It’s fascinating how many startup business owners I get to speak with. You see, I founded a franchising company and am a retired entrepreneur. People in my industrial sector frequently get in touch with me with inquiries, to obtain ideas when creating a business plan, or to determine whether it makes sense to start a firm in that line of work in that specific region, industry, or taking into account the current economy. Let’s have a brief conversation now, shall we?
When I talk about these issues with new business owners or even college students working on imaginary class assignments for a certain company, one thing that really annoys me is that these people seem to believe that everything is simple and that everything is available online for free all the time. Let me explain some study on startup marketing. Finding competitors in a certain city or region needs more than just conducting an online search. Nothing being on Google’s first page does not necessarily mean that there aren’t any operators out there performing that kind of labour.
Some companies may have been established for 20 years and have a sizable enough customer base that they scarcely need to promote online or hire the SEO marketing expert of the week to assist them create a website that is visible to everyone. Many businesses choose not to engage in social media since they are not required to. They are well-known across the neighbourhood and already generate a tonne of business. You have a lot to learn if you think you can successfully compete with long-established businesses in a town or neighbourhood.
Some new business owners believe they can send emails to their contacts telling them to start doing business with them, but it’s unlikely that they will succeed in doing so, and it’s also unlikely that they will generate enough revenue to sustain their operations. I have a saying for those who think it’s that simple: hogwash. Very few businesses are capable of doing that. You can’t sit in a room playing video games and conducting web searches to identify your competitors if you want to conduct true marketing research; you have to go out into the world and observe what’s there. Recently, I received yet another email from a purported startup entrepreneur who insisted that there was no competition in his location for a specific sort of firm.
As a franchisor, I can attest to the fact that this is untrue. In addition, I am familiar with his town, am aware of the competitors, and even know the names of the businesses, so I don’t need to look them up online or in a phone book. It goes without saying that those businesses are probably not listed in the phonebook because they don’t want any more clients, and they also most likely don’t have websites because they are likely already quite busy with many consumers. Is my point becoming clear? Please give all of this some thought.
