Build it and they WON'T come

Firstly, alarm bells rang when he said that he needed a strategy but could do it all in-house. If you have marketing in-house that is competent, then they would be able to do a strategy - right? As I devulged into the business a little more I realized that the man thought a complete marketing strategy would cost "a couple of hundred dollars" and would come with a complete year-long action plan with designated names next to it according to who should do the task in their organization.

I asked if they had search engine optimization. "No, but we will learn how to do that ourselves so you won't need to worry about adding that."

It's an online business, which the entrepreneur had invested money in to get it launched, so why would SEO be something you would 'learn how to do' rather than invest in a specialist to do it for you?

The conversation had me thinking:

1.  Some people have no idea about business
2.  Entrepreneurs stop themselves from being successful - sometimes
3.  No-one can do it all themselves. There are people out there that will be better than you at some things
4.  Entrepreneurs need to work out what they are trying to achieve in thier businesses and invest in making it happen
5.  Never set up a business without a plan that includes marketing

My advice was simple:

1.  Make a decision as to whether you want customers or not - then work out how much in dollar value that is worth to your business
2.  Realize what your strengths are and play to that, then employ others to fill in the gaps
3.  SEO is king to any online business. Without it, you will fail.
4.  Put a plan in place as to where you would like your online business to go, then implement it.
5.  Hire a marketing consultant that specializes in online retail.