List on a piece of paper or on a spreadsheet every single piece of work that you have done since you set up your business. List client name, nature of the work, the number of days and the value. Once you have done this go back through all the items in turn and ask yourself this simple question:

Where did this work come from?

This exercise is very useful for 3 reasons

1. It gives you an accurate and realistic picure of what marketing methods have really worked for you
2. It identifies what you are good at – we trainers have a tendency to think we aren’t very good at marketing.
You’ve now got proof that you are!
3. It identifies the things you must carry on working at to continue to be successful.

I did this activity a couple of years ago and was really surpised at the results. I had a tendency to think that my work just happened by accident, something always seemed to be popping up. But doing this exercise on my business made me realise that this work didn’t just ‘happen’ – it was always as a direct result of something I’d done. That pice of work I thought just came to me through one of my friends was actually a result of 3 years of going out for coffee, staying in touch, and building a relationship with them. A marketing strategy and I didn’t know it!

So, audit your business today. Who knows what it will tell you?