I learned this the hard way. The biggest mistake you can make in your business is thinking that marketing and advertising are only necessary when job flow is zero. Why? Because when you have no active projects you have no cash flow. And we all know what happens next. The mind goes to survival mode. Working from this state of mind is always unpleasant and unwise. Marketing is as necessary as saving. It should be a habit like brushing your teeth. It has to be present each and every month in your budget. If you’re not marketing you’re losing business, and even worse, planning for failure. You should be marketing always. Market in the fat months so that you don’t have lean months. And when you don’t have active work, the marketing is the work. So this is my advice to all creative freelancers and small businesses: never stop marketing.

But you don’t have a marketing budget you say. Make one. If not now, do it when you have the resources, but marketing is not just limited to media buys in the New York Times. For all of us mortals there are other creative alternatives to marketing that are low cost. They do require more hands on involvement and hard work, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. The bottom line is you need to get creative with your marketing if you don’t have the marketing dollars of Coca-Cola. In a follow up post I’ll offer some resources and tips that have helped me understand online marketing. Something I’m sure you’ll find useful for your business.