Effective branding will give you edge over your competitors, although most small business owners don't have millions of pounds at their disposal for expensive worldwide branding campaigns, they do have many methods are their disposal to establish a brand and in turn benefit from perceived 'value' of that brand.

Customers are willing to pay more for goods and services of 'brand name' companies, and your sales force will have a good base to work from if customer has heard of your company before, and thus already has an element of in built trust in it.

Having a brand also allows you to introduce new products and services to your target market without having to explain again who you are, and what it is you do - company will be pre-sold, and it will simply be a matter of selling new product or service.

Outsourcing involves use of resources outside of organization to perform specific tasks required for business. However, there are a variety of ways to use these resources, including business process outsourcing and co-sourcing. Business process outsourcing involves selling off one part of business to create positive cash flow and probable gains in productivity and quality. Co-sourcing involves retaining part of service in-house, and off-loading or outsourcing a portion to a third party partner. This is one we will discuss, and in our case marketing function. Companies often forget to ask basic question: What business are we in? Too often need to perform various functions and to keep a business running does not allow management to step back and ask this question. The answer should bring management to fundamental product/service that generates revenue for this company.

In book “Living on Fault Line” (HarperCollins, 2000) by Geoffrey Moore, described an outsourcing concept. He says, all employees should be focused on core activities--that is, things that contribute to company's competitive advantage and increase shareholder value. The opposite of core is context--activities that do not contribute to competitive advantage. Context activities should be outsourced.

For example, your head of marketing was hired to develop and coordinate strategies, direct tactics and their implementation, to generate more sales leads by new customers, while maximizing loyalty and profitability of current customers. That is her “Core” function. However, over time she has developed a talent for public relations and as a result has become Communication Manager of company. She edits company web page, makes changes, etc. These responsibilities (those of PR Manager) can be described as “Context.”