The Problem with Small Business Marketing Consultants

Being a small business marketing consultant has always been hard. Usually, when a small business owner hires a small business marketing consultant it’s because the current marketing message isn’t working. So, the small business marketing consultant’s first job is to let the client know that his/her marketing campaign is U-G-L-Y!

It’s a lot like “What Not To Wear” except instead of giving the lucky “winner” a card with $5,000 on it to spend, the client has to give the small business marketing consultant a card with its own spending limit.

Oh sure, the client suspected the truth when he/she made the call, but it’s still the first order of business – telling the client that changes need to be made.

In a few rare cases, the fix is in the form of a superficial makeover. New hair, new clothes and new makeup and -VIOLA- an ordinary looking black man is transformed into an incredibly beautiful woman. However, sometimes the changes need to be made are more than just skin deep!

Sometimes, it takes more than hair, makeup and clothing to transform an average man into an above average woman!  Even RuPaul can’t be the centerfold for Playboy without making some MAJOR changes in his anatomy.

Which is one of the reasons WHY it SUCKS to be a small business marketing consultant.  Because hair, nails, clothes and makeup are expensive enough – and sometimes sometimes they’re not enough.  Sometimes, serious surgery is needed to make the transformation permanent.    Even then, the effects have to be maintained – otherwise your marketing magic turns back into a pumpkin at the end of the ball.

Sometimes being a small business marketing consultant is just like “What Not To Wear”.   Sometimes a fat, dumpy middle aged woman walks in and a fat, well dressed and perfectly coiffed middle aged woman walks out.   If the makeover target expected to be transformed into a teen aged supermodel, she’s going to be terribly disappointed.  However, if her goal was to look better and feel better about herself than she did when she went in, mission accomplished!  If her goal was to be thinner or younger – well, it’s going to take more than new hair, makeup and clothes to accomplish that feat!

The first order of business for a small business internet consultant is to manage the expectations of the client.    Sometimes the path is shorter to creating a beautiful black woman out of an ordinary black man than to create an extraordinary black man out of an ordinary one!  That’s where an internet marketing consultant’s expertise can help the average small business owner!