No one knows you exist

When we first started, there were 2 of us. Then 3. 4... and so on. But when I look back to the beginning, I remember distinctly the feeling. I had no idea what I was doing. I knew what I wanted. I just had no idea how to go about doing it.

There is always a difference between theory and practice. In theory, I would have had enough money to advertise and market for my service. In practice though, this money was not available. I had to make do with what I had.

The most important thing to understand is, marketing does not have to be prohibitively expensive. Advertising does not have to be a TV advertisement. There were areas where I invested money that I wouldn't now, if given the chance to revisit. But, overall, I am happy with most of the decisions I have made.

1. Public Relations:

PR is a very cost-effective marketing tool. The only difference between advertising and PR is that you, not your agency, must also be creative. You have to be able to create stories that would interest readers. You have to participate in building the image of your firm. Whatever you do, never ignore PR.

2. Sales (cold calls):

Sales is a numbers game. Input X, output Y. Your sales people have to be motivated. No, don't expect them to come to you as motivated individuals. Don't think that when they sell your service they will become more motivated. No. YOU have to do the motivation. Part of the motivation is to identify clear goals and steps in achieving those goals. A mistake I have made was to give sales people free reign and give them targets only.

Part of sales is also attitude and dress. Remember, if you are not confident that your sales person is going to be able to represent you, then you have the wrong sales person. Put a dress code in place. Make sure the attitudes and values of the firm are clearly communicated. Do you sell at whatever cost? Do you sell only if the client needs your service? Do you create the need even when you know it's unnecessary but nice? What is your value. I am not judging anyone here, but whatever value you have (wrong or right), needs to be clearly articulated to the people representing your firm.