Avoiding Business Failure: Marketer vs Producer

Avoiding Business Failure: Marketer vs Producer

While most businesses started are meant to solve problems in society, there are two kinds of people who solve those problems.
And these two kinds of people have different mentalities.
And they create different problems for themselves.

First, the Marketer - Jane

The marketer, Jane, knows the market. She has seen the need around her or she has experienced the pain herself.

She wanted good custom furniture to furnish her space, having moved into a new space after she got a raise. But all she got were either furniture spaces that sold good quality generic content or fundi’s (carpenters) who did low-quality custom works. She decided to start a furniture business to give people like her a chance to get high-quality furniture fitted to their home spaces. Even so, she has no idea how to make furniture.

Second, the Producer - Priscilla

The producer - let’s call her Priscilla - already has a solution. She is a fantastic baker.

She used to bake for her friends, family, and for herself. She enjoys baking. It gives her great satisfaction when she sees the joy on people’s faces when they eat her cakes. She has perfected her skill. She is the master of cake production. In fact, she only started this business because someone in her circles told her that she could sell her cakes. Or she was fired from her workplace and decided to build a business on her skill set. Even so, she isn’t clear on how much to sell her cakes and how to get clients.

The problems

Jane, the marketer, is stuck in production. She opened an Instagram page as well as a Facebook page. She thought that businesses needed to be there. She talked to her nephew, who knew about graphic design and got a logo. Did he get it from a free logo maker online? She will never know. She was ready to market the business. Then she saw the ugly side of running her business.

• She didn’t know where to source materials from.

• No carpenter wanted to be hired by someone who knew nothing about the business.

• Those that came in swindled her.

• They came and brought bad customer service habits from their previous jobs.

She struggled in building a good brand culture that could ensure consistency in service delivery. And customers lost trust in her business.

Well, Priscilla, the producer, is stuck in marketing. It’s more difficult than she thought. She decided what flavors she’d have based on how her circles had given feedback. She saw that drips and edible flowers were popular and she worked on that. She bought a bigger oven, a few tools, and a KitchenAid mixer. Then she sat waiting for clients through the Instagram and Facebook pages she’d created. And her pain started.

• She got many inquiries but no sales.

• She would get likes and saves on her posts but no orders.

• The customers she got complained about her prices – that they were high.

• A few gave negative feedback on the cakes and she felt demoralized.

Is it that she didn’t know how to bake good cakes? Not at all. But then, she even lost faith in her skill set.

The Truth

Both Jane and Priscilla are out to solve problems. None of them is out looking to create problems for themselves – but that is exactly what happened.

I don’t think as an entrepreneur, you are out looking to create problems for yourself. But if you don’t understand the people you are selling to, their greatest pain points, how to solve their problems, and how to communicate all that to them, you will be setting yourself up for failure and stress.

Are you a Jane or a Priscilla?

It is possible to ensure the business/venture grows, regardless of what type of entrepreneur you are. You could:

• Learn to produce and be a DIY entrepreneur.

• Get the information and skillset required.

• Build a brand around your product.

• Learn to market your good product.

• Bring in a business partner good at what you are bad at.

• Employ the right talent, already with the skillset. Train the right brand culture.

• Temporarily work with a specialist in your area of weakness

Begin now

Figure out if you are a Jane or a Priscilla and seek the kind of help you need. Or you will slowly kill the business by solving the wrong problems or providing the wrong solutions. Whichever solution you need, start implementing today. Start today by doing the right things.

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