A secret for young entrepreneurs

**danbu1** · 07-07-2009 05:42 PM

I have been an entrepreneur for over 20 years. I learned everything through trial and error. I am about to share with everyone the most important thing that I have learned throughout the years.

I started my company from scratch with $10K. I now gross about $1.5M which would have been over $2M by now if it wasn't for the recession we are in. Ofcourse I am not a young entrepreneur anymore. I am 41 years old. It took me over 10 years to build this company.

Okay, why am I telling you all of this? I realized something very important that could have saved me so much time and money. I don't want young entrepreneurs to make the same mistakes I made. I could have built my company in half the time had I focus my efforts properly.

What did I learn? I started the business with the false assumption that good products and services will automatically bring in clients. In my strong oppinion, this is not true for startups. Most of you have already learned this and many will eventually will learn it. It is all in the marketing strategy. So if you don't want to make the same mistakes I made, spend less time on operations and most of your time on marketing.

You need to stop focusing on your products and services. Don't get me wrong, you need a good product or service that you are selling but it is not what makes or breaks the deal. You need to focus 80% of your efforts on how you are going to achieve the business.

Now the real challenge, what should be my marketing strategy? Here are three questions I use to build my marketing strategy:

1) who eventually buys from me?
2) who has the influence on that buyer?
3) what does this person need?

I broke the $1M mark in 2005. There was no way for me to have done that if it wasn't for addressing these questions. Before that, I was spinning my wheels with advertisements, salaried sales personnel, independent sales, sponsored events, you name it, I did it. Now I focus all my efforts on addressing question #(3) which is what does this person really need? And the referral automatically comes my way. I compete with national companies quite easily now.

I should note, I am in the medical industry so not sure if this is true for all industry but it is the only solution I could come up with for my small business.

Hope this sparks some ideas and eventually help young entrepreneurs out.

**Iamnotsatisfied** · 07-07-2009 08:33 PM

Build a great service/ product and they will come.

That was what I first believed in my first venture but quickly learned that; that was not the case.

Marketing is the bloodline of your business... If you choose to not use it to the fullest your business would never reach it's potential in revenue.

I would say it's 20% about what (service/ product)you are selling and 80% on how you are selling it(Marketing).

Some very useful advice there Dan.

**jonathanfigaro** · 07-07-2009 08:48 PM

Thanks for the post.
this is very informative
those three questions are very
powerful and can make
us a person very successful

**imeight** · 07-07-2009 11:11 PM

Good info Dan. So what exactly you sell or what service do you provide? How did you start? I think sharing that will help us kids more than anything else.

**david90** · 07-08-2009 02:12 AM

Originally Posted by danbu1

I have been an entrepreneur for over 20 years. I learned everything through trial and error. I am about to share with everyone the most important thing that I have learned throughout the years.

I started my company from scratch with $10K. I now gross about $1.5M which would have been over $2M by now if it wasn't for the recession we are in. Ofcourse I am not a young entrepreneur anymore. I am 41 years old. It took me over 10 years to build this company.

Okay, why am I telling you all of this? I realized something very important that could have saved me so much time and money. I don't want young entrepreneurs to make the same mistakes I made. I could have built my company in half the time had I focus my efforts properly.

What did I learn? I started the business with the false assumption that good products and services will automatically bring in clients. In my strong oppinion, this is not true for startups. Most of you have already learned this and many will eventually will learn it. It is all in the marketing strategy. So if you don't want to make the same mistakes I made, spend less time on operations and most of your time on marketing.

You need to stop focusing on your products and services. Don't get me wrong, you need a good product or service that you are selling but it is not what makes or breaks the deal. You need to focus 80% of your efforts on how you are going to achieve the business.

Now the real challenge, what should be my marketing strategy? Here are three questions I use to build my marketing strategy:

1) who eventually buys from me?
2) who has the influence on that buyer?
3) what does this person need?

I broke the $1M mark in 2005. There was no way for me to have done that if it wasn't for addressing these questions. Before that, I was spinning my wheels with advertisements, salaried sales personnel, independent sales, sponsored events, you name it, I did it. Now I focus all my efforts on addressing question #(3) which is what does this person really need? And the referral automatically comes my way. I compete with national companies quite easily now.

I should note, I am in the medical industry so not sure if this is true for all industry but it is the only solution I could come up with for my small business.

Hope this sparks some ideas and eventually help young entrepreneurs out.

I appreciate you sharing your knowledge! So when you're company was doing bad, it is because you didn't know who your target market was or what they needed? For example, say you're target market is family doctors but instead you're trying selling dentist equipments to them instead. It's an exaggerated example but is this where u went wrong?

**Lambo** · 07-08-2009 05:38 AM

great post thanks for sharing

**sdavis2702** · 07-08-2009 06:30 PM

That's an awesome post. Thanks a lot for sharing it with us.

I really makes me think because I have something that definitely requires have a quality "product." I'm a blogger. Quality content is key. However, it's not everything... marketing is still important. I might not be able to go 20/80 like you said, but it still applies!

**Eric King** · 07-08-2009 07:52 PM

thanks for this info Dan.

**pboychuk** · 07-09-2009 12:23 AM

Thanks for the input, I do agree with everything you have said, it basically comes down to the fact that if you have the right tools you can sell anything.

However, In some markets, including my main market, there is a backwards approach, such that, you must provide a quality, satisfying product, and than let the customer market for you, in a sense that your business is dependent on the satisfaction of the customer, who does not want to be told buy this, its the best, but who learns from personal experience and others experiences..

And in thought, I think this is true for many industries, although advertising can be beneficial to increase sales, long term success is really dependent on a satisfied customer and a superior products.

But, this also makes me think.. What if I did put more effort towards marketing, maybe I am not at full potential.

**danbu1** · 07-09-2009 06:07 AM

I am very glad that you guys find this information usefull. I do have a passion help people, mainly entrepreneurs, because it makes my past suffering worthwhile.

So when you're company was doing bad, it is because you didn't know who your target market was or what they needed? For example, say you're target market is family doctors but instead you're trying selling dentist equipments to them instead.

Great question david09. Let me share some more details.

As a startup/small business you are at a very unfair disadvantage; zero to low cashflow. That is why we can not consider the conventional marketing techniques. You can trust me on this one, I have tried it.

I knew my targeted market very well but the problem is competing with the larger and national companies. Why would a doctor chose me over them? How much money will I invest in marketing to him until I catch up to my competitor? What will be my return on investment if I win that account?

Here is how I was able to penetrate the market. Create a business model that incompasses my customers. So my marketing strategy is now my business model. First, let me explain, my paying customers are patients that need the equipment I sell which answers my #1 question. I know that Doctors(primary care) have the most influence on them which are also my customers answering my #2 question. So the final question is how do I win these doctors.

Ready for the aswer to question#3? Doctors need more and more revenue just like I do. Since, I can not give him patients, I can help him with increasing his reveue. I must focus on a business model that increases revenue for both me and the doctors. I simply network with a few providers that can help the doctors with his revenue. In a way, I shifted my marketing cost to marking for the few providers I have selected. These providers have no marketing cost now passing the savings to the doctors beating all their competitors. We are walking in taking accounts left and right while making money for everyone in my network. I have just built a relationship with my referral source overnight without large sums of money.

There you have it. I believe this can be applied to other industries as well. You just need to think of the correct business model for your industry. Stop worrying about your products and services.

Becareful not to share your profits with your referral source though. You need to shift your marketing budget such that it is working for the referral source instead. Otherwise you will be spinning your wheels working at low margin. Fortunately, I am in the healthcare industry so I have to avoid a "kick-back" situation anyway.