Marketing?

I've heard people say that they don't do any or spend money on marketing... That, while not the best strategy, is still marketing. Marketing is anything and everything about your business and how you promote and present it to your potential customers. From when and where you open it to how you advertise and promote, all of this can either help or hurt you.

What does this look like? I'm not exaggerating, marketing is everything and not in the sense that nothing else is important, but much more literal. As in everything to do with the business. For instance:

• Where did you locate or plan to locate the business?
• When did you or do you plan to open the business?
• Do you advertise/promote regularly or infrequently?
• Where do you advertise/promote? (i.e. social media, ads, email, on the invoices, snail mail, etc.)
• What products do you sell? (Every industry has there niche markets.)
• Are you selling for high margin or high volume?
• What demographic did you set out to reach? (This may seem simple and straight forward, but there's always more detail than what's on the surface.)
• Will you sell online or just through the store?

What to remember: This is a very short list... but all these questions matter. The point is that everything you do concerning your business is marketing. Analyze the numbers and make sure that your approach is helping and not hurting the company.