One sobering fact when starting a business is that you only have a 50% chance of surviving the first year, and only 5% chance of being around after five years. According to the SBA, if twenty businesses start today, next year only ten will be around; and at the end of five years only one of the original twenty will still be in business. Stats like that will make you think twice about starting a business, or help you realize you need to do more, much more, than put up a sign.

Here are a couple of terms you need to understand:

Marketing is EVERY contact you, or anyone who represents your business, has with your customers from the initial contact through the life of the relationship.

Webster defines Guerrilla as a person who engages in irregular warfare, especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage.

Face it: you are not Proctor & Gamble and do not have massive amounts of money to throw at your marketing efforts. You are a small business that must use irregular strategies and tactics to achieve your desired results, which is victory.  The #1 difference between Guerrilla Marketing and traditional marketing is that instead of using lots of money, the guerrilla uses time, energy, imagination and knowledge.

How does marketing compare to warfare? Gerald Michaelson, in his book “Winning the Marketing War,” writes: “In the late sixties, one successful corporate president was quoted as saying , “everything I learned about marketing I learned from Carl von Clausewitz.” Calusewitz was a Prussian general & military strategist who wrote on the science of war, most notably  Vom Kriege (1833).

Michaelson also writes “Chevalier Jean Charles Follard said: “war is a trade for the ignorant and a science for the expert.”  Marketing and Sales are a trade for the ignorant and a science for the expert.”  There are many different philosophies with various sales training courses, but they all would aggress with the statement.

So, if you are starting a business, have the opportunity to start one, or already own one, even a home based business do you need to make a philosophical change?  There is high degree of probability you are actively involved in both sales and marketing; do you view them as trade or a science? If you are fortunate enough to have employees involved in these task what is their view?