WHAT NO CASH?!

I can't believe how much the last couple of weeks have whizzed by.  I went to a business lunch last week and the speaker was Saira Khan who was on the first series of The Apprentice.  She was invited to the lunch to talk about her experiences in launching Maimoo, a range of beautiful skin care products for babies.  As you can imagine she was a very dynamic speaker with lots of straight talking and down to earth advice.  I found myself nodding along vigorously at one point when she said that any small business start up needs to take control of all aspects of the business - do it yourself.  When she mentioned PR and marketing specifically I wanted to leap up from the table and throw my business cards in the air and shout:  "And here I am to help you do it!"  Thankfully I didn't so I was able to stay and listen to the rest.

She makes an important point though.  It is easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer scale of the task when your business is small or just starting up, but then that's just part of the deal.  The trick is to become organised, allocate time for all those jobs which are essential but not mission critical and put a workable action plan together which means it takes up less thinking time when you sit down to get it done.  And the key word there is workable.  With PR and marketing in particular it is very easy to get overexcited.  It is  very creative field and the possibilities seem limitless but in reality they will always be limited by the time and money you have available.  But take heart from the fact that even with only a small amount of time and no money to spend you can achieve a significant amount - think generating coverage in your local media, linking up with another like minded company for a joint promotion, a creative offer to reward existing clients and encourage them to come back.  None of these require envelopes full of tenners to implement successfully but can have really positive effects on generating sales.

So be realistic (and that means recognising that you have to put in some effort), plan activities which are achievable and take control.  Let me know how you get on via the comments or via email: lindsay@redyellowblue.biz and don't forget to check out our website: www.redyellowblue.biz.

Lindsay