Yes, I'm talking to you.  Do you need a Marketing Coach?

Want a professional opinion?  OK, I'll take a whack at that question for you.  Well, if you're here and wondering about it, maybe you do.

Let me ask you a couple of questions:

1. Is what you're doing right now working for you?  If not...

2. Are you seriously considering doing something about your marketing?  Or are you just going to let things slide?

If what you've been doing isn't working (or working well enough) for you, then perhaps it is time to consider your options, one of which is working with me, the Marketing Coach (oh please, what did you expect me to say?).  Let's take a good gander at those options, shall we?

Option 1:  You can continue along this same path, working hard but hardly working.  While you may attract a new client on occasion, the laws of entropy will eventually bring you to the place of no new customers, and your business may just fade away.

Projected Results:  Not so good, but you already knew that.

Option 2: You can hire a consultant to come in and write your marketing plan for you.  He or she may take up a lot of your time (or not) and may come up with some great ideas for marketing your business (or not), but will undoubtedly cost you plenty.

No disrespect to marketing consultants, because I've been one myself.  But my experience has been that small business owners get a lot more from creating their own marketing plans than from outsourcing this particular function, and not just because it costs an arm and a leg.  After all, no matter what the consultant comes up with, you still have to do the implementation yourself, unless you outsource that, too.

Projected Results:  Expensive, time-consuming, and do not add value to YOU.  Is this how you want to spend your hard-earned money?

Option 3:  You can buy some marketing software and fill in the blanks.  You'll need to rely on the software to answer any questions you might have, and find help where you can.

This option can be difficult to work through by yourself, especially if advertising isn't your primary marketing tactic, and a direct sales force isn't in your budget.  The type of SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) business owners who can make this type of approach work for them are generally either manufacturers or retailers, rather than providers of intangible things like services.  But maybe you're different.

Projected Results:  If you have a marketing background, amazing self-discipline, and excellent follow-through skills, this may be a good way to go.  If not, well, I can think of five better ways to blow $159.

Option 4:  You find yourself a good marketing coach so that you learn to market yourself effectively, now and forever.  With the support and guidance of your marketing coach, you create a plan that attracts your best clients to you so easily and quickly that you wonder if you've hit a lucky streak or if you're just a marketing savant, your genius untapped and unrecognized until now.

You're too busy with new clients to test that "lucky" theory in Vegas, and you begin to entertain a sneaking suspicion that you are a marketing genius, and probably have been all along!  "This marketing stuff ain't so tough," you say to yourself, and you try not to act all smug in front of the poor chumps who have yet to attract the clients that you now take for granted.  But it is a challenge not to feel pity for people who weren't born brilliant like you were, and who don't have the good sense to hire a marketing coach to surface that brilliance like you did.

You know a good investment when you see it, and it was only a matter of time before you got off the couch and got serious about marketing your business, and are you ever glad you did!  Now you'll never have to work for another slow-moving, dim-witted, knuckle-dragging suit again, because YOU, my friend, work for yourself, and you have the tools to keep working for yourself as long as you feel like it (or until you decide to retire to a tropical island).

Projected Results:  Oh, please!  Skills, tools, confidence, clients!  What's not to like?

Hey, I can't tell you if you are ready to work with me, but I can ask you this important qualifying question:  Are YOU ready to fill your practice?  If you answered "Yes!" then it is possible that you are ready to at least consider working with the Marketing Coach.  Why not take a look at your options (what it would look like to work with me)?

PS:  Is this a tough decision to make?  No problemo, cha-cha!  Continue doing what you're doing now, and come back in three months to see if you have more "clarity" around your marketing.  If you haven't made significant forward progress (like filling your practice) during that period, then perhaps it is time to consider Option 4.