Our company provides a range of marketing services, and each week we typically send out around 4-5 price quotations. We also turn away around 9-10 requests, when we feel that our services are not appropriate.
Most of the companies that we turn away understand what we’re saying, and appreciate our not taking their money under what would amount to false pretenses.
And a sizable number of companies we send a price quote feel that our services are too expensive.
A typical reply is a variation of the following:
“We were kind of hoping that you might be able to manage our Google AdWords account for around $200 a month? If we start to see good results for this, we might be open to spending a little more.
PS: We assume the $200 a month also includes Google’s fees?“
Seriously.
What can a person hope to get for $200 a month, averaging at around $50 per week?
How many hours of quality work can a person expect to receive for so little money?
When a company sets aside a budget of $50 a week to push their product in front of the world, that company has no chance of success.
Think small and you’ll stay small.
Note that I’m not suggesting reckless spending. If your business is a new one, then you shouldn’t be ordering a super-luxurious ebony desk with a custom-made hydromatic, air-induced, conductile chair. And if you don’t think a service is worth spending money on, then don’t use that service.
But you need to be prepared to spend money where appropriate. And you need to think that your business is worth spending money on.
If you’re planning to save $10 a month on cheap web hosting, using free or ad-supported hosting, your business will fail.
If you’re hoping to steal your neighbour’s wireless internet instead of paying for your own, that mentality will kill any hope of success.
If you’re not prepared to pay $10 a month for a business bank account, and hope your customers don’t mind paying into your personal account, you’re never going to make it.
If you won’t spend $300 on Office 2007, and don’t mind asking clients to export their documents and spreadsheets into a different format, then you won’t have too many clients to worry about.
And if you won’t spend significantly more than $200 a month to push your product in front of targeted people from all over the world, targeted people who are looking for precisely what you sell, then your business has no chance of getting off the ground.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all been at the decisive moment when we have to take a deep breath and put our money on our company.
The most you have to lose isn’t cash. It’s the future of your business.
Think small and you’ll stay small.
Note: comments, feedback and argument more than welcome!
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