Page 25 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

101 WAYS TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

back in the area of advertising—this is the time that
advertising and marketing should be increased but it rarely
happens that way.

Most businesses that come to me for advice have very
limited budgets—sometimes as little as $20 per week. My
advice is always the same. The size of the budget doesn’t
matter but how you use it does. It is all relative. A company
with a $20 per week marketing budget probably needs to
generate a few thousand dollars per year. A company with
a million dollar marketing budget needs to turn over tens
of millions per year.

Determining how much money you should spend pro-
moting your business is a difficult decision. The accepted
way to arrive at a marketing budget is a percentage of your
total turnover, anywhere from 5 per cent to 20 per cent.
If the figure you picked was 10 per cent and you turn over
a million dollars a year, you are planning on spending
$100 000 per year in advertising and marketing.

It is always wise to talk to your accountant or financial
advisor when it comes to setting a budget, but remember,
marketing should be a fixed cost like rent or electricity. If
you don’t actively promote your business it will soon dis-
appear. If you wait until you are desperate you are under
a lot more pressure to get the results.

I recently had a jeweller approach me to do some
marketing for his company. He had been operating for over
fifteen years and he had never spent a cent on marketing.
This man was very successful but in the last five years
competition had increased, tourist numbers had dropped
and business had suddenly got tough. He was very humble
and it was obvious that he had done a lot of soul searching
to understand why his business was failing. His greatest
realisation was that he didn’t take an active stance in
marketing his business because he thought that the custom-
ers would always be there.

Having said that, don’t feel that you need to have a

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