The consensus of Westchester County business leaders is that — no surprise here — 2009 is a year best left behind.

So says the Business Council of Westchester (BCW), arguably the largest and most influential business organization when they released results (Click Here) of the fourth quarter 2009 economic survey, which tracks local business trends and overall confidence rating.

BCW member DataKey Consulting, LLC conducted the research and analysis, providing the results of nearly 150 local CEOs and business leaders on the state of the local economy, citing 68% of responding companies project flat to mostly declining sales for 2009 vs. 2008.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The slide has stopped with 71% of respondents expecting their revenue to either remain the same or increase over the next six months compared to last quarter. Of those who anticipate growth, 53% have enhanced customer service, 53% reduced expenses, and 22% introduced new and improved products to battle the recession.

“Marketing and advertising are important,” said one business owner who projects growth. “I invest more wisely now than ever before, but delivering high quality output and focusing on customer satisfaction will lead to positive word of mouth, and can be the very best advertising possible.”

Since when is a 52 a good grade?

Overall business confidence has doubled since December ‘08. Out of a possible 100, the Westchester Business Confidence Index for the fourth quarter of 2009 scored a 52 (with 50 being equal number of businesses optimistic as pessimistic). Last year at this time, the confidence score was a dismal 27. In comparison, that 52 is looking better and better.

Recession? What Recession?

Here at InSight Marketing, believe it or not, we’ve seen a significant increase in business. Mostly new businesses ready to direct their marketing dollars wisely. Times are tough, so we offer excellent value; great, if not excellent, word-of-mouth marketing; and teach clients to harness the good in their local economy, which can only bode well for clients, and subsequently our local economy.

Now in shaky economic times, these businesses understand the need to aggressively market to keep their business stable, and more importantly, to be well-positioned for the significant growth when the economy turns around. And it will! Promise.

If you’ve read my other blog posts, you know I am a strong advocate of first developing a marketing plan before you invest money into advertising or other marketing tools.

A marketing plan should have specific goals you want to achieve for your business. But to achieve them, your plan may possibly recommend TV advertising, building an e-commerce website, or going to national trade shows — all costly endeavors.

Your marketing plan may initially be a “blue sky” approach — meaning there are no limiting factors to your ideas or goals. This is an excellent way to start your planning, as you don’t want to limit your initial creative brainstorming. But eventually every “blue sky” meets a cloud. And the cloudiest forecast for ambitious marketing is money — do you have enough marketing dollars to ensure a good shot in achieving your business objectives? If your budget is limited, and you can’t afford to implement your marketing plan in full, then you may need to readjust how ambitious your business goals can be.

Starting an aggressive marketing effort and not having enough money to finish is poor planning. As a pilot, I’ll use this analogy: it’s like flying across the Atlantic with a half tank of fuel. Sure, you’ll make progress, but your plane better have floats because you’ll be landing in the Atlantic, and not in Paris.

Occasionally, I’ll get a call from someone who wants to do some advertising in Westchester to promote their business. I’ll ask them what kind of budget they have, and they often ask, ‘what can I do $10,000?’

Unfortunately, not much. Westchester County, New York is not only an expensive place to live, but also to advertise. You can easily spend 10 times that amount on advertising and it may still not be enough, depending on what you’re advertising, and to what audience.

Okay, so as not to be a total pessimist, what can you do for $10,000? Well that amount could nicely fund a public relations program, which would help build awareness by getting your name out in the marketplace. Don’t ask PR to generate direct sales like advertising, but it could however, generate indirect sales and get your business off to a good start.

With PR and a $10,000 budget, you may not fly across the Atlantic, but you could go to beautiful Bermuda, and that’s not half bad, now is it?