It’s going to be a long, hard winter. The best thing to do might be to curl up with a good book. And here it is.

As you can see we’ve been collecting our thoughts on a subject that we think makes the difference between success and failure for any business.

We have put together an eBook about one of the most important skills in the wet leisure industry.

This season hasn’t been fantastic, but it has been better for some than others. Those businesses that have faired better have done so in the same weather and in the same economic climate.

So what might have made the difference?

I have worked in the wet leisure industry for over 30 years and I’ve had experience of every aspect of the pool and spa trade; construction, distribution and operations. So I’ve learnt the skills and I’ve had my hands dirty.

But there is one skill that I’ve learnt that I think makes more of a difference to our business today than any other.

Marketing.

Marketing is a word that often has ‘guru’ or ‘genius’ after it to imply that to be successful at marketing you have to be very clever and, probably in their case, hopefully very well paid.

I think that’s nonsense. Are there plumbing gurus or installation geniuses?

But there are plumbing handbooks and installation manuals, and that’s what we have for you here; a marketing handbook for the wet leisure industry that covers a bit of the theory and quite a lot of the basic practice necessary for marketing your pool, spa or sauna business.

It’s in the form of an eBook that uses plain English and common sense and is available free for you to download and read through or dip into.

The Golden Coast marketing eBook.

We are into Autumn now, into the off-season and you can make good use of the quieter time.

When you are busy, it’s hard to step back and look at your business. Your time is taken up doing the work that you have in front of you and that doesn’t leave much space for thinking about ways and means to get more business or more profitable business.

In the next few months you should find the time to do some planning for the year ahead.

You might want to think about how you could cut costs or protect your cash flow. You might want to think about diversification, expanding your business into new areas.

All of those things are important but what you need above all else are new customers, repeat business and loyal customers. Good, sensible and practical marketing can help you achieve that.