So who is in business?

I could just as easily ask, "who is in marketing" as "who is in business." Is there really a meaningful difference? Maybe in theory, but, not in the real world. So the question is the same. Who is in business?

(This picture is of me and a new Soviet business man in 1990 in the USSR. I was there teaching people how to start their own businesses. He just bought one of my books that had been translated into Russian.)

As a writer there is nothing more I'd like than to spend my days penning some marvelous script, writing some music and finding just the right lyrics that fit the notes, rhythm and mood at that point in the score. Then take up a chance to finish my latest book.

But, reality intrudes yet again. I have to pay the mortgage and buy some food. No one comes along and rips the transcript from my hands and hands me a check. Instead I have to find a buyer. Yes, that is a pain.

About 5 days after Elizabeth and I returned from our honeymoon, we were sitting around the apartment on a Sunday afternoon, reading, listening to music and generally enjoying the solitude with each other. A thought came into my head. "I think the rent for this place is due in two weeks." So I asked Liz, "Ahh, how much money do we have in the bank account?" She looked up at me and said, "I haven't a clue."

"Hmm, " I said, "Neither do I. Maybe we ought to check."

We got out the check book and balanced it... it was a mess but still had the amounts of checks recorded. Once the adding machine did its thing we saw the balance and laughed. We weren't overdrawn, but it was close. We had nothing in savings and not much cash sitting around the house.

"What are we going to do?" her look said to me.

"I guess one of us ought to get a job."

"Let's both get one," she said.

We did. We made ends meet. Liz, my artist wife, got a job at a construction company as... are you ready... a bookkeeper!! I flipped hamburgers and made shakes while I finished off my English degree.

As life happened I found no one was beating an Agatha path to my door to read my better Mousetrap. I had to send my story out to get a buyer. And I did.

Since that time I've learned the art of advertising and marketing and it has served me and my family well. I've written 15 books and always self published so I could market them myself. The mark-ups beat the heck out of royalties. I've also learned to start businesses. I've seen wonderful successes and mind-numbing failures as I've started companies in construction, advertising, publishing, tour operations, fund raising, adult education, vehicle transmissions and others. I've staged musicals, created a venue for more than 100 sold out concerts for my friends in the classical music world. I've even been a lobbyist for a free market grass roots lobby where I wrote and helped pass the only unanimously approved resolution in US history supporting freedom fighters. It's been a wild ride but filled with great adventures.

I've discovered several facts of life including: Everyone is in marketing. Only God does not rely upon customers to validate his existence. The rest of us are constantly selling something so we can trade what we have of value for what someone else has in value.

Reality bites, but, you're in marketing and business too. So let's do it right and have some fun with it. Once we decide that is what we must do, marketing and business become natural. More on that another day.

Marketing fact for the day: If you gather the names and emails of everyone you come in contact with on a professional basis, when you go to sell something, that list of people will buy 5 times more than any other list except one. Once they've bought from you, when you have something else to sell, the list of previous buyers are 10 times more likely to buy again.

Business phrase for the day: If you can't fix it, feature it.