Magnus Marketing Blog

I have worked for and with many start-up and new businesses over the last 12 years and learned a ton about what can make for success or failure. Believe me when I say there are many companies that are small for a reason. Some, like my little entity, remain small because I choose to stay this way (in my case, it is a choice), but for others - they are that way because of strategic missteps and other "done wrong" things. What follows are some common observations:

1. Management that Manages: In start-up and very small companies, it is critical to have people who are "doers" and wear multiple hats. Basically, if you aren't delivering the product/service or acquiring new clients, then you need to be employed elsewhere. Paying resources who do not contribute to delivery or activity is money that should be going elsewhere. Even the CEO needs to be networking and driving business, however, this one person can be "the manager".

2. Follow the leader: Gee, Rachel has a biz dev/marketing company, she did it, I think I will too. Problem is, I really don't know a thing about how to get business, my forte was closing deals. The point being, just because someone else has a successful product, service or company doesn't mean you will also. You need to build a company on YOUR strengths, interests, and ideas - not on someone elses. And, for goodness sake, try to innovate and do something different and of value to clients, creating a knockoff is, well, creating a knockoff.

3. Hiring the Wrong Management: Hiring a CEO that isn't complementary to you, doesn't understand the industry, has no relevant contacts, or operates from a big-company mentality....wait, why did you even HIRE a CEO? In early stage companies, the owner/founder of the company should drive product/service development and strategy - they know the market, should have contacts, and understand the buyer. Hiring the wrong people, installing management that doesn't add value, hiring "management" at all just burns money and wastes time. In one case, a former employer hired an account manager (a farmer) to run a business development sales practice - uh, the guy was a farmer who stated, no lie, "marketing never generates leads". Talk about a major mismatch! Wow!

4. Buying the Lie: As mentioned before, a person with great credentials, connections, money, or even knowledge who walks in and will "take your company to the next level" isn't worth a second interview if they don't deliver. Make sure you check references and ask hard questions to ensure that the person will do what they say they will do. If they don't in short order, eliminate them and quickly.

5. Big company mentality: Great interview question - so, VP of Marketing or Sales, our budget (if you can call it that) is $10K, yep, $10K - maybe less - what tactics can you create to drive new business? If the person answers, I can't work with less than $100K or they don't answer - "give me a phone and an email address", thank them and send them to the next opportunity. I recently spoke to a "VP" who stated, "when we get a real marketing team and resources, a physical sales office, and more money to spend then we will do more, until then..." - uh, no...you need to be able to develop and do the marketing work yourself, rely on mobile sales people with no physical office, and employ tactics with few resources and do it NOW. I think we have a mismatch here. Uh-oh.

6. Listening to the Experts: If the expert is really an expert in your industry and knows your product/service and business very well - then by all means, listen and take their advice (but not over the employees who actually really know your business). Too often, as related, I see owners of small companies get stars in their eyes because they talk to people "more experienced then them". Wow, Bob really knows marketing and has contacts at major companies or Keith did P&L at a major company, they must know what they are doing! Until you realize that Bob's contacts really aren't the buyers for your product/service and he really never did marketing for enterprise level solutions and he really can't help you much at all and Keith may have P&L, but no relevant industry experience. Then, you risk taking your company down the wrong path. And, of course, paying heed to one person over a few smart advisors is never adviseable - ask a few people for perspectives and make your own judgement.

And, it is about results and feedback. Within a short period of time, whomever is associated with your firm should be producing something of value - whether information or tangible dollars. Don't buy into the hype or what the investors tell you, remember Friendster? Pets.com? Starting a business and running one isn't easy, you don't need to make it harder for yourself.