by Eric Gilboord

Are you not investing in marketing because you are afraid of success or more success? This may be a good question to ask yourself.

I have spent many hours with intelligent successful business owner/operators discussing the growth of their business. Only to be stunned when they say they are not going to invest in any marketing even when they know it will increase their sales and help get them to their admitted goals. At first I thought ok, they have other operational issues to sort out or they need more staff to handle the additional business or maybe they are not sold on the advantages of marketing.

But the more I probed the stranger it got. In some cases there was no other issue to resolve. They just liked the comfort of running a business of a certain size and even though they asked for help to build their business the reality was when it came time to commit they would rather stay where they were.

I'm not suggesting that every business owner should continue growing their enterprise just because they can. What I am saying is think hard about why you are not taking even small steps to build when they are available to you with relative ease.

So the next time someone offers to help you grow; dig deep inside and get in touch with what you really want. If you would like to meet in person or by telephone and just want to see the other side of the decision please call me at 416-270-2466 and let's talk.

And that's According 2 Eric

Get started with our FREE SALES and MARKETING PLANNING GUIDE. At the very least you'll see what a plan should cover. No strings. Just a detailed easy to follow integrated format free to help you think through the process. A2E 

Successful business owners prepare their Sales & Marketing programs for the Fall, starting right now. You can do it on your own or with some guidance. 
 
I have an outline template to help you with the preparation of your own Sales & Marketing plan. My gift to you, no strings, just click here and start planning. 
 
This is the same working document we use at Warren BDC as a base to prepare detailed custom plans for our clients and to implement actions from. 

Good luck, and it's ok to call if you have a question or 2.

Cheers, Eric A2E
416-270-2466
eric@warrenbdc.com

PS: Need a gift for your SMB Customers, Dealers, Vendors, VARs or Franchisees.
    10 Reasons to give away copies of my business growth tips book. 
 
From last week:
 8 Rules For Successfully Hiring Marketing Suppliers 
11 Marketing Tips For Reviving Your Business 
11 Tips For Continued Marketing Success 
11 Ways To Get Your Marketing Started
 

This article is from my friend John Warrillow author of BUILT TO SELL one of the Inc. 2010 best books for business owners.

How do you imagine life after selling your business? Are you travelling? Europe maybe? Patagonia, or somewhere nice and warm?

If you’re like most of the business owners I know, you imagine selling your business, having a going-away party, and riding off into the sunset.

Increasingly, it’s not working out that way.

In a shaky economy, with banks shy to lend, the proportion of cash that business owners get when they sell is sinking with the proportion of the sale price put “at risk” in some sort of “earn-out” or “vendor take back” loan is going up.
Recently, I hosted a workshop in Toronto and invited an M&A professional who spoke about the typical deals she is doing these days. She shared the story of one buyer who is acquiring marketing services businesses for as much as ten times earnings before tax. The fine print? They only pay three times earnings upfront and leave the possibility of the other seven in a five-year earn-out.