You run a small business & you’re already frontloading costs by paying for content & marketing on social media without exhausting free options for customer acquisition. You may kill the business if not careful. I’ll do a thread on this at 12pm if my SME followers show interest.

I have run a medium business for 8years now ( http://www.consultcaladium.com ) and I have never spent a dime on advertising, nor actively sought out for clients till recently. 90% of my clients have been strictly based on referrals. And I'm talking about clients who have paid me millions.

And because I do not front-load costs, every job, no matter how small, has been profitable. How do I do this? Let me tell you a story. A few years ago, a friend started a medium-sized business, invested a lot in set-up, did heavy promos online, giveaways, etc. I was against it.

But he was convinced. Why was I against it? The business was new, meant to be B2B mostly, his clients weren't primarily online, the beneficiaries of his giveaways weren't his potential clients. In short, he was not interacting with potential immediate clients, yet was spending.

A few years down the line, he no longer does ads or promos because cashflow doesn't accommodate it. Those initial costs have gone into overall set up costs and have contributed to making break-even difficult. If you have not exhausted your options, don't spend unnecessarily.

Depending on your start-up capital, a huge chunk of the marketing costs you front-load at start-up stage may be wasted. Because one, you probably aren't tracking the ROI on those spends, and if you do, the conversion rate may be probably low. So how should you be marketing?

There are various options. First is through yourself. Invest heavily to ensure what you're selling - yourself & your products are the absolute best. NEVER EVER settle for the mediocre Nigerian standard - either for products or professional services, logistics, support or anything

Research extensively into how your work is done in other climes, find ways to replicate locally, seek partnerships that can help you. And swear your life to good customer service. As I do say- Bad customer service is to the private sector, what corruption is to the public sector

Once you get first done, then leverage family and friends - many think doing this means they should be entitled and expect family and friends should do them a favour by patronising them. Absolute nonsense. That is entitlement BS. No one owes you patronage.

Your Family & Friends(F&F) should patronise you because if they need/want the product or service you offer, they should have no choice but to patronise you because you offer good quality - or even the best. Patronising you should never be a liability to your family and friends.

Secondly, everyone has a bit of selfishness. Everyone wants to make money. Adopt a strict referral commission/compensation policy. No matter how little, find a way to appreciate people who refer you, even if they are your blood siblings or parents. THEY DON'T HAVE TO ASK.

That money you want to spend on promo or ad, spend it paying people that refer you. Me I give at least 20% for every referral. Even if it's a rich Uncle, buy him a bottle of wine. Or give them complementary products. Or buy their kids dresses, icecream or pizza. Works like magic.

Imagine the combination of being someone's boisterous and enterprising friend or family who delivers the best products or services and won't embarrass you, and on top of it pays commissions or shows appreciation. People will sing your praises to the corners of the world.

Thirdly - NETWORK OO. I know this is an over flogged tip. But I want to simplify it for you. You can't be running a small or medium business and say you are an indoor person. Makes no sense. You have to be visible. The cockroaches in your house won't buy your products.

How can you be visible? Attend events that align with what you do and relate with people who can easily buy your products - remember that. Practice everyday how to engage with people and seamlessly introduce what you do in a non-selling way. How do I mean?

People generally don't like to be sold to at events, because everyone else is selling anyways. So the best way is to engage people in their interest areas and creatively discuss what you do with them (may even be from the perspective of challenges) & KEEP the relationship going

Lastly & MORE IMPORTANTLY, asides social media, there are platforms that CONNECTS YOU WITH CUSTOMERS. There are some trusted platforms that do excellently at acting as marketplace for sellers and buyers. You can get mails or calls for business from your parlour watching NTA News!

They even provide access to countless resources that you can use to improve yourself & your business. One of such platform is @MSMEstandards. Registration is free, you can build your profile, advertise your products and have access to interacting with several potential customers.

All you have to do is complete register here https://www.msmestandards.com/register?p=ServiceProvider, sign the ethical declaration and ensure your profile contains all the services you can offer. I use this platform and it has been an excellent experience.

Now imagine effectvely combining all these marketing touchpoints without even spending a dime yet. Then you can gradually grow your customer base and expand your business & marketing budget as your revenue grows. This way, costs are controlled and it is easy to break even. End.