Growing your business in a tough environment
An interview with independent marketing consultant Jeremy Epstein is a whirlwind experience—and an enlightening one. When I interviewed Epstein for a RainToday case study, I wanted to explore how one person created an ongoing business in a tough economic environment.
Epstein, who had previously held a marketing role at Microsoft, gave himself nine months to see whether he could build a business. He launched Never Stop Marketing based on his mantra that companies need to embrace marketing as a core part of their business processes. Mind you, this was in the spring of 2008 and the country was in the midst of a bleak recession.
In just over a year, he proved his mettle by creating a sustainable and lucrative practice, with clients including Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and bestselling New York Times author Dan Pink.
At the end of our interview for the case study, Epstein shared some advice for other consultants and independent professionals looking to build a business:
- Never stop marketing. (Of course.) You have to understand even when you get those first two clients and you want to focus all your time on delivery and just do an excellent job—you can never stop marketing because two months later you’ll be asking, “Where are my leads?”
- Get comfortable with perpetual beta. There are a few industries where this is an exception, but be comfortable with the idea that you can go out to market with something that is not perfect but is still remarkable. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of remarkable because your objective is to get people to make remarks about you and share with their network.
- Time is valuable. Focus on the opportunity cost of what you’re doing.
- Be authentic in your relationships. If you try to manipulate people, or you’re disingenuous or programmatic and you’re in a relationship-based business, it’s just not going to work.
What are you doing to build your business?
Photo Credit: Mike Baird flickr.bairdphotos.com
