Market Your Way to the Top

What are your tips for creating a successful business plan?
Most small-business owners really start off with the desire that they will grow something of substance; they just don't know how. It is the self-reliant kind of person who starts a business, so sometimes she takes that self reliance to extremes and doesn't delegate anything to anyone. Then she is held hostage by her own limited situation.

Very few, maybe 1%, really truly want to stay a small business: "I don't want any employees, I don't want any hassles, I don't want anybody to manage." That's not a small-business owner though, that's a self-employed person. If you want a business, then you do have to learn how to manage and know how to manage five, 10 or more employees. And then you should want to grow it. Because if you believe in the value of growing, and you believe that your products are really superb and are better than anybody else's, you should want to grow your business and have people enjoy them far away.

It's not really difficult to manage people -- you have to understand leadership. It's not a popularity contest, and you're going to sometimes make decisions that people will be unhappy with. If you are open to ideas from employees and listen to them and then make a decision, that's all you have to do.

A useful equation that I built when I started MSCO that applies to every business is "C" plus "A" plus "M" equals PG.

C=Capture Attrition happens, so you must continuously capture clients or customers.

Solution: Capture through your Web site, Internet marketing, events, etc.

A=Amplify Once you have a relationship with a customer or client, you need to grow it. You need to cross-sell them, up-sell them, enhance the relationship and get referrals. Oftentimes businesses, once they turn a prospect into a customer or client, lose the sort of lust they had when they pursued that person as a client.

Solution: Give them the same level of wonderful support you did in the beginning. Ensure that your customers know the full range of products or services offered.

M=Maintain You maintain customers not by giving them loyalty points but by providing exceptional products and level of service.

Solution: Do things they don't expect. For example, I was at home recuperating when a salesperson at my favorite store drove out and brought me a royal blue sweater (my favorite color) from a designer I liked. You can't leave a business that does those kinds of things for you.

PG=Perpetual Growth If you do all three things, you will have perpetual growth. The problem is businesses tend to stop doing one, two or even three of those things. How many businesses actually do these types of things? Not very many, which is good news for your business.

What is the best way to grow a business using marketing? You need to contact your existing client base. It's almost free -- you just send emails making them aware of the fact that "By the way, we have these 10 products you may not know about, and because you're a good customer, if you purchase one of your regular items, we'll give you a sample of one of the other products for free." Instead of doing those things, many businesses simply advertise.