Here is a collection of the top 10 most mentioned problems I’ve heard from my clients at Mosca Marketing Consultants, fellow consultants and other small business owners.

What’s missing?  What would you add?  Any great solutions you’ve developed to overcome any of these problems?

Let’s all join in so everybody benefits!

1. Marketing.  How do I market?  How much should it cost?  How do I know if its working?  Do I need to market?
2. Business Model.  How do I create it so that I define my business and I’m not defined by whatever customers buy?  How is it related to other aspects of the business?  How do I maintain it?
3. Taking time to validate assumptions.  Test the market.  Get out of the building and interact with your customers to validate your model.  “Prove” your financial assumptions.
4. HR.  When the firm begins to grow this become huge.  What is the minimally viable team?  How do I find quality people?  When do I hire?  When do I fire?  This becomes even more complex when friends and family have been hired…
5. Exit plan.  How do I plan for my departure from the business?  How do I sell?  How do I sell to retire?  Can I be  an effective absentee owner?
6. Costs.  How do I control costs so I don’t over spend my revenue (unless its for growth and on purpose)?  How much should I spend on facilities?
7. Branding.  This may as well be magic…What does a brand do for me?  How do I brand?  How do I use my brand?
8. Operations.  Huge area, but meant here as planning the running of the business and ramping up with growth.  Scale and efficiency.
9. How do I use the web?  Is it easy to bring traffic to my site?  What will the traffic do and how can I influence their choices.  How do I use social media?
10. 10.   Value proposition.  What value is provided?  What outcomes are produced?  How long does it take?  How much does it cost?  What jobs do my offerings accomplish?
11. 11.   (Bonus)  Customers.  Who are my customers?  What do they need?  Who do they buy from?  How do I communicate with them?  How much does it cost to acquire them?  What are they worth over the lifetime of our relationship?  How do I know when they’re happy.

This isn’t comprehensive by any means.  Its just an informal sampling of questions I’ve heard, responses to surveys, etc.

The things that come to mind are

• Not knowing the lifetime value of a client – knowing what a customer is worth to your business will help you dictate what you can afford to spend to get them in the door.
  
• Not knowing when to fire a client – applies more in B2B or service industries, but working with the wrong client often has a bigger negative impact than the cash that comes in.
  
• Trying to be the solution for everyone – if you haven’t defined your “customer avatar” then the money you spend on marketing isn’t speaking to anyone, it’s more a shot in the dark. 
  
• Failing to have systems in place to bring them back – I like using a rewards card program.  It allows you to capture data and every time the client leaves your business they have a piece of plastic (which in today’s society equates to cash) with value on it.  Because of that value, no matter how small it is, the itch to use it brings them back in the door at which point, you put more value on the card.

Sorry, started getting a little deep. 

I have to reiterate the branding bullet point.  I have so many clients that have multiple versions of their logo, or multiple taglines and they use the one that feels right at the moment.

We spend a lot of time trying to make sure their branding is consistent and thought out.

The other one more me would be a social media marketing plan.  So many companies have a set marketing plan for traditional media, but they jump into social media completely blind.

@dongrandy I know, how can a business not have a business plan!

@lisaschulteis Totally agree with your point…

I have to reiterate the branding bullet point.  I have so many clients that have multiple versions of their logo, or multiple taglines and they use the one that feels right at the moment.

We spend a lot of time trying to make sure their branding is consistent and thought out.

Also it amazes me that some businesses still don’t see social media as a way to improve their customer base and improve their profits!

@rlmosca  #12 How can my brain think through all this? How long does it take to come up with the answers? Great comments: @rlmosca @lisaschulteis @dakotalocal 

@rlmosca thats a   great  list…. love    VALIDATE  assumptions…. thats always  hard  but  so  good to do…we try to keep  costs at under  25%% …  hiring is  so hard i will never figure that one out….just  figuring out  your  brand is  huge imho…  ….

  sorry to say we never had a plan  but went with the flow and paid  total  attention to the market…..  or  maybe we had a  great  general plan….find great  stuff  our  customers  could make money on…we were totally   wholesale   at  the s tart…