Marketing Expert or Business Pro...which is better?

> Once again Mike, a thought provoking post.
> I suspect a lot of this comes down to a
> matter of size.
> Depending on where you see your business in
> a few years is going to affect your strategy
> from day one. If you are looking to employ
> lots of people and make a bit off the top of
> each worker, its quite different to a pure
> marketer with a lean and mean operation
> making a bit on the top of each product.
> Personally I hate employing staff and the
> management burden that comes with it, so I
> prefer to limit the size of my business to
> what I can cope with. I know its dumb, but
> it makes me happy.

(ha-ha)

No really it isn't about size even though size is the result of good business skills. I've forgotten who said it but the quote was "The difference between a business doing a $100,000 per year and $1,000,000 per year and $100,000,000 per year are the 3 P's...Policies, Plans and Procedures." I agree 100% with that...I've seen it myself first hand. Someone with marketing skills but poor business skills just won't hit high sales figures (I'm sure exceptions exist but overall feel pretty confident in that statement).

You don't need to have multitudes of employees any more either. With so many opportunities to farm out operations and fulfillment you can have a business that is doing $1,000,000 per year or more without any employees at all. But of course you have to be business savvy enough to figure out what prices to pay for these services and how to keep those folks in line.

Large businesses are usually the result of a small businesses that have done things right over a period of time. How are they doing things right? Usually they are combining good marketing and good business skills. And personally I think it is much easier to become a good marketer.

Take care,

Mike W.