I read an article this morning on Entrepreneur.com that reminded me that I’ve strayed from some important basics within my own company.

At Northstar we launch a lot of new marketing initiatives. Sometimes we forget to outline a clear, concise plan before we move forward. That’s marketing 101, but even experienced marketers fall into the trap of overlooking fundamentals.

When I look back, I can see that failing to follow some basic rules of planning has cost us an awful lot.

I thought this was a nice reminder of how you can utilize a simple exercise to make sure that your marketing plan is headed in the right direction.

As Al Lautenslager explains, “Here’s a simple process to creating a marketing plan using just seven sentences”:

Sentence 1: What is the purpose of your marketing?

Sentence 2: Who is your target market?

Sentence 3: What is your niche?

Sentence 4: What are the benefits and competitive advantage?

Sentence 5: What is your identity?

Sentence 6: What tactics, strategies and weapons will you use to carry out your marketing?

Sentence 7: How much money will you spend on your marketing; what’s your marketing budget?

I’d suggest you go and read Al’s entire article, and most importantly, make sure you implement this simple strategy before your next market launch.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again. Tax Season. There’s nowhere to hide. Unfortunately, I really can’t give you any personal tax tips or tax advice on this one…sorry.

I’m not a tax advisor. I’m not a tax expert. Never will be–don’t want to be!

In fact, I have a confession about my personal taxes. I spent several years of my professional and entrepreneurial career paying all sorts of tax penalties and extra fees because I kept messing up my taxes.

I finally got smart and stopped trying to decipher the mysteries of the IRS and handed it over to a tax expert. Imagine that! Trust me, the fees I pay for tax expertise far outweighs the ridiculous fees I incurred trying to go solo for all of those years.

Here are some useful tax season resources that provide far better tax advice than I am qualified to offer.

These resources offer Tax Tips for Entrepreneurs, some General Tax Tips and the Top 5 Missed Business Deductions.

On second thought, I suppose I can offer just a little bit of personal tax advice:

It’s ok to hate taxes and the tax season. Just don’t hate it so much that you forget to pay them.

In a recent video I prepared to our large list of Thinktank subscribers I talked about the secret of taking action.

You get an idea. You start taking action on it. You make adjustments and discoveries along the way. And voila! As a result of your desire, focus, vision, and action, mixed in with a little hard work along the way, you create the next Microsoft! Sounds simple, huh?

If it were really that easy, most people would own their own business. And most people don’t.

The action part is where most people who want there own business get stuck!

Why? Because they don’t know what they want.

You’ve probably heard the saying, “You can’t move toward a goal if you don’t know what you want.” I think you can! And here are a few ideas to help you do just that!

Lots of people focus on what “business” would be “right for them.” You could go through the Yellow Pages and look at all of the traditional businesses as well as the more obscure… and you just might find something that fits.

But I would suggest that you think about what problems people have that you could help them solve, or what goals you could help people achieve.

People will pay you dearly to help them solve their problems or reach their goals.

Just flip on QVC or the Home Shopping Network any day of the week, any hour of the day, and you can watch people spend money on miracle cleaning products, clothes steamers, hangers that reduce their closet space by one half, or software to help them speak a foreign language!

Search the Internet for information about a particular problem, challenge or interest. What do you find? Books, e-books, subscriptions, CDs, DVDs, and MP3s about how to do it, and people including myself are forking out lots of money for it.

Don’t wait around for the perfect time to get started with a great business idea. Get started right now by thinking about problems that you can solve for yourself or other people if you only had the right product or information.

That’s how great companies are born.

Check out some other great blog posts on this topic:

Business Quote of the Week
Give Away Your Business Ideas
How to Start Business

Every business likes to boast of their awards and achievements. They should, it’s a good credibility-booster. It can also be a great PR vehicle.

But awards can grow stale and when they do it’s time to put them away forever.

I recently upgraded my life insurance policy and was instructed to visit a Port-O-Medic facility for my physical check-up. (Interesting that their name suggests a mobile service yet I had to go to them.)

After I checked in I sat in the lobby browsing through a 2001 edition of Family Circle waiting to be called in by the nurse. I looked up and noticed a prominently displayed arrangement of award plaques on the wall. As I am always interested in businesses that succeed, I got up and walked over to take a look. They all had a reference to, “Outstanding Branch of the Year”. I was mildly impressed.

But then I noticed the date of the awards: 1992. That’s was 15 years ago!

Immediately, I wondered what’s taken them so long to repeat that accomplishment. I had to wonder what the heck was going on in that branch. It got me a little nervous about what I would find behind the door. That stale award had an instantly negative impact on my view of their business.

So, go ahead and brag about your business accomplishments. But take a look at the dates. If your only accomplishments worth bragging about date back more than a couple years or so I suggest you to two things: First, stop bragging about them and put the plaques and certificates in storage, because now it’s old news. Second, go do something worth bragging about again. It’s about time.

Growing a business is tough business! There are so many distractions and tempting off-ramps. The real trick is simply maintaining focus.

As entrepreneurs we all fall into these business traps from time to time. We forget what it is that got us into the business of entrepreneurship in the first place and that creates what is known as “The Entrepreneurs Dilemma”.

Can you easily recognize when you’re caught in this subtle trap? This is something you need to be able to identify easily.

Here’s some useful insight on this topic:

Check out these great posts for more information on this topic:

Quit Coffee to Reduce Procrastination

5 Reasons You Procrastinate and How to Overcome Them

7 Habits of Highly Successful Small Business Owners

Tips to Staying Motivated While Working From Home