When a business is newly introduced, the initial response toward it from potential customers is that of apathy, observation, muted interest, disguised appreciation or, at best, flattering admiration from those close to the owner of the business. Potential customers who have no emotional attachment may show reactions like: “which one is this” or “who is this” or “where is this one coming from”. This attitude from customers to a new business is usual and natural – it is part of human make-up. When and where this is the case, it is left to owners of new businesses to generate enough interest from potential customers to keep their businesses going by carrying out good promotion and publicity of their products and services. There is no two-way to it, an unknown business will always struggle and may die prematurely. In this way, a business that will stand the test of time must be well nurtured and should not be denied watering and pruning.
Every business needs goodwill to survive. A business needs belief, trust, conviction, confidence and credence for it to become the toast of customers. The goodwill, belief, conviction, nurturing and pruning mentioned above that a business requires is achieved through good staffing on one hand and adequate advertising and promotion of the business on the other. Let me mention it here: staff wage payment and advertising are two major areas where thriving businesses incur the biggest costs. You need staff to do the work; but you need customers to come and patronise your business in sufficient numbers to keep your staff fully engaged, otherwise there will be underutilisation of capacity.
Rephrasing the words of Lee Kuan Yew in his very massive book, “From Third World To First: The Singapore Story”, no one should forget that good things in life (public order, personal security, economic and social progress, and prosperity) don’t naturally happen. These good things (call it success, if you like) depend on ceaseless effort and attention from an honest and effective leadership. Therefore where the leader (in this gist entrepreneurs, business owners and managers) cannot see beyond his or her nose or he or she is deficient in knowledge, failure will set in. But it is amazing that several business leaders are not always ready to give needed ceaseless efforts to their businesses. For instance, tell them why they must advertise and promote their businesses very well, they are quick to say ‘it is too expensive’ or ‘I don’t have money’. Their reactions are always as if you ask them to throw away money. But it is clear, before a business will become well known and many customers will come to patronise the business, a lot of noise for several months and years is required.
You can’t do flyers which you are giving to friends and believe that you are adequately promoting your business, neither can you do just one newspaper advert and you think you are okay. No, it doesn’t work that way: just doing one advert will end up a waste of money. For your business publicity to be effective you must do it severally and it must be a combination of several options.
In the same vein, many people don’t really know what advert does to businesses. They believe once they put an advert in a newspaper, radio or TV, customers should flood their businesses immediately. In the course of my activities, I always hear business owners say the advert done by them did not bring just one customer. No, you may not be correct. Let me tell you something: the role of an advert is not to make customers patronise your business. The role of an advert is to help you create awareness for many people to know that your business is existing and that you are available for business. What really makes customers buy is another sales promotion strategy you deploy after you have (or simultaneously) saturated the marketplace with lots of advertisements over a period of time (months or years). What I describe here requires a lot of money because making your business known to people is not a child’s play. This is why in small businesses, the biggest expense is money meant for advertisement and promotion. And you must be ready to spend the money (effectively and wisely); otherwise the business may become sickly, always struggling for patronage and eventually die.
You should have prepared yourself for this business adverts and promotion at the planning stage. Your business plan should have identified what the adverts and promotions should look like and how much will be required to make the noise. If you are really ready for business success, please give your business sufficient publicity and promotion.
Ola Emmanuel is a business planning and cooperative consultant. He works with a team of international consultants to conceptualise and plan agribusiness and housing projects. As a certified trainer authorised to use the International Labour Organization’s enterprise development modules, he trains entrepreneurs and organises workshops and seminars for potential and practising entrepreneurs as well as business managers and cooperatives. He also speaks and facilitates leadership and management workshops on invitation. His book, Business Planning Made Easy: Step by Step Guide On How To Turn Your Idea To Profitable Business’ is the latest of the books authored by him. Tel.: +234(0)9068602954 (call and sms), +234(0)8023257707 (whatsApp only).