Marketing on a Budget "Tips and Tricks For Start Up"

“sorting from experience,but found the best idea in experience of people whom I have studied”

One of the challenge a lot of business owner who are start up face is related to managing. Robert T Kiyosaki made a statement that resonate in my mind till this date. 95% of business start up don’t make it to the 5th year.

This is a very saddening but truthful fact. Yet he went on to say, that 65% of the business that actually make it past 5 years might not stay up for another 5years. I was about doubting this after I read it, but then I remembered that I grew up in the Capital of Lagos, Ikeja.

This place according to my Dad, was nothing but a bushy place with nice edible snakes moving all around but there was a train track that passed the font of our house. This place changed from been the bushy place I never got to see, to a very attractive place for businesses of all sort.

I mean, there’s a place called computer Village, where all states in Nigeria recognize to sell the best quality technology product. This was true, because Lagos wasn’t far from the island where a lot of exporting took place. I was fortunate to be born in this kind of area. So, because of this reason, my love for business grew. I made business mistakes, entered business traps but then, I learnt a lot.

The first thing every business startup must be good at is Time management. When I say time management, I mean knowing the time your market opens.

What you sell determine this a lot. This is almost the same with forex trading. As long as you are trading during Europe session, you should as well expect only currency related to that country to trend.

That’s just the way time management is. If you are doing the things you should do early, later, you could as well be losing a lot of customers and a big market indeed.

Also, if you do later what you should do early, you might end up wasting a lot of effort. I am sure you don’t like the idea of wasting effort.

Then find out the timing that works for you. Stick to that time, make sales and rest a while, so that your brain can relax and prepare for the next aim and Objectives.

The fact that Mom sold provision spilt the hour of sales into two, early in the morning and evening till late at night. This mean I had the afternoon to rest. Nevertheless, this wasn’t constant. As student who came around and those who were not around also affected sales. There are time the whole goods get sold out before afternoon, we rush to get more for the evening hour only to realize no sales. Also, there are times that this is a complete reversal.

The trend was often surprising and sometimes we had to market our goods to recover for late opening of the shop. Well, my Mom business last for more than 10years, which meant she has thrived, but still, she isn’t even among the top 20 making the 95% of the nations wealth.

Why is that? This is because, aside timing and knowing the trends, she worked alone.

It’s no lie that a group of people can achieve in a matter of days what a person would achieve in a year. So how can you get group of people to work for you? By making a promise and seeking for only those who have the required skill and removing those without competence.

However, competence can be built. Competence can be developed. When we struggle with becoming better, we always have a chance to be better as we keep thriving. So I would give a story to apply this. A man happen to have a book store. He had every types of books in his store. Soon, his main shop got moved due to government factor.

His customers are likely to assume he wasn’t there anymore and chose to buy elsewhere. Instead, he got a boy from the village whose parent entrusted to him to develop on how to read and write. Yeah, he did teach him how to read and write but he put him in a smaller store which the government couldn’t affect.

Anytime a customer didn’t get the book they needed, he did direct them to his main shop to get that particular book. The competition was high, but he was able to keep his customers. This can be done in the online mode as well. Imagine winning five friends to advertise your goods on their platform because you don’t have the money to run an ads, this we you leverage on those hands to get you the resource that can eventually provide for your first ads campaign.

This is something a few business men who are start up know. They get the store, fill it with goods and then start paying employees salary even when they don’t have enough to keep the shop stocks growing. That way eventually loosing the customers and the goods. And the money put into the business.

Every business owner should be a learner first, but there are more prideful business start up owners who end up losing it. I am sorry if this speaks to you, but there no reason why you should allow your pride keep you from preventing a sad future.

I would least out three hacks to maximizing your Business growth effort.

1) Plan Your Stock Based On Credit not Loans.

There are times we plan to get our stocks through loan as a means to push. But as a start up, a loan can become a problem if the business doesn’t work out eventually. The best you can do when you begin a business is to use your own credited money to run your business for the first four to six months. Then you can be confident on how the trends of the market moves and be able to drive your boat in your favor and in the direction you want it to go. Not like there won’t be uncertainties, but the plan you begin with on your money would give you the ability to navigate through these circumstances. These circumstances can be inform of advert result, sales , and Profit. As start up, it’s often a great idea to reduce price to get more customer advantage but on the long run, this can become a challenge if you began the business through loan. However, a lot of people have used loan as a method to push their business, however, some have had their business going down in the first year because of loan. Just plan your expenses on your credit not loans.

2) Sell a product that the market needs plus your special idea.

Usually, when we are in a certain environment, the method of which to do business would have to be different. For example, you might be thinking of selling a automobile because there isn’t a single automobile enterprise around. It’s a great idea, however, do not establish that business until you have gotten a product that the people around there are interested in as well. This might be a book store or even a Provision. You having a provision store beside your automobile enterprise would serve as a great advantage. As many people would be open to your store to get that provision, which is a low cost goods, eventually this would be creating an intension to get that high stock goods which is the Automobile. This would create awareness. Then on the long run, you can close up on the provision store and put all your funds into your automobile enterprise. This way, you must have create enough awareness, and already be having a lot of customers.

3) Know how to market your business online.

This has a long term benefit. Even if your business isn’t getting engagement at first, it would as time goes by and as much as you put engaging videos and images online. The social media is even a good first to push your product. Then you can step up to pushing your website to gain a even larger audience. Do not put too much funds in the marketing strategy that isn’t working or yielding a result on the go. You can invest in those which would yield on the long term scale in a minute proportion. This way you can properly manage the funds you budget for marketing purpose and the funds for purchases and expenses.

So far I hope I have given point which you can hold and practice as a Business start up. For clarity, I will list out the key point I have discussed in this content.

These Includes;

- Time management is crucial, and understanding your market’s timing is vital.

- Working alone can limit growth; building a team and leveraging others’ skills is essential.

- Competence can be developed, and continuous learning is vital for success.

- Using your own credited money to start a business reduces financial risks.

- Selling a product that meets market needs and adding your unique twist is a winning strategy.

- Online marketing is crucial, and social media can be a cost-effective starting point.