When writing my business plan 9 years ago, I took many things into account like how the business would look in 10 years time, who we would employ, what services we would provide, and how we would expand into new markets.

But what I didn't take into account is how I would actually make it happen. You see, like many entrepreneurs, I have struggled with working in the business and trying to at the same time work "on" the business - never quite getting the mix right.

At long last, since I made some smart strategic business moves last year, including changing management, I have become the entrepreneur I always wanted to be. I am implementing our business plan that was written so long ago, and it feels really good. There is a sense of satisfaction that is growing deep inside me and I believe in every single thing that we are doing.

Marketing Eye provides an outsourced marketing department for small to medium sized businesses with revenues of $1 million to $200 million. A typical client does not have an inhouse marketing resource, and knows that they need marketing to escalate their businesses to the next level.

We provide all marketing services inhouse including marketing, graphic design, branding, public relations, web, search engine optimisation, lead generation and promotions. These services are underpinned by our proprietary technology, systems and processes that ensure our team works harder, faster and smarter than our competitors.

At present, we operate with company owned offices in Australia and US markets, but are ready to exponentially scale up and grow the business.

Marketing Eye is a profitable business and we have streamlined all areas of the business to maximise outcomes. I personally have self-funded the business growth, although I did flirt with the idea of seeking an investor to fund global expansion. My decision to walk away from this was based on fear of failure, rather than any smart business decision. I was scared that we wouldn't succeed in new markets and I would have to stand up to a board and tell them why. Instead, I funded the expansion with my own money, conservatively ensuring that every dollar that I spent was well invested in the right places.

A mentor of mine said to me, "The new girl is always prettier than the girl you took to the dance". And he was right! If I had invested what I did into expansion in the Australian market, the business would have grown much faster than through setting up an office in the US market, and starting from scratch with building the company brand. But I did it anyway, and I am glad I did. I learnt some valuable lessons and the first one was to listen to those who have been there and done that. The second was that sometimes if you trust your gut instinct, the reward will be higher than you ever imagined. 

Ultimately, growing into the US market has meant that the business is worth more money than if I doubled the business in Australia over the same time. It's the geographic reach and potential that is taking the business to a level of revenue growth and capitalisation of market opportunity that has put Marketing Eye on the map.

With this in mind, after a business planning session yesterday, we have decided to aggressively seek to grow our business through licensees in markets that we don't believe are a good fit for company-owned offices.

As such, we will be selling licensing agreements to 50 States in America, and 40 licenses in the Australian market. This will give other marketing managers the opportunity to own their own marketing company for just $35,000, and benefit from our brand, geographic footprint, sophisticated backed of designers, web and social media experts and processes that are best-of-breed and a benchmark for all other marketing consulting firms.

It's exciting times ahead and setting up a department just focused on licensing is a big step and a huge investment on our behalf. The entire team has stepped up to the mark and are already throwing new ideas at me to help make this happen.