The Late 2019 Launch

A business owner came to me through the SBA. She had opened her doors in late 2019, just weeks before COVID shut everything down. The timing could not have been worse.

But here's what made her situation interesting. She actually experienced a boom in her first few months. The big national chains ran out of certain products, and customers who couldn't find what they needed at the usual places showed up at her door. For a brief window, business was good.

Then the national competitors restocked. Traffic disappeared. By the time we talked, she was having days with zero customers.

She came to me asking how to advertise her way out of this. What I told her wasn't what she expected.

False Signals Mask Real Problems

That early boom was the worst thing that could have happened to her. Not because revenue is bad, but because it created a false signal. She thought her location and business model were working. They weren't. The scarcity of certain products at larger competitors temporarily drove traffic her way. When that artificial demand disappeared, the real marketing gap became visible.

I see this pattern repeatedly in consultations. A business experiences early traction from some external factor, assumes the fundamentals are sound, then gets blindsided when the external factor changes. Could be a COVID disruption. Could be a competitor temporarily closing. Could be a one-time referral source that dries up.

The diagnostic question I ask: "Where did your first customers come from, and is that source sustainable?" If the answer involves luck, timing, or someone else's failure, you have a foundation problem masquerading as success.

The "Should I Hire a Salesperson" Question

She asked me directly: should I hire someone to do outreach? She had done this successfully at a previous business. A dedicated person visiting potential referral sources, building relationships, generating awareness.

My answer was no. Not yet.

Here's why. Hiring a salesperson when you're cash-strapped creates a dangerous dynamic. You need them to produce results immediately or you can't afford them. That pressure leads to bad decisions. You hire whoever is available rather than whoever is right. You expect returns on a timeline the sales cycle won't support. You cut the position when it doesn't pay off in 60 days, which was never enough time anyway.

The exception: someone who will work purely on performance incentive. If you can find that person, great. But that's rare. Most people who are good at sales want base compensation, and they're right to want it.

What I suggested instead was a lower-risk approach. Handwritten postcards to a targeted list. Not hundreds. Maybe 100, carefully selected, with a personal message. The cost per unit is low. One response per hundred is actually cost-effective when you're spending cents per contact rather than dollars per hour on a salesperson's time.

She already had a list of potential referral sources from her SBDC advisor. The work was addressable without adding payroll.

The $500 Rule

She wanted to know about Google Ads. This is the question almost everyone asks eventually. Should I be advertising online?

I told her this: if $500 a month feels like high-risk money, you're not ready for paid advertising.

Not because $500 is a magic number. But because advertising requires a specific mindset. You need to be comfortable with the possibility that it won't work. If every dollar spent feels like a gamble, you'll make bad decisions. You'll pull the campaign too early. You'll change the targeting constantly. You'll watch the metrics obsessively and panic when day three doesn't produce leads.

Advertising works best when you can commit to a test period, accept that some of the budget is buying data rather than customers, and evaluate results without desperation clouding your judgment.

Her situation didn't support that mindset. Every dollar mattered. That's not a criticism of her. It's just a recognition that paid advertising wasn't the right tool for where she was.

The foundation has to come first. Website that converts. Clear messaging. Some form of organic visibility or referral system. Then, when cash flow is more stable, advertising can accelerate what's already working. It's not a substitute for the fundamentals.

The Connecting Thread

Three different topics in one consultation. False signals, hiring decisions, advertising readiness. But they all connect to the same underlying principle.

Marketing tactics don't fix foundation problems. A salesperson can't sell something that isn't differentiated. Advertising can't create demand for a business people don't know exists. Early traction from external luck isn't validation that your positioning works.

She didn't need more tactics. She needed to step back and address why customers would choose her over the national chains once scarcity was no longer doing that work for her.

That's the question I kept coming back to. And it's the question I'd ask any business owner who launched at a terrible time and is trying to figure out what went wrong.

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Marketing a New Business When Your Timing Is Terrible