First and foremost, thank you for the people who have posted comments and sent emails. My initial free budget of $100 from Google Adwords is almost gone and the campaign met my expectations. It would’ve been more successful if I created a good landing page or had a clear call to action, but that will have to wait given my schedule. Going forward, I would very much appreciate it if anyone who comes to this site via Adwords or through a search would kindly leave a small comment. That’s how I’ll know that people are getting some value from reading my posts and help me going forward.

  Okay, back to “How to start a business”. In my last post, I started to write about the ”7 Steps to Marketing Success”, which I recommend to any new or existing business owner use to jumpstart his/her Marketing efforts. But, before going into each of the seven steps, I should’ve started with this post, which outlines my simple marketing framework for any small business:

1. Opportunity Identification
2. Find a “Target Market”
3. Build a Marketing System Around That “Target Market” (e.g. 7 Steps to Marketing Success, 4 Ps, 4 Cs, etc.)

  I will be going through each of the steps in this simple framework and later explain each step in the “7 Steps to Marketing Success”. I hope you read through all the steps chronologically and give feedback on this framework later. I like numbers and sad fact is that the odds are already stacked against us in starting a new business. A statistic I found was that 40% of businesses fail within the first year, 80% within five years, and 96% before ten years. A good way of increasing your odds is to have a plan and have a better idea of what you’re getting into (I didn’t say “know what you’re getting into” because no one ever will). Yes, it’s easier said than done, and there are many variables that you won’t think about until you face them, but I can guarantee that having a framework as a foundation to start your business will increase your odds. Or you may decide that you’re better off working at your current job.

  I just created an ad for one of my Google Adwords campaign and wanted to see if it leads people to this post. When I was more active in the coaching community I gave seminars and taught people Duct Tape Marketing’s “7 Steps to Marketing Success”, which is a good roadmap for any small business to follow and implement:

1. Narrow Your Market Focus
2. Find and Communicate a Core Difference
3. Package Your Business
4. Create Marketing Materials that Educate
5. Establish Your Lead Generation Trio
6. Automate and Dominate
7. Live by the Calendar

  Overall, I think that this is a very good strategy for most small businesses to follow as many don’t have a plan or many times have trouble knowing where to start. Within each of these main steps there are several substeps, but I will try to discuss in more detail about each step and later post a pdf for people to download. What are your initial thoughts on these 7 steps?

 It’s been a long time since I posted, but it’s just been hectic lately. After seeing all the emails for a free $100 credit towards starting a Google Adwords account, I finally created one. But, what really triggered this is that I’m now responsible for managing our online marketing campaign. Luckily, there’s actually good “free” information out there on how to learn this stuff. I’ve spent several hours reading up on this, but it seems easy enough to get started and I know it will take some time to become an effective marketer online. It’s a good skill to acquire and I will periodically post updates on our progress.