I've spoken with quite a few people about their businesses and why they have ups and downs in their business cycles. We talked about why they never seem to have a consistent stream of clients (and income). Some of them assume they are working with the wrong group of people, the wrong niche. Or that they don't have a niche and that's why they aren't making any money. Others tell me they aren't making the money they deserve because they are in a small town and there isn't much business there. Some don't have samples, some don't have a web site.

There are a lot of excuses I'm hearing.

After talking to these folks for a few minutes, I realized that while these excuses may be contributing factors, this is not the reason why they don't have a thriving business.

They don't have any business because they aren't marketing to ANYBODY at all.

Yes, you need to be strategic about your marketing. Yes, it's smart to chose a target group of people that have a need for your services (and the money to pay for it) and spend your time and energy on them. Choosing a niche is a term for this.

It's important to know who you are marketing too and to understand WHY they would hire you and what they are looking for and how you could best and least expensively get in front of them.

That's all important, and you should do it. If you don't do those things and you aren't strategic about your marketing, you will waste your time and your money. But the bottom line is...you still have to market yourself. If you don't do something, no one will know you are out there.

Write articles and publish them. Go to networking events. Make a point to have coffee with one person a week. Send postcards. Make cold calls. Whatever you chose to do - do something. Take action.

Your marketing doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be happening. Now, this is a non-tangible thing I am going to say and some of you may just laugh at me, but you have to get that marketing engine in motion and get that energy moving. Go. Go. Go. It's all about the moving energy.

If you are in a place (like starting a new business or trying to kick-start an existing business that is not living up to your expectations) and you are uncomfortable with where you are at or with the results you are getting, you need to change things. You have to move.

Imagine being in a stale or stuffy room with all the doors and vents closed. New air can't come in and the stuffy, stale air is just sitting there and can't get out. No one likes the way this room feels, but no one is doing anything to change it. No one wants to be in this stale and stuffy room. New people rarely if ever come in, and the people that are in the room are too hot to talk or be friendly with each other because they are miserable.

But then...you come in.

You open the windows and the door, maybe bring a fan in and start moving the air around. You get the air to circulate. Suddenly it's easier to breathe and new people start to come into the room and socialize.

You need to do the same thing with your marketing. OF course you don't have a room with stuffy air, but the energy around your marketing is stale and is either not attracting clients or not attracting the right clients. You need to change the air - i.e. your marketing energy.

If you are doing nothing but thinking about what you are going to do, nothing is moving. Including your energy.

The funny thing about doing this, about taking action, is that people start coming to you that you aren't even marketing to. It's something about getting your marketing energy moving around, just the act of doing it and building the momentum up starts to make things happen.

The moral of my story...get marketing. Do something. Move your butt.

Copyright (c) 2006 Kelly Robbins