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Nearing the midyear point of the year, it is an appropriate time to review how the year is progressing in marketing.

There are two questions that require answers to properly assess the effort and results to date:

1. What goals did the company have for marketing this year?

2. How to the results compared to the goals at the mid-point of the year?

Most companies don’t set marketing goals and so they don’t compare the results of the effort to their goals at the mid-point, or at any point. If you answered “what marketing goals and what marketing results?” you would be in the majority.

When times are good, marketing isn’t seen as being important; for many companies business flows in, making the need to market diluted. In a challenging economy, one of the critical factors is effective marketing because it often means the difference between success and failure.

What is marketing? According to Bill Miranda, a consultant based in Valencia, California, “Marketing is everything that a company does to make the telephone ring, after that it is up to sales to create the relationship with the prospect and close the deal.”

In order to be successful in the long term, having a written plan to create the visibility in the market will make a substantial difference. It is unfortunate the many companies don’t have a written marketing plan and so taking the time to thoughtfully prepare one can make the difference between not only survival and failure but success and great success.

Having a written marketing plan is a sustainable competitive advantage for a company. This is because most companies do not have a marketing plan and as a result, they simply “wing it.” As a result, there is no sustained effort to consistently reach current, former and prospective clients.

What is a marketing plan? It is a written document that sets goals, timetables, budgets, and assigns task responsibility for creating visibility for the company to the defined target markets. It does not have to be long; one page marketing plans are commonly used.

A marketing plan answers the questions about what resources will be spent to achieve what measurable goals in what period of time.

Having a plan by itself does not guarantee success any more than having goals will. The plan will be a success if the resources necessary (time, money and people) are assigned to achieve the stated goals and there is consistent discipline to review and re-plan on either a monthly or quarterly basis.

Someone has to be in charge of marketing within the company. The person has to have knowledge, time to devote, the ability to spend resources, the authority to get things done and must have someone to hold him or her accountable for achieving the goals that have been set.

Owners often confuse marketing with advertising. Advertising is a vehicle in which the company pays for message placement in a medium place where the target market might find it. But marketing is much more than paid advertising.

PR, or public relations is a fast growing segment of marketing where the company crafts the message and the media publishes it at no cost to the company. If you see a story about a new innovative product or company somewhere, chances are the company pushed the story and the media picked it up and placed it in a venue (print or electronic). Hollywood thrives on PR because it doesn’t cost “the stars” any money to stay in the public eye.

Social media is yet another vehicle for reaching a target market at no cost to the company. Facebook, Linked in, Twitter, MySpace and the like all have a commercial component to them. On a regular basis the local Hyatt Regency advises all of its “friends” what is on the menu for lunch and dinner, providing a less expensive, cost effective way to drive traffic to the restaurant.

Another inexpensive marketing strategy to reach a target is through consistent email marketing. One local retailer has gathered over 1500 email addresses of individuals who have visited the store and desire to stay in touch on a regular basis to learn about new products and specials from the owner.

It is the middle of the year, and it has been a challenging year for many who are reading this. If the results you seek are not where you want them to be, now is the time to set aside the time needed to write a marketing plan for your business. If you are expecting different results in the second half of the year without one, perhaps you have a dose of “business insanity.”

That means you keep doing the same thing, over and over, expecting a different result.

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Every business owner hits a slump from time to time. You might be in one now, just getting out of one or starting to feel one coming. The key to dealing with it is to do so in a manner that will benefit you when you come out of it.

Sometimes a slump is caused by your actions, but they can also be created by forces beyond your control. Today we often use “the economy” as the outside force responsible for what is happening. Maybe nothing has happened except that you are tired and burned out; many business owners work too long and too hard and that effort cannot be sustained indefinitely.

A slump can develop when we grow tired, not of the work, but tired of the sameness of the job.

With nothing to challenge us, nothing new and exciting, doing the mundane will slowly draw us into a period of reduced energy, lack of focus and less caring about what is being done.

How do you deal with a slump? The first step is to recognize that you are in one. Many owners don’t want to look in the mirror and face the reality that things aren’t going as well as they once were or as well as they could be.

It would be better for you if you took a long look in the mirror and faced the facts: things aren’t where you want them to be. Tell yourself: “I am in a slump.” The more you say it, the more you will accept where you are, mentally and physically.

When people go into a slump, it is like being physically ill with the flu or a bad cold. You feel some symptoms, you tell yourself that you are just imagining things, then, before you know it, you are ill beyond belief. While you might try to continue to function normally, your production is low and in the end, probably not worth the trouble of doing. When you get this ill, it is hard to remember what it feels like to be well. The recovery is seldom quick; it takes days and sometimes week to get back to being normal.

The help that comes to fight a slump comes from two sources: either from inside of us or from an outside agent. Most people grow tired of being a slump, decide that they will no longer be a victim of their own actions or outside forces such as the economy, and put together a plan to implement changes in what they do and how they do it.

Others need an outside agent to get jump started. Often this force is something fearful, because most people will go to great lengths to avoid pain.

Don’t fight the fact that you are in a slump; accept it for what it is: a short term condition that will pass if you take the right course of action to turn things around. The question is what is the right course of action to take?

When a ship comes out of a storm, the captain and navigator reorient the ship to determine where it currently is, and where the destination is. Knowing those two things, they make a decision about the course to take, and then they start moving in that direction. All the while they are making sure the ship is seaworthy, the most basic element of seamanship.

And so it is with being a business owner in a slump. Go back to the basics. Start practicing the fundamentals, those things that made your business a success “way back when.” Since you already know where you are, the next logical step is to establish a destination for yourself. Make it measurable, and achievable. Work hard, but work smarter.

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Several years ago, Robert Foster, then an assistant principal in the Newhall School District in California wrote a piece to help explain how a group of diverse elementary school teachers could work as one to improve the education that students were receiving. Bob was kind enough to allow me to take some creative license with his original material and I have rewritten it for business owners to better explain the concept of teamwork and leadership.

The Goal — A group of musicians gathered together for the purpose of playing in harmony to provide beautiful music for an assembled audience. It was a simple goal, easy to describe, understood by all, yet difficult to execute. The desired end result was to sounding like one rich instrument.

The Plan — Each musician had a copy of the plan, in the form of sheet music. The plan was right in front of them, at every practice and during the entire performance.

The Conductor — The symphony needed a leader. The conductor did not play an instrument but he knew what each member of the symphony should be doing. He was in a unique position to help everyone shine in their performance by making sure that they adhered to the plan. The conductor was the accepted and acknowledged leader of the symphony.

The Team — Each member of the symphony had their part to perform. Some were in supportive roles. Some did solo performances. Regardless of the instrument played, all had the same goal. Personalities did not come into play. They were all in alignment with the goal.

The Importance of Practice — Years earlier the conductor had played a musical instrument. He understood that people knew if he had practiced because a poor performance was easy to hear. Knowing this, the conductor scheduled and held practice so that when the performance took place, the team was ready. The conductor knew, as did the musicians, that even professionals need a lot of practice to be at their best.

Being In Tune — It would be very easy for several musicians to drown out their fellow member’s performances. Everyone knew that the percussion or brass could easily drown out an oboe. But by doing so, the oboe’s sound would be lost. The symphony, individually and as a team, understood why it is very hard to distinguish any individual member’s instrument as they played, unless doing a solo.

Supporting One Another — During one piece of music that was performed, the percussionist rang a bell thirteen times.  Thirteen rings of a bell was the totality of his contribution to that particular piece of music. It could be argued that the violins and horns worked harder, played longer and were responsible for the majority of the sound that the symphony generated. Yet, every musician knew and accepted that without those thirteen taps on the bell, the music would not have been complete; the music would not have been as beautiful as possible.

Those doing solos needed the support of all the musicians just as the symphony needed those thirteen sounds of the bell. This support helped achieve the excellence they were looking for in their personal performance. Each musician did their part by contributing their skills where and when they were most needed. The team respected every contribution.

Timing — Hearing some sixty musicians start and stop at the same time is a wonder. How do they do it? They do it with practice and the firm direction of the conductor. The symphony needed a capable conductor to insure their timing was perfect.

Mistakes Happen — During the concert, a trumpet player hit a wrong note. Everyone knew the trumpet player was embarrassed. No one stopped; no one chastised him; they could not take the time. The music kept moving; everyone kept playing. The trumpet player recovered and played beautifully for the rest of the performance. He had the support of his fellow musicians.

At the end of the concert, neither the conductor nor any team member acknowledged the mistake. Except for the single mistake, he did a wonderful job and that is what the team concentrated on. The focus was on the successful achievement of the team goal not on mistakes made.

The Applause — Who was the applause for? The audience applauded for the symphony. The conductor took a bow. Each musician took a bow. The applause was for everyone and for each individual. The applause was shared and so was the success.

The Questions — As the owner, are you conducting or playing an instrument with the musicians? Does your version of a symphony have a goal? Does everyone know what the goal is? Is everyone in alignment with the goal? Does everyone know what the plan is? Does everyone have a plan? Is it the same plan or are different plans being used? Have you scheduled enough practice sessions or are you having performances before people are ready? Is everyone supporting one another? When someone makes a mistake, how do you handle it? Who bows for the applause?

Super Jobs For You gives information on how to get a job and how to hire good people. If you are looking for a Die Casting Job look at this website. This Die Casting Blog will give you more information you can use for manufacturing.