As a marketing professional in Las Vegas, I am often asked the same two questions. Do I really need a business plan?  What details should I include in my business plan? Here are some answers to the questions:

Do I really need a business plan?

For most Las Vegas businesses the answer to this question would be yes. The majority of new businesses and ones that require investment by way of a loan or a business partner, a business plan is an absolute must. Potential investors will want to see, for example, your growth projections before they commit to invest in your business.

Types of businesses that do not require a business plan:

• A business that is happy to stay as is and has no plans to expand
• A business that never has the need to take out a bank loan
• A business that is a one man shop, self-sufficient, without the need of outside help.

It is one thing being aware of your need for a business plan, problem is most people have no idea of how to go about creating one.

The business plan will show its readers all the plans and growth of your business and how you are going to reach these gaols. You need to have a solid strategy in place before even attempting to write your business plan. You should know the direction you are going to take, the investments you are going to make in hiring staff, and equipment. You need to have business goals and an idea of when each goal is going to be met.

In the majority of cases a business plan is used to attract people to invest into your idea and your business. It is your sales copy in effect and therefore must be a professional, well laid out and solid business plan, people will take you seriously and invest.

On the other hand if it is rushed, badly written and weak, you are not likely to receive the financial backing you’re looking for.

What should be included in my business plan?

Readers of your business plan will not only want to know about the business itself, they’ll also want to know about you and your experience. Be sure to give them a brief summary of your history and what you have achieved career wise. Jot down all of your ideas and really sell the positive side of your experience and character to them. The fact that you’re hard working and that you work well under pressure. You love a challenge and can work well as part of a team and on your own.

Describe the current market place that your business is in, your competition and the opportunities for growth in that market.

List out financial figures including operating costs, projected earnings, growth forecasts and any financial history the business might have had already.

Show in your business plan that you are flexible, that you have a plan B if plan A does not come to light.

Sell them your ideas by telling them why you’re setting up the business in the first place for example, and where you dream it will be in five years time. Lastly, be sure to include a mission statement.

Blog marketing has become a powerful way to get more people to know what a business offers and why they should should use the product or service that is being offered. Blogs are no long just online journals. Large and small businesses alike are using blogs as marketing tools to expand their research and generate new business.

What Is A Blog Anyway?

The word “blog” is actually a shortened form of the the phrase “web log.” When blogs first appeared with regularity back in the 1990′s, they were used almost exclusively as “online diaries” where people would simply write down their daily activities, personal opinions, thoughts, goals, and dreams. It took a few years for businesses to recognize the potential that blogs had to connect with prospects and customers. Blogs can be a part of a website or stand alone.

How Blog Marketing Can Help Businesses?

1. Be An Expert. A blog allows a business owner to communicate with individuals on a personal basis. Blogs are generally not static. Instead, they tend to be updated regularly and are less formal in nature. Blogs let business owners cover a variety of subjects and issues related to the niche the business is in. This will increase the credibility of both the business and the owner, and demonstrate the knowledge and expertise associated with that niche. Blogs also allow owners to go over additional information that just can’t be covered via other forms of advertisement methods such as commercials, display ads, telemarketing, and direct mail.

2. Increase Exposure. Most blogs generate a RSS feed that third party websites and individuals can use to instantly get updates whenever the blog has a new post published on it. “RSS” stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is what lets a site to subscribe to a blog and receive the new posts as they occur. What this means for the business owner is a dramatic increase in exposure. Every time the blog gets new posts, the posts are immediately distributed to all of the RSS feed subscribers. So hundreds, even thousands of people outside of the blog will be reached.

3. Increase in Traffic Generation. Because blogs tend to be highly focused on a specific topic, they tend to rank well in search engines like Google and Bing. The higher the blogs rank, the more people will find them in their search for information. Getting a blog to the first page of Google can result in an explosion of highly targeted traffic. Businesses thrive on theses type of prospects.

Blog Marketing for Businesses

Although blogs have become very simple to create and maintain, most business owners still prefer to use the services of an internet marketing consultant to help them establish a professional-looking and effective blog. These internet marketing firms can also create keyword-rich content related to the niche the business is in, as well as managing the time and effort to publish those posts at specified time intervals.

Today’s business owners are quite aware of the marketing power provided by the efficient use of blogs. Besides being a way to generate new customers, it also gives owners the ability to interact with past customers and develop long-term relationships with them.

Whether you are starting a new business in Las Vegas or have been in business for years, having a marketing plan is essential in keeping your budget in line and reaching new customers. The company that you have is generally contingent on the products or services that can be produced and sold, and the amount of advertising that you need to accomplish that. Therefore, a marketing or advertising plan that works is very important.

What makes the marketing plan so beneficial to the business is the fact that it organizes the structure of how your company runs. The marketing plan determines how to arrive at the cost of the product or service that you wish to market, based on how many you sell and the amount that is allotted for the advertising. The wholesale and retail costs, along with the production schedule will also be established in your marketing plan. You cannot advertize products that you do not have, and you cannot advertise at one price and then sell them for a higher price, so a good working plan is vital.

One of the first things that a good marketing plan will establish is who your target audience is. This makes a huge difference in the marketing strategy of the product. Focus on that certain population, with the type of marketing that you want use. Do you want to use a TV commercial, or promotional products, newspaper and magazine ads, or billboards and signs? The answer is whichever method will reach and influence your target audience and encourage them to purchase.

When you have put these components on paper in your plan, the rest will fall into place. You will be able to determine retail cost and profit margins from the manner in which you choose to advertise. For a short amount of time, you will be spending more than you are brining in, but if you stick to your budget and marketing plan, it won’t be long before the numbers do a turnaround.

The plan does not stop here though, as your sales increase you’ll find that you will need to adjust your marketing plan in order to keep it up to date. If you made a good, solid marketing plan in the beginning that organized your clients, the products or services that you are selling, and how you are going to get the word out, it will be possible to keep your business organized. As you grow, the numbers may change, and the method of advertising may change, but if you have devised a clear and organized marketing plan, you will be able to stay focused and this will allow you to grow.

There is no more imposing a proposition than to try to do your own Las Vegas marketing plan using only online resources. You might go to a website like: http://www.business.com/directory/advertising_and_marketing/. There you will find online resources that offer to help you to do a marketing plan that will produce results. The only thing that you will get from any of those online resources is targetted emails from groups of people who might be interested in what you are selling.

The actual email formatting will have to be done by you. The sending of emails to all of those targetted groups will have to be done by you. The feedback, if you are interested in knowing who actually got and read your email, will have to be done by you. The facts are that doing a marketing plan only by using online resources can be frustrating, expensive (since those lists of emails from targetted populations cost money to buy), and can produce little if any results that translate into money for your business.

The money that you spend for online resources to promote your business can be better used to hire a professional marketing person who can make your marketing goals a reality. An online marketing professional knows how to look for the contacts that he will use to develop your marketing plan. He will not need to spend countless hours, as you would, in looking for sites that sell the information that you will want. He will know what sites online have the information that he will use to make your marketing plan a smooth, quickly operable and profitable working solution to your business growth and profit.

If you have a marketing plan but are confused as to how to get it viewed by a wide online audience, you are best served by a professional marketing person who knows how to set up your advertising and how to send it out to a large online market. The decision of doing your own online marketing or of hiring a professional to do your online marketing has to be decided on financial considerations if you are a business person who keeps track of expenses and benefits from advertising.

If you pay more for email lists that cost you time and effort to make individual emails and even more money to buy services for online sites that create a program for you to send multiple emails than you would pay to get the services of a professional marketing expert, the choice is obvious. Hiring a professional to do your marketing is not only cost effective but time effective and the proof should be in your profits.

Whether you are starting a new business in Las Vegas with a big budget or a small budget, you can always take advantage of free web promotion.

One of the best ways to gain free promotion is by using press releases to highlight your company’s latest news stories, events, hires and client wins. In order to write a truly effective press release, it should be a newsworthy story. A grand opening, a special sale, a charitable effort within the Las Vegas community, are all great stories perfect for a press release and an excellent free advertising tool.

There are numerous press release submission websites, some free and some paid, which will allow you to submit your news articles. By doing so, you’re exposing your news item to newspaper and magazine editors who may in turn publish your article/s.

Your press release should be no more than one page in length. Make sure your name, mailing address and telephone number are included at the top of the page as editors will confirm your identity before publishing your news article. See the links below to find the standard format you should write your press release in.

More Information:

Tips on Writing Your Own Press Releases

Write & Submit Press Releases for Your Las Vegas Business

As a resident of Las Vegas myself, I have visited many Las Vegas restaurants, hotels, casinos, bars and entertainment venues of one sort or another in my spare time. Your spare time to relax can also be an opportunity to meet people within the Las Vegas community and talk, take interest in others and talk about each others careers and businesses. Consider this advice when you’re away from the office, always think about marketing yourself and your business.

The following is a list of places that I frequent where I have directly met people through casual contact that have led to making strong business relationships, new leads and new business:

• Starbucks Coffee on Village Center Circle in Summerlin
• Las Vegas Athletic Clubs
• Vintner Grill in Summerlin
• The Artisan Hotel
• Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa
• Sapporo
• Einstein Bagel
• RoadRunner Las Vegas
• Agave Mexican Restaurant and Bar