ÿþ<!-- saved from url=(0020)http://bradplum.com/ --> <!-- Generated by F12 developer tools. This might not be an accurate representation of the original source file --> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><!-- DW6 --><head> <!-- Copyright 2005 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved. --> <meta content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title>Brad Plumb &amp; Associates</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="default.css"> <meta name="description" content="Taking care of the business of the business. Is your business losing focus? Stop throwing money out the window. Increase your business efficiency."> <meta name="keywords" content="business,marketing, Brad A. Plumb, Brad Alan Plumb, Brad Plumb, Brad A. Plumb attorney, Brad Alan Plumb attorney, Brad Plumb attorney, Brad A. Plumb Spokane, Brad Alan Plumb Spokane, Brad Plumb Spokane, Plumb &amp; Associates, business analysis, business survey"> <meta name="norton-safeweb-site-verification" content="fwsu66qh7i-k1t4kvme1fog6xj81zk6ro3zk4l35epdxeelpqhet-6-k7gkrmqd6k-qmqc4rvym6x5uxj90sfjfg90hbuksd3zgfc2yeor4br7leldg5vzdphkk22agj"> </head><body> <div id="masthead"> <h1 id="siteName">Brad Plumb &amp; Associates </h1> <h2 id="tagline">Taking Care of the Business of Business</h2> <div id="globalNav"> <a title="Home Page" href="index.html" target="_self">Home</a> | <a title="About Us" href="about_us.html" target="_self">About Us</a> | <a title="Analysis" href="analysis.html" target="_self">Analysis</a> | <a title="Coaching" href="coaching.html" target="_self">Coaching</a> | <a title="Partnering" href="partnering.html" target="_self">Partnering</a> | <a title="Consulting" href="consulting.html" target="_self">Consulting</a> | <a title="Collaboration" href="collaboration.html" target="_self">Collaboration</a> </div> </div> <!-- end masthead --> <div id="content"> <h2 id="pageName">Brad Plumb &amp; Associates Home Page</h2> <div class="feature"><img alt="Ben Franklin" src="images/benfranklin.gif" width="225" longDesc="Ben Franklin with magnifying glass" height="160"> <h1> Is your business losing focus?</h1> <p>You're not alone. Losing focus is common for business owners and executives who are mired in the daily activities of business survival.</p> <h1>What is your business purpose?</h1><p>Making a profit, a significant profit, needs to be your goal. Profit is the key to survive, to grow, to provide employees with the opportunity to earn a good living, to provide a good return to the owners or shareholders, to provide quality products or services, and to provide you the quality of life and financial security you deserve.</p> <h1>You must focus!</h1><p>Achieving reasonable profitability is a cost of doing business, not just occasionally, but consistently, year-in and year-out. There are many reasons for losing focus on profit, including lack of knowledge, lack of discipline, lack of systems and controls, hidden problems, competition, failure to plan for mandatory minimum levels of profitability, failure to use productivity-based excess profit incentives, failure to establish goals, failure to take advantage of tax laws, and many more.</p> </div> <div class="story"> <h3>How To Plan Marketing For The Small Business</h3> <h4><em>by Brad Plumb, Spokane, Washington</em></h4> <p>I surveyed over 100 small businesses a year since 2002.&nbsp; These were "Mom &amp; Pop" businesses that grossed as little as $200,000 and larger businesses with as much as $30,000,000.&nbsp; Ninety-six percent of had no Marketing Plan.&nbsp; Interviewing the owners and managers revealed amazing information on their knowledge of marketing planning.</p> <p>Seventy-three percent of the businesses reported having a marketing plan but, they claimed not to follow it very well.&nbsp; Of the seventy-three percent, I was unable to get a single copy of <em>any</em> written marketing plan.&nbsp; By the time the survey was over, every owner of the seventy-three percent of businesses surveyed admitted that they did not have a real marketing plan.&nbsp; Twenty-three percent admitted from the start that they did not have a marketing plan and did not know how to make one. Four percent had an actual written marketing plan. However, even with the four percent, since 2002, only 7 businesses made an actual attempt to follow their marketing plan. Amazingly, the annual gross revenues of those seven percent ranged between $2,000,000 and $30,000,000. My conclusion was that the "Mom &amp; Pop" businesses limited their revenue potential as a direct result of their failure to plan marketing.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a title="How to Plan Marketing for the Small Business" href="articles/howToPlanMarketingForTheSmallBusiness.html" target="_blank">Read entire article.</a></p> </div> <div class="story"> <h3>&nbsp;</h3> </div> </div> <!--end content --> <div id="navBar"> <div id="search"> <form action="#"> <label>search</label> <input name="searchFor" size="20" type="text"> <input name="goButton" value="go" type="submit"> </form> </div> <div id="sectionLinks"> <ul> <li><a title="Business Checklists" href="business_checklists.html" target="_self">Business Checklists</a></li> <li><a title="Business Dictionary" href="business_dictionary.html" target="_self">Business Dictionary</a></li> <li><a title="Business Almanac" href="business_almanac.html" target="_self">Business Almanac</a></li> <li><a title="Business Action Lists" href="business_action_lists.html" target="_self">Business Action Lists</a></li> <li><a title="Business Resources" href="business_resources.html" target="_self">Business Resources</a></li> <li><a title="Business Articles Archives" href="business_articles_archives.html" target="_self">Business Articles Archives</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="advert"> <img border="0" alt="Panda Web Express" src="images/panda_train_logo_flashing.gif" longDesc="Panda Web Express" useMap="#Map"> <map id="Map" name="Map"><area href="http://www.pandawebexpress.com/" shape="rect" target="_blank" coords="-1,1,160,77"> </map>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Panda Web Express</div> <div id="headlines"> <h3>Headlines</h3> <p> Key Principles of Internet Marketing <a title="Key Principles of Internet Marketing" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/02/27/key-principles-internet-marketing/" target="_blank">Full story...</a> </p> <p> Affiliate Marketing on the Web <a title="Affiliate Marketing on the Web" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/02/27/affiliate-marketing-web/" target="_blank">Full story...</a> </p> <p> Marketing your Business: Becoming #1 <a title="Marketing your Business: Becoming #1" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/02/27/marketing-business-1/" target="_blank">Full story...</a> </p> <p> How to market to the modern mom <a title="How to market to the modern mom" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22410106/" target="_blank">Full story</a></p> </div> </div> <!--end navbar --> <div id="siteInfo"> <img alt="BP&amp;A" src="images/bp&amp;a.gif" width="88" longDesc="BP&amp;A" height="44"> <a title="About Us" href="about_us.html" target="_self">About Us</a> | <a title="Site Map" href="site_map.html" target="_self">Site Map</a> | <a title="Privacy Policy" href="privacy_policy.html" target="_self">Privacy Policy</a> | <a title="Contact Us" href="contact_us.html" target="_self">Contact Us</a> | ©2008 Brad Plumb &amp; Associates </div> <br> </body></html>