Starting a Business is Easy. Positioning Your Brand is Hard AF

EXPLORING THE NEEDS OF EARLY-STAGE, HIGH-GROWTH BUSINESS VENTURES, AND THE DIGITAL STUMBLING BLOCKS THEY OFTEN FIND ON THE JOURNEY TO SCALE.

No, You Can't Do It All... Correctly.

What was the first business idea you ever had? I bet you’ve been asked that as many times as you’ve been asked to explain what “entrepreneur” means. Whether your entrepreneurial streak began with fantasies of building a company out of your garage like Steve Jobs, or writing out complex algorithms on your dorm room window like Mark Zuckerberg, it always leads to the same spot – executing on the “Big Idea.”

No matter how good your idea, or how brilliant you are at executing it, you still have to convince others they need it. And chances are, you don’t have every single skill-set required to do that at a high level. Here are the facts:

• Your business needs web developers to build a beautiful website that exemplifies your idea.
• Your business needs marketers to get your product or service out to your target audience.
• Your business needs writers to create content that organically builds an audience.

It needs editors as a last line of defense; designers as the backbone of your brand; producers for your audio/visual buildout; project managers to wrangle everything; and so on and so on.

In short, your business needs purveyors of growth.

These are just the first crests in a wave that, if you don’t get ahead of it, has the potential to sink your entire business.

These challenges include creating content online with limited resources, a lack of brand recognition, and serious competition from established companies. Unless you’re Daddy Warbucks, I’m guessing cash flow is an issue, too. Which means you have to do all of the above on a shoe-string budget.

Let’s say you go the equity crowdfunding route over accredited investors in the venture capital world, and you manage to raise $100k. That’s cause for celebration! But don’t rejoice for too long…

You’ll need a website to introduce the face of your business to the world, so you hire a freelance web developer for a retainer of about $10k in the first month.

That $100k cash reserve is now $90k…

But while you have a functional website, it’s still not quite there yet. So you bring on a graphic designer to enhance your brand for about $75/hr.

After 80 hours of (hopefully) hard work, you’re now just shy of $85k.

Further, startups often rely on small teams of in-house content creators – or freelancers – to produce a steady stream of content. Let’s say a group of 10 writers and 3 editors costs you roughly $30k/mo.

Unless those writers are proficient enough to convert an organic audience (a notoriously difficult audience to crack), you’re projected to see a cash-crunch down to $55k after another month!

That’s not quite cause to freak out yet… After all, it’s not unusual for startups to struggle to get their content seen by a large audience due to a lack of brand recognition and a limited marketing budget. So you bring on a small marketing manager who costs you $100k/year.

Now your monthly projections continue downward to about $47k.

But therein lies the rub: it’s a bitch to stand out in a crowded market or to make a splash in a niche one. There is a lot of content and products being produced and marketed online, and it can be difficult for a startup to make their offering stand out enough to attract a revenue-generating audience. This is particularly true in competitive industries where there are many established players.

So you’ve burned through half of your capital, and your annual revenue rate is looking astonishingly low. How can this be?!

The answer is deceptively simple…

You overpaid on services that delivered underwhelming results.

It’s quite common, as many startups struggle to create content that brings in a steady stream of qualified traffic, which is essential for driving traffic to your products. Likewise for developing a website that’s optimized for reaching new audiences on desktop, mobile, AMP; and for finding a designer to brand your services in a way that sticks in the minds of your audience. Doing all of this the right way is possible, but requires understanding of how search engines work, how sites are optimized and how brands are positioned in the marketplace. All of which can be challenging for startups with limited resources and expertise.

But with proper planning, resources, and an understanding of the target audience, your startup can find the right team with all of the aforementioned skill sets in one bundle.