You want to grow your business, you want to expand and develop your business into a successful enterprise that you are proud of. You have planned how you are going to get there and you are aware of what you have to do to get to your desired goal. However, do you know where your business is now? If not, then how do you expect to grow if you don?t know what the current status of your business is?

When you?re creating your marketing plan you need to establish where you currently are. By knowing the current status of your business you will find it much easier to plan a direct route to your business goals and ambitions. So what are your goals? Let?s say that one of your goals is to increase your company profits by 50% by the end of the year.  What?s the best way of doing this? Do you get more clients,  or should you try and upsell to your current clients? Once you have your starting point you will be able to create effect planning and make the goal a lot easier to achieve.

Consider your business: what services and /or products do you offer to your clients? Are you new and breaking into the industry? Or are you established with a reputation in your industry?

If your business is established,  think about all about the services you offer, and remind yourself of them. Do your offer all your services to your clients? Is there a demand for what you want to offer or are you doing something you only think people might want?

Spend some time researching your clients. Who are your clients? Are your services going to help their business?  Where are you going to find new potential clients?

Finally, you want to be looking at your competitors. Do you know who they are? Do they offer the same service as you? What about price, are they cheaper than you? Do you stand out from them?

Consider these questions and implement the answers into your marketing plan. Importantly, use the marketing plan on an ongoing basis, with regular review and updates.  Neither your business, your competitors, customers or the market remain static, therefore neither should your marketing plan. For more information have a look at our video.