I've been "doing my own thing" for over ten years, helping companies do better marketing. As I progress through this journey, I've realised how much there is to learn and how much of it no one tells you. You mostly have to figure it out alone. It's quite frustrating, actually, and surely a bit unnecessary. There are so many business books, but has anyone written anything with practical tips for the lone individual starting their own consulting business?  Below is the start of a list of things I have learned as I progress on this journey of building my business . It takes time – be very patient Building a "somewhat successful" business model that can sustain you isn't a quick endeavour; it's a long-term commitment. In fact, it took me nearly a decade to find a model that worked. But don't feel pressured to wait the full 10 years. If you think it's time to pivot or make changes, don't hesitate to do so. Just understand that building som

The biggest challenge for small/medium companies is reaching their intended audience. This problem becomes even more pronounced in business markets where key decision-makers often hide behind an email firewall and a receptionist. "Reach" is the crucial reason SMEs do marketing: "help me announce myself to my target market".  Interestingly, with established brands and larger companies, the reason for doing marketing is different. Awareness has already been achieved, and it becomes a case of encouraging existing customers to remain loyal. It is this reason why a company like Coca-Cola continues to advertise. Small brands advertise to become known; large brands stay relevant. Same activity; different objectives. The problem smaller companies have is how to achieve reach with limited resources. Small budgets mean that certain heavy-hitting, mass-marketing tools are unavailable, and so too highly targeted ones that require a substantial investment in upfront research. Ev

It is common for business owners to ask a marketing agency to come up with a proposal on what to do. However, the result is almost always an outright disappointment or an eventual failure. The job of setting a company's marketing strategy should never be completely outsourced. At Firejuice , we prefer to support our clients so they can determined themselves - at a broad level - how they want to do marketing before involving an agency to execute it.  If your marketing agency drives your marketing strategy, then that strategy will primarily benefit the agency, not your business. This is why it's so critical for a business to figure out what it wants to do before asking an outside party to tell them how.   A good marketing strategy answers the following three questions: What is our business objective in doing marketing? What are the two or three key initiatives we will pursue to achieve the objective? What activities will we invest in to support each initiative?   It's only at

Strategy discussions typically start with a SWOT analysis, but what if one asked a far simpler question: What are the biggest problems we face?  Not challenges, weaknesses or threats - just straightforward problems.  Using plain language to formulate strategy is a passion of mine and is much more effective than business speak, as taught in MBA classes. Aside from the biggest problems, here are some other everyday language sentences with strategic usefulness: Who is our ideal customer? Why do they choose us? Who else do they compare us with? What does winning look like for us in the coming year? What are the two or three things we can do that will have the biggest impact on us winning? Crucially, strategy is a discussion - not an exercise, PowerPoint, or "process" - or even worse, a "consulting engagement". The best approach for owner-managed companies is to do so and start talking about where the business is today and where it wants to be going.  We've made the

I see many owner-managed businesses on the verge of collapsing. It isn't so much the economy that is bad, but rather that a bad economy exposes poor management practices. The fact is that without the cushioning of a strong economy, most owner-businesses are exposed as badly managed. They simply aren't competitive.  As I consult on business development, I see nepotism to the point of incompetence, zero evident succession planning, owners being treated as gods, and no healthy debate to challenge the thinking. Things become stale.  To be fair, this is the natural path of all owner-managed businesses unless intentional countermeasures are taken. All owners are treated like gods - they often started the business from scratch and now provide a livelihood to staff. No wonder they are revered. Nepotism is standard practice and an accepted, effective tool to manage risk - it's not all bad. The problem isn't so much the existence of these factors, but that left unchecked, they b

Something they don't tell you when you start on your own as a consultant: there are no rules to it - you make it up as you go and as you gain confidence. It's up to you how you want to do it. It's more art than science. I find it quite amazing. There's no right or wrong way to consult, especially as an independent. Take, for example, the near cast-in-stone rule that diagnosis should precede strategy. Although true, I'm finding that I often do diagnosis and strategy almost at the same time as I interact with business owners and marketing directors. Since I only focus on small and midsized clients, I tend to work with organisations with flat structures where decision-makers still have front-end contact with the market. Information is often already in the room - it just needs to be sorted.  One could argue that this is taking shortcuts, but I've found delaying the strategy discussion "till next time" ignores the reality of the moment where a certain insig

Many business owners and entrepreneurs try to build their companies overnight in an era of promising quick success. Most of them are still trying decades later. Two things that strike me: just how long it takes to build a healthy business, you can never do it by yourself. The problem is that so few entrepreneurial types believe in getting help. They are so possessive of their idea and determined to succeed that they often "go it alone, forever." The result is many a promising business stuck in adolescence. These "stunted" businesses go around in circles because the owner refuses to reach out for help. They get more determined as the business increasingly loses more momentum. The website starts to look stale. Price discounting becomes the norm, and razor-thin margins suffocate progress. Customers start to bully the business. Competitors copy it and eventually outperform it. Sometimes even the office building itself starts to look like a museum. Inside these businesse