franchise. You’ve done the build out. You’ve set up your phone line and your credit card machines. You’ve got your fax to email service set up. Everything is in place.

You open your doors. No one comes in. Oh yeah. You forgot to do one thing—tell potential customers that you’re actually in business. Marketing is one of the most talked about things in business, and one of the least done effectively.

Small business owners often find themselves in trouble in this area for a couple of reasons. The first is that it costs money, something they might not have much of anymore after they’ve hired someone to put in the beautiful new tiling on the floor. The second reason is they might not know that much about marketing.

These are two tough challenges to overcome. On the first problem, make sure that you’ve planned ahead for your marketing expenses in your business plan. Know how it’s going to affect your P&L.

The second challenge may require some extra work on your part. If you know a really great marketing consultant, one that you trust, hire them. If you don’t, I highly recommend doing some serious reading. The best marketing book out there is Jon Spoelstra’s “Marketing Outrageously.” It’s brilliant and will help your small business immensely.