Last weekend I had a very healthy debate with one of my client turned friend. We were talking about business synergies and suddenly we landed on a topic of debate “who has more of an advantage when it comes to online entrepreneurship techies or marketers”.
He was inclined more towards tech people have more of an advantage and I was more inclined towards marketing people. You can sense that he is marketing expert and I am more of tech guy and we both thought that it is the other group of people who has more of an advantage online.
His examples were Google and Facebook. Both are the biggest site on internet started by tech people.
My point was though they (Facebook and Google) were definitely started by tech guys and if you remember Google could not make a single penny unless they had the marketing people in the team who came up with the idea about Google Adwords – An innovative CPC model of advertising which allows Google to bank in 3 billion USD annually (Source). Apart from that I also gave examples of so many bloggers like Darren Rowse, Pat Flynn, Yaro Starak and many others who are genius at blogging and marketing but lack the same level of expertise when it comes to technical’s.
And the argument would have continued but I had to rush out. After returning back I gave a very deep thought about the discussion and came to the conclusion that it is neither tech guys nor marketing guys who have any advantage when it comes to online entrepreneurship.
The advantage is with people that have the right strategy.
Google is Google because it has dropped many not so successful products and is ready to acquire and explore new areas with right kind of strategy. Same is the case with Facebook or any other major successful site.
You need to have a long term goal along with solid business strategy to become a successful entrepreneur and I think lot of marketers and techies are missing it. Focus on building your expertise with right kind of strategy to be successful online and don’t run after the secret tactics.
A common scenario for many people trying career online is – Discover the secret tactic by browsing some forum, searching Google or even buying a new tactical secret product. Implement the new tactic they just discovered and find that the results are not as expected. Then either they give up or start searching for the next new secret tactic. After few trials to find secret tactic they think internet and online money making game is not for them but they don’t realize that they were never ever tried setting up any business online and just wanted to grab few millions using secret tactics.
So it is neither the technical expertise nor the marketing tactics that has any advantage when it comes to entrepreneurship (online or offline) but it is the right business strategy that always work. What are your thoughts – share them in comments below.
