Many of the businesses we work with are just on the cusp of needing a full-time marketing point person. Maybe the owner is currently handling marketing, or maybe it’s in the hands of an employee who juggles the job with a billion other responsibilities. To some extent, that’s just how small businesses roll. But taking that attitude could be costing you sales. Here are signs you need to stop trying to be Superman and hire an in-house marketing person to take care of your marketing:

• You have a huge list of things you’d do…if only. When your to-do list reaches Titanic proportions you know you can’t ever meet (with good ideas, not crackpot brainstorms), it’s time to consider getting help.
• You love the sound deadlines make as they woosh by. Everyone drops a few deadlines, but when you find yourself begging printers to accelerate their printing because you got your files to them late or when you plead for an extension from the newspaper for getting them your ad, you might have a problem. Working on a constant deadline can empower some people, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
• You can’t cover the basics. Putting new clients’ email addresses into your marketing database? Ain’t nobody got time for that. Well, if you really are in the business of making money, you’ve got to find the time for those basic tasks. If even relatively quick and easy things are slipping through the cracks, what does that say about the overall state of your marketing?
• You don’t have time to plan. Because you’re always so rushed for time, you find yourself in a constant state of flush and consternation. Long-term planning is but a beautiful dream when you’ve got to get those ads done NOW because they were due last week. This can lead to a lack of strategy and an inability to think into the future.
• You can’t respond to your marketing firm in a timely fashion. Obviously this applies if you have outsourced some of your marketing activities. Remember, outsourcing marketing is not the same as abdicating responsibility. Someone still has to provide information, sign off on pieces, respond to phone calls and otherwise at least be overseeing the marketing effort. If you find days or weeks slipping by before you can respond to those issues, you’re in trouble.

Now, none of these signs are anything to be ashamed of. On the contrary, it means you’re growing! But in order to take full advantage of that growth, you’ve got to invest in your organization and find an in-house marketing person who can coordinate all those marketing efforts. Dive in, take the plunge and take that stress off yourself.

Looking for more marketing ideas? Check out our resource page.