I’ve noticed a few times recently that people have said things like,”I’ve finished updating my website, now I need to go and do some proper work” or “now I’ve sent out that mailing I can get on with some real work” or “better stop tweeting and get on with my work.”
Ahem, actually, promoting your business IS proper work!
Whether it’s updating your website, designing a flyer, attending a networking event, posting photos to Facebook or tweeting, marketing what you do to the outside world is a vitally important part of running your business. It’s how you get customers. Without customers there is no business!
If you ran a large multinational business, you wouldn’t spend all your time doing the hard work – you would be planning your next moves, strategising, making new contacts, working on your next advertising campaign and developing the company. You wouldn’t feel bad about it.
Brands aren’t built overnight – you need to keep your name in the minds of your target customers. Even if you are busy now, you need to keep the business coming in the future. If you don’t keep working on your marketing, where is the next batch of work going to appear from?
So take some time to work on your business, schedule in the time to communicate with the outside world. Enjoy it. And don’t feel guilty!
Do you agree? Is marketing your business a guilty pleasure? Let me know in the comments or on twitter.