Flavory Avery

"A failure to plan is a plan to fail." I heard this warning a long time ago, and it has always haunted me. I'm a pretty spontaneous and admittedly sometimes-lazy person, so making concrete plans has never been thrilling for me. Something about the commitment, even if it's to something beneficial, is stressful because it feels constricting. Time is a precious currency that I often try to keep to myself. However, as the above quote states: plans, goals, and targets, along with their risks, are necessary for success. In order to gain momentum, there has to be an initial push in a specific and advantageous direction.  Setting S.M.A.R.T. objectives is the best way to accomplish this! This technique helps businesses and individuals move beyond a vague goal to develop a clear framework of expectations, actions, and deadlines. T he first letter in the acronym stands for "Specific." There are many paths one can take to accomplish a goal, and many different outcomes. ...

When creating a marketing plan for a business, it is imperative to hone in on the target market, or, specific type of people you imagine buying the product or service. Focusing on the details of the customers allows businesses to create a niche for themselves, whereas casting a wide, vague net increases prospects at the expense of increasing competition. This second approach can end up costing the business more resources, as efforts may be wasted on people not within the typical parameters of the product or service. For example, marketing tampon products to men or neon hair dye to old ladies. One tool marketers can use to define their target market is through geographic segmentation. This divides the audience based on their location, which can be be broken down by nation, state, county, city, and even zip code (Eaton, n.d.). Small and local businesses such as Spiral Space Dance Studio, the business I am opening, can benefit greatly from  marketing specifically to potential customer...