Atlanta's Marketing Center

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The 2007 numbers from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy are as follows…

There were 29,804 new small business startups in Georgia (that’s more than the number of marriages). There were 29,315 closures (higher than the divorce rate). It’s estimated that just 5% of the new businesses will be created to produce an offering that will satisfy an observable need that is in high demand while about 95% will be created because the owner is good at something and wants to create a company around that. (Not necessarily a bad things as long as there are plans that are followed.)

Of the 29,804 startups, about 79% of those, or 23,500, will fail within 5 years. The number one reason they’ll fail will be due to a lack of customers and revenue. About 10% of the new startups will create a marketing strategy and fewer will follow it. 

It’s hard to look at these numbers and not want to help. My message to those interested in starting a business is 1) do some research on new business ideas, and 2) create both a business and marketing plan. Do both of these well before you start a business.

If you've already been in business and haven't done these things, then get in gear!

Website Marketing Alert!

Let me be as clear as I can about your future lead generation possibilities-- if your website designer plans on using a "Flash" site, then you can pretty much kiss serious lead generation using the organic (free) search directories good-bye.  For those who are unfamiliar, Flash is a technology that allows for quick movies, objects that move and fade in and out. 

You might notice this when you go to a site and there's some graphic movement before you're allowed to get the information you're looking for.  This flash, or movie, looks pretty cool, but believe me, it's deadly in terms of drawing your target audience to your site.  Why?  Because the search directories such as Google, Yahoo, MSN do not recognize and are unable to index these movies, so there's little chance of you being ranked highly. 

At this point, your site might be "cool", but you're essentially a pretty store in a strip center that no one can find.  The worst part of all is that most website designers (who are also typically graphic artists) are oblivious to this search engine dynamic.  While they think they're helping you, they're actually hurting you.

What type of site do you have...a static, a flash, or something in between?