Hello Friend,
Please tell me your week so far has been exciting!
Well, mine was mostly exciting until my friend Tade reached out to say he was closing the shop. You see, Tade had started this business about two years ago. Nice concept, solid product, and a very promising B2B market
So what went wrong?
Tade started a medium-sized business, invested a lot in set-up, and did heavy promotion and advertisement online with alot of giveaways, etc.
I was against it.
But he was convinced that it was the best strategy for his business.
Why was I against it? Simple reasons. Just follow the flow, perhaps this is where you need popcorn.
The business was new, with a B2B target market. His clients weren't primarily online, and the beneficiaries of his giveaways weren't his potential clients and were not going to be; at least not in the short or medium term.
In short, he was not interacting with his target audience, yet he was spending and burning cash.
A few years down the line, he no longer runs ads or promotions because the business's cash flow doesn't accommodate it.
Tade frontloaded costs and made breakeven difficult.
I often tell people just starting out in their business, especially those with lean budgets. “If you have not exhausted your free or low-cost options for marketing and other initial costs, don't spend unnecessarily”.
Depending on your start-up capital, a huge chunk of the marketing costs you front-load at the start-up stage may be wasted. This is because you probably aren't tracking the ROI on those spends, and if you do, the conversion rate may be low.
If you run a small business and you’re already frontloading costs by paying for content and marketing on social media without exhausting free options for customer acquisition, you may kill the business if you are not careful.
So, how should I now start marketing my business as a small business owner? I sure do have answers for you, but take a look at your popcorn; it has finished.
Hurry and grab another one while I share with you the basic principles of marketing your business as a small business owner in our next read.
While you wait for our next read, I will advise you to join our WhatsApp community and all our social media platforms. The people there are the real IDAN! As you read this, a giveaway is going on in our community, and you dont want to miss it.
Click the link below to join
https://forms.gle/DNBYj89hJT7EKUwE8
By the way, I recently launched my YouTube channel, where I will be spotlighting many small businesses and sharing similar stories and lessons like the one you just read.
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With the deepest love from my heart
Ayo Bankole Akintujoye
Twitter @AyoBankole