Build it and they will come.
Let your work do the speaking for you.
Rise by merit alone.
Are all great ways to stay broke for your entire life and never get a business off the ground. This is something it took me a long time to understand and something that I want to make sure you have a good grasp of going forward. In many facets of life we are taught to work hard and that good things will come from that and for a few certain aspects of life this holds true.
In the gym you get what you put in, even in aspects where it takes more than working hard, for example progressing in your career and things of that nature, without hard work you’re still not going to have the progress that you want. It’s the same with business and making money. Whether that’s starting your own business, growing a brand, or working for another.
There are certain mindsets and beliefs that many of us have that are holding us back. Even though these beliefs, like the value of hard work, are ‘good’ beliefs and in a perfect world would work. But as we all know, we live in a world that is very far from perfect.
So let’s get into some of these beliefs and call them out for what they are.
The False Business Beliefs Holding You Back
We tend to think that the best always rises to the top in business. That people are rational and select the goods and services that are best for them and the best. Thereby growing that which is good and starving that which is not. However that’s not at all how actual humanity works. Economic models and theories are great for robots but tend to fall apart when seeing the light of humanity’s day. People are persuaded in all sorts of ways and they go with what they know and what they are familiar with over that which is superior many times.
Superiority is no guarantee of success. Many of us have the “field of dreams” mentality. Where if you build it, and ‘it’ is superior and better then they, the customers, will come. We imagine that we set up shop, whether on the road or the internet, and a slow trickle comes in and with superior service, superior products, superior everything that trickle will eventually turn into a flood.
However that’s not really how it works. To succeed by word of mouth and superiority alone takes a lot of time. You’re relying on people to do your marketing for you. To go out and convince other people to do business with you at a rate that you can stay in business. This is the slow road to growth. And that is not to say that word of mouth is not important. It absolutely is and something every business needs to stay viable.
However it’s not going to keep a business going to you until the business has been viable for a very long time. Let’s use publishing as an example. Stephen King releases a new book and he has enough brand recognition that word of mouth can work very well for him and keep his sales going. For a first time author word of mouth isn’t going to take him very far, not at the start.
What we need is eyeballs, is taking enough people from ‘who the hell are you’ to ‘you might have something I want’. To go in their minds from a complete unknown to a ‘I’ve heard of you’.
And to do that requires marketing.
If A Tree Falls…
You know the old adage, if a tree falls and no one is around to hear it…does it make a sound? And the answer is ‘who cares?’, well that’s not really the answer but that’s most reaction to it. It’s the same with marketing. You can have the absolute best product in the world but if no one sees it, hears about it, or knows about it. It doesn’t matter.
Like at all.
You could have the cure for cancer and it wouldn’t matter. You’d still be broke. Now you’d think “oh, the cure of cancer. That’d market itself.” but I think you’d be surprise. First off there’d be a ton of skepticism. You’d still need marketing dollars invested in having trial runs and people experience the positive effects and then word of mouth would spread, combined with more marketing dollars effectively spent, combined with time, and eventually you’d end up with something.
But it’d take a lot longer than you think. And you’d have to keep the business viable during that time. Before it was marketing itself. And that’s with having the cure for cancer. I’m guessing what you’re marketing has less value in the marketplace, mostly because just about everything has less value in the marketplace. So you’d still need marketing spend to take people from not knowing you, to knowing you, to doing first time business with you, to doing repeat business with you, to becoming a longtime fan who spreads word of mouth.
The Sheer Number Of People Out There
Whatever you do, doesn’t matter what, you are not unique. There is not enough people out there to stumble upon your business to make it viable, no matter how unique, special, amazing, or whatever else you feel your work is. There are millions of businesses out there, many that are doing exactly what you do. Even if you do have an effective unique selling proposition, that alone is not going to grow your business sufficiently. You have to have marketing dollars.
Hence why having a good income stream like sales or good backers with deep pockets is so fundamental to starting a business and making it viable, and it’s also something that just about every guru out there seems to gloss over, forget about, or straight up lie about. You can’t make money without money, period. Doesn’t have to be your money, it can be other people’s money, but you have to have money to make money. End of story.
Your freedom and entrepreneurial dreams will not come true unless you have money to invest in marketing to invest in your business, because that’s what marketing is, it’s an investment. It’s the most critical investment that you can make in your business if you want it to succeed and have a chance. It’s the wind that’ll take your plane to the skies and keep it there.
Freedom & Truth
So if you’re looking for a business to make you free. You not only need to break down the needs of the market, the best practices for that business, the best systems and processes for that business, general business skills, marketing skills, and the like but you need to start saving or securing capital to invest in that business. I wish I could give you a number but with inflation and the different nature of different business, not to mention how far you on on the marketing learning curve, that is impossible.
But I will say this, you’re looking at thousands of pounds, euros, or dollars. Not hundreds. And that will also depend on rent, if you need to buy a building, what equipment you need, and a thousand other factors. But again we’re looking at thousands upon thousands of dollars. And most people do not have that just lying around. You’re most likely not going to start a freedom business by saving up spare change and a few pesos here and there.
It takes time and investment. And the best way to do that is to get into a job that provides the capital that you need to get things started.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
