Sometimes small business owners come to treat marketing like wallpaper. Let’s just put another layer on. Go out and get some new clients. Wallpaper and paint can hide a lot of sins but real growth only comes when you fix what’s under the wallpaper.

There’s a lyric in a song I heard the other day that goes something like, you can hang a Rembrandt, paint a rainbow, or cover it with paper on the wall but, eventually you’ve got to strip it away and learn to deal with what’s under it all.

Fix your product, fix your delivery, fix your customer service, over-deliver on the first order, on every order, document your successful systems and teach everyone in your organization how to use them, make every client so happy that they beg you to do business with their friends and associates.

Strip away the layers of marketing wallpaper, the next new great thing, the idea of the week and focus on building a better widget–especially if that widget is you!