There’s marketing for a business, which usually involves quite a formal plan, and then there’s personal marketing. It’s a little like making a new year’s resolution, but what I’m talking about is you, as a business leader, making your own little plan for “What Can I Personally Do to Grow My Business This Year?”

So I thought I’d give you a few super easy suggestions that would take your marketing down to basics, and be do-able for anybody, on any budget.

Market Research – Over Lunch

Too often, we get caught in the day to day hustle of simply delivering on customer requests, forgetting to get to know our customers along the way. So my first suggestion is this: Take a few of your top customers out to lunch to find out what they really think. Ask them questions like:

• How has your family or business been doing?
• What are you hoping for this year?
• Has our service/product been what you expected?
• How has my team been treating you?
• Where would you see our business doing in the next year?
• What do you think our strengths and weaknesses are as a business?
• If we were going do something bold and exciting this year, what should it be?

From there, listen carefully and take a few notes down (perhaps after the lunch) so you don’t forget the key takeaways. Then, as you lunch with a few customers, you’ll look for patterns in their responses and see if you have any clear ideas or changes you should make to your business.

Make a Plan – For Yourself

Each year, I like to take myself to a quiet cafe, and just think about what I need to accomplish, and how I’m going to work that into my week.

Since I’m a little bit artistic, I make myself a kind of pictorial to do list – a bunch of little stick-figure cartoons reminding me what I need to get done that day to lead a successful day. These go on the side of my daily to-do list, and I try to bang them off in certain intervals between getting things done for clients.

For example, little stick-figure me getting out in the sunshine, stick-figure me exercising, stick-figure me booking business events …everything I care about. The to-do list looks pretty funny, in all, it’s sort of a way to visualize and encourage myself to do the things that matter.

The gist of these to-dos is mainly to keep my energy high through exercise and health – and then be sure to circulate a lot – through following up projects, attending events, keeping up with my team, regularly refreshing content on our website, and professional development. Basically, “un-COVIDing” – getting out more again. The activities you choose will depend on your own goals.

Slow Down to Do It Right, and Track Yourself

In the past year, I started taking guitar lessons from a great player named Dave Hamilton. But he’s more than a great guitar player – he’s actually a great pedagog, i.e. he knows how to teach methodically. He insisted I read a book called “First, Learn How to Practice” by Tom Heany. Why? Because he was appalled by my “too fast, too sloppy” approach when learning something. When I bought and read the book he said, “Read it AGAIN!” Which I have. I expect he’ll be telling me to read it yet a third time.

But one of the key points in the book is to truly, and I mean truly, SLOW DOWN and DO IT RIGHT. But there is one other aspect in the book that has affected everything I do. Doing one thing at a time, and properly…maybe it’ll improve my typing, I can only hope.

There’s another key point in the book: the aspect of tracking.

Now, as a marketing consultant, I would have told you to track things the marketing you’re doing anyway – such as the sources of all new customers, etc. But part of this approach to tracking involves improvements. Things that you’re tweaking from one week to the next, to help you become a little better.

For example, I was already exercising each day, in a “just get it done” way. But now I’m thinking – why not just see if each week or so, I can do something a little better – like 32 reps instead of 30? Or a little more weight, or hold the lifts a little longer? Make a little improvement, and track it, and you’ll be moving yourself in the right direction. As to how you keep track, a little notebook or document you leave on your computer desktop, or in your physical agenda – wherever you’re most apt to see it, is best.

For fun, here’s a little picture of my guitar practice tracking. As you can see, I typically practice in the late evening!

Take Pride In Your Progress, and Stay Positive

As we start a new year, it strikes me just how fast each year whizzes by.

You can let another year blow past without getting better at anything. Or, you can find out how you want to improve things, and make yourself a little plan to chip away at improvements everyday, and keep track of your progress.

If you do, take pride at looking at all the hard work you put in – right there in your records.

I often think of this saying: “People over-estimate what they can accomplish in a year, but underestimate what they can accomplish in ten years”. I think it was Bill Gates (if you can trust the internet?).

So if this approach doesn’t get you noticeably better in a year, but you’re lucky enough to live for another 9, you could really amaze yourself – ha.

This year is a gift. Make the most of it!

P.S. Did I mention I am also learning to play the violin, which will take ten years for sure. But hey, I have that to look forward to – otherwise it’ll just be ten years older without adding a kick-ass new skill, right?