Q & A: How much time should I spend on product development vs. sales/marketing in my small business?

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Q & A: How much time should I spend on product development vs. sales/marketing in my small business?

by Stefan Töpfer on Nov 11, 2007

For me this question has a simple answer, and it goes like this:

90% sales and marketing
10% product development

Let me quantify that a little. Before you start in business, and the clock is ticking, sort of speak you should have a two things:

at least one order for your product, to see if someone will actually buy it, preferably more orders if possible and
the product to sell, which you will have produced in your spare time, while still having an income.

But from the time you launch your small business or start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, you need to spend most of your time on selling and marketing, because that is what brings the money into your business.

Many thousands of businesses go bust every year with a “perfect product”, but no sales. So get a product out there and sell, sell and sell. If you then have time develop your product further or develop more product. By now you will have had some feedback from your clients and they will guide you as to what they would like to buy from your next.

That is the bootstrapper way of doing it, in my mind the only way to do it with the least amount of risk and on a shoe string. Remember the aim is to make money, not to spend it. ST.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Development, Marketing/PR, Question & Answer, bootstrap, market and sell. 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.

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