I have huge respect for these smart and suave MBA guys and believe me that they are the smartest people I have ever met in my life. But I hate when I am being told that you need to have an MBA degree in marketing to be able to be a successful entrepreneur. Yes, the MBA course does include some topics on how to build a profitable brand, what mistakes that you should be avoiding while promoting a brand and others interesting things but what I still believe is that these are not just enough. Theoretical knowledge can help you land on a good paying job but running a business is a different ball of wax altogether. You need to have practical experience and you need to make mistakes just to learn from it. This is the kind of knowledge that you may not find in your MBA syllabus. Here in this article, we are going to share the business lessons that many business owners have learnt the hard way:
Do not stick to a single business plan always: Since we are living in a society where the perceptions of people are changing faster than the speed of light, you should embrace agile marketing. Your marketing plan should be as flexible as possible. If you stick to your business plan just because you have some emotional attachment with it, you are making a great mistake. I have seen innumerable companies that started as something but eventually emerged as something else. Now, would they be able to make it that large had they stuck to their business plan? I had great doubts on it. So, you need to change with the changes of the market in order to survive.
Create your niche: I know how tough it is for you to make your mark felt as a newcomer when the market is already overcrowded. Since we are still in a recession, it is all the more difficult for a business owner to make his place secured. So, the only way out is to create your own market. Remember how amazon.com took a huge risk when they launched Kindle. There were not many takers in its early days as people were new to this concept. They educated people, taught them how to use it and now they are the market leader in the ebook reader niche.
Rebrand to Explore More: It is really tough for a company to launch and market a product which is not directly aligned with their existing brand image. This will lead to unnecessary confusion and therefore, it makes sense if you split your brand and create two different brands so that people can relate to the product and the company easily. But this is by far the most difficult part. As you are going to split the company, you are going to need double manpower, and have to invest double amount for marketing purpose.
Do not take your customers for Granted: This is another common misconception that is ruling the minds of marketers. They believe that they know everything about the market and their targeted audience. And they launch the product without doing any kind of market survey and eventually found that either there is no such demand of their service or the demand is far beyond their expectation.
It is not just big, it is all about the Brand: Just having large number of employees working under your banner does not necessarily qualify you as a big company. You are here to build a big brand and not a big company. Google does not have a large number of employees; rather they have a comparatively small team of highly efficient and motivated people. So, focus on creating a big brand rather than creating a body shop.
Author Bio: Michael Evans is a passionate writer and he is currently associated with http://www.insidershostreview.com/.