So you want to do some marketing.
Whether it is doing a website, launching TV commercials, designing a logo or anything else, there is a first question that dominates how you go about it.
That question is:
DO YOU HAVE A GOING CONCERN?
Actually that is really only half the question. It is really, “Do you have a going concern which can provide information to guide your marketing?
The reason most startups fail (figures vary but range as high as 95%) is not so much a lack of finance as a lack of information.
The most critical things to know are
Who would buy my products or services?
How can I reach them?
and
What can I say that will interest them?
IF your business is operating and at least staying afloat, you probably already know or can make an intelligent guess at the answers. Even if you are doing no marketing at all, you are getting customers somehow. A little thought and homework will tell you what your customers are like, what they want, and so on.
Even if you are jumping ship from a former employer to go into business for yourself, you know how they are getting customers.
Otherwise you are just in the dark, guessing.
That would suggest some serious market research before you invest a whole pile of money and maybe two years of your life into a project doomed to failure.
We get calls every day from people who have a great idea for a new business but no experience or knowledge of it.
Do you know what the single best predictor of success in a new small business is?
It is having grown up in a family that owned and ran a small business.
Think about it.
