Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

  • Home
  • About
    • About Jim Connolly
    • My top marketing tips for 2025. Yours now, for free!
    • Privacy Policy
    • How I use cookies
    • Contact
    • Disclosure
  • Hire me
    • Let’s Grow Your Business
    • Pick My Brain for the results you need!

Are you sounding your horn or trying to help?

By Jim Connolly | May 13, 2010

I remember seeing a car that had broken down in heavy traffic, on Times Square, in Manhattan.

The driver was frantically trying to restart it, whilst the man in the car behind kept sounding his horn.

The harder the driver tried to restart her car, the noisier the guy behind became.  Suddenly, the driver of the broken down car got out, went up to the noisy guy behind and made a suggestion:

“Tell you what – How about you try getting my car started, whilst I sit in your car and make noise like a jerk for you?”

In a situation like the one above, people fall into 1 of 3 groups.

  1. Those who sound their horn and make things worse.
  2. Those who notice there’s a problem, but do nothing.
  3. Those who notice there’s a problem, then look for a way to help or contribute.

That first group is (thankfully ) fairly small.

The second group is by far the largest.

The third group is rare.  This is also where the gold is.

The world loves and rewards problem solvers.  The marketplace does too, which is why we always need to be focusing on contribution.  More than this, we need to proactively increase our problem solving skills; because the bigger the problems we can solve, the greater the marketplace will value us.

Look at the products or services you provide as answers to the marketplaces problems.  Now, what can you add to your current offering, which will allow you to be of even greater help?

What problem does your service or product solve for people?  Me? I help small and medium sized businesses make more money and attract the kind of clients or customers they have always dreamed of working with.

The small business owners I work with enjoy far more sales, attract better clients and grow amazing businesses.
If you want the same, here’s exactly how it happens.

FREE marketing tips & advice

Get my best marketing tips, advice and ideas delivered direct to your inbox. Just add your email below.
I respect your privacy.

Hi! I'm Jim Connolly and I help small business owners to increase sales, boost their profits and build amazing businesses. Read more here.

Featured by

marketing advice, marketing help

Site sponsor

packaging consultancy

Categories

  • Blogging (406)
  • Business development (478)
  • Copywriting (303)
  • Email marketing & mail shots (186)
  • General marketing (1,664)
  • Professional development (534)
  • Social media marketing (355)

Hosting provider

20i hosting

Search

Recent posts

  • Grab. Focus. Urgency: How to vastly increase your sales May 20, 2025
  • Attract. Don’t sell May 14, 2025
  • Marketing gold: The follow-up May 10, 2025
  • How to make more sales, in uncertain times May 8, 2025
  • 17 Tips to help you grow a stronger business May 6, 2025
  • How to increase your prices May 2, 2025
  • Your economy April 27, 2025
  • From rags to riches? April 26, 2025
  • Tiny tweaks. Huge wins April 21, 2025
  • Working in. Working on April 15, 2025
  • How to own your competitors. It’s easier than you think April 12, 2025
  • Four questions that helped a subscriber boost sales by 68% April 8, 2025
  • Ignore the uninterested April 7, 2025
  • Does your business pass the coffee shop test? April 6, 2025
  • It’s back to normal for you and your business April 5, 2025
  • Marketing 101: Vigorous, written marketing April 2, 2025
  • The horrible truth about marketing April 1, 2025
  • I have no clients. Seriously. Not even one! March 26, 2025
  • Finish strong March 20, 2025
  • Read this and improve your advertising results, fast March 16, 2025
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Home
  • About
  • Hire me

Copyright © 2025 Jim Connolly