Scott On Marketing

The back story: Sarah, an unhappy PR employee, sets out to start a wedding photography business. As a small business owner, she learns how to market herself and acquire customers.

The third question I had was, “what’s the budget?” “Three thousand,” she said, “for the whole business.” This included the $2,000 investment in the camera which only left us a thousand dollars to create a marketing presence. In the world of creating websites and spending for Google search teams, you may find this budget a bit small, but not really. In the world of return on investment (ROI) based marketing, barter agreements, and good old fashioned begging, a thousand dollars is plenty.

For new business owners, you may not know how much marketing dollars you need to kick start you business. Many owners don’t spend any for fear it’s a slippery slope – once they spend a dollar they’ve committed themselves to $10 more.  Not necessarily true. For instance, hiring a good graphic designer can cost you from $30 to $50 per hour. With an average project taking only a few hours, you can produce some nice quality stuff for $100 or less.  Starting your Google AdWords account will cost you just $5 to start and you can set your monthly budget. Domain names cost just under $10 per year to own.

So we began to set out a wish list of marketing assets. We knew we needed a few things right off the bat – a corporate identity, marketing collateral, and finally a website. 

Homework:  How many money are you putting into marketing your business? Where does it go?

Next Blog:  Sarah comes up with a company name