Paul Simister

In my business coaching, I often talk to my clients about the importance of each of the 5 M’s of Marketing.

This is all about getting your ducks all lined up in a row and it’s very difficult to succeed, even if one of them is out of kilter.

What Are The 5 M’s Of Marketing?

The 5 M’s of Marketing are:

1. The Market chosen to target.
2. The Marketing Message used to explain the offer
3. The Marketing Media used to carry the message to potential customers in the target market.
4. The Measurement of marketing activities which allows you to test your ideas and to continually improve what you do.
5. Your Marketing Mindset is the way you approach the activities including how consistent you are in what you say and do.

Let’s take a closer look at these Five M’s. [continue reading…]

First let’s look into the problem of being stuck as a business owner:

• What does it mean if a business is stuck or of a business owner is stuck?
• What are the symptoms of being stuck?
• How does “being stuck” fit into the cycle of business growth and decline?
• What can you do to move from being stuck to being unstuck?

What Does It Mean If A Business Is Stuck Or If A Business Owner Feels Stuck?

If a business is stuck, it means that it has lost its forward momentum:

• The rate of growth in sales and profits has slowed down, stalled or perhaps even gone into a small decline.
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• It’s become harder to convince customers to buy because you’ve lost key factors of differentiation that gave you an edge over your competitors.
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• If you don’t get unstuck, your business is likely to go into decline and the future of your business may be threatened. The amount of time you have to take corrective action depends on the buffers you’ve built up in  terms of cash and reserves of profit and the rate of decline in cash and profit.

[continue reading…]

When you have a problem as a business owner, it’s very easy to feel unsure about what you need to do next to improve your business.

You feel stuck (see symptoms of being stuck) and it’s hard to get unstuck on your own.

Quite simply, you’re too close to see things objectively.

This makes it hard to move from the symptoms to the underlying problem so the temptation is to try to cure the symptoms again and again.

It’s like playing whack-a-mole. [continue reading…]

Sometimes you know you’re stuck because you have a problem going around and around in your head without reaching an answer. Other times, you or your business might suffer from some of these symptoms:

1. You’ve lost the feel good factor of being your own boss.
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2. You feel conflicted about your business, as if you’re being pulled in at least two directions at the same time..
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3. Profitability is lower than you want.
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4. Cash flow issues regularly arise like being paid late by customers or having to fend off suppliers who want to be paid before you’ve got the money.
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5. You get to the end of the day and feel as if you’ve acquired more new jobs to do than you’ve completed in the last ten or twelve hours.
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6. Your employees seem to create more problems than they solve. Morale is down and you might have lost or be in danger of losing your best employees.
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7. You know your customers are disgruntled because you can’t give them the service they demand and you want to give.
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8. You’re unsure where you should focus the time you do have for business improvement in the future.
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9. Customers continually encourage you to cut prices just to keep their business, let alone increase it. You’ve lost ground on the factors that used to make your business attractive to customers because it was different from your competitors.

[continue reading…]

The Stop Start More Less Grid or process is a very effective way to keep track of the changes you will make to create the improvements you want.

It begs a question – what form should the grid or matrix take?

The Background To The Stop Start More Less Grid or Matrix

To my knowledge, I was the first person to start to write about the Stop Start More Less grid in my blog posting from July 2009 on my Business Coaching Blog although I’d used it for some time.

It was based on my thoughts on how to improve results using the 80/20 principle and recognising the constraints that every business owner works with – time, money and other resources. [continue reading…]

The Stop Start More Less Process is a way to look at what you’re doing and to manage within a constraint.

In this article we will look at how it can help you to differentiate your products and services by emphasising particular elements in your customer value proposition while de-emphasising other areas.

I’ve already looked at:

Managing your time within the time constraints imposed by having a good work / life balance.

>>> The Stop Start More Less Matrix For Time Management

and managing your lead generation marketing methods within a budget:

>>> The Stop Start More Less Process For Improving Marketing Results

The Customer Value For Money Map

Nearly all markets that aren’t totally commoditised, have an economy, middle market and premium brands.

The basic rules is…

The more you pay, the better, the more desirable product you can buy. [continue reading…]

Your business mojo governs how excited you are about your business and how motivated you are to drive it forward to better results.

I have identified 21 reasons why your business isn’t the success you want in my article

>>> How To Improve Your Business By Solving Problems At The Source

I’ve split the causes into three general areas:

1. Those problems coming from you, the business owner – sorry but I have to tell it how it is.
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2. Those problems coming from within the business.
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3. Those problems that come from your market and industry

The #1 problem on the list is…

Have You Lost Your Mojo For Your Business? [continue reading…]

Many business owners want to improve their marketing:

• They want to attract more qualified leads.
• Convert more leads into paying customers.
• Resell to existing and old customers

A fundamental way to improve any activity is by using the Stop Start More Less Process

I have already looked at how this can be applied to how you can improve the way you manage your time to get more achieved.

>>> The Stop Start More Less Matrix For Time Management

The same principles also apply to differentiating your products and services cost effectively.

>> The Stop Start More Less Process For Differentiation Of Products And Services

And in this article, I explain how the process can improve your marketing results.

What Is The Stop Start More Less Process And How Does It Apply To Marketing? [continue reading…]

Today I want to introduce you to one of the most important business improvement ideas I know about – the Stop, Start, More Less matrix, grid or process.

I will be writing about how this process can be used to improve your marketing…

>>> The Stop Start More Less Process For Lead Generation

and for strategic differentiation and creating cost effective customer value..

>>> The Stop Start More Less Process For Strategic Differentiation And Customer Value

but today I want to focus on its use in helping you with time management.

Why Don’t Business Owners Make The Improvements They Want?

[continue reading…]