Are you one of those fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of people?

They’re the ones who start each day with a blank page and fill it in as the day progresses.

The other extreme is the person who knows exactly how many seconds it takes to brush their teeth after each meal and has their life planned down to the minute or second.

Most of us live in a world between these couple of examples.

There are some who live a life of wishful thinking.  My radio station, WOWO has several financial planners that advertise a message of planning ahead for retirement.  Some people do, others don’t.

Cars need care. Don’t take care of them and they won’t take care of you.  Planning for regular maintenance including oil changes can prevent more expensive bills in the future. Same principle applies with our bodies.  Health care including regular trips to the dentist, annual check ups, you get the picture.

Let’s take a moment and think about marketing and how this applies to your business.  If you are a retailer and wondering how to advertise your Mothers Day specials, you might as well forget it. Too late.

Look at the calendar and plan now for Memorial Day, Father’s Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.  Depending on what advertising mediums you want to use, there are different lead times.

A monthly magazine might need 90 days.  A digital display ad campaign could take 1 to 4 weeks.  Radio might be 2 days, but we prefer longer.

I had a conversation last week with a company that has been “delaying their yes”.  We know that want to use WOWO but it has been 2 months since they said so and they have not yet set a start date to lock in the price.  WOWO has a very straight forward pricing system based on inventory.  Want to be on the radio this week? We are sold out and you will have to pay over $125 for a 60 second ad.  Want to start in June or July?  Sign up now and pay under $90.

If you are like this company I was talking to last week and you are waiting to see when you will be open, sign up anyway and lock in a price and I can work with you if we need to postpone for a week or two due to delays in construction. Greeting-Cards-main_Full

Don’t be like the dudes who are going to be at the drug store Sunday morning trying to find a decent Mother’s day card from the picked over supply at the very last minute.  Plan ahead.