Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

1) As a small business owner what circumstances would motivate you to hire someone to: coordinate special events; create or update your business website; prepare mailing lists; prepare direct mailing campaigns for your business; conduct research; write press releases; coordinate media buys; and/or create a marketing plan customized to your businesses goals, objectives and mission statement?

2) As a small business, what do you believe would be a reasonable, affordable price to pay for such services?

3) What objections would you have to outsourcing one or all of the above services?

 

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Nicole Champagne
Email: influencialexpectations@gmail.com
Cell: (734) 262-3730
Soar With Influencial Expectations!

Hi there, Nicole :-)
For us, the single factor that would cascade through all three of your above questions would be the ratio of Sales:Time.

Depending on how much of our time was consumed by meeting product demand, all else would derive. Right now we have lots of time and few sales. Given that we`re increasing slowly in sales, we`re also looking forward to outsourcing manufacturing. That`s #1.

The problem is that to increase sales often requires a Web site. However, with few sales, we still have lots and lots and lots of time. So we`re building our own initial Web site.

Later, when sales wipe out time, we`ll have to "borrow time" and pay whatever`s the going rate. That would likely be whatever we believe we would want to be paid if we were doing that thing.

The only place it gets really difficult is where we need to borrow time for something we simply have no skill to do on our own. Then we have to do some research, find out the going rates.

With respect to event planning ... I have no objection to outsourcing... and list assembly... I have no objection to outsourcing... media buys... I have no objections. Provided the firm or firms in question are well-credentialed or reasonably experienced or both.

But outsourced marketing is another story.

Marketing requires an in-depth understanding of competitive strategy, communication, strategy in general, the market environment, the current business environment, design fundamentals, branding, psychology, etc.

If the web sites, brochures, and in-person pitches are any indication, most marketing consultants know absolutely nothing about marketing. They think "marketing = bag of tactics", never mind whether the industry in question is having a great or terrible year.

The near total incompetence demonstrated by most marketing consultants would be my objection to any sort of outsourced marketing.

Okay....but other than that, do you see a problem with outsourcing marketing?

Craig: LOL!  Thank you I needed a good laugh. 

Craig & Cookiemonster, thank you for your posts.  They contain the brutally honest feedback I was hoping to find here! Please keep it coming.

 

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Nicole Champagne
Email: influencialexpectations@gmail.com
Cell: (734) 262-3730
Soar With Influencial Expectations!

So Nicole, what is it you`re particularly hoping to do...your intent? :-)

I am hoping to obtain an objective end user view of outsourcing marketing services to combine with some formal market research.  At present, I coordinate my own events; write my own press releases; create my own direct mail peices; conduct my own research; write my own marketing plans; and engage in many low-cost marketing tactics in an effort to grow my own business.  Although what I do feels natural to me, there are a number of people from within my industry who pay assistants and/or services to do what I do on my own because they don`t know how to do it themselves.  

Not only am I seeing an untapped market in my industry; but I was recently approached by someone I have known for years. They have asked me to market their business.  They told me they have watched me market my business; the programs at my previous employer; and my ex`s business which is the same as theirs.  Granted the economic times were much better when I marketed my ex`s business; and marketing his business wasn`t difficult as he provided quality work at affordable rates.  Plus his competition didn`t market themselves well so it wasn`t difficult to get a foot in the door, prove value of service and triple his business three years in a row.  Bottom line, I am gathering data to help me make some informed decisions in the near future.

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Nicole Champagne
Email: influencialexpectations@gmail.com
Cell: (734) 262-3730
Soar With Influencial Expectations!

So you`re thinking of putting together a marketing company?

If opportunity were to knock any louder it wouldn`t need a mega phone.  However, opportunity isn`t equivalent to vision, preparation or market demand. There are many factors to consider such as: competition; competitive advantage; talent pool for subcontracting work to; demand for services; local economy; etc.   With the help of feedback, formal research, interviews of inhouse marketers and a written business plan this preliminary evaluation should provide sufficient information to make an informed decision.

 

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Nicole Champagne
Email: influencialexpectations@gmail.com
Cell: (734) 262-3730
Soar With Influencial Expectations!

Maybe the way to look at an entrepreneur (as your target market) might be similar to the way you might consider opening a medical clinic in a rural or inner-city location.

Lots of people look at the cottage industry and think "hospital." They get all into the corporate mindset, ask about investments, warehousing, logistics, boards of directors, and so forth. They think in terms of many thousands of dollars is "nothing," since it isn`t anything when seen from an enterprise perspective.

But what`s missing is an infrastructure more like a neighborhood clinic. About the only other place I`ve seen this type of scaling down is in various legal-aid offices, or those practices where someone wants to advocate for low-paying situations.

What`s interesting is that although you`d be on a very small scale, handling marketing for no-budget operations, you`d also be in the same situation as your clients and customers. At any given time, you really have no way to predict when one of your startups would suddenly explode into the world view and become huge.

The way I see it, too many non-entrepreneurial businesses or individuals want a part of the action in the oh-so-hot small business sector. Yet they either don`t want to take any risks, or they have a bizarre and unrealistic view of what day-to-day life is like for an entrepreneur.

Marketing (and strategy) are woefully absent in the startup sector, so you`d have a large opportunity. But you`ll have to resign yourself to the idea that you`re probably not going to be making Madison Avenue bucks---at least at the start.