#W ORD U P O N E NTREPRENEURS &
M ARKETING
Word on the Street, Cape Town
www.wordonthestreetmedia.co.za; [email protected]; 072 450 27 98
The Marketing Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make
By Robyn Lambrick
After years of working in the Marketing and
Advertising industry I opened my own community
advertising agency with a dream to make a difference
in my clients and their customer’s lives. Step up
#WordOntheStreetMedia – community marketing,
advertising and PR agency – in service to
#Entrepreneurs #SME’s and #PersonalBrands
Word on the Street Media is an extension of the work I
did in corporate – with two major exceptions: 1. My
clients are SME’s, Entrepreneurs and Personal Brands
– not a massive Corporate Group of Companies; and –
2. I am now ‘the boss’ and I am an Entrepreneur as
well.
Word on the Street is nearly in its third year of
operation and whilst we’re not quite earning the big
bucks - we’re definitively paying the bills and then
some. It didn’t start out that way though… the first
year or two was touch and go! In the beginning we
made some radical mistakes as we struggled to get to
grips with the ‘entrepreneurial world’.
Whilst we grappled with our target audience and the
type of client’s we took on we joined a business
network – Xtraordinary Women Business Network
Platform. As it turned out this was ultimately one of
our best business decisions because we were able to
meet likeminded Entrepreneurs who were also on a
journey into Entrepreneurville.
That was literally in 2012 and 3 years down the track we
have learnt some hard lessons, both personally and
from studying entrepreneurs we associate with.
5 Marketing Mistakes Entrepreneurs make that could be avoided!
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Entrepreneurs don’t plan
It’s not really the sexy stuff – or so some might think –
but when you’re an entrepreneur with a vision – your
eye is firmly on the end result, not how you’ll get
there! So the detail of a Business Plan and a
Marketing Plan just doesn’t enter into the fray!
It really should be one of the first action points the
intrepid Entrepreneur takes in their business journey.
A business and marketing plan need not a long
protracted document full of ‘blah blah’ – it can be a one
pager with the road map, the mile stones and the
reason for the journey. But the Entrepreneur needs
direction and a map of how to get there. These two
documents will give all your suppliers, associates and
staff members a clear understanding of your vision and
mission for your business – thus resulting in supportive
buy in.