Don't Go Diving in the Ocean Until You Learn to Swim

I used to work a lot with small businesses as a marketing consultant. I had my own company for a little while and almost each client had the same story. They wanted to get onto the "internet/facebook bandwagon". You know - that internet thing is really where they got stuck. But it went much further than they realized. It wasn't just that internet thing that they didn't understand but it was the foundation of their business. Some of my clients had lost sight of why they started their business in the first place and most of them never really took the time to get to know their who their clients were. That's really where the problem was and at that point I realized that I had my work cut out for me. In some ways, they expected me to build something from nothing which wasn't easy.

I understand as a small business owner you want to focus on what will bring in money because after all - what's really more important than the bottom line? If you don't have money coming in then how are you expected to survive? I totally get that. But before diving into an ocean filled will sharks and exotic fish, you want to do a little research - about the creatures you'd encounter and the environment. You want to know what you should wear and other ways you should prepare before diving in. Similarly, you want to do some research before starting. Get to know your customers - who are they, what do they think about at night, what problems do they deal with, where do you fit in, how can you help your customers live their lives easier or better? This is an ongoing process - you can't just read a biography and forget about it. Your customers are changing and adapting and you must do the same in order to be relevant.

I'll get into the "internet thing" in a later post. But for now, where would you be without your customers? Probably not in business. So in terms of the bottom line - what could possibly be more important than educating yourself on your customers?

--- FYI - I'm no expert and am certainly not pretending to be. There's more people than I can name or even know that are marketing gurus out there. I just figure it's about time I choose a focus for this blog and frankly, if there's anything I'm most passionate about, it's business, marketing and graphic design.

Here's the post that got me thinking on the purpose of my blog. So my goal is to keep this blog alive, interesting and helpful. Ultimately - I don't want it to suck and it would be nice if eventually people would read it. :)


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