For many small companies, the secret of continued business success in competing against larger companies is to do everything a little bit better than the competition.

Continuous quality improvement is the hallmark of successful companies, worldwide. Many successful Japanese companies have adopted continuous quality improvement as the number one operational principle for all employees and departments. Chrysler, Procter and Gamble (P&G), 3M, Compaq Computer, Microsoft, and many other less well-known U.S. companies clearly practice continuous quality improvement. P&G is famous for consciously developing and introducing improved versions of its own current products under different brand names as a method for continuous quality improvement and significant technological advances (e.g., improved effectiveness in laundry soaps).

The idea of "quality" is free. Studies on successful implementation of TQM programs and customer service show a significant improvement in company efficiencies, sales, and profitability, often with fewer people and at less cost than before.

When was the last time you sat down with any of your customers and presented your company mission or values? Do you have a written list of services that customers can expect of your company? Quill Corporation has a one-page "Customer Bill of Rights" that was created in the early days of the company by the founders. Every company employee must read and commit to providing these "customer rights." Quill is as well-known for its customer service as its extensive office products, competitive prices, and frequent promotions.

You can maintain and deliver the quality of your products and services only if all personnel and all companies involved in your chain of suppliers are quality-oriented and customer-oriented. By definition, superior quality and customer satisfaction compared to your competition depend upon the exceptional. You and your suppliers will have to go above and beyond normal procedures, delivery dates, lead times, and other standards to maintain quality and provide superior customer satisfaction.

The personnel in a small company are analogous to the famous "20-mule team" that pulled Borax raw materials out of Death Valley. If a single team member is not doing his or her best, the performance of the entire team is negatively affected. Quality and customer satisfaction is everyone's job!

Today's competitive market, in almost every category of products and services, is characterized by accelerating changes, innovation, and massive amounts of new information. Much of this rapid evolution in markets is fueled by changing customer needs. Significant customer behavior and market changes happen almost overnight. Changes in market preference or technology, which used to take years, may now take place in a few short months.

The more participation by company employees in quality programs and the more ways they think up to improve customer satisfaction, the better the quality! Once your people understand and accept new TQM programs, regular discussion sessions should be scheduled to discuss quality problems and opportunities at least once each month. Ideally, these discussion sessions should be held across functional or departmental boundaries.

A small company has great potential advantage over larger companies in implementing a TQM program with employees. There are fewer people to communicate with, and the manager in charge of implementing the TQM program is generally the owner or CEO. The CEO can make timely, binding decisions about TQM programs.

Every business owner should develop a written guideline that sets forth the business's marketing strategy. This document is used to judge the appropriateness of each action that the business takes. If a company has to take an action that is off-strategy, it may indicate a temporary emergency action prompted by competition or other factors beyond normal management control. Or it may indicate the need to change or revise the company's marketing strategy.

This section of the marketing plan outlines each marketing event or action planned to increase sales. The plan will generally cover a calendar year, broken down by month or by quarter. For example, it may contain a summary of quarterly promotion and advertising plans, with spending, timing, and share/shipment goals for each program.

This section of the marketing plan outlines major company goals, marketing, and financial objectives. All objectives should be carefully quantified, where possible, especially in terms of an achievable time or date. Objectives should be reasonable and attainable. Major company goals could include both short- and long-term goals. For example:

This subsection of the situation analysis section provides company information on:

This section of the marketing plan analyzes the major external opportunities and threats to the company and the internal strengths and weaknesses of the company, along with a discussion of key issues facing the company.

This subsection of the situation analysis section describes each distribution channel and its relative importance to the company in terms of:

This subsection of the situation analysis section provides information on the size, growth, and trends of the overall market and any relevant segments of the total market or category.

This subsection of the situation analysis section provides information about key competitors:

This subsection of the situation analysis section provides actionable information on selling to target buyers and stimulating purchases or usage by the ultimate end users. Key questions answered in this subsection include:

Every business, small or large, will be more successful with a business plan. And the key component of a business plan is the marketing plan. A good marketing plan summarizes the who, what, where, when, and how much questions of company marketing and sales activities for the planning year:

The primary purpose for the situation analysis section of a marketing plan is to describe what is happening in the markets in which the company competes, and the company's product and distribution trends. A simple, common-sense approach to organizing and providing only relevant information is recommended for this section.

This subsection of the situation analysis section of your marketing plan describes only relevant information on macroenvironmental trends that might affect your business:

Company materials may also be utilized to carry PR messages (e.g., stationery, trucks, uniforms, etc.). It may be possible to combine both advertising and PR messages on company materials. For example, beer and soft drink delivery trucks are often painted with advertising (e.g., "Pepsi, the choice of a new generation") and PR messages (e.g., "Support the fight against Muscular Dystrophy in your local community").