Marketing and sales, the key functions of any business to generate the revenues to keep you in operation. But when is the right time to start marketing and sales activity when you are a start-up business?

This question needs a bit of thought. When you are ready is the right answer, but what on earth does that actually mean?

Are those who shout their intentions from the roof-tops and let the world know that they are coming before they actually do correct?

Or is it more appropriate to stay quiet working away diligently in a “black box” only targeting a selected audience to achieve your purpose.

Marketing and Sales : Start early to raise awareness?

Conscious of the fact that marketing and sales are different functions, for the purpose of this article, I am going to discuss the two under the umbrella of “awareness”. For the experts in either – I apologise in advance for any misrepresentation.

I had an interesting chat with a colleague today about his previous life in a major start-up in the late 1980′s/early 1990′s. When they started out, the company had thirty people working for it all of whom were told to say absolutely nothing to anyone about what they are doing.

There was no marketing. Sales meetings with potential targeted clients were undertaken without fuss. This tactic was continued until the company floated in the stock exchange 10 years later and they are now making revenues of about $500million/quarter.

Essentially they operated black box and managed to grow without shouting their names from the roof tops when they were in start-up mode. They built a strong business by creating a very definite set of rules on their approach and sticking to their guns.

This contrasts strongly with the shout it from the roof-tops (e.g.  social media marketing) approach. This tactic is about raising the product/service awareness to as wide an audience as possible. Many newer businesses, ourselves included, have raised awareness even before commercial launch as a way of generating interest that will (hopefully) be converted into sales post launch.

So which is the right way to go?

For us, the decision to start our marketing and sales in advance was made for two reasons;

Firstly, to start generating an engagement with possible clients so that we were not starting blind at commercial launch.  Secondly because we are an open company and are happy to share our experiences as we progress with people who might be interested in such things. Openness is good currency in my view.

This does not necessarily make the decision we made the “right one” though. We are open for criticisms, potentially showing our hand to competitors etc. We are happy we made the right call for ourselves, but this does not make it right for you and your business.

What are your thoughts on when the right time to start marketing and sales is?

Photo : Suneko

We were contacted one afternoon by Des from Contrast to make the decision on the payment solution for MyProjectTracker. Payment Server Provider or Payment Bureau.

Myself and Barney sat down one afternoon to trash out the pro’s and con’s of using a Payment Server Provider (RealEx) or a Payment Bureau (PayPal). To be honest, Barney favoured PayPal and I favoured RealEx.

A well formulated guide that helped us make sense of the online payment choices was www.webpayments.ie. This should really be the first port of call for anyone creating a website that will be required to take payments.

Here is a summary based on our discussion that day and our discussion of this topic with others who have setup website that require payment:

Payment Server Providers: (RealEx)

• Higher quality system
• Better user experience
• No need for customers to visit other website for Credit Card verification
• No additional accounts required for customers
• Better system in the long term
• Tougher to set up with banking in the short term
• It may take a number of weeks to acquire a Merchant ID from the bank
• A Setup fee may be required with the Payment Service Provider

Payment Bureau: (PayPal)

• Messy user experience
• Customers must visit third party website to for Credit Card verification
• Messy administration of account
• Easier to set up in the short term

A number website designers we spoke to seem to seriously regret choosing PayPal as a solution, but their decision was made at the time due to time or financial constraints.

We plan to provide the best customer experience possible for MyProjectTracker customers, and this begins at the door. It’s all about first impressions, and we want a smooth credit transaction to be the start of a long customer relationship.

As we were not under anytime constraint with regards applying for a Merchant ID, we decided to go with the Payment Server Provider solution.

The fact that we had heard good things regarding RealEx’s customer support, we then decided to choose RealEx as our Payment Service Provider.

Did you decide to go down the Payment Service Provider or the Payment Bureau route?
What were the reasons for you decision?

1. DON’T overload your Business Blog with Ads
There is nothing worse than large ads on entry to your blog or your blog being inundated with flashing text selling everything from fishing rods to miracle weight loss pills. I assume when you made the decision to put ads on your business blog, it was to act as an alternative revenue stream. However, if the sheer mass of ads is putting users off reading your blog or visiting your business site, then it may be time to rethink your strategy. I personally will not read or comment on a blog that is smothered in advertising. Check out How To Advertise on Your Blog Without (Completely) Selling Out.

2. DO Allow Comments and DON’T Require Readers to Sign-Up Before Commenting
Firstly, it is a blogging community. That involves interaction and conversation. Your blog should not be a soapbox upon which you stand on to proclaim to all. Allow users to comment if they wish and don’t force them to sign up. If you are worried about being spammed, then download a plugin to strip out the spam you may receive.

3. DO Use Quality Images
Using crappy images makes it look like you don’t really care. Millions of high quality images can be purchased for a very low price from iStock. It will definitely put a professional gloss on your blog.

4. DO invest in your Blogs Design and Navigation
Whether you invest time or money it is important to get it right. Try to avoid the default wordpress themes. There are many available for free but maybe think about purchasing a wordpress theme or getting a wordpress theme designed. Just remember, everyone reads a book by its cover, first impressions last, and in order to appear professional it is better look professional

5. DON’T Substitute Quantity for Quality
Too many times I find blogs where people are clearly writing a blog in order to fulfil their monthly quota. Simply regurgitating Wikipediais not the basis for a blog. Have an opinion, give an insight. Definitions are not blogs!

6. DO Have Easy and Obvious Links to your Business Website
The blog should complement your actual website. It should help establish you as an expert in your area. Make sure your readers can easily gain access to your website and your contact details.

Do you have any other DO’s & DON’Ts to add to this list?

Is your business too small to take credit card transactions? Are you getting caught out with cheques “bouncing”? Well with the introduction of the Square, that may no longer be an issue.

It was announced last week that Square, co-founded by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, will launch a mobile credit transaction service this summer for the low price of $1. By plugging a small square card reading device into the iPhone’s headphone jack, anybody with the device can instantly conduct credit card transactions using the service’s iPhone app.

Will this be the next best thing since sliced bread or will it be a fraudsters dream? Let us know your thoughts.

I am a big fan of performance related pay and while it is most widely used for managers in private sector organisations, I believe that it should be applied to Premier League Footballers.

Premier League Footballers get paid a fortune, whether they play or not, and whether they or play well or not. We’ve all seen top players clearly meandering around the pitch without their heart in the game yet still getting their £60,000 a week salary.

Times are equally as hard for football clubs as they are for small and medium sized businesses. In order to get the most from your players, introduce performance related pay, similar to how the French manager Raymond Domenech is paid. He receives €30,000 for a win, €10,000 for a draw and nothing if the French team lose.

Now to make it fair, I do believe that these top players should get paid something when they are not playing through injury or squad rotation, but a £1000 a week should more than suffice.

The benefit of this system is that if the team is performing badly, further funds become available to buy new players when the transfer window opens.

Take Liverpool F.C. for example. Let’s assume the average players wage is £30,000 and all 3 subs are used for each match. 6 matches are lost and 3 are drawn before the January transfer window. This frees up a lot of cash:

14 players x ((£30,000 x 6 lost matches) + (£20,000 x 3 drawn matches)) = £3,360,000 saving!!

Not only is a lot of cash freed up but it means the players must work harder if they want to buy a pink Rolls Royce or a diamond encrusted iPhone.

Harder working players means, better results. Which means happier fans, like me.