Whether you are a retail store or a dental office, branding your business is important.

Branding should be seamless, consistent, and engaging. Start with a strong brand identity that establishes not only your look but also your core values both toward the customer and within your company.

Now that you have set your goals how will you achieve them? What do you need to look at to achieve these goals?

Once you have gathered the information about your business and your industry, you'll start your plan from an outside perspective. Look at Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to your business. This is called a SWOT analysis.

You knew we were gonna get here. The bottom line. How much is your company's growth going to cost?

All marketing plans have a section for budgets. Be realistic about the costs. It's a good idea to estimate your spending and then add a contingency buffer; I like to over-budget by approximately 25% because, well let's face it, stuff happens.

Now that you have gathered the information about your company (part one) and looked at the world around your business with the SWOT Analysis (part two), now is the time to start working on your goals.