Are you super fabulous at what you do?  Do you believe that you are a GREAT …IT shop, accountant, VAR, trainer, lawyer, designer, contractor, (insert your small business type here)?  Do you know your customers LOVE you?

I hate to tell you this.  But – just being good (or even GREAT) at what you do might not be enough. 

Don't wait until it's too late!

Sure, in good times, business regularly comes flowing in through word of mouth and referrals.  But what do you do when that stops?  Do you have the core marketing infrastructure in place?  What happens if you don’t?  What happens if you take a “wait and see approach” hoping for the best?  Read the sad, but true blog post I just wrote for the AMEX Open Forum:  http://blogs.openforum.com/2009/01/14/dont-wait-until-its-too-late/

PLEASE – Don’t wait until it’s too late!!!  I don’t want this to happen to you. 

You don’t have to use a marketing consultant if you can’t afford one.  There are lots of affordable small business marketing tools out there!  In fact I created a website Tornado Tools exactly for that group of small business owners who can’t afford to hire me, but just aren’t sure which marketing vendors to trust.

If you’re a OC Small Business Owner, I just launched a super affordable OC Duct Tape Marketing Meetup Group, which will meet the last Wednesday of every month.  The first meetings are scheduled for 1/21 and 1/28. (running repeat sessions.)  Details here: http://www.meetup.com/The-OC-Duct-Tape-Marketing-Meetup-Group/ Every member will get a copy of the Duct Tape Marketing book when they attend their first meeting. 

This Marketing Group is live because I feel there is a lot of value in face-to-face networking, but if anyone is interested in an internet-based session on the same topic, email me at tornado@tornadomktg.com, and I’ll schedule one.

No excuses.  Just do it!