Marketing a startup business

Having been in business for 10 years and totally absorbed by the businesses I already own and operate, I have had little time to think of anything else.

But like a well oiled chain, most of my businesses operate fairly efficiently and effectively without my daily input. These days I am more a problem solver than a day-to-day runner of the business.

Of course, like any business, if sales are down I am the first to roll up my sleeves and get to work and given the state of the economy that has happened a few times over the past 12 months.

When reviewing new business ideas and I have many, I always think about how much work I have to do and what outcome I am looking for. Like any serial entrepreneur, I am always writing business plans on new business ideas and working out whether I think they are viable based on the current market opportunities.

It's an exciting ride when you come up with an idea that you think is going to be big and when I get stuck on a great idea I tend to hide away from the world and explore my creative juices.

Locking myself in my apartment, I spend hours and hours into the night and early morning pondering how this idea can evolve and hopefully explode.


On a flight on Sunday night back from Sydney, I dreamt I had an online sporting business. Now I won't let too many secrets go here because in the short amount of time since Sunday, the idea has gone from idea stage through to business planning and execution - but is currently not live.

Normally I would not have gotten this far so quick, but I realised after the first day that this would end up like many of my great ideas I have had over the years if I was not proactive about it. In the back of the filing cabinet waiting for some attention!

We all know I own a marketing company and web development company so unlike most people I have the resources to 'make it happen' when it comes to developing an online brand.

Naming the company, strategically exploring market potential, building a brand identity, developing a website, creating content and selling advertising and distribution rights are all things that we can do inhouse.

The problem I have is that my staff are always busy. When I give them something to do for myself, they always put it to the backburner and eventually after nagging them continually, I give up and throw it in the bin.

Well, not this time! This idea combines a great love of mine and a commercially viable business. I cannot let this idea go to waste and I have to do it right here, right now.

So, I did what I have never done before. I hired my own company to develop the idea. I have 4 people working on developing the identity, content, media kits, website and looking at alliance partnerships.

In theory, hiring your own company sounds stupid but the reality is at the end of the day, I have a silent partner and why should they pay for my 'great ideas' if they fail. Secondly, I need to make this happen and the only way to do it is to become a client.

It's like a mechanic that needs to fix his car. He never gets around to it. I am pretty much the same. Our company website has taken 1 year to not get started. Yes we have a website, but it needs to be updated, refreshed and clearly express what we do now that we didn't do before.

We seem to continually put this on the backburner because lets face it, paying clients are more important. They keep us in a job and the business alive.

If you can resonate with this reasoning, then think again on how you choose to execute your next great idea and how long it takes you to get it off the ground.

In my case, I am paying $7,000 for a website and $500 per week to have a Marketing Eye run the marketing for the new business.

You never know, it may take off and k-boom! I may need several Marketing Eye's and everyone would be happy.

I can't wait to get this new business off the ground and it's going to be sooner rather than later. I am thrilled to have a new project and really believe that it's going to be one of the best online sites for its field available. Furthermore, the sooner I get it up, the quicker it will be that I make some money.

Happy Startup Businesses!!!!

www.marketingeye.com.au