{"id":1391,"date":"2024-05-29T16:08:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T14:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/?p=1391"},"modified":"2025-06-17T16:13:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T14:13:31","slug":"are-you-calling-the-shots-in-your-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/?p=1391","title":{"rendered":"Are you calling the shots in your small business?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or is the business calling the shots? This post explores the factors which help establish success for a small business (SME). Many consider success results from a combination of <strong>discipline <\/strong>and<strong> discipleship.<\/strong> &nbsp;The importance to achieving success is a matter of establishing strategic priorities and managing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Running a small operation is a complex affair. As the owner, the complexity rests on your shoulders and includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Operational management such as forecasting production, directing sales drives, financial management, bank overdraft applications, developing training programs, setting incentives, and other such day-to-day decisions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Crisis management such as following up customer payments the bank has declined, vehicle accidents which prevented a delivery, staff threatening stay aways, and stakeholder disputes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Planned innovations such as a new product launch, a new services proposal or new sales training programs. These are often long delayed innovations which have been waiting for your focus and attention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let us consider the discipline and discipleship statement made earlier in this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Disciplines<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Discipline refers to a set of rules to be followed while completing any task. (Foundation For Excellence, 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a developing contradiction here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the strengths of a startup is flexibility.&nbsp; The ability of a SME to \u201cmake decisions along the way\u201d often allows the operation to be more competitive than the bigger company. The bigger establishment often has established rules, processes, and procedures in place. These processes allow the bigger operation to act consistently and without direct and personal intervention by senior management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The contradiction? Consultants will often advise the SME owner to put processes and procedures into place. This formally assigns responsibility for actions to a responsible member of staff. If the rules are followed, the action is more likely to be an acceptable solution. Such consistency will free your time to look at other priorities. The discipline includes invoicing and payment terms, sales scheduling and calling, production cycles and warehouse and stock management. They apply to every department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is critical for a small business to grow, processes must be put in place and for you, to delegate the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Discipleship<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Discipleship is the next consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Oxford Reference describes discipleship&nbsp; (Oxford Reference, 2024) as the acceptance by a person of another as master, tutor, and spiritual guide. While it is usually used in a spiritual sense, discipleship can be used in as secular sense too, e.g. Carl Jung was a disciple of Sigmund Freud\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a company, the discipleship guide is the vision, the mission, and the strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does your operation have such a guide \u201ccast in stone\u201d? Is this vision, mission and strategy communicated with and understood by every member of staff?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it is not, staff members may need to execute actions without fully understanding your own exacting standards. Then, you cannot expect that staff member do the job and still meet your standards. Often, the only way the job will be done to your standards, is when you do it yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The contradiction is obvious How can you expect a staff member to deliver to your own high standards, if the employee does not understand fully what those standards are?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most important facet of a successful small (or any sized) operation is leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Marketing<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For many, marketing is about advertising, about social media, and about spending money on external media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such activity is more correctly defined as communications. Yes, marketing is about communications, but it is much more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This post argues that marketing is about leadership within and of the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">So, what is marketing about?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marketing is also about discipline and discipleship. The discipline starts with establishing the customer as the centre of everything. It is not about establishing what you, the shareholders, the stakeholders, or the employees want for the business but about the customer is looking for. It means the discipline of doing the research and adhering to the results of the research. &nbsp;The discipline of building plans that meets those customer needs. And delivering product that meets those needs. And at a price and in a place which meets those needs. And finally doing research that confirms that you met the customer needs and he will come back to buy from you again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The discipleship is about being led by the secular guide. To an experienced marketing person, the vison, mission, and strategy is that guide. Everything a marketing plan delivers will be to the operational strategy. Everything the business does, pricing, production, promotion, and place, must deliver against that with a singular voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It does raise another potential contradiction. Some believe only a fully employed person, never an independent consultant, can deliver work to the business\u2019s standard. In the case of marketing, it is not true. Many concerns are finding experienced, free-lance (fractional) marketing people can deliver marketing that adds enormous value. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In conclusion, It is often stated that marketing is critical to small business success, but many approach marketing in an ad hoc manner. The critical role marketing plays is not about advertising, is not about social media, is not about analytics but it is about leadership. Leading the organisation to meet its strategy and to achieve its objectives. In doing so, it will employ communications, product design, packaging, promotions, and pricing and many of the tools, modern marketing has at its disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The only real question is this: Are you leading the business and calling the shots?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or are you simply \u201cin the business\u201d and it is calling the shots?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, will you as the owner will give professional marketing permission to deliver the vision, mission and strategy, in a manner that you, your business, and your customers, deserve?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>About Garth Sutherland<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Garth Sutherland has an extensive multicultural understanding.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&nbsp;He has worked with local brands (creating independent strategic positions) and international brands (integrating the international brand vision with the local demand to optimize the \u201con the ground\u201d brand presence).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>His strengths include bringing a strong strategic focus into all aspects of marketing delivery, working with multi-agency perspectives, independent thinking &amp; implementing with a consistent and practical teamwork focused delivery.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&nbsp;Garth has a passion for SME\u2019s and created Small Business Marketing<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/\"><em>.<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;to be a catalyst in making a difference to the SME landscape. This by offering affordable and professional fractional marketing services to that sector.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&nbsp;If you are looking to maximize the strategic value of your brand opportunity, Garth is the ideal resource to task.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>You can contact him on +27 (0)81 265 5803 or at&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"mailto:garth@smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\"><em>garth@smallbusinessmarketing.co.za<\/em><\/a><em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marketing is critical to small business success, but many approach marketing in an ad hoc manner. The critical role marketing is about leading the organisation to meet its strategy and to achieve its objectives. That will employ communications, product design, packaging, promotions, and pricing and many of the tools, modern marketing has at its disposal. The real question is this: Are you leading the business and calling the shots?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-small-business-marketing"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Calling-the-shots.jpg",1280,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Calling-the-shots-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Calling-the-shots-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Calling-the-shots-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Calling-the-shots-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Calling-the-shots.jpg",1280,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Calling-the-shots.jpg",1280,720,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Garth","author_link":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Marketing is critical to small business success, but many approach marketing in an ad hoc manner. The critical role marketing is about leading the organisation to meet its strategy and to achieve its objectives. That will employ communications, product design, packaging, promotions, and pricing and many of the tools, modern marketing has at its disposal.&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1391\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbusinessmarketing.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}