When Ian Miller first got in touch, marketing at Train Trax hadn't fallen apart. It just kept slipping, and peak retail season was closing in fast. Train Trax is a specialist retailer serving model railway enthusiasts across the UK, with deep product knowledge, loyal customers, and a constant flow of interesting stock, particularly from Japan. Like a lot of founder-led businesses, the day-to-day never lets up. Stock to manage. Customers to serve. Orders to process. Suppliers to chase....

This guide is designed to help you tell the difference between a provider that will genuinely move your business forward and one that will cost you money and frustration.

Over the past few years, more than 250 small businesses have run their marketing through the GrowthBox diagnostic. Different sectors, different budgets, different levels of confidence - but the same patterns show up again and again. And the headline is this: Most SMEs don’t struggle because their ideas are bad. They struggle because marketing sits on the edge of everyone’s desk. It sits there during a 'peak' and returns when the peak has gone, the work has dried up, and marketing suddenly...