Marketing is the water that helps grow your business. With this principle in mind, why do many decision makers of business development spend such long amounts of time evaluating proposals that can help them increase business. My theory is that it is the lack of education regarding the cost of marketing their business. I am not speaking on an dispersement of budget for a marketing campaign but the time and business lose for every day that the marketing does not start. In many cases, the budget for the project will stay relatively the same. The difference is that these businesses have started the race well after their competition.

Would you agree that time is money? If this is true then every minute your market offering is not in front of your target audience you are loosing time which means you are loosing money. You have probably heard the saying "you can pay now or pay later. The one thing that is sure, you will pay". This is true in marketing. If you decide that you do not need to market your business and you will grow it one customer at a time and wait on just word of mouth, then you are doomed to the result of slow business and run the risk of going out of business.

Say you are a retailer and your item cost $25. There are 5000 visitors per month that would come to your site if it had good ranking and your conversion ratio is 10%. For every day you choose not to market your business online and get good search engine placement you stand to loose $417. That is $152,205 per year if you decide to wait till next year to start marketing. This does not even factor in the competitive edge you are giving your competition.

Customer loyalties only apply to customers. If your competition seizes the opportunity to market and generate the customers you missed by waiting then it is harder to gain those customers than it would have been if you would have had them first.

Here is the down and dirty cost of it all. While many companies try to hold on to their budget and do not market their companies or prolong making a decision, their business is going elsewhere. Would you rather spend $10 or $20,000 for that matter to be positioned well in the eyes of your target market and sell your product or service or would you like to loose $152,207 a year trying to hold on to what little budget you have.

By no means am I saying to foolishly through away your budget. What I am stating is that for every minute you wait to make a decision and do not market your business, you are loosing money. I look for you to tally up the cost of marketing for your business.

The real deal is that if you see a greater return on your investment then the actual marketing cost you nothing. It only cost if you do not see a return. But the fact of the matter is that if you do nothing then your decision will certainly cost you.