The business challenge

Indeed, my workload is increasing, and it will likely get much 'harder' before things improve. We are about to add our key third salesperson and resume regular publication of Northern Ontario Construction News -- I'm hoping to find someone soon for the Design and Construction Report. Meanwhile, I'm writing these blog entries, my Construction Marketing Ideas book is in the final editing stages, and I still have to do most of the editorial/writing work for our regional publications.

I would love to hire a full time staff editor, but this needs to wait until our cash position improves, and that will take at least a few months, even as sales increase.
In the meantime, if you are interested in insights and useful resources relating to Construction Marketing, please bookmark and reference the Construction Marketing Ideas blog on the http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com site. I'll continue posting here daily for now, but the real original and creative writing is at the new site.

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The final (or first) chapter

Last night, I rewrote the final chapter of Construction Marketing Ideas: How to attract profitable business without struggling, in any economy. On Monday, the manuscript goes to our designer for layout and page-set up; the next stage in the progress towards publication.

The book, like any project, has its own pace, influenced by competing objectives, external conditions, and constantly changing circumstances. Some words written last November and December continue to have resonance now; others seemed, on review, to be badly dated. And there is another chapter to write even as the book is in production; the story of how new social networking and Internet resources are reshaping marketing methodologies, but not fundamental principals.

The more I learn about the topic -- with reading, videos and Internet surfing coupled with live business operations -- the more I appreciate that a few core principals need to be combined with some creativity to achieve ideal results. You can take off-the-shelf solutions, but the real gems of success occur when you combine your specific business knowledge and experience, common-sense principals and some copying (ideally from non-competitive markets) to create something truly unique, unforgettable, and effective.

You can do this marketing work yourself. Alternatively, you can hire or contract the services. Your biggest challenge will be the discomfort you feel when you leave behind tried and true approaches for something "better". Usually the first efforts are far from successful or you may have the misfortune to have a fluke success early on, distorting your perspective of what really works.

I expect the book will be ready for publication by the New Year. But even as we edit and prepare it for printing, I know the story will change. There really isn't a final chapter.

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The Construction Marketing Ideas book

About a year ago, I set out to write a comprehensive book to share the insights gathered in writing this blog. Made good progress -- to the point that I had a first draft written by the end of December 2008. But then the project stalled, at the editing stage. Business pressures, challenges, and obligations intervened, and the project went to the back burner.

No more. I intend to send the book draft to our designer by the end of the month to prepare it for layout and then printing.

But I'm inviting readers here to peek at the draft chapters, comment on them, even edit them, through controlled access via this blog and Twitter, where I will post a daily link to a chapter (using Google Docs as a repository). This link won't be public; except through the Twitter connection. You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MarkBuckshon.

As a rule, I will only reference this initiative at most once a week in blog postings -- you will need to follow Twitter to get the daily update. Today, however, you can see the draft chapter here. (If the link doesn't work, please email me at buckshon@cnrgp.com -- it is possible the link will be blocked except with password permission.

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