Today I went shopping in a small boutique shoe store. The owner is a true entrepreneur and has just opened her second store.

I asked her how she was managing the new store, as it’s located more than 90 minutes from here. She explained that out sources as much as she can and focuses on what she is good at, so she spent a lot of time carefully planning for the recruitment of her staff and then out sourced it to professionals.

She went on to explain that she is a strong marketer and a good buyer, but she needs help with her book keeping and luckily her partner has a digital multimedia agency, so he helps with the web and online details.

So often, I meet with small businesses that want to do everything and seem frightened to let go, this is often dangerous, as Michael Gerber in his book the E-Myth reminds us, we must work on our business not just in the business.

It is also costly, it is far less expensive to outsource to an expert that can deliver the outcomes in less time and more professionally, than struggling to do it yourself.

Having said this it is important that you know something about everything so that you can manage the project brief and know what you are asking for and that you have received it.

Try writing a list of jobs that you could outsource, start by doing a SWOT on yourself, what are your strengths, your weaknesses, what opportunities are there for your business if you outsourced them, what are the threats if you don’t.

In the development of Social Media I wonder where the respect for our clients is. Does the content that we are delivering show respect?

Is it just me or are you astonished at the people out there that all they do is send the thoughts of others.

They have probably, hopefully, read the content and agree with it but unless we are offering some creative thought to the process then we are not treating ourselves and our clients with respect.

Are we becoming so busy and is there so much noise out there we are frightened of being left behind so we are not taking the time to create our own comments and develop our opinions.

So many people are twittering, face booking content and information without any original thought or content of their own.

It’s so easy to go to Alltop or Mashable and find content that you can send to your contacts and use to promote yourself, and sometimes it’s the best place to find content and see the trends.

But if it’s the only way that you find content to distribute, then is it really adding to your credibility.

If we look at each of  these points

All Marketing and Sales is about the Relationship, we say clients move through the process of I know you, I like you, I trust you and now with Social Media I guess we have to add I follow you.

I have always believed that your reputation is your greatest asset and with the lowering of the global barrier this is even more relevant today. What you do and say counts and doing what you say you will even more so.

The Referral won’t happen unless you have developed the other 2 R’s.

And you will be wasting your time on developing these tools of Marketing unless you treat your clients with Respect.

Marketing isn’t everything but everything is Marketing.

It is everything that you do in your business, it all says something about your business.

It’s the way your business looks and behaves, the way you greet customers, meet delivery and quality promises, the way you send accounts and everything in between is Marketing.

This is particularly so in Small to Medium businesses where often one person is doing lots of different jobs.

Have you stood across the street lately and looked at your business? How does it look? Weeds in the garden? Excess product or waste hanging around? What’s inside the entrance? Tired old plants? Out of date magazines and brochures?

Is your website old? Cluttered and boring?

Marketing is both a business paln – a set of ideas/strategy to guide the business – and a business process – a set of steps to carry out the plan.

It is one of the most significant areas of a business, whether you want to grow your business, grow your profits or just grow your leisure time.