Have you done any of these things:

• blown hundreds of pounds on the latest ergonomic treadmill (before you’ve even done the first half mile of your new ‘exercise regime’)
• bought a third shiny new day planner (before you’ve even ticked one thing off your humongous list)?
• splashed out on an organic, vegan, non-slip yoga mat (that now lives rolled up under your sofa)?

We’ve all been there.

Told ourselves that the fancy kit would help us get on with the task in hand.

That if we just had the right tools, the motivation would follow.

But we’re just kidding ourselves, right?!

In reality, buying all the gear is just another darned displacement activity.

An excuse NOT to get on with it.

And you end up ‘all the gear and no idea’. Gulp.

Now I see this phenomenon with so many small businesses and their marketing.

Businesses that procrastinate by putting unnecessarily complicated systems in place (that never get used) or spending thousands on graphic design (that never sees the light of day).

They endlessly strategise and make plans of plans (of plans), but rarely get anything out of the door.

And this is a big problem.

Because (you may have heard me say this before but it deserves to be on repeat!) the most successful marketing out there isn’t necessarily the cleverest, the fanciest or the most expensive.

It’s the marketing that actually gets seen.

The campaigns that get in front of clients and prospects. The newsletters that go out every week. The social media feeds that get tended regularly.

Doing is as, or even more, important as planning and preparing.

So before you reach for your wallet to buy the next tool/gadget/planner to ‘help’ you with your marketing, STOP!

Instead, ask yourself: what one small, simple thing can I do TODAY to grow my business? Could that be….

• calling a lapsed client who you haven’t spoken to in a while?
• emailing a current client to ask for a referral?
• contacting a conference organiser to see if you can speak at their next event?

I guarantee that it will bring you WAY more value than any planner, however cute the front cover….