Marketing Your Really Small Business: A Guide to Marketing With No Time, No Money and No Expertise

By George B. Krueger, MBA, DBA

Marketing is a challenge for really small businesses. There are not enough hours in the day for the typical microbusiness operator to tackle a complex marketing environment. Microbusiness owners also have limited financial resources. Marketing expertise is also often lacking. This book is a roadmap for microbusinesses to market with no time, no money and no expertise. Key marketing themes are identified that provide direction for microbusinesses to improve their marketing operations. This book is designed as a guide to improve microbusiness marketing results.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9780359685097

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Marketing Your Really Small Business: A Guide to Marketing With No Time, No Money and No Expertise

Marketing Your Really Small Business

A Guide to Marketing When You Have No Time, No Money and No Expertise

George B. Krueger, MBA, DBA

Copyright © 2019 by George B. Krueger

All rights reserved.  This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the author.

www.uwpprofessorgeorge.com

ISBN #: 978-0-359-68509-7

Introduction to Marketing Your Really Small Business When You Have No Time, No Money and No Expertise

Microbusinesses employ nine or less people, including the owner.  We’re talking really small businesses, often one or two-person operations.  The owner does everything!  Microbusinesses are truly the American dream, anybody can start one.  Microbusinesses are often started by an owner who has a specific expertise or love of a commercial opportunity.

There are 3.8 million employer microbusinesses in the United States (Headd, 2017). Microbusinesses are an important segment of the United States economy, comprising 74.8% of private sector employers and employing 10.3% of private sector jobs (Headd, 2017). Microbusinesses are key components of local economies and provide employment opportunities.

Small businesses have been a key area of interest for me throughout my whole life.  I grew up on a small farm and my Dad ran his own small research laboratory.  One of my first jobs out of college was managing a microbusiness with five employees.  During my economic development career, I ran a one-person (me!) industrial development business.  My mission is to help microbusinesses (small businesses with less than 9 employees) use marketing strategies to be successful. 

Even though a large part of my marketing career has been in large corporate businesses, I have operated and consulted for small businesses.  During my economic development career, I ran workshops and training sessions on starting and operating small businesses.  This experience led me to the conclusion that small businesses have no time, no money and no expertise in marketing.  There are exceptions, of course, but most small businesses struggle with marketing.

Research on microbusinesses is limited in scope and volume.  Research has tended to focus on entrepreneurship and small businesses of 100 employees or more.  The marketing issues facing a microbusiness are very different from entrepreneurship and businesses with enough scale to employ specialized marketing personnel.  Indeed, one of the major reasons for conducting this research project was to add to the body of knowledge of microbusiness marketing. 

I am a professor at a small Midwest university. I teach marketing at the undergraduate level.  I earned a doctorate in business administration in 2019.  My dissertation was a qualitative case study on microbusiness marketing with the theme of marketing no time, no money and no expertise.  Check out my dissertation at: https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/2211608337.html?FMT=ABS or https://www.uwpprofessorgeorge.com/doctoral-dissertation-on-microbusiness-marketing.html

This book is based on the dissertation Microbusiness Marketing with No Time, No Money, and No Expertise—Research and Recommendations for Improving Marketing Results for Microbusinesses.  The research confirmed that microbusinesses struggle with marketing.  The microbusiness operator wears many hats and marketing is simply one of many daily business functions that need to be done. There are not enough hours in the day for the typical microbusiness operator to tackle a complex marketing environment. 18 microbusiness operators were interviewed in depth on their marketing strategies and results.  Multiple themes were identified that provide direction for microbusinesses to improve their marketing operations. These themes are explored in this book.

I’d like to thank the countless really small businesses that I worked with over 3 careers spanning 35 years.  Thanks to previous microbusiness marketing researchers and my dissertation committee. Also, thank you to the 18 participants in my dissertation research that spent their valuable time to help me understand the daily realities of microbusiness marketing.  It was humbling to observe the drive, expertise and love of the business by really small business operators.  I hope this book can provide direction on using marketing as a key factor in business success.

My hero when I was in MBA school, Peter Drucker stated, The purpose of a business is to acquire and retain a customer.  Let’s go!

How To Use This Book

This book is based on the dissertation Microbusiness Marketing with No Time, No Money, and No Expertise—Research and Recommendations for Improving Marketing Results for Microbusinesses. This book is designed as a guide to improve microbusiness marketing results.  The book is organized by the themes that were identified in the research:

•Successful Marketing for Microbusinesses

•Time Management

•Spending Money Wisely on Marketing

•Measuring Return-On-Investment (ROI)

•Improve Marketing Expertise

•Improve Digital Marketing Expertise

•Traditional Marketing Strategies Are Effective

•Integrated Communications Plan Excel Spreadsheet

The author’s marketing expertise and toolsets are combined with the themes to improve marketing for microbusinesses.  Each theme is explored in a chapter and worksheets are included for microbusinesses to complete to improve their marketing results. 

Microbusiness owners should read each chapter, evaluate the action plan and complete the worksheet at the end of each chapter.  By completing the worksheets and the Integrated Communications Plan Excel Spreadsheet the microbusiness operator will have a marketing plan to implement to improve marketing results.

Plan on implementing a few of the steps in the marketing plan each week.  Review the plan on Monday and plan the implementation for the week.  Evaluate the performance at the end of the week.  Focus on what can be done, don’t worry about what can’t be (or isn’t) done.  Strive to get