The Vital Investment Most Struggling Entrepreneurs Never Make

When you start out as an entrepreneur, funds are hard to come by and cash flow is sporadic at best. 

What you and I lack in funds we must make up in hustle and ingenuity.

But at some point, you have to start committing a portion of your earnings to paid advertising and marketing. This could be as simple as buying leads, to placing ads on Facebook or Google. 

The great opportunity today is that you can begin with $10 per day on Facebook. You don’t need a massive budget to begin your rise to a greater number of opportunities and new customers.

“The future of advertising is the Internet.” -Bill Gates

Referrals and word or mouth are both extremely difficult to scale. You can ask for more introductions, but you can’t scale it like you can paid advertising. 

Executing advertising correctly and consistently is the unlock for scaled growth in business. 

When advertising is set into motion, you are now facilitating new requests from potential customers versus desperately looking for any type of work at all, or new recruits for your opportunity.

Building an effective sales funnel should be one of the primary goals of any business person. Setting more appointments, seeing more people, and presenting your opportunity is the most important function of business. 

“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” -Mark Twain

Where Entrepreneurs Inhibit Their Growth

Most entrepreneurs know that you have to set aside funds for taxes, monthly bills, and even retirement. But how many of us are actually setting aside funds to create new levels of growth and revenue? 

Not many.

In fact, this one strategy and habit - spending a portion of today’s earnings to seed future harvests - is the single threshold which separates the struggling from the prosperous. 

Don’t Believe Me? Ask Around.

Interview 10, 20 or 30 small business owners, agents, and solopreneurs who are struggling - right in your home town. Ask to see their marketing strategy, as well as discover how much they spend generating business through marketing and advertising initiatives. 

I doubt if you find 5% who have both in order: a written plan and an ongoing ad campaign. It is these underlying omissions which cause and perpetuate their lack of growth and financial hardship.

“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” – Henry Ford

You cannot save what you do not possess. Yet, saving money and pinching pennies seems to be the “hunker down” mentality of too many. 

It is important to determine why you have developed this type of limiting mindset; one that will not allow you to scale your growth with advertising. Some of the causes to this limiting mindset may be:

• Bad upbringing from those who were financially illiterate 
• Lack of know-how or pragmatic education
• Incorrect information on how advertising and business work
• Lack of help or mentorship from proven professionals
• Personal fear and anxiety
• A lack of belief in self that one can actually sell and close, once the lead has come forth

Whatever the reasons may be, it is important to ferret these out into the light and to address them aggressively. And with speed. 

Best, Edwin Dearborn