My Greatest Challenge So Far

I am coming up on the two year anniversary of the launch of SportsLizard.com and without a doubt my greatest challenge has been getting customers. This may seem obvious to anyone who has run a business, but it wasn't to me.

Two years ago I had no clue how to legally set up a business. I didn't know a thing about web programming. I didn't know basic accounting or how to file taxes for a business. I was an engineering student and engineering was about all that I knew very well. I figured the fact that I didn't know web marketing very well either would just fall into the same category - things I needed to learn but would have no problem with.

However, I failed to realize that the difference between marketing and those other things is that each one of those other things required me to buy a few books, practice a bit, and I was all set. I bought several marketing books, refer constantly to several great sites, and have read thousands of email newsletters. Each one gives me a little more insight and makes me a little bit better of a marketer.

The thing that differentiates marketing from those other things is that the result, a consumer doing something, is an extremely unpredictable and variable thing. In essence, you need to find what works for you and do that because no two markets and no two consumers are the same. What worked for me might not work for you. What worked for you might not work for me.

That frustrates me to no end. Having an engineering background I'm used to forming a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, and then developing a conclusion based on the results of the test. In theory, if you run the same experiment as me, you will get the same result. Why? Because you can control all of the variables involved in the experiment in the same way that I did.

The difference with web marketing is that there are more variables than we can possibly control, the most impossible of which being the consumer. The same person put in the same situation two different times doesn't always react the same each time. Maybe they are in a better mood or maybe they just got a bonus at work and are more likely to make a purchase. Whatever it may be, it is nearly impossible to predict (I only say 'nearly impossible' because I never believe anything is impossible. Who knows, maybe someday someone will come up with a complex formula that predicts with 100% accuracy the actions of a human being. I doubt it, but who am I to say it can't be done).

When you start a business, you are so certain that people will buy that or do this, click on that or download this. The truth is that yes, people will do whatever you want them to do (assuming of course it will benefit them in some way). The problem is that we grossly overestimate the number of people that will perform said action. Think about how many stores, both on and offline that you visit without making a purchase.

Think about how many times you see something and don't go back to get it for a few months. To those business owners, you are a lost customer when you leave their store or site. The overwhelming majority of the people that will come to your site are like this. It's nothing personal, it's just the way it is.

I have an insane amount of respect for anyone that has successfully built a web business. It isn't like a brick and mortar store at your local mall - you don't just throw a store up and have people walk in and start buying. There are literally millions of websites out there and likely thousands out there in your industry. Successful web businesses have found away to differentiate themselves AND generate sufficient traffic. Many times they are as limited in budget as I am.

So what should one do if they are in this situation? As I mentioned before, keep trying until you find what works for you. Read books, magazines, web sites, and newsletters to get ideas and keep up on what is successful for others. Try out the ones that could work for your business and track the results. If it doesn't work, move on and try again. If it does, keep doing it. As mad as it makes me, that is about as scientific as I think I am going to be able to make this process :)