Entrepreneurial Marketing is for EVERYONE now!
There will never be a better time for you to be able to position yourself for the future than now. Why? The reality is EVERYONE is being forced to pause at the same exact time and re-evaluate their business.
Many are just standing around like the guy on the right just watching and waiting to see what happens. The woman on the left in front of the boat is actually running towards the others to get them to finally come back. And the others, one can only imagine what had them walk more than a hundred yards into the ocean when the water receded, with enough force to overturn the little boat. So ask yourself, "where would I be?". All you need to do is going to the MyOnlineToolbox YouTube channel to see examples of how this story started.
The story of this real life Tsunami is exactly exactly what is playing out when it comes to people being faced with an Economic Tsunami. It will arrive, it will eventually settle for some time, and then it will recede. And when it recedes there will be a massive opportunity for those who positioned to both Survive & Thrive.
The challenge for most is being able to really understand the power of your time over money. Too many have built their companies by paying people for every little thing when it comes to marketing. Yes, there are topics that usually need the help of others, but then there are other topics that simply require a business owner to Pause on, and other topics that they need to Freeze.
There are those who obviously will disagree with my opinions, since that is how they earn a living. But the reality is there are things, as an entrepreneur, one must do on their own when there is so much uncertainty. Too many marketing business models are based on the premise that construction contractors are too busy to do certain marketing tasks, or they simple do not know how to do them, etc. In good times perhaps that is true, but in bad times, there is nothing that can not be learned and tried out.
Ask yourself, if you can save some money, and give something a try on your own, what is the worst that can happen? It is amazing how many feel others are intimidated by doing a simple Facebook post or Email on their own.
Biggest complaint I hear when it comes to Facebook is "My spelling isn't all that great." So then just open up a word processor and run a spell check in order to fix your message. Or perhaps just ask your spouse or family member to clean up the message. Will take 5 minutes max, then add a picture, then just reach out to your customers. I realize I am simplifying this, but the reality is, who best to talk to YOUR CUSTOMERS in challenging times than YOU!
A similar complaint with Email is when someone doesn't know really what to say. So why rely on someone who is many times just making up things and not being personalized. Your customers need YOU! It is OK to create a simple email with a subject saying "ABC Company thanks you for your loyalty". Then have some simple story along the lines of "In times like these, we are reflecting on who we know in addition to the work we provide. We just wanted to say Thanks for your Business and to hope all is well with you and your family. Please contact us if we can help you with any of your fill-in-the-blank needs. We prefer to work with similar types of clients and would appreciate you sharing our company with any neighbors too. Thanks again, ABC Company, ww.MyWebsiteAddress.co, 123-456-7890
Yes, the ideas above are simplified. Yes, there are professionals who can easily look to make it more complex than what it needs to be. Yes, you can just keep spending money without necessarily understanding whether it is realistic expense or not. I will leave it to you to decide how entrepreneurial you are looking to be in the one time in your life that you can think totally out of the box, regardless of where your business is today.
I will never tell anyone to stop investing in marketing, but I will ask people to pause and freeze when they have an opportunity to evaluate their Time versus Money. Remember, investing Time and investing Money are two separate topics. Most have just spent money on their marketing and many have never really taken a moment to decide if it was an investment or possibly an expense. If so, you are sitting on a stockpile of time right now, so why not Invest it wisely?
Need a little more motivation? I have built four companies over a 30+ year time frame. All the companies started with zero dollars and we were able to become marketing machines on a shoestring budget that grew over time. Entrepreneurial Marketing will allow you to take a step back, adjust, begin fresh again, and then decide how best to spend your Time and Money. Looking forward to you being ready for when the water recedes. Good luck!