I started a company a few years back, I’m extremely passionate about it – but its missing marketing – period.
How do you find a place to go to find someone who can help without chasing money right off the bat? I feel like a loser, I make $38k a year, am over $30k in IRS tax debt, and can’t find a way out.
I can sell, but I’m spinning my wheels while everybody else around me has $500k a year revenue companies and I just sit around doing nothing on a compuiter screen.
You seem to be passionate about it. Is anyone else ?
Perhaps you're really close to the point where your business becomes viable, perhaps you've got a long way to go still. We can't say. However, it seems like you're looking at others' success in an unhealthy way ("feel like a loser", comparison with relative success of peers).
You've got to try to keep your head straight and to focus on your goals and what it takes to achieve them. Five years from now your business may be flourishing and their businesses may have gone bankrupt. Or maybe their businesses will soar. It's insignificant compared to your own success, so just don't worry about it. You're still young and you knew the first couple of years were going to be struggle when you committed to this. It's the exception where people reach product-market fit right away, not the rule.
Start spending more time on marketing and see what you can do to move the needle on revenue. There's no shame in focusing on short term results when you're starting out. If you work obsessively on your grand vision at the expense of short term results you risk losing it all. You won't find a guy who can use his business wizardry to fix your business make you rich overnight. You'll have to figure it all out by yourself. No deus ex machina.
Good luck.
Only look at the others around you to try and learn from their failures/mistakes and how they pivoted to become successful.
There are two reasons to be happy with what you have right now (in the present) while striving everyday to be the best YOU that you can be....: There will ALWAYS be someone that has it better than you, AND there will always be someone that has it worse than you (someone that would do anything just to have your life).
Remember why you started this company of yours in the first place and then go make it happen! Whatever it takes! Mindset is everything.
If they have a $500K revenue company, they may not be bringing home any more money than you are. Set that aside.
Don't know what kind of business this is, but it sounds like you don't need marketing as much as you need sales. Sales cures a lot of issues. You can waste a lot of money on marketing - trust me, I have - but at the end of the day, it's all about sales.
Go take a sales class, online selling course, whatever. You need to sharpen your sales skills and customer value proposition...or just sit and wait for deals to come in. Takes smarts, hard work, and a little luck to make it happen. Go make some luck!
Contact me - let's discuss how we can help you get some traction. GagneSolutions.com
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9 tó 5'ers have never ever been in the startup business line of fire before só who are they tó comment or give advice tó a person who has tried and perhaps failed and is still trying?
Check out fi.co - they help aspiring founders move forward while still keeping your job in the short term.
Go do some contract on the side if you have the time. I am in a similar situation but every business is different. For me, I am in a very niche industry with some nice upside potential, it's just taking time for people to do things a different way because they have a "solution" already. I just happen to have a better one that will take hold.. in time. I can't put my earning potential in the mean time, so I rejoined the work force while this thing slowly slowly grows.
Good luck to you.