Monday, December 17, 2007

Underestimating yourself

This week, I was reading a marketing question from a small business person on MarketingProfs.com. He happened to be in Residential Construction. As he posed his question to the forum, the question was posed, "Since Construction is a dry market, what else can I do thank make a logo and some business cards?" Actually, the complete list of what he'd done is here:

1)Made company logo 2) thank you letters (send these out after completing jobs 3) Business cards 4) Magnets 5) Also a large photo album to show out potential new customer our excellent work on estimates. 6)Envelopes with our logo 7)website 8)send before and after pictures of their job when sending thank you letters 9)Company t-shirts


This actually makes me distraught. I am a HUGE fan of small business and I constantly find hard working entrepreneurs and business people selling themselves short. What is more important to an individual than the roof under which one puts their family to sleep each night? Your home is your castle, the place in which lifelong memories are built. While the components of construction may be bricks, mortar, nails, drywall and the like ----- the product of construction is what dreams are made of. Ultimately, what you say with the logo, t-shirt, website, and the rest is vastly more important than the stuff itself. If you feel you are in a "boring" industry, your marketing will convey that very point.


Sometimes it helps to have someone look at your business from the outside in to show you what they see. If, as a business person, you work to provide a service or product, you cannot allow yourself to diminish its importance.

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