Small business must think that marketing advice has no value – otherwise they would be queueing up outside the local experts office.

Or is there some other factors at play here?

Finances are simple in principle – you add figures for expenses and income and viola!. In practice its a somewhat different picture and a whole industry has grown up to support businesses figuring their finances. Small business knows this and chances are the first professional advice they get is from a chartered accountant.

Fear is a big driver – get your finances wrong and it wont be just the tax man calling with a ‘please explain’

Technology expertise is valued by most business-people too. The cost/complexity/frustration combinations force many to get advice. (The value of that advice when bought only on price is another matter!)

Marketing doesn’t strike the fear of finance, and doesnt appear to have the complexity of technology, so most do it themselves, and struggle to survive.

But who’s to blame? The small business-people who misunderstand the value of Marketing experts – or the marketing experts for not selling themselves to their target audience effectively?

You decide – and let me know in a comment.

About to start a business? Heres the single most important piece of advice I can give you, (And I learnt it the hard way).

Forget the product, Forget Product R&D, Forget everything – except the customer.

If you have a customer willing to buy something from you – go fill the need. Simple.

Don’t wait until you have the new product all polished up – waiting to wheel it out on an unsuspecting world – chances are you will fail – or at least go broke attempting to market it from cold. And if you suceed – I bet the product changes along the way.

I heard today that on average -  startups will spend 3 times as much as they estimated getting to market – and twice as much getting clients as developing the product.

If you get the customer first – one with real dollars – not a tyre kicker – then you know your product or service is a winner – and you just might shave something off of the r&d.