As a business owner, you have the option oftaking several different approaches to handling your Marketing andAdvertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, withthe idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do..You may also consider hiring a full time marketing manager or evenassigning the tasks, as they arise, to someone already working withinyour organization. Consider this When your business needs plumbing workdo you do it yourself? Hire a plumber to be on staff full time? Or askyour accountant to handle it?

Call in the Experts.

Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough tobe handled in house, nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Notonly may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets,but also by the time you catch it, your budget may be in no shape torecover and redirect. The truth is, no one can do the job aseffectively and efficiently as someone who lives and breathes theindustry everyday. Plus, the added perk of consistent media contactsthat will prove to be financially beneficial to your business.

Seeing the forest and the trees.

When you hire a consultant you hire an objective opinion, as well as afresh point of view. Sometimes a business may lose perspective onitself by being too heavily immersed in the day-to-day operations, andlose itself in the big picture, missing the small details orvice-versa. Sadly, sometimes a businesss marketing will clearly reflectthis. The president of a private jet companys focus is on the bells andwhistles of his fleet. Its what he sees as important in his view of hisbusiness. Inevitably, his marketing may also focus on this portion ofhis business, ignoring what he is really selling to his potentialclients: The feeling and the status of private jets.

If you add another ball, technically it is juggling.

If you, as a business owner, or an employee take on the added tasks ofthe marketing of the business, attention is being taken from otherprojects and responsibilities. Inescapably, focus and demands are boundto pull from one and take away from others until something falls to thefloor. Consultants are dedicated to one, and only one, portion of yourbusiness. Their focus is committed, and they allow you to keep yourswhere it should be.

The Gumby Factor.

Consultants are very flexible. Immediately ready and available to takeon assignments at a moments notice. Accessibility to getting a newproject off the ground is just a phone call away. On the other hand,trying to hire a new employee specifically to handle your marketingneeds takes valuable time to places ads; conduct interviews and thensort through applicants, hoping to find the right person for the job.

The M Word Money.

When you total up the actual cost of bringing on a new employee, youwill most likely find that hiring a consultant is much more costeffective. The hourly rates may seem to favor a full time employee, butwhen you factor in employee benefits, training time, vacation/sicktime, 401(k), the added overhead involved in situating a new employee,and the sheer fact that you may be paying full time wages for somethingthat may not need full time attention, the cost effectiveness will fallin favor of a consultant. Which bring us to....

The C- Word Commitment.

Hiring a full time employee is a commitment. And bringing on anemployee to handle a special marketing project, or set up an initialmarketing plan, may in the long run leave you scrambling to find a newproject or position for that employee. Or worse yet, you find yourselfpaying a full time marketing director to do basic maintenance. Hiring aconsultant requires no long-term commitment. When a consultantcompletes a project, they have the flexibility to move into whateverposition you need them, from quarterly analysis, to basic maintenance,to completely out of the picture, but on the sidelines when youre readyto take a new step forward.

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Mary Ellen Martelli is President of MareMax Consulting, a full serviceAdvertising, Marketing & Website Consulting firm, located in theSouthern New Jersey / Philadelphia area. You can reach her via herwebsite http://maremaxconsulting.com/