How and why I became an entrepreneur was by accident and maybe by chance. I started my career straight out of high school. First, I joined the Military, then went college and lastly, began working in advertising. My introduction to advertising was a stroke of sheer luck when I applied for the job I didn’t know what I was getting myself into and just happened to nail the interview. I was hired for a Marketing Assistant position at an advertising agency in Knoxville, TN and it was love at first sight. I was delighted with the opportunity and worked my way up to the position of Account Manager. After about 5 years with the agency, I realized there was no more room for growth and started looking for my next move.
After working with the ad agency I haphazardly got a job with a new TV Network called the WB. Similar to my last interview I didn’t know what I was applying for or what I’d be expected to do, and again I nailed-it and got the job! 25 years later and after five different major markets, I was a Sales Manager for ABC, NBC, CBS, The WB, The CW, Telemundo and many more. It was then that I decided to end my comfortable six-figure income career as a Television Sales Manager to become an Entrepreneur.
Why did I do this? I was sick of representing Corporate America and its mission to GET RICH by taking advantage of the underdog, small to mid-size businesses. My ethical values and moral obligation were more important to me than continuing to take advantage of businesses for the sheer-sake of fulfilling a corporate budget goal and need. I’ve worked with thousands and thousands of businesses helping them grow and I’m proud to watch them blossom and thrive. I’ve also seen my fair share of failures and it always hurts to see a business close its doors. Towards the later years of my corporate career as a Sales Manager, I didn’t feel I was truly helping businesses because our corporate goals were becoming more important than the success of the businesses we were striving to help. I no longer had the support of my managers to create programs to help businesses with small budgets, we were feeling the pressure from corporate to only go after the big dollars.
That brings us to where I am today. In my 30 years as a Sales Manager in advertising, the #1 opposition towards advertising from any business was always, “I can’t afford to advertise!" If you look at the horrid, staggering statistics no business can afford NOT to advertise!
• 50% of businesses will fail in the first year!
• 95% of businesses will fail within the first 5 years!
• Yet over 80% of businesses DON’T advertise at all!
When a business told me they couldn’t afford to advertise it meant 2 things:
1. They saw advertising only as traditional media: TV, radio, print, billboard and therefore perceived advertising as expensive.
2. They could afford to advertise, but they didn’t GET IT and they weren’t going to invest in something they couldn’t put their arms around and understand as well as a business investment.
“There’s a huge lack of education and advocacy for small to mid-size businesses when it comes to advertising.” ~Kat Ramirez
Representatives of corporate advertising companies (TV, Radio, Print and so on) speak for their company representing corporate budgets, initiatives and goals. Therefore, the meetings and recommendations are based on the corporate needs of Big Advertising Companies like https://www.great-answer.com/ not the needs or goals of small to mid-size businesses. As a corporate media representative, I didn’t have the ability or luxury to recommend a different advertising platform to a business if it was a better fit because that would be money out of my pocket and money out of the pockets of the Big Corporate Media Company.
This clearly isn’t an ideal model for any small to mid-size business, especially one with a very limited advertising budget that needs advertising to work so they can survive & grow. There’s no room for mistakes or bad advertising investment-decisions because someone selfishly promised a client they’d get lots of traffic, calls or business from one advertising platform alone.
adBidtise was created to solve this problem. We help businesses with little to no advertising budget stand out, survive, succeed & grow. We do this by educating businesses, advocating for businesses, creating transparency, creating accountability and helping businesses make good decisions when it comes to choosing the right advertising option that will deliver the best results to help them survive & GROW! We’re not influenced by Big Corporate Media Companies nor do we have any preferred partnerships or alliances. We’re 100% unbiased and committed to helping the “little guy” not the Big Corporate Media Company.
As an Entrepreneur, it’s now my mission for no business to be left behind because they can’t afford to advertise!
We are adBidtise – We are the Robin Hood of advertising!
I hope you enjoyed this article! If you did I’d love it if you could share this with your friends/family/network. Also, comment below, I would LOVE to hear from you!
Rock on and have a wonderful day!
Love and lots of success, your friend & advertising resource,
Founder of adBidtise and the Robin Hood of Advertising
