When it comes to our businesses we procrastinate on the things that we don’t like including [insert surprise here] marketing. But if marketing produces results, why do we wait?

The question to you is this:

Do you want results or convenience?

Spend 7% of Your Gross Revenue on Marketing

Budget may be an issue, though you should set aside a good 7% of revenue toward marketing, but it’s not the only excuse. Inconvenience tends to be the leader in the procrastination excuses.

“The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising if you’re doing less than $5 million a year in sales and your net profit margin — after all expenses — is in the 10 percent to 12 percent range.” George Boykin

For the sake of an example, if you are a WordPress Developer who charges $1,500 per website, $105 of that should go to marketing your business. This is a conservative investment in your future.

If you do four of those sites a month, $420 should be invested in marketing. To be more aggressive, you’ll have to dedicate a larger percentage of gross revenue.

What is convenient?

Pretty much nothing. You’ve heard the saying that nothing worth doing is ever easy? Well, nothing worth achieving is ever convenient.

Does anyone ask rugby players if it’s convenient that they get so dirty or become injured because of the lack of pads? No. Does anyone ask X Games athletes how many bones they broke to be champions? No.

There are plenty of things I do that are not convenient. But I choose to invest in my community, my business, and myself.

For example:

• I drive 33 miles to my closest WordPress Meetup. This takes at least an hour in commute time. I do this one to three times a month. Results: friends, business, and fun. That matters.
• I worked in Santa Ana for 14 years. It was a 27 mile commute and took an hour. Results: That job helped me launch my career shift.
• I traveled for work while I was with Thought House (on behalf of GiveWP). I hated travel before. Results: I met people all over the world and many of them have become clients.
• Attending WordCamps can be expensive (about $1000 is an average budget). Results: I get clients all the time from attending, organizing, or speaking at WordCamps. Also: friends.
• Blogging takes time and focus. I don’t always feel like writing for myself, especially after doing client work. Results: people continue to read my current and past writing and (guess what?) I get business and referrals. This doesn’t even speak to branding issues. (Would you hire a marketer who didn’t blog?)

I am not even talking about physical or mental fitness either. We all know that being fit is more than looking at magazines and having a gym membership. It’s not any different for your business.

What gets results?

Effort.

Period.

Start.

Start somewhere. But stop complaining.

It’s your business.

Why aren’t you marketing your business?

I always tell business owners that they have to care about the future of their business. As a consultant or even their social media manager, I can’t care about their business more than they do.

So, I say the same to you — my audience. I can’t care about your business more than you do.

It’s your livelihood. It’s your future. It’s your passion.

You should be involved in your business. You should care about its direction.

When’s the last time you had a checkup for your body or your vision or your teeth? It’s been a year or less. Right?

When’s the last time you had a checkup for your marketing plan? What worked ten years ago may not work now. What was true in social media last year, may not be true now. Changes in tactics are sometimes required.

Maybe it’s time.