Title:
Small Business Startup - The 90/10 Rule
Word Count:
300
Summary:
Small business startups must follow a 90/10 Rule where 90% of the time is spent on direct marketing and
business development activity and 10% is spent on technical skills development. The trade off in order to
gain valuable, long term clients is well worth it and will ensure the business lasts for a long time after your
small business startup.
Keywords:
small-business-startup, small business startup
Article Body:
Small business startups require a lot of work. You might however, be surprised by what type of work
should be taking up the majority of your time. Computer consultants, when they contemplate small
business startups, tend to focus on the technical aspects of the business. The rational is that they want to
offer a decent service and must have great technical skills before anyone will be willing to pay them.
In fact, the 90/10 Rule tells us that during small business startups, 90% of your time should be spent on
direct marketing activities and only 10% on building technical skills. The type of small business startup
activities to spend 90% of your time on include:
prospecting
lead generation
going out on sales calls
preparing proposals
During the small business startup phase you must be very attuned to the need for acquiring high quality
clients. Every non client hour that does not have to go into administrative or organizational duties should be
plowed into prospecting and networking. This can ease up a bit once you start to get beyond the small
business startup phase. For now though, client generation is your priority.
The Bottom Line on Small Business Startup
For small business startups, following the 90/10 Rule is critical. Spending 90% of your time on direct
marketing and business development activity versus 10% on technical skills development is a trade-off that
is well worth it. There is no point gaining technical skills if you have no clients to practice them on. Small
business startup is a time that will make or break your business. Put your training and certifications on hold
for a while and get out meeting people and making as many contacts as possible.
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