Are you following your game plan?

Are you following your game plan? Many people especially entrepreneurs, marketing specialists, artists etc. have great intentions of creating a marketing plan and implementing it, however when they don’t see any results they start to slip into that complacency stage assuming nothing is working. This is very true especially with social media where you hear that all you have to do is sign on and then people will flood to your business. Nothing is further from the truth.

Anyone starting any kind of long term project, business, or marketing effort will need to realize that it may take anywhere from 6 months to a year or more to start seeing the fruits of their labour. The important part is to keep working at it with all of your might. This has happened to me many times through our various business ventures. I remember when I started my blog and every week posted an article wondering if anyone was even reading them. Then out of the blue I would get a reply from someone with a comment. The same thing happened on Twitter when I first signed on, zero followers and I didn’t follow anyone, heck I barely ever signed on. But I put it on my to-do list anyway and kept posting. Today I have 15 people following my comments on Twitter. Sure it’s not huge like Lady Gaga, and I’m sure if I spent even more time telling people what I ate for lunch and giving more comments on subjects I could gain a lot more. My newsletter has just started bringing in clients who have been following me for a year. People are ready to listen at different times in their lives and if you keep moving forward you will be there when they need you.

 The point is to keep working, and even more important is that I am following my original game plan for social media marketing. I’ve used social media as an example but I have found the same ground can be gained through other areas by just staying with the plan. Your gut will tell you when you’re ready to grow, so stick to the plan. I enjoy reading my horoscope once in a while, I’ll read it and it will say “things are going on in the background that you don’t know about”. Then down the road I will talk with someone and they will ask “if my ears were burning” because they were recommending me to someone for an opportunity.  

 So if you’re the type of person to let your guard down when you don’t see things happening then I suggest you take those scrap pieces of paper that you wrote those original goals on ,dust them off and get back to work on them. The success in hitting goals is making sure you follow through with the work part.

 The author is a consultant in the transportation and business markets. To learn more about Bruce visit Outridge Consulting Services at http://www.outridge.ca.