ones that make up most of your profit? Or you decide to expand your business by taking on more customers? In both cases you could be in trouble if your entire marketing campaign has been on hold. For a start, nobody will know who you are or what you do because you haven’t kept up any kind of profile in your target market. And how will you even find new customers, given that you haven’t been developing a database of prospects?

Even if you are confident you can raise your profile and get enough sales lMarketing is what being in business is all about. But in the excitement of setting up a new company (which is generally all about spending money, rather than making it), it’s very easy to lose sight of this. The result is that a business can be up and running before its managers have even planned how they will actually sell their product or service.

In reality, marketing (a term which includes selling) should be one of the first things would-be entrepreneurs think about, and not seen as an optional luxury extra for the business. It therefore needs to be allocated an adequate budget right from the start – even if that means delaying starting your business until you have raised enough money to do this.

Certainly, don’t think of paying for marketing just from cashflow (money coming into the business) once you are trading. This immediately puts a limit on the growth of your company – and all for the sake of looking a bit longer to find the extra cash for a proper marketing campaign.

To emphasise this point, business advisors refer to the 1-3-10 Rule. This states that for an entrepreneurial start-up to achieve high growth, for every dollar spent coming up with the basic idea for the business, you will need to spend $3 developing the idea and $10 marketing it. And that rule applies no matter how brilliant the initial idea is – in business, no idea is so great it can’t fail.

No need for marketing
When a company has been going a few years and is firmly established, that is still no time to cut the marketing budget. However, managers often do, saying things like "I’ve already got loads of customers so I don’t need to do any more marketing."

Undoubtedly, when you are working flat out with the customers you already have, it’s tempting to think that spending time and money on any marketing activity isn’t worthwhile. But whatever the size of your business, this attitude can quickly prove short-sighted and damaging.

What happens if you lose customers – especially the big ones that make up most of your profit? Or you decide to expand your business by taking on more customers? In both cases you could be in trouble if your entire marketing campaign has been on hold. For a start, nobody will know who you are or what you do because you haven’t kept up any kind of profile in your target market. And how will you even find new customers, given that you haven’t been developing a database of prospects?

Even if you are confident you can raise your profile and get enough sales lexury extra for the business. It therefore needs to be allocated an adequate budget right from the start – even if that means delaying starting your business until you have raised enough money to do this.

Certainly, don’t think of paying for marketing just from cashflow (money coming into the business) once you are trading. This immediately puts a limit on the growth of your company – and all for the sake of looking a bit longer to find the extra cash for a proper marketing campaign.

To emphasise this point, business advisors refer to the 1-3-10 Rule. This states that for an entrepreneurial start-up to achieve high growth, for every dollar spent coming up with the basic idea for the business, you will need to spend $3 developing the idea and $10 marketing it. And that rule applies no matter how brilliant the initial idea is – in business, no idea is so great it can’t fail.

No need for marketing
When a company has been going a few years and is firmly established, that is still no time to cut the marketing budget. However, managers often do, saying things like "I’ve already got loads of customers so I don’t need to do any more marketing."

Undoubtedly, when you are working flat out with the customers you already have, it’s tempting to think that spending time and money on any marketing activity isn’t worthwhile. But whatever the size of your business, this attitude can quickly prove short-sighted and damaging.

What happens if you lose customers – especially the big ones that make up most of your profit? Or you decide to expand your business by taking on more customers? In both cases you could be in trouble if your entire marketing campaign has been on hold. For a start, nobody will know who you are or what you do because you haven’t kept up any kind of profile in your target market. And how will you even find new customers, given that you haven’t been developing a database of prospects?

Even if you are confident you can raise your profile and get enough sales lasise this point, business advisors refer to the 1-3-10 Rule. This states that for an entrepreneurial start-up to achieve high growth, for every dollar spent coming up with the basic idea for the business, you will need to spend $3 developing the idea and $10 marketing it. And that rule applies no matter how brilliant the initial idea is – in business, no idea is so great it can’t fail.

No need for marketing
When a company has been going a few years and is firmly established, that is still no time to cut the marketing budget. However, managers often do, saying things like "I’ve already got loads of customers so I don’t need to do any more marketing."

Undoubtedly, when you are working flat out with the customers you already have, it’s tempting to think that spending time and money on any marketing activity isn’t worthwhile. But whatever the size of your business, this attitude can quickly prove short-sighted and damaging.

What happens if you lose customers – especially the big ones that make up most of your profit? Or you decide to expand your business by taking on more customers? In both cases you could be in trouble if your entire marketing campaign has been on hold. For a start, nobody will know who you are or what you do because you haven’t kept up any kind of profile in your target market. And how will you even find new customers, given that you haven’t been developing a database of prospects?

Even if you are confident you can raise your profile and get enough sales lno time to cut the marketing budget. However, managers often do, saying things like "I’ve already got loads of customers so I don’t need to do any more marketing."

Undoubtedly, when you are working flat out with the customers you already have, it’s tempting to think that spending time and money on any marketing activity isn’t worthwhile. But whatever the size of your business, this attitude can quickly prove short-sighted and damaging.

What happens if you lose customers – especially the big ones that make up most of your profit? Or you decide to expand your business by taking on more customers? In both cases you could be in trouble if your entire marketing campaign has been on hold. For a start, nobody will know who you are or what you do because you haven’t kept up any kind of profile in your target market. And how will you even find new customers, given that you haven’t been developing a database of prospects?

Even if you are confident you can raise your profile and get enough sales l ones that make up most of your profit? Or you decide to expand your business by taking on more customers? In both cases you could be in trouble if your entire marketing campaign has been on hold. For a start, nobody will know who you are or what you do because you haven’t kept up any kind of profile in your target market. And how will you even find new customers, given that you haven’t been developing a database of prospects?

Even if you are confident you can raise your profile and get enough sales leads when you need them, there is another reason not to suspend marketing activities. Are your customers the best you could possibly have? This isn’t a reference to how they look or their friendliness on the telephone. What it does refer to is how profitable they are for you. Some ‘high maintenance’ customers may take up a lot of your time, but only ever place small orders – creating a big gap between the time you spend on them and the profits they make for you. Then there are the slow payers who give you cashflow nightmares. Wouldn’t it make sound business sense to replace these problem customers with big spenders who pay on time? That can only happen, of course, if you actually have new customers to replace them with, and you will only find them through on-going marketing activity.