1. Are you wishing the economy was better or are you improving your skills? You can’t improve the economy, but you can improve yourself. Make the adjustments required, to thrive. Don’t just wait.
2. Are you running your business or is your business running you? Unless you are working to a plan, you are simply reacting to whatever your business is throwing at you… rather than running your business.
3. Are you saying ‘yes’ to too many requests? Your time is precious. Use it wisely, so that you have all the time required to do all the things that matter.
4. Are you investing in your future, by doing more than you are paid for? Future success belongs to those who pay the price for success, in advance.
5. Are you associating with the right people? We tend to grow in the same direction as those we associate with. Think about what your associates have got you; thinking, believing, feeling and saying.
6. Are you learning from past business mistakes or repeating them? If you are facing the same old frustrations, it’s because you’re repeating the same old errors. For better results, you need a better strategy.

What would you add to that list? Which items on that list do you struggle with? Share your thoughts with a comment.

The post 6 Incredibly powerful questions to help you grow your business appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

If you want to massively improve the way you and your prospective clients feel about your business, you will find the following technique really useful.

I’m also going to show you how to make your business a source of inspiration and excitement for you, rather than stress and worry. It starts by understanding the importance of being genuinely enthusiastic about your business.

Why enthusiasm matters

Someone once described their definition of a sale to me as, the transfer of enthusiasm. That’s a pretty accurate definition. If a prospective customer feels as enthusiastic about buying a product as you feel about selling it, chances are they will buy it.

So, what happens when a business owner lacks enthusiasm? The first thing that happens, is that their prospective clients notice. Just as enthusiasm is contagious, so is indifference and apathy. If you don’t think some business owners show that total lack of enthusiasm, just check out any social network on a Friday.

YES! IT’S FRIDAY!

Every Friday, thousands of small business owners feel compelled to take to social networks, screaming how happy they are that their week has finally finished. As their prospective clients and customers look on amazed, these business owners openly demonstrate more passion and energy about the end of their working week, than for anything they did during the working week.

It doesn’t matter how good your service is, if people sense you lack enthusiasm for your business. It doesn’t matter how sharp your marketing material is, if people sense a lack of passion and energy when they speak with you. In short: We can’t expect people to be enthusiastic about our business unless we are.

How to turn things around

If your business leaves you feeling more stressed than fulfilled, fix what’s wrong. Reconnect with the dreams that caused you to start your business. Remember that your business will always be a reflection of the decisions you make and the actions you take.

If you want a better, more inspiring business, stop what you’re doing and ask yourself the following question:

If my business was perfect in every way, what would it look like?

Then, write down what your ideal business would look like. Be as specific as you can. For example, ask yourself things like, how many hours do I want to work? How much do I want to earn? What would my ideal client or customer look like? Where would I be based? How would I dress for work? Be as specific as you can and keep writing!

What you have just written down, is a description of the business you SHOULD be running. THAT’S the business, which inspires you.

Your notes will now provide you with the foundation of a business development strategy. If you can do this yourself, do it. If you need help, I can help you. Just never settle for less than you deserve. You’re too good for that!

The post How to make prospective clients fall in love with your business! appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

I tried a brand new advertising idea a couple of months ago, here on Jim’s Marketing Blog. The idea was to allow readers to have a small ad inserted into the bottom of a blog post. That way, their ad would not only be seen by everyone who reads the post, but the thousands of other people who get this blog via email and feed readers. It was popular, with ad requests coming in every day from readers worldwide.

Sadly, the vast majority of ads sent for approval were incorrectly submitted. This became a huge time suck. Most commonly, ads were submitted with more words than allowed or came with broken links. Dealing with incorrectly submitted ads became unsustainable. Ironically, the idea of offering readers the chance to advertise here, was to allow me to free up more time to develop the free work I do on the blog. So, I have decided to no longer offer this service. All ads already placed on Jim’s Marketing Blog will run for the entire lifetime of the blog.

What did I learn?

If you have a few hundred regular readers, you can absolutely offer the kind of advertising I tried. However, when you have a large readership, advertising works best on a less granular level. Dealing with hundreds of email requests was just too time consuming, especially as some required several replies.

Anyhow, it has been an interesting experience, which I wanted to share with you.

The post No more in-post ads appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

So, you made a mistake. We all make mistakes. Every one of us.

However, it seems we react to the mistakes we make in one of two very different ways:

1. Some people choose to relive their mistakes over and over. They allow the feelings associated with past mistakes, to make them feel miserable in the present. They allow past mistakes to control what they believe they are capable of today.
2. Other people make a mistake, look for the learning, then move on.

Learning then moving on

I have been in both camps over the years. I’ve discovered that learning from the mistakes I make and then moving forward with the lesson learned, is massively more productive. It’s also a great deal less stressful and makes life far more rewarding on every level.

Choose today, to free yourself from the pain of revisiting past mistakes. You deserve better than that!

The post I made a mistake appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

7 days ago, I set myself an interesting challenge. I wanted to see if a small business owner could use the free, Ubuntu operating system and the free software available for it, for their business related tasks. If they could, it would be great news for business owners on a tiny budget.

Many small business owners really struggle to afford software, such as Photoshop and Microsoft Office. Equally, not every business owner can afford new hardware, and Ubuntu is known for making old computers run fast. You can download Ubuntu for free, from here.

So, for 7 days I did every business activity using Ubuntu Linux and some of the hundreds of thousands of free programs available for it.

Here’s what I found.

Setting up Ubuntu 13.04

Setting up Ubuntu on both a new, Windows 8 notebook and a very old, very low powered netbook, was extremely simple. The installer was easy to use and fast too. The notebook I used for this was a Samsung NP300 series. The netbook was a 5 year old Samsung NC10 – it also had no problems installing and running Ubuntu 13.04.

For those who have not seen Ubuntu before, below is a screen shot of what my work desktop looks like. The look and feel of Ubuntu 13.04 is a lot closer to Mac OSX than Windows, as you can see.

Getting the programs and apps I need

Once the Operating System was installed, I set about looking for the programs and apps I needed. As a marketing mentor and blogger, the main apps I use on my work machines are; Outlook, Word, Skype, Twitter, Evernote, Picmonkey and iTunes.

Ubuntu email options

I replaced Outlook with Thunderbird by Mozilla. Thunderbird doesn’t come with a calendar, but as I use Google Calendar, this wasn’t an issue. Thunderbird was very simple to set up and extremely reliable. It worked perfectly for the whole week. I downloaded ‘Microsoft core fonts’, which meant the emails I sent used familiar fonts. As a result, I was able to send and receive documents and email, which looked like they were created using MS Office on Windows or a Mac. Thunderbird is also cross platform compatible, so you can use it on a Windows or Mac OSX powered machine.

My only issue was that it felt less intuitive than I would have liked. That said, after a day of heavy use I was able to find whatever I needed, without too much fuss.

Ubuntu word processing

Instead of using Microsoft Word, I used LibreOffice Writer – part of the free LibreOffice office suite. LibreOffice comes with a word processor, a presentation program (similar to Power Point), a spread sheet, mathematics program as well as a database program and drawing program. See below.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that everything I needed to do, could be done perfectly well on LibreOffice Writer. The Microsoft core fonts I downloaded for Thunderbird were also available as fonts in Writer.

I was reliably able to open Word files from clients and they were able to read the documents I created on LibreOffice Writer too. I exchanged documents with clients of mine, who use both the Windows version of Microsoft office and the Mac version, without any problems.

I don’t tend to use tables or advanced formatting in my documents. So, I’m not sure how well Libreoffice Writer would have coped with more complex documents, though it seems able to handle anything a small business owner needs, without fuss.

By the way: LibreOffice can also be used (for free) on Windows and Macs.

Ubuntu and Skype

Skype is available for Ubuntu, but it is less well designed and has some irritating flaws. For example, when you click on a contact’s name to see your recent activity with them, it gives you not only their recent history, but your activity with all recent contacts. I found that very frustrating. There has clearly been far less thought applied to the Ubuntu version of Skype, then their version for Microsoft (who own Skype.)

All the core functionality is there, though mystifyingly, they have rearranged the placement of some features, compared to where you find them in the Windows version. Surely it would make more sense to keep things located in the same places?

Skype immediately picked up my Plantronics USB headset and everything worked perfectly, first time. Screen sharing, video conferencing and file sharing all worked. After a while, I worked out where everything was and was able to use it without any problems.

Ubuntu for Twitter, Google+ and Facebook

I am a big Twitter and Google+ user and usually use Google Chrome’s Tweetdeck app and Google+ app. This is exactly what I did with Ubuntu and it worked flawlessly. I used the Facebook desktop site via the browser too, which is exactly what I do with Windows. Again, this worked perfectly.

However, I also discovered a very good stand alone Twitter app for Ubuntu, called Turpial. It does everything you need and was 100% reliable. As Tweetdeck for Chrome has very poor multi account functionality, I used Turpial for another of my Twitter accounts throughout the week and loved it.

Also, Ubuntu 13.04 comes with Social Networking features built in. If you wish to, you can monitor your friends activity on social media, via a new ‘social lens’. I didn’t bother as I wanted to echo my Windows 8 experience for the purpose of this exercise. You can also get Ubuntu to automatically share images you have been working on with your friends, etc.

Ubuntu and Evernote

I am a keen Evernote user and was disappointed to learn that Evernote do not provide a native app for Ubuntu. There are 3rd party apps that allow you to use your Evernote account with Ubuntu, including Everpad. These provide some Evernote functionality. I found myself using the Evernote app for the Chrome web browser, which was extremely good and very fast.

Some users of the Evernote Chrome app mentioned that it doesn’t have a print function. So, if you need to print from Evernote, you will need to check out one of the 3rd party apps.

Ubuntu and working with graphics

As the only graphic work I do is for blog images and photo editing, I don’t need anything too complex. So, for day to day graphics work I use a web based app called Picmonkey. As it’s web based, it worked the same with Ubuntu as it does on my windows and OSX machines. So, no change there at all. Here’s my Picmonkey review.

If you need more advanced functionality, there are some very solid graphics programs for Ubuntu, including the very popular Gimp, see below. Gimp is packed with features and very well supported.

Music while I work

I replaced iTunes with RhythmBox. The reason I needed to include an audio player with my work software, is that I have music on while I work. There are a number of good, mature audio programs for Ubuntu. I chose RhythmBox because I have used it in the past and it seemed pretty good. It also allowed me to subscribe to and listen to podcasts.

Sadly, using it all day as my main audio player, I found it prone to freezing, when doing something as simple as changing a play list or pressing the ‘next’ button. I looked for fixes but couldn’t get it to work reliably. If I stayed 100% Ubuntu, I would try out some of the other audio players. This is a real pity, as I thought RhythmBox was a very good player and it was able to transfer music to my HTC One X android phone with no problem.

Hardware

Overall, there were no serious hardware issues. One big caveat here, is that I run a fully digital office, with very little printing required. Because of this, I had no need to connect to a printer.

My Netgear router was immediately identified by Ubuntu during the set up process and worked perfectly. My Plantronics USB headset worked better with Ubuntu, than it did with Windows 8 as there were more ways to configure it. I was able to connect my Android phone to Ubuntu, without a problem and drag music, video and audio between phone and notebook easily.

I use an external monitor for work and this too was immediately picked up and worked perfectly. External hard drives, thumb drives and SD cards also worked perfectly.

Hardware challenges

I had just 2 hardware challenges using Ubuntu. The first, was getting Ubuntu to work correctly with my notebook’s Nvidia Optimus graphics. I followed a number of tutorials on how to fix this, but nothing worked. That said, the Intel graphics were perfect for office-based work and handled everything I threw at it. I’m sure that with some more tinkering, I could get this resolved.

The second hardware challenge I had was to do with battery management. Obviously, I lost the native Samsung hardware management programs that came with the original Windows 8 OS. As such, the Samsung battery life extender was missing, so the machine charges to 100% capacity every time, which eventually reduces the lifespan of the battery. Usually, the notebook can be set to charge to 60% max when left plugged in, increasing the lifespan of the battery. Long term, I would need to remember to turn the external power off during the day. Battery life with Ubuntu was at least as good as with Windows 8.

So, what was my overall Ubuntu experience after 7 days?

It was surprisingly good. Given the few niggles I have mentioned, there is no doubt that I could easily do everything I need for my business work flow, using Ubuntu.

In fact, I have kept Ubuntu on that notebook and have no intention of reinstalling Windows 8. I found not only could I do everything I needed using Ubuntu, there was some extremely useful added functionality, offered by Ubuntu apps that just are not available on Windows. So, Ubuntu will be part of my daily work flow and used daily in the office.

Browser based computing, the cloud and ChromeBooks

With so much work conducted via web browsers and the cloud, any machine capable of running the latest browsers can handle the basic tasks. Ubuntu can do a lot more though, thanks to a massive array of business and productivity programs, many of which are free to download.

Whilst a lot of people are talking about ChromeBooks and the benefits of the Chrome Operating System, in my experience, as the owner of a ChromeBook and several Ubuntu powered machines, you get massively more from Ubuntu. It does everything the Chrome OS does, plus more.

Whereas I use my ChromeBook less and less these days, I am using Ubuntu more and more.

Special mention: The Ubuntu community

This is REALLY important!

One of the most valuable things about using Ubuntu, is the incredible support offered by the Ubuntu community. I have dipped into and out of the Ubuntu community for years, but it wasn’t until I needed Ubuntu to handle my entire workload, that I found just how amazing the Ubuntu community is. These men and women are incredible.

I have lost count of the number of people I encountered, who freely offer their time and expertise to answer other people’s questions. There is a very strong sense of community among Linux users in general and this is reflected in the Ubuntu community. I was able to quickly find answers to almost every issue I had, in minutes, with just a simple search. I have listed some extremely helpful Ubuntu websites below, but there are many, many more.

YouTube is also packed with step by step guides to doing almost anything you need with Ubuntu. Some of the most useful Ubuntu YouTube channels I found, are also listed below.

At no point as an Ubuntu user do you feel that you are alone with any challenges or problems you have with the OS.

Business class support

Enterprise quality support is also available for a fee, for business users who want or feel they need the additional help. So, whether you take the free option or not, as a business user you’re covered.

Useful Ubuntu websites

Here are some very useful websites, dedicated to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu.com: This is where you get the free Ubuntu operating system and also, find lots of answers to common questions.

Ask Ubuntu: This is an essential resource for any Ubuntu user. Not only do questions get answered quickly, the site is extremely well developed, making it easy to locate the best answer for your questions. With over 100,000 questions already submitted to the site, you will often find that the answer you need is waiting for you. It’s a fantastic resource.

Ubuntu Forums: A very useful and active Ubuntu community forum. This is another great place to find answers to your Ubuntu questions and keep up to date with all things Ubuntu. The popularity of this forum means you are never left waiting long for answers and feedback, from some extremely helpful people.

OMG Ubuntu: A useful source of Ubuntu related news.

Ubuntu on Twitter: Keep up to date with Ubuntu news and events.

Ubuntu resources on YouTube

Although there are a huge number of Ubuntu users on YouTube, who provide help, tips and advice, I found a guy who calls himself Quidsup, to be the most useful. You can find his videos here. The OMG Ubuntu website also has a very useful YouTube channel, which you can find here.

Otherwise, simply type your Ubuntu related question into YouTube and more often than not, you will find the help you need.

Summary

I went into this 7 day challenge knowing that it would improve my understanding of Ubuntu as a small business operating system. I didn’t know how it would perform when working with clients, exchanging documents and conference calling them. I wasn’t sure how reliable email would be, considering I get more than 100 emails a day JUST from Jim’s Marketing Blog. I had no idea if I would be able to recommend it to my readers, as a low cost alternative to expensive software.

What I discovered was that Ubuntu was capable of far more than I had expected and that many of the compatibility issues people warned me about, were false. Even things like the volume and screen brightness buttons on my notebook and netbook worked.

Which Operating System is the best?

Is Ubuntu better than Windows or OSX? It’s not better or worse – it’s different.

You use the tools, which best suit your needs and resources. For many, Ubuntu will fit that bill perfectly. This is why I have no hesitation in recommending Ubuntu to you.

Remember, these Ubuntu machines were operating on 100% free of charge software. My other computers are full of expensive software. No, I won’t stop using my Windows or OSX based machines for the business. However, I now see Ubuntu as a wonderful new addition to my work flow. It’s a virus free, fast, reliable operating system, with hundreds of thousands of useful, free apps.

The Ubuntu community also adds huge value to using an Ubuntu powered machine, because the help you need is always there. Again, free of charge. I made a voluntary contribution to Ubuntu after downloading it, to show my support for the people at Canonical, (the company that produces it). However, this is totally discretionary. The software is 100% free.

Finally, I hope you found this post useful. As you can see, I am very much NOT an expert Ubuntu user. As a result, I am not the best person to ask if you have an Ubuntu related problem. I suggest you use some of the resources I linked to in this post.

PS: This post was written using Ubuntu, as were all my posts over the past week.

The post Highly Recommended: Ubuntu for business appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

There are 3 words, which business owners and consultants can use if they want to instantly create trust. The 3 words are: I don’t know.

I don’t know

When a client or prospective client asks us a question, to which we don’t know the answer, we have two options. One builds trust and the other erodes trust.

1. We can say ‘I don’t know’, then assure them we will find the answer and get back to them.
2. We can give a false answer and try to fool them.

The magic behind those 3 words

When we tell someone that we don’t know the answer, something almost magical happens. Instead of our credibility decreasing, it increases.

Why?

Because admitting that we don’t know the answer, shows the other person that we are truthful, even when telling the truth may make us look less informed.

The real magic here, is that whatever else we say, that person is far more inclined to believe it. Having demonstrated that we are willing to admit when we don’t know the answer, we strengthen the value of the answers we provide. Our words become more credible and so do we.

No need to be a know-it-all

In business as in all walks of life, no one likes people who think they know it all. The good news is that in business, there’s no need to pretend you are a know it all.

Now, you obviously need to know as much useful information as possible regarding your clients needs. If you don’t know the answer too often, you show a lack of preparation and education. However, on those occasions where you need to find an answer and get back to them, honesty is always the best option.

After all, if a client senses that you’re BSing them, and they always tend to, you’ve lost them.

Have you encountered people who were clearly BSing you? Have you been commended for admitting you didn’t know an answer? Share your thoughts with a comment.

The post 3 words that instantly build trust appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

By learning how to take appropriate action, we can swap regret and frustration for progress. That’s what this brief post is all about.

From abstract to reality

The product we never launched, the service we never developed, the partnership we never formed, the meeting we never requested – these are all common examples of things we look back on with regret.

In business, there are countless opportunities around us. In order to benefit from them, we need to do something with them. We need to move. We need to take action. We need to take the abstract idea and make it real.

Movement

Resolve today, to take action on one of the ideas you have or an opportunity you have identified. Do the same tomorrow. Rinse, repeat. Do this often enough and you will not only find you have fewer regrets, you will also learn more and make more progress than you ever thought possible.

Life is a journey. We can either passively go around in circles and complain that life sucks or we can take action and guide our journey to where we want to be.

The post The simple secret to having no more regrets appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

If you want clients and prospective clients to think of you as the go-to person, for whatever service you provide, I believe you’ll find this post really useful. It’s based around 3 steps you can take, which will change the way people think and feel about you, so you become their irresistible choice.

What is a go-to person?

Firstly, I’d like to confirm what I am referring to when I use the term, go-to person. I’m talking specifically about those valued people in business, who we immediately think of when we have a need, related to their area of expertise.

When someone thinks of you as their go-to person for a particular need, they go direct to you.

• They don’t ask a friend for a recommendation.
• They don’t poll their friends on Facebook.
• They don’t take their need to a search engine.
• YOU get the call!

Clearly, the commercial value of being the go-to person for your marketplace is huge. Not only will you retain your existing clients for longer, you will also attract more inquiries from prospective clients.

To earn this valuable position, we need to focus on 3 core areas.

1. Demonstrate that you know your subject

A newsletter or blog is a great way to achieve this. By sharing useful ideas and information, people come to think of you as a valuable resource.

This is why it’s so important to avoid the common mistake, of only offering diluted information to your readers. If you hold back the good stuff, the really useful ideas, you will cause your readers to assume that shallow information is all you know!

Give away as much value, freely, as possible. Now, at this point some of you will be concerned, that if you give lots of valuable information away for free, people won’t bother hiring you. That is actually the exact opposite of how it works.

Here’s what really happens, when you offer extremely useful information for free in your newsletter or blog posts:

• Some people will use your free ideas, with no intention of hiring you. As they were never going to hire you anyway, you lose nothing.
• Some people will use your free ideas and get part of the way, then realise they need your expert help. These people will call you. Had you not given so much free information away, you’d never have positioned yourself as their go-to person.
• Some people will see the value of what you do, then figure out very fast that it’s far better to hire you to do it for them.

It works. People in that 2nd and 3rd group make up almost all of my non-referred clients!

2. Demonstrate that you are approachable

If we want people to get in touch with us, we need to be as approachable as possible to them. This means taking every opportunity to demonstrate that we are friendly and professional.

Unbelievably, many business owners are cranky or confrontational, even when they are sharing their thoughts online, for the world to see. This is, of course, their prerogative. However, there is a price to pay for being cranky or confrontational. It makes us far less approachable. If we want people to feel comfortable approaching us, we need to be approachable. We need to show humility. We need to remove any barriers.

3. Demonstrate your reliability

Again, publishing a newsletter or blog posts is a great way to demonstrate your reliability. Of course, this is only the case if you have reliably published content over a reasonable period of time. If you write a newsletter or blog and the last thing you published was several months ago, it works directly against you. Instead of demonstrating your reliability and stick-ability, you do the opposite.

If you have been in business for a long time, let people know. When a prospective client reads my about page, they can see that I set this marketing business up in 1995 and that I have worked in marketing all my adult life. That, along with almost 6 years worth of publishing ideas via Jim’s Marketing Blog, offers those thinking of hiring me a huge confidence boost. You should do the same for your prospective clients and customers too.

IMPORTANT: Drawing a line

It’s important at this point, to make a very clear distinction between positioning yourself as the go-to person and positioning yourself as the freebie person.

Yes, it’s a privilege to be regarded by our family and friends as a person they know they can rely on for whatever they need. However, in business, we need to draw a line between what we are prepared to do for free and what we will offer as a paid service. Otherwise, we are likely to become a magnet for freebie hunters. Freebie hunters are people who abuse the nature of others, with selfish demands for free goods and services.

For example, I occasionally get emails from people, asking me to do unpaid work for them. These range from things that would take me a few hours, to tasks that would take me a week.

It’s worth mentioning that many of my clients started off as readers, yet none, not one, of my clients came to me after asking for freebies.

How to get the balance right: The one-to-many approach

There best way to offer free information, which is scalable and sustainable, is to adopt the same approach I use here. I call it the one-to-many approach.

Here’s how I do it: All the free work I do for people is offered via Jim’s Marketing Blog and the email version of the blog. I call it the one-to-many approach, because I create one piece of work and it benefits many people.

Offering one-to-one work for free, simply does not scale. It makes no sense for me to give an hour of my time to 1 selfish person, when I can use that same hour to write something, which will benefit thousands of people.

Finally

For some business owners and consultants, there is a huge mindset change required, to adopt the idea of freely sharing, valuable content. However, for those who embrace the idea, the rewards are huge. It’s the primary marketing model I have used for years and is the most powerful form of marketing I have ever seen. I can’t recommend it highly enough to you.

What are your thoughts about building an irresistible business? Are you already a main go-to person for your marketplace and if so, what tips do you have? Share your thoughts with a comment.

The post Be irresistible to prospective clients in just 3 steps appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

So, with all that potential, what does the average small business owner do? In most cases, they act in a totally predictable way.

• Rather than create, they curate.
• Rather than innovate, they copy.
• Rather than lead, they follow.

What am I going to do with it all?

A great question to ask yourself at the start of each day is, ‘what am I going to do with all this potential?’

You start every business day with a blank canvas. The decisions you make and the actions you take will determine what you create. One of the great lessons of business, is that those who fail to lead, create or innovate, seldom produce a masterpiece.

What’s stopping you from breaking free from the pack? What are your creative challenges? What have you achieved, thanks to embracing your uniqueness? Share your thoughts or experiences with a comment.

The post Creating your masterpiece? appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.

Looking at YOUR bigger picture

Take some time out today, to look at your bigger picture. Here are just a few things to consider:

• Are you on course to achieve the goals or targets you set for your business in January?
• Is your cash flow looking OK? How about 3 months down the road from now?
• Are the fees or prices you charge keeping up with inflation or are your profits slipping?
• Are you getting more referrals from your clients than last year or fewer referrals?
• Are you retaining more clients than you were last year?
• Are you attracting the right type of clients or too many time wasters?
• Are you working too many hours?
• Are you working too few hours?

It’s all too easy to mistake movement for progress. That’s why it makes sense to regularly step outside your business and see if you’re on course or not.

A small adjustment today could save you from a much bigger problem in 6 months time!

The post This is why you need to step outside your business appeared first on Jim's Marketing Blog.