Don’t Save Your Way to Failure

As a marketing company, we see this all the time. Start-ups get funded, yet they still maintain that scrappy mindset that has them avoid spending money. They want to save on everything, from office furniture to (of course) marketing. But, the truth is that you can save your way to failure. In this article Shafqat Islam, who is the founder of NewsCred, a well-known content syndication platform, talks about how important it is to use your funding in way that will foster your success.

It is a common attitude (I think) especially in technology companies, “we don’t need marketing, the product will sell itself,” or something like that. The question I always have about that is, “if no one is aware of your product, however fantastic it may be, how is it going to sell?”

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t try to get the most out of every dollar you spend, but there are times and places where it makes sense to alter that scrappy mindset. Shafqat provides a good list here of where he see that his spends have produced great results. As he says, “Being cheap doesn’t necessary mean you’re getting good value.”

Some of the places he sees as good places to invest are some key hires (an office manager and CFO), getting a nice office (he finds it motivating), and various marketing activities (marketing, SEO, and PR). He notes that brand building and collateral upgrades  “were all pivotal to our maturation as a business.”

So don’t sell yourself short and don’t save your way to failure. Find those key areas where investments (NOT costs) are going to garner payback beyond what you’ve spent. If it’s delivering a positive ROI, it’s a good thing. And, having a great brand that is well presented has gotten many a company to success, through good times and bad.