Starting a Business?! READ THIS

[David Hunter]

Hey All,

This is a rant for all of you who are starting a business.

Everyday coming home from the office I would see people working on this new pizza drive-thru. I got excited (I always get excited when I see new businesses opening up) thinking about how good this pizza will be compared to the other 10 pizza shops within 2 minutes of us.

So, one day I drove by and it was open for business. Actually, I was kind of disappointed. Why was I disappointed? Because, I never knew when this pizza shop was opening. I never saw an ad in the local paper. Never received a postcard that they were opening. Never saw a sign on their building of when they would be open. Hmm... something was wrong.

That something is.... MARKETING. They didn't do ANY marketing. Nothing, nadda, zip. I live a mile down the road and they failed to market to me. I've been in touch with the business owners and they said they got caught up on the "business side of things" and failed to market. They set themselves up for failure before they even started.

They did put a little, tiny, black and white ad (no call to action) in the local paper. The owners told me they put an ad in the paper, so the day I got the paper I looked for it. Guess what? I didn't see it! Then, I decided look more closely and I found it this time!! I thought it was some kind of joke. If I was looking for it and missed it, how many people actually show it that were not looking for it?? Oh, and the cherry on top... the ad was blurry! I told them to get their money back.

Then.... I found out they have a mobile app. I looked into it and they paid between $2,000 and $5,000 for this app. Ugh. How is any supposed to know about this app if they don't even know your business exists?!!!

Ugh. So, the point of this rant, for all of you who are starting a business, is for all of you to market, Market, MARKET!! Market your business. Market your business before it opens. Market your business when you're open. Market your business 24/7. MARKET MARKET MARKET!!!!

Ok. That's it. I'm done.

[newbuz]

they should have done a free pizza giveaway!

[David Hunter]

They should have done something!!

Even if they gave away free pizzas, and lost money the first day, if their pizza is good (it's great by the way) the LTV of their customers would be great.

[Patrysha]

When I was working radio one of the saddest and most annoying things I had to deal with was clients who would come to me to put together ads for their going out of business sale when they'd never advertised before. At that point all one could do is shake your head and write up the sale...

[David Hunter]

Wow, Patrysha... that is sad. Though, it is a great example of why marketing/advertising is soooo important. It seems that most business owners decide to start marketing when it's too late. They need to start marketing before they open for business.

[FlyPizzaGuy]

Greetings David Hunter. I know a way that you can almost practically eliminate the rent and electric bills for a pizza design. Only thing about this idea is a must to know someone that owns a commercial kitchen and maybe storing the merchandise at another location after dough/cheese and whatever is managed. Send me a pm and maybe we can talk about this a bit more in depth. Can you imagine running a business where you don't have to maintain a commercial rental property and the electric bill elimination? Of course there is more to this idea and I will be planning I pray to start this soon myself. Hope this may even give you some ideas.

This way you also bring competition to the table as well.

[bizinchina]

Yeah I have seen this many times before too. People spend tons of money and TIME !!! on a product that nobody might even want. I always carry out a lot of market research before I create any products for my clients. Some times you might even have to mix what the client wants and what the client needs in to a product so that you solve both the need and the problem. In most many of the products I have created for my clients have , came from things that I need to solve with my own business. You be surprised some times when you just mention something to a client that you are testing out and they say yeah "that genius" " I think we might need that too". I feel for some business owners that get suckered in to products like apps or advertisements that lead to nothing. But some people need to make mistakes to actually learn and gain experience.

[KristineS]

Have to agree with you about this. Marketing is important. Also have to wonder why the pizza shop would invest a lot of money in a mobile phone app right out of the gate. Seems like there would be cheaper ways to build business. A mobile phone app would be something to add after you had a good base of loyal customers.

[Harold Mansfield]

Lesson #2 should be that not everyone needs an app. Not sure if they have it, but if they wanted to blow $2,000-$5,000 they should have spent that money for a website that takes online orders, residential door hangers, and menu flyers.

[MattBaker]

Wow, that is crazy! I've known a few business owners who, when things got slow, cut their marketing budgets (or eliminated them altogether). To me, that's when you increase your marketing efforts!

Did the pizza business survive?