Marketing can be easy when your small business is built around your passions and is in its infancy (before you become too burdened by customers, staff and all the other great things that make running a business difficult). But as your business grows, your passions can sometimes be pushed to one side as the more arduous tasks of running your enterprise take over your working days.
How many small business owners struggle to find the time to get creative and write informative blog posts, schedule timely social media posts and design email campaigns that pack a real punch because they are buried deep in the company accounts, firefighting staffing issues or micromanaging virtually every other issue that impacts their business?
In situations like this, marketing is very often put on the back burner or farmed out to people or organizations that have neither the passion nor the knowledge of the business owner. This is shame because as small business owners they are very often the beating heart behind the business and its most powerful marketing asset.
As a business owner, your customers and your employees look to you for thought leadership and direction. Spending time balancing the books or sorting out the office stationery cupboard does little to fulfill this leadership role.
Avoiding Growing Pains
If you are the beating heart behind your business and you are finding yourself sidelining your marketing efforts for more mundane tasks, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is this the most efficient use of my time?
- Is this adding to the bottom line of my business?
- Am I enjoying this?
The fact is, tasks like accountancy, payroll and IT support (and a whole host of other business activities that need to be done but don’t add to the bottom line of your business) can often be outsourced to professionals who can save you time and money. For example, a good accountant may be able to save you more money than he or she actually costs you.
Learn to Let Go and Thrive
Understanding that micromanaging every aspect of your business (or just busy being busy) will not help your business develop is your first step to positive growth and overcoming those small business growing pains.
Has letting go helped you become more creative in your marketing output or are you still restricting your marketing efforts by attempting to manage every single aspect of your business? Share your comments below.
This post first appeared on the iContant Email Marketing Blog.
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