Before you click away, this isn’t a post about nature. It’s a post about business.
Ah, that made you leave even quicker, dang.
To those still reading, I ask you, have you ever tried to start a business, or currently are running a business? Regardless of size or how “typical” your business it, we all have or will experience “hills” and “mountains” when trying to make a business thrive.
I have a small Digital Agency, mostly makes websites, but also makes apps and such. It hasn’t had a lot of customers, even though I feel like I produce higher quality results at a cheaper price than my primary competitors.
Regardless of what I’m doing wrong, the simple solution is to increase impressions and increase conversions. You want your product to be seen, and you want it to be purchased once seen. The primary method I believe is best for this, nowadays, is advertising (ew).
I have a great job as well, I work as an L4 Data Analyst at Amazon, and make great money. This isn’t to brag, as I’m actually quite poor when you factor in paying for college out of pocket, paying for rent, and all of the other life expenses that add up.
Point being? Do you think paying for advertisements is making me drool, when I could be spending that money on not worrying about revolving my diet around what’s on-sale at Winco?
I had a conversation with someone from Mayple, an advertising agency. I’d throw $50 into campaigns here and there, to see what performed better, and where it performed the best. I figured that soon I’ll be graduating, and perhaps I should look into investing in someone to manage my advertising campaigns, hence my impending conversation with Mayple. I figured, if they can promise better than the 257 impressions-per-dollar, and 2.4 link-clicks-per-dollar that I’ve been getting off my Google Ad campaigns, and the savings/difference is greater than the cost of their services, then great. Simply saves me money.
My jaw. Friggin. Dropped. The person chuckled when they heard my story, and gave me some advice. Save up. I’m at a hill, and my efforts are wasted.
Imagine yourself on a ramp, on a skateboard. You can try to push forward up the slope/hill, or you can back up a bit and then try to push forward. Backing up and then pushing forward will of course be better, it’ll get you farther up the hill!
I was basically take one step backwards and then trying to get over this hill. Over and over. That’s Einstein’s definition of insanity, right?
See, I never saw it as a hill. I always assumed that every dollar I put in was increasing the traffic to the site, and that in some way it was slow and steady progress.
It’s really not.
In big-deal, Business-2-Business work, most of your sales come from advertisements directly, or, from word of mouth. If you’re not getting the sale, your money was wasted, in essence.
The person at Mayple essentially said, save up enough, walk backwards enough, that way when you do commit, you’re able to get over the hill. You’re able to get customers. You’re able to start your web of customers, which may refer your services indirectly or directly.
Why save up? The way that advertising works with Google and Facebook, is that the more you spend, the higher placed your advertisement is placed. It’s like if you walk back 5 steps, you get a small engine added to your skateboard. If you walk back 20 steps, you get a rocket added to your skateboard. You get the idea. The more you commit, the more you get out of it…
What can I do in the meantime? While I’m continuing to step backwards, while I’m continuing to save before committing? I’ll improve my product. Ensure that the flow of how business is done with my is smooth and painless. I’ll make sure that there’s *plenty* of reason for customers (businesses) to mention my name, if another business asks if they know who made their website, or if they know of anyone who can make an app, etc.
I wish I had known this before starting a business, I would’ve spent that money on assets that make my mocks look nicer, or on better and healthier food for myself, or x, or y, or z. But now you know, now I know, and hopefully eventually everyone will know, at least for how my kind of business is: Where customers are incredibly hard to get, and each customer means *so* much. Each customer really does feel like its own hill.
And sometimes your aspirations feel like mountains.
But that’s alright : ) It’s a journey either way, and it’s your choice how you feel and react to it.
