Marketing and Entrepreneurship
Identifying opportunities and marketing them are conceivably the two most important as-pects of entrepreneurship. Venture capitalists certainly find it to be so. Hills and LaForge found that venture capitalists agree that failure rates could be reduced as much as 60 per-cent through better market analysis.23 They arc inclined to a certain skepticism since en-trepreneurs are usually biased toward their venture idea, often ignoring negative market information. And they agree that entrepreneurs lack marketing-related skills in advertising and distribution savvy.
Entrepreneurship and marketing come together in the marketing plan as indicated in Figure 13.8. A new venture starts with a company mission that is usually an embodiment of the entrepreneur's personal goals. In some the intent is to grow and reach for an unlimited horizon. Others are inclined to a lifestyle plateau which is not likely to generate substantial wealth for the new venturist/'entrepreneur.
The marketing opportunity analysis is a critical launch pad since many new venturists leapfrog past the identification and verification stage to the business plan, making assump¬tions along the way that are untested and ill-formed. Omissions here have serious conse¬quences on the business plan and are often the causes for rejection by sophisticated investors.
Assembling the marketing strategy includes the resources needed to make the venture work: production, personnel, materials, administrative systems. Finally, through the im-