It is sometimes insightful to think about what stage of growth your clients' businesses are in.  This will not only help you identify the challenges they face but also help you think about your marketing; that is, which growth stage are you targeting? You could start by reading this HBR paper on the stages of business growth (The Five Stages of Small Business Growth by Neil C. Churchill and Virginia L. Lewis link ). It's rather old but remains, like all good management models, relevant today. It provides a useful tool for gaining insight into an individual business, its stage of development, strategy and challenges. You might see this model as somewhat inaccessible to your clients, the owners of small businesses; maybe they would see it as theoretical or corporate.  From the practical, over-worked perspective of a business owner, the theories don't look like their business. They must be talking about someone else. You could talk to them about a simpler, three...