Advertising vs. Marketing - There is a difference.

It is known fact that most small businesses fail. Everyone has a theory as to why. Mine is simple and probably shared by many. Most people start a small business to do what they love to do all the time. They focus completely on the "what" of their business and never enough on the "how". Since business plans and projections are often tedious (and sometimes depressing) many just avoid them and try to wing-it. This often leads to insufficient financing, inappropriate staffing and unrealistic expectations of revenue. It is just as alarming that 90% of the businesses that fail DO NOT have an advertising budget. 90%. Of those who do advertise, they do not market their business effectively. So what do I mean by that?

Marketing is to a blueprint as advertising is to a hammer. You need an overall strategy for promoting your business that consists of more than build it and they will come. First off, do you even know if you have a customer base? Do the people who would be interested in buying your product or using your service have the means to purchase it? Who is your competition? What makes you different from your competition, if anything? All these questions and many more should be answered in your Marketing Plan. Don't start without one! Information is too abundant and free not to use it to your advantage.

I just Googled market research and it returned around 133,000,000 results; marketing plans returned around 107,000,000. There is no excuse – not even "I don't have the money to market my business or advertise". If that is the case, you're not ready to go into business. I made the mistake myself of thinking that all I needed was my labor and ideas which were free and/or cheap so I didn't need any operating capital. Wrong. All my free labor didn't amount to a hill of beans because nobody knew what I was offering and no one was reading my paper. (I owned a small newsletter-type publication that sold advertising) But after some strategic planning and hiring of key personnel, I increased the readership of my publication 300% which in turn led to better sales.

Advertising alone is not enough. For example, you decide to build a gazebo for your backyard. Gathering some boards and nails then hammering away at them doesn't result in a gazebo. You have to know what the finished gazebo is supposed to look like. You have to know what materials will be required for that particular design. You should know the details about the tools you will need and the appropriate uses of each one. Getting your goals in mind, planning and resourcing your goals with the appropriate advertising tools then executing the plan - That's marketing.