Entrepreneurs are always eager to get their businesses off the ground and running and in their haste rush into marketing activities to drive new business.  Before you do this however, let’s for a moment consider how marketing could actually hurt your business.

It might sound strange to some but far too often I have seen businesses in their haste to attract new customers fail to prepare for the added attraction. Just imagine you are a business functioning with two persons and you begin to attract so much interest from your marketing activity that new customers begin knocking down your door.  Great isn’t it? Well with the increase in more business comes more responsibility, more product to make, more customers to service, more calls to take… just more of everything.

Now you are the only person who can produce the product or deliver the service and your partner has all the product knowledge to provide the customer care. See a problem? Your precious new customers start calling for their overdue product, your existing customers are frustrated with the tardiness in your responding to their needs when before you were always prompt and efficient.

They rebel and move on and your precious first time customers are so upset with their first time experience that they too leave but worse they spread the word to others about how poor their experience was.

Before getting there I always caution business owners to insure they are ready for the new business their marketing will attract.  Nothing makes a marketing strategy shine more than a well thought out and functioning internal systems.

Before you get out start by looking in. Some things to check would be:

How would an increase in business impact your service.

Do you have the support already or can you get it quickly in place to match demand and still maintain quality

Are staff on board with the new marketing strategy. (selling great service means being able to deliver great service!)

Is your pricing properly set. Small errors in costing and pricing are quickly magnified with increases in production and demand.

So when considering your marketing strategy remember that great marketing strategies first begin internally.