Some think they will wait and see how much marketing their business needs as they reach certain key stages. But the reality is that once a business gets underway, few people have the time to stand back and plan.

When you plan your marketing you are forced to decide what you will do, how much you will spend and decide how much time and organisation promotions are going to need. This means you can check you are allocating your money correctly and also track the results. You protect your investment by checking how every penny spent on promotion works. With planning you can co-ordinate different promotions so that everything has a similar look and copy approach.

This creates a campaign that improves awareness. Plus, by planning ahead you can negotiate discounts for printing and discounts for space bookings. And you save time by planning ahead.

To understand how clients will compare you with competitors, keep thinking like a client. You need to understand the competition before you can see what is special about your business. Where would clients be most likely to go, if not to you? You can listy our competitors and why clients visit them - think about their strengths and weaknesses. Remember if your business is primarily Guernsey based you only have 60,000 potential customers. That means that there are quite small numbers in many market segments (eg: only 3-4,000 children between 11 and 16 if you want to sell shoes or clothing). As such the island can only support relatively small number of competitors in most fields. So make sure that you stand out sufficiently from known competitors. Also make sure that if new competitors were to emerge, your market position and financial resources are sufficient to survive the competitive battles that will probably ensue. Compare your list of advantages with your competitors’ advantages. Make sure you know which advantages make your business truly different and more attractive to clients.

You need to decide which media to use. Your options include: the Guernsey Press, Island FM, Channel Television, The Globe, direct mail shots or other means as the vehicle to carry your sales message the following rules still apply.

It is a marketing truism that your existing clients are your best source of new business. Even start-up businesses often have some trading experience with one or two clients. These can help point you in the right direction and form the basis of your marketing for the future.

Armed with all this work, it may now be time to find an agency, designer or adviser to help. But good marketing need not be expensive. The professionals will be quicker and more focussed if you give them a brief based on your planning. Think about the basics and marketing becomes a common sense approach to communicating.