Usually when folks are asked their favourite time of year they’ll usually plump for something predictable like Christmas or else one of the summer months, typically for the same old reasons, holidays, festive divilment etc…

My own favourite time of year is October. There’s something about the changing of seasons that sparks me to life, that stirs my senses. Being the contrarian that I am, I’m not that much of a summer person anyways, it’s not really my thing. I actually kinda look forward to the long, cold dreary nights.

But ever since I started working for myself a few years ago, October has taken on a new meaning.

It’s a time of year I just don’t look forward to.

For business owners in Ireland it means it’s time to give “Caesar what is Caesar’s”, to give the “Man” his share of your spoils. And I bloody hate tax. Not just the drudgery of filling out the forms and the associated labour, but the very act of paying them.

As costs go, it provides me with zero return on investment (and I don’t count public services for reasons I may share with you one day..)

Yet, strangely enough, a lot of business owners will view their marketing spend as no different to giving Mickey Noonan his pound of flesh.

An expense.

Something that they just have to pay.

A cost which must be borne.

I often wonder why business owners think this way. Maybe it’s the stinking “bean counter” thinking that makes them look at it as an expense rather than investment.

Thinking that stifles entrepreneurship and innovation.

Perhaps it’s their ignorance of “direct response” marketing that has their ads looking this one below, resulting in a mediocre response at best..

(if your advertising efforts look even REMOTELY similar to what’s above, you need to give me a call sharpish)

Whatever.

But it all stems from one fatal flaw: viewing it as just another cost that has be borne.

If you have that mindset, guess what – it WILL become a cost. You might as well write a cheque to Mickey Noonan so he can piss it away in the Dáil bar with the rest of his cronies.

However, if you view your marketing as something which needs to be rigorously monitored, tested and ultimately justified, well, it’s a different story entirely.

It begins to become something which produces a result, rather than just another cost like having to pay Noonan and his cronies every October.

Alas, when it comes to web design, this “cost” culture seems to be no different.

Its viewed as “just another expense”.

I don’t blame businesses for thinking this way though: when a website is set up like most are in Ireland, it WILL be an expense.

And quite a large one at that.

But when it’s looked at as an investment, the game changes. When viewed as something which MUST bring a definite return, else it’s not fulfilled its purpose.

It should bring in “x” amount of visitors per month, of which you can be confident “y” amount will consistently convert to customers. In other words, an asset that regularly produces a return.

A non-stop salesman-on-steroids bringing in customers and leads.

As opposed to a cheap, nasty and non-sales driven website which deals in a business-destroying drug called “hopeium.”

“Hoping” and praying that whatever prospects cross it’s path become customers.

That, my friend, is a strategy that WILL fail. And it WILL be a cost.

Approaching your website as your very own 24/7 sales producing machine is a game changer.

The phone starts to ring. People start inquiring. Orders begin to flow.

Cheques arrive in the mail.

It becomes a profit-producing asset which utilised properly, can become the lifeblood of your business.

If you’d like to find out more about how “direct-response” web design can make your phone ring hot with orders, you better give me, Keith Commins a call on 087-7426631 to make it happen.

Stay Hungry,

Keith “Will Always Be Beaten On Price” Commins

PS: “Bean counter” thinking. Accountants, lawyers and other corporate types should be seen and not heard when it comes to business. Whenever a company starts to grow and there’s a boardroom coup, it’s these individuals that come to the fore, usually because of their adeptness of working the corporate system to their full advantage.

All of the great work the entrepreneur did in the first instance gets cast aside. Thoughts of growth are forgotten.

Advertising and marketing budgets are slashed like Jason Vorhees on prom night.

Innovation is stifled.

The company’s inexorable march towards “Big Dumb Company Status” begins.

Now I’ve nothing against these people, but they are not qualified when it comes to entrepreneurship. Their job is to manage the money, to take care of the day-to-day operations and to keep things ticking over, but when it comes to marketing and growth, they need to be ignored.

Or else, you will suffer the consequences.