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If you are a small business owner, your biggest problem, simply speaking, is growing your bottom line by getting more customers. To secure new customers requires that you share or d

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

eliver your message to the market place. If you don’t believe that marketing is essential to your business, then don’t read any further because this article will have no value for you.

Ho

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

wever, if you understand the importance of marketing, maybe now is the time to check out your marketing tool box and assess your marketing tools to ensure that they will deliver you sharp sales i

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

n 2006.

Your marketing tool box much like a traditional tool box and has 2 sections. The top section sits on top of the bottom section. Within the second section of your tool box or the bottom

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

is the “heavier” marketing tools. Remember, each tool has a cost. NOTE: An estimated price range is included.

Top Section -- Lightweight Tools

Business Cards -- $20 to

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

$200 for 1,000 cards

Brochures -- $.50 to $2.00 for 100 brochures

Flyers -- $.25 to $1.00 each

Letterhead -- $.05 to $.20 each

Envelopes -- $.05 to $.10 e

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

ach

Post Cards -- $.05 to $.50 each

Postage -- $.25 to $.39 each piece

Giveaways -- $.10 to $10,000 for 100 to 5,000 quantities

CD’s or DVD’s -- $5.00 each

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

to $2,000 for 50

Referrals -- Free however in many cases there is an indirect cost

NOTE: If you as the small business owner contributed to the design, development a

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

nd production of any of these tools, remember to estimate your time at $100 per hour.

Bottom Section -- Heavyweight Tools

Speaking Engagements -- Usually free, sometimes can ge

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

nerate income (Does not include time to write or practice the speech. Estimate $100/hour.)

Printed Book -- $3,000 to $10,000+ for 1,000 copies (Does not include time to write the book.

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

Estimate $100/hour.)

Articles -- Free submission to sites such as Ezine Articles (Does not include time involved in writing. Estim

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

ate $100/hour.)

Paid Media Advertisements -- Radio, TV, Newspapers, Trade Journals and Internet Adwords -- Cost .05 pay through click to $10,000 plus per advertisement

Website

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

-- $100 to $10,000 development cost with monthly hosting fees from $10 to $30

Chamber Membership -- $200 to $1,000 per chamber

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

>Professional Associations -- $100 to $500 per association Networking Groups Traditional -- BNI, tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

om/">Leads, LeTip -- $1,000 to $2,000 per group includes breakfast or luncheon fees

Networking Groups Non-Traditional --

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

"_new" href="http://www.FastPitchNetworking.com/">Fast Pitch Networking -- $20 online or $40 on site with no annual membership fees

If you begin to add up the costs of all of the

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

tools within your Marketing Tool Box, you can easily accumulate a value in excess of $50,000 or more on an annual basis. As a small business coach, my clients are always amazed when they

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

start this activity by listing their marketing tools and costs. By identifying and assessing your marketing costs, you, the small business owner can determine what you need to do to work smart

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

er and not harder.

Upon completion of this activity, I ask them this two-fold question:

If your marketing is costing you $25,000 to $50,000 on an annual basis, what is your conversion rate

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

or how much money is it costing you to acquire each and every client?

Then, what tools are sharper or giving you a higher conversion rate and why are you keeping any tools that aren’t effective?

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Deadlines are a fact of life. We all have them, but if you are a procrastinator like me they jump up without warning. I've learned a trick that seems to keep deadline from appearing when I least expected them. I put them on my email calendar at a minimum of two weeks out and then send myself a repeat reminder weekly. But let’s be honest here, do any of us do our best job when we are scrambling to meet a deadline? I know I don't. The more time I can devote to serious thought pertaining to a project the better the outcome.

Workplace problem children - everybody has them. From Dwight on The Office to the entire cast of characters in Office Space, these leadership challenges have even found their way into popular culture. Unfortunately, they are all too real in the modern workplace. Whether as legacies left behind by a previous leader or new hires that were not evaluated during the interview process, these individuals can undermine your leadership efforts unless you act.

It’s true to say that small and medium businesses must be proactive about creating their future. Without this, things just seem to “happen” without your control.

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