There is a big lie we tell ourselves.
"The reason I started a business was to help people"
It might be a big motivation, but at best it's a half-truth.
If you want to help people, you don't need a business to do that.
If you want to change the world, you don't need a business to do that.
Now with a successful business, you can do those things easier. No doubt.
But a successful business needs money. And if your business doesn't GET CUSTOMERS, then you're not getting money. And you're not helping people,
and you're definitely NOT changing the world.
So the reason you are starting a business is to GET CUSTOMERS. (so you can help more people)
- So before you go out and buy business cards...
- before you start looking for reclaimed wood boards to make yoru shop wall look beautiful...
- before you start investing a ton of money...
if you have a crazy idea, cause or problem that you believe you can solve or make better, then your number one focus in life should be:
How do I GET CUSTOMERS?
Once you figure that out, literally everything else becomes way easier.
"Well, I'll figure that out down the road. I really want to work on this idea a little more"
Sure. Go ahead. It's fun being creative.
But are you SURE you're going to do the absolute most important thing you as a business owner are responsible for LATER?
Or are you going to make yourself happy in the short term, by working on the fun stuff, get really invested into the idea, launch your business, and hope that you're going to figure it out along the way?
Anyone who has lived in a small town, or in a place where the local economy is not thriving, can literally SEE the statistics in action. Go down the main strip and count how many businesses are new. How many do you use to remember being there that closed down after being open for only a little while?
What's the reason that 50% of businesses fail in the first 5 years?
They didn't figure out how to GET CUSTOMERS.
And the saddest part: Is that literally the entire earth's knowledge on how to do this is 5 seconds away in a Google search.
There is a how-to on how to do EVERYTHING. Here in Ontario, the government even made a 9-hour course on how to do it all.
Why businesses put off marketing
Here's why marketing never gets done:
Once you get invested in the idea about starting a business and start working on your dreams...
You run out of time.
Before you start a business there is:
Thinking up a business name, logos, finding the right location, registering your business, talking to lawyers, setting up bank accounts, getting insurance, hiring employees, researching suppliers, applying for grants, putting finishing touches on the product, packaging..... the list goes on.
Once you start a business:
You're serving customers, responding to emails, paying bills, figuring out how to get your sales software working, putting out fires, networking, managing your employees, learning all the things that they didn't teach you in school or in that government course.
Have you ever seen a business owner's social media? Literally every single one of them is sharing how hard they are hustling, and have no time for anything.
"I'll start small, and then grow as I go"
You think once you get into that cycle, that all of a sudden you're going to find 10 hours a week just to start learning how to properly market a business?
And even if you do somehow burn the midnight oil and forsake all worldly pleasures to get in the extra work:
You run out of money.
This happens for so many reasons. Things cost more to start than you thought. You invested all your money in building a business. Word of mouth worked while you were small, but as you grew your costs grew faster than you made new customers.
Whatever the reason, people only figure out how much money it takes to properly market a business AFTER they spent money on some ads that didn't work.
There is no room for mistakes
And to make it worse: because you're under pressure to keep the business afloat, you're incredibly risk-averse. You don't have money to test and gather data. There is no room left for mistakes. Hiring people to help you figure out these problems before getting back to marketing is too long for a return on investment. You need something that works RIGHT NOW.
There is no silver bullet.
There is no magic wand.
You find out that getting customers is a lot harder than you thought.
That cool name you came up with, doesn't actually resonate with your target market.
Posting a bunch of things on Facebook doesn't mean anyone will come to your store.
That there is actually a ton of reasons why an ad campaign can fail.
"Okay Mike, I believe you. So what should I be doing then?"
Do the work.
Educate yourself. Start a business with eyes wide open.
Everyday. 4 hours a day.
Read books. Watch youtube videos. Follow successful marketers.
Take courses.
Try things. Fail at them.
Make sure you actually know how you're going to GET CUSTOMERS, and figure out how much it's going to cost you. Prepare for your first couple months and campaigns to net you ZERO customers, but get data and information so you can start making better decisions.
Remember: The main purpose of starting a business is to GET CUSTOMERS.
So it's your responsibility to figure that out yourself. Branding isn't just a logo and some colours. And marketing isn't just boosting posts on Facebook.
Even if you don't want to be a marketer. And you want to hire people like me to help you out:
If you come to me without having figured out how to get a customer, I can promise you 2 things:
1: I'm going to get you customers
2: I will send you the bill for figuring that out.
But if you come with at least some of this figured out, then anything I do for you will turn to gold.* I'm on a rant here, forgive me for being a bit hyperbolic
I'm not saying all this because I'm trying to be mean.
I'm saying this because the worst feeling as a marketer that I have, is when I see a business drowning, and there is a massive potential for them to have a positive impact on the world:
But they either don't have the time to implement the strategies, money to fix the problems, or the absolute worst: is because they are panicking near the end, or because they haven't educated themselves enough, that they don't have the right perspective to be able to make the right decisions and see the value of the advice I'm giving them.
I just wish that I can fix everybody's marketing problems. But the truth I have to learn to live with is that I just can't. This is YOUR problem to solve. Marketers like myself can help you, but ultimately, it's no one's responsibility except yours to make this work.
And I found out through a lot of trial and error, that the biggest reason why most businesses sink, is not because there isn't anything nearby to keep them afloat. It's that they either have blinders on or just aren't ready to accept the help.
This is why I'm speaking to those starting a business, or who are still new to business, who aren't swamped with customers and have the time, or money to invest in themselves:
Please, I beg you, make it your mission to figure out how you're going to get customers before you start looking into registering a tax number. It's your number one responsibility.
And do it while you still have the means to.
