I recently attended a seminar that focused on how to get more clients. This is the premise: If you want more customers, you have to do all of the marketing yourself. Don’t rely on anyone else to do it for you.
While this sounds great and wonderful, it may not always be practical. Let’s think about this for a moment. You are a small business owner. You started your business because you have a passion for something. You love to create, work with your hands, design, strategize, transform or improvise. We can even break it down further…you love to cook, paint, cut hair, talk, teach/instruct, fix cars, design brochures, sell houses, heal wounds.
You started your business because you love what you do and want to make a living doing it. Can you really do everything it requires to run a business?
If you worked in Corporate America, most likely you had a specific job to do. For illustrative purposes, let’s say you were a salesperson. You came to work, made phone calls, conducted meetings, responded to emails, completed sales reports, then went home and started again the next day.
While you were selling, someone else at the company was answering the phones, determining the company’s budget, ordering supplies, filing tax forms, interviewing potential employees, ordering lunch, generating publicity, making travel reservations, designing the marketing materials, placing advertisements, updating the website…and the list goes on.
Now you own I Amma Salesperson Inc. Not only do you have to perform your responsibilities as a salesperson, you also have to do all the above … answer the phones, determine the company’s budget, order supplies, file tax forms…
Every professional has his/her gifts and specialties. They are experts at what they do. Why not hire them to do what they do best? It’s impossible for you to do it all.
When it comes to marketing (or any other discipline), there are professionals who have skills and years of experience. They have been doing for years what they do best while you were out selling, because that’s what you do best.
While there is the do-it-yourself mantra out there… many are finding that, if the company is to grow beyond the “solopreneur,” it’s best to hire professionals to help you get to the next level.
Don’t believe the hype. You can start out by doing-it-yourself, but if you have plans to grow, you have to hire professionals to help you.