I enjoy seeing new entrepreneurs succeed. It’s especially rewarding when I’m told that our product has contributed to their success. 

The part I enjoy most is hearing the excitement in their voice and seeing the twinkle in their eye when an entrepreneur finally sees their vision start to become a reality. 

One of our users is a new entrepreneur transitioning a traditional service business (where 95% of new leads are generated by telemarketing) into an internet business that generates inbound leads and productizes part of the previous service offering. 

While many of our users are seasoned consultants, our toolset can help even beginning marketers and entrepreneurs produce quality results. It’s tougher for beginners, though, mostly because they lack experience, and confidence in their results. It takes complete commitment and a lot of elbow grease to achieve success. 

This user is a first-time entrepreneur and marketer hatching a new business idea. Since last year he’s been designing the offering, shaping competitive strategy, designing a brand strategy, creating the messaging, and structuring the website while optimizing it for organic search. Last week he wrote the creative brief and hired the web designer. 

Yesterday his vision became tangible. 

I just viewed the web creative and was extremely impressed. I’ll discuss the results and details after it’s live, but I wanted to share a quote from the entrepreneur: 

“Jim, the planning was painful, but it was completely worth it. It all came together after seeing the design. It’s so rewarding to see all that tedious marketing planning work pay off! As I struggled through all the positioning and branding exercises that were completely new to me, I continually reminded myself to focus on the task at hand and the process will lead me to my ultimate destination-my new internet business. It was tough, but I’m just about there and now clearly see how everything fits together.” 

I think his site will stand toe-to-toe with the big guys in his space—one is upwards of $50MM in revenue—and our guy’s is a one-man show! 

I’m a firm believer that the best things usually happen after a lot of hard work. And in business, I believe it’s wise to use detailed planning at every step for a greater chance at success. 

I just love the old saying Measure twice; cut once, and enjoy seeing others gain that same appreciation.

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Tags: marketing planning, Website

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 11:34 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.