Start at the Very Beginning.  No Really, Plan!

Launching a small business is a time-consuming and overwhelming experience.  All of a sudden you are expected to be an expert, not only at whatever your specific market niche is, but also at all of the little details that go into running a business.  For example, I had never used Quickbooks.  Heck, I had hardly even balanced my checkbook!

Luckily, I do have a marketing and PR background and I assumed that, thanks to my experience in that area, the marketing aspect of starting a business would be easy.  I was wrong.  There are so many different ways to market your business that it is impossible to be an expert on all of them.  It is also difficult to determine which methods are going to give you the best bang for your limited marketing buck.

I have found several methods that do work and learned the hard way about some that do not (spam didn’t pay off).  In the beginning I simply tried each marketing technique that popped into my head, throwing everything at the wall to see what stuck.  That was also not an efficient use of my time or resources.

I know it seems obvious, but I took a step back and asked myself, “What are my goals?”  I was then able to set up a clear strategy to meet each goal, rather than going willy nilly, trying each new strategy I read about. I highly recommend each of you do this exercise yourself.

Here are a few of the answers I came up with and they may be very similar to yours as well:

Goal 1: Increase qualified traffic to my website
Goal 2: Increase sales
Goal 3: Increase value of average sale
Goal 4: Maintain and re-engage existing customers
Goal 5: Be seen as an expert in my field

Once you have come up with this list, it is a lot easier to determine the most cost effective way to achieve each one.  Here is a very simplified version of an answer to these questions.

Goal 1: Increase qualified traffic to my website
Strategy: Increase qualified traffic to my website through a strong SEO strategy comprising of meta tagging, website copy optimization, URL optimization and a comprehensive linking strategy, tied into my PR strategy.

Once you have a clear strategy, you can begin to research the most effective tactics to achieve those goals, and, when appropriate, find the right partner to help you complete each step.

Editor’s Note: Catherine Wood is CEO and co-founder of La Grande Dame, an e-boutique for plus sized women.

What kinds of questions did you ask yourself when developing a business trategy for your company? Please share with us here.