The Road Runner Syndrome: Has your small business got it?

This weekend I sat down and watched cartoons with my 7 year old.  None of those kung foo kicking, robot ones. But the classic cartoons that I loved to watch when I was 7.

One of the cartoons I particularly loved was Road Runner and poor old Wile E. Coyote who never, ever managed to get that bird.  Every idea he came up with failed and usually resulted in him being blown up or falling off a very big cliff.

But this time, being that little bit more older and wiser, I realised I was sitting there wondering why on earth did poor old Wile not learn from any of his ideas.  Because most of the ideas he came up with were actually quite good (if not a tad wild!).

Such as the dehydrated boulder which turned from a pea-sized crumb in to a huge boulder at a drop of water.  The attempt resulted in Wile being crushed as the boulder reached it’s full potential with Wile underneath it.  If only he had had another go, he could have thrown the dehydrated boulder in the air in that split second before it expanded.  This would have got that Road Runner good and proper as it crashed to the road below!

But instead poor old Wile had to go and think of yet another crazy idea. And another crazy idea. And another crazy idea.

Exhausting isn’t it? Coming up with new ideas all the time, watching them fail one after the other until you feel like giving up altogether.

But so many small business owners follow this exact same crazy pattern month after month.

“Twitter – that’s a great idea!” you shout merrily and spend the next few weeks getting more and more confused about how it is supposed to work.  After a month, you declare “What a waste of time. Twitter doesn’t work for me. I’m off to think of the next idea.”

The next idea is leaflet dropping all the local businesses. But after a month of wearing your shoes out, you declare that this idea stinks too.

The following month it’s the turn of buying a database and mailshoting the whole list. And the month after that you decide to give LinkedIn a go.

Small businesses will never fail because of a lack of marketing ideas.  Small business owners are naturally creative and their entrepreneurial instinct throws up dozens of ideas, week in and week out.

But what small businesses do fail in is the follow through of marketing ideas.  They fail in the planning, the learning of what works and what doesn’t and they fail in making the necessary changes to improve and develop their ideas.

Don’t be like Wile E. Coyote. When an idea doesn’t work out, take the time to learn, understand and move that idea on.

It’s far more effective than coming up the next “BIG” idea!

What do you think? Add your thoughts in the comment box below

Other articles you may be interested in:

1. Marketing Drip-Feed is Essential for Small Business Success
2. Business Attitude or Business Idea: Which is more likely to lead to your success?
3. Unplug, take a break and get your business creativity back