If you were a student or an executive, you’d do what you had to do and there’d be nothing wrong with it. The only selling or marketing you’d have to do would be when you sat for interviews or any other acts of persuasion you’d have to do. Entrepreneurship, however, is special. It’s not for the faint-hearted. True entrepreneurs have minds that should make for case studies in every self-help book – that’s how strong, positive, and capable those minds are. Now, that’s a necessity for marketing your business well.
Yet, many businesses bite the dust due to the way some of the new (or old) business owners think. Here are some lame thoughts that an entrepreneur should banish:
Marketing is expensive
Setting up a business and trying to run it without marketing is outrageously expensive. When you don’t market well, you don’t sell your products and services. When you don’t sell, you don’t make money. No money means that you’d only keep spending without getting anything in return. How expensive is that? What happens when thousands of dollars are poured into something that gives you frustration, unhappiness, and absolutely terrifying sleepless nights? For every being on earth, marketing and selling is essential. For all of us try to persuade others, don’t we?
I hate selling
You should consider this to be the lamest excuse “anyone” can ever make (and it’s pretty common). Agreed, it’s difficult to sell, but if you truly hated selling, then you’d be forced to live alone, not accomplish anything, and not even be able to get a job. Selling is a form of persuasion. If you don’t do it, how will you ever get someone to do what you want him or her to do? Business is all about sales. If you can’t sell, you should find something else to (and even that ‘something’ would involve sales for sure).
You can’t hate selling; you either have to learn it or live with the consequences.
I’ll do everything myself
It’s good to get started that way and it’s called bootstrapping. But do you want a fancy job (which self-employment is often referred to as) or do you want a business, which is more like a system that learns to work by itself? As your business grows, it’s best to hire people to work for you. Find people who are as good as you or even better than you. That’s the key to leverage. It’s the true nature of business; the only way you can create wealth.
Promotions? I don’t need them.
If you don’t spend enough on promotions – good quality marketing material, a super-responsive website, and a range of promotional items (be they calculators, leather pouches, promotional bags, etc.) – you don’t get noticed. Your customers have no way to know you exist. If they do know, they have to be constantly reminded of your existence. If you don’t spend on promotions, how else do you make them notice you?
