Most of us started our business because we were passionate about a particular topic and found that we are REALLY good at helping others with their related challenges. That is a great reason to start a business!

Unfortunately, it often happens that once you start your business, you realize that you really in the business of marketing. You need to make a living. The only way to do that as an entrepreneur is to sell to clients and customers. And to get clients and customers you need to market.

ARRRGGG! M-A-R-K-E-T….

For some folks, hearing this word creates an instant frown. Perhaps you’ve thought, “I don’t want to market…. I just want to do my ‘thing!’”

I know that this thought has crossed your mind at one time or another, because it has crossed mine. When I first started my business as a Virtual Marketing Assistant, I just wanted to work comfortably in my cozy little home office and to have people send me checks. It never really occurred to me that I’d have to actually get out there and sell my services…I just expected clients to show up knocking on my door.

Perhaps you can relate. I think entrepreneurs who have an aversion to marketing feel that way because to them, marketing represents something pushy, sales-y, and difficult. In the back of their mind their thinking “used car salesman” and that’s not who they want to me. MORE