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Recently one of our mainstream clients was complaining about the cost effectiveness of the advertising he was doing. He was spending a lot of money every month in magazine advertising, a very small amount of money in Internet advertising and a few bucks here and there in other forms of advertising too.

Business was good but apart from his Internet advertising - which consisted mostly of his own website - he had no idea where his customers were coming from. It seems that for some obscure reason, those who saw his product on his website would often mention his site when they called but where the other customers were coming from was a complete mystery.

Of course any sensible business person wants to know which form of advertising is the most effective and our client was no different. He felt that perhaps the magazine advertising was the least effective but, without some facts and figures, he didn't want to drop it in case he was making a big mistake.

Now you might think that the obvious way to find out where your customers were coming from would be to ask them but that hadn't occurred to him and when we suggested it to him it sounded all too simple. It sounded so simple in fact that I don't think he believed us because he never followed our advice and still has no clear idea of where his customers are coming from.

Fortunately for him the number of customers coming into his business has just gone on increasing but one day things may change and he may not be so lucky. He's also running the risk of cutting off his prime source of new business simply because his perception of where his clients are coming from is out of step with the reality.

To be honest, the fact that he didn't follow our simple advice is a bit frustrating. He still complains about his lack of knowledge and he had the answer given to him for free but he chose not to take it. But then it's his business and ultimately it's his responsibility.

So what do you do with the advice you're given when you ask for it? Do you follow it blindly? Do you reject it completely? Do you weigh it up carefully to see whether or not it fits in with the reality of your situation?

In this industry one of the biggest problems that you will face is that many of those who want to give you advice simply have no clue themselves. They regurgitate what others have told them without testing it first. They give such worthless advice simply because they want to appear important.

If you're one who follows advice blindly then you can guarantee that the advice that you get from these people will at least damage your business or even destroy it very quickly. Even if what they are suggesting is not going to cost you any money to implement still don't follow it blindly.

On the other hand don't ignore the advice that people give you. Sure there may be a lot of know-nothing idiots out there who will give you very poor advice but there are some who do know what they're talking about and who will give you advice that's worth following.

But how do you know which person is giving you good advice and which one is giving you the exact opposite?

The answer is simple, weigh up the advice you're given in the light of your own experiences and where you are in your own development. Also compare the advice you're given with what others might say about the same topic.

Don't rush in blindly if the advice your given means that you have to make major changes to the way you things. Test the advice and see if it really is as good as it seems and test it to see if it will work for you.

Whether the advice that you get costs you nothing in monetary terms or may cost you a lot, still weight it up carefully before implementing it. In our example all our client and his staff had to do was to ask people where they had seen the business advertised; that would have cost them nothing in monetary terms and about 20 seconds in extra time and so the overall cost would have been absolutely nothing while the benefits might have been great.

But that's not always going to be the case so be careful implementing the advice you might be given. And sometimes be prepared to ignore the advice you're given but, once again, take care in doing that too. Sometimes you will be given very good advice and to ignore it will definitely damage your chances of succeeding in business.

Ultimately though what you do with the advice you're given is entirely up to you. You're the captain of your own ship and the success or failure of your business depends entirely on you.