Three Reasons It Takes More Than One Person To Run A Business
In our previous blog post, “Three Ways Starting a Business is a LOT like Farming,” we wrote about starting a business, but those go hand-in-hand with running a business. Simplifying this post into three words we would say, “It takes work.” There is so much that goes into running a business that it’s nearly impossible to do it alone. We have three reasons why it takes more than one person.
In one word, Marketing.
I mentioned my great grandparents on my father’s and mother’s side of the family were farmers, how they had to put in work before seeing a return. Well marketing is just like that. Here are three ways marketing is a LOT like farming.
1. Lay the foundation.
A farmers foundation is their field, they have to plow this field so they can prep the soil for seeds and for irrigation so the seeds get watered. This is all done so growth can take place.
The foundation for your marketing in 2014 should be built on mobile, but don't ignore desktop. Whether it’s a mobile app, mobile web app or a mobile website. This is your base of marketing, it’s where you send customers and leads to.
2. Water the seed.
Once a farmer has prepared his land for the seed you have to plan and then water the seed. A farmer does not just plant one seed or one type of seed and he does not put two types of seed in one field. A farmer plants one seed in a specific field and another seed in another specific field. This takes experience and education to know which seed will grow best in which field.
His job only begins there! Now the farmer must water the seed in order to yield a crop and see a return on his investment.
Once your foundation is set on mobile and desktop it’s time to plant the seeds. Today, in my opinion, the seeds are simply setting up the right social networks (it takes more than one), creating the right business cards and other promotional/marketing material. These are ways customers and leads will find you digitally and physically. Knowing which networks and other resources are best for marketing your business takes experience and education.
3. Take the produce to the customer.
Once a farmers crop has grown and is harvested they must get that to the customers and leads. How my grandparents did it was more of what we call guerilla style today, but they would have a booth near the street, go to farmers markets and share by word of mouth.
Today marketing is the same. You have to have your product on an ecommerce site, go to networking events, trade shows, farmers markets, write blog posts, get others to rate your product and more. The list can go on forever. Once the customers and leads are aware of how great your product is then they you will see growth, just like farmers.
Our point in sharing this is simply to tell you that you do NOT have to do this alone. We are here to help.
Thank you for reading! If this was helpful to you please share. Feel free to leave your thoughts below.