Your budget is a big part of creating a marketing plan and should be decided upon at the start of the marketing plan development. After all, it would make sense to have your marketing consultant include billboard, print media, or television advertising in your marketing plan if you do not have enough budget dollars to ever implement the advertising recommendations or you want to stick to a specific budgetary amount.

By being upfront and completely honest about your budget with your marketing consultant, you will maximize your budget and save time and effort by avoiding research and time spent on pursuing marketing strategies you are never going to use.

A great place to start is to work with a professional marketing consultant to develop a strategic marketing plan for your business.

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Imagine running your business by the seat of your pants with no plan in place.

You know where you want to go, and luckily you make the right turns, take the right roads, and hit most of the green lights. You’re coasting along on auto-pilot, knowing that someday your dreams will come true.

But what happens if you get lost along the way?

Your marketing plan is your own personal road map, helping you stay on the right course, making continual progress toward your big vision. Think of it as your very own personal small business success compass. That way, if you do get lost or run into a detour, you can review your marketing plan and correct your course to keep you headed in the right direction.

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Just a quick message today! Yesterday it was my birthday (Yes, I’m now 30!) and today I am celebrating my 10 YEAR wedding anniversary. Yes, I got married the day after I turned 20 and now I ask myself, “What was I thinking?” I really should have spread the two apart, but back then all I cared about was getting married, the church had only one day available, and I didn’t want to wait.

For me, I approach my business in sort of the same way. I decide what I want to achieve, I set a date of completion, and I jump right into the planning and implementation needed to make it happen. Ten years ago, I never would have guessed that I would be running my own business and loving every second of it – It took me a while to figure out I was an entrepreneur.

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday with a fabulous lunch at the Bistro 33 restaurant inside the brand new Mercedes dealership in my home town. It was delicious and I highly recommend it if you’re local. With a giant water feature in the shape of the Mercedes logo pouring down from the ceiling of the second story into a planter on the ground floor, the beautiful cars to check out, and the shop and car lot on the roof of the building (not visible from the street, this dealership definitely lives up to the Mercedes standard.

During our long lunch, I had a chance to reflect on the past year and talk with my husband about all of the changes that we have gone through in my business since my last birthday.

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With a couple weeks of first grade and preschool under our belt and soccer underway, I’ve finally got my family’s new schedule down, things are running smoothly, and getting up early (school starts at 7:50!) is getting somewhat easier for the kids! (Check them out the first day of school!)

The start of the school year is always a reminder for me that the end of the year is quickly approaching. Right about now, if I blink too long it will be Christmas and we’ll all be in full-swing holiday mode.

These last few months are a popular time to really focus on achieving your goals and getting the things done that you wanted to accomplish in 2009. Did you want to get a new website launched? Did you want to start an ezine? Create a compelling speaker one sheet? Were you thinking about starting a blog or maybe sending out a postcard campaign?

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Sometimes being an entrepreneur is hard and you feel like you’re on an impossible mission, wondering if you’ll ever get where you want to go or achieve what you want to achieve. That feeling is a sign you’re experiencing overwhelm.

Believe me, I know what extreme overwhelm feels like because I’ve been there for about the last eight months.

The good news is that overwhelm doesn’t have to last any longer than you allow it to. There are three reasons most entrepreneurs experience overwhelm:

• Entrepreneurs are by nature control freaks and they don’t delegate enough or at all.
• Entrepreneurs are so busy running their business and working in their business that they forget to work on their business.
• Entrepreneurs often operate without a plan in place and are flying by the seat of their pants.

There are three things you can do to get out of overwhelm and get on with your success! READ MORE