The Biggest Marketing Mistake Businesses Make: Waiting Too Long to Bring in Expertise

I’ve seen businesses make all kinds of marketing missteps — poor website structures, ineffective social media strategies, wasted ad spend — and frankly most often not their fault, but there is one mistake I see more than any other, across all industries, company sizes, and experience levels is waiting too long to bring in outside expertise.

The Cost of Waiting: A Common Pattern

Every business operates with some form of a financial runway—a timeframe where their existing revenue, savings, or funding sustains them while they grow. But too often, I meet business owners and teams who hire us and then quickly say, “Wow, we should have brought you in six months ago.”

At that point, they are already struggling (which is why they were looking for help in the first place). Their runway is getting shorter by the day, their resources are stretched thin, and the stress of trying to “figure it out” alone has taken a toll. 

Everything is harder when you’re already in survival mode.

• Strategic decisions are more limited when you’re scrambling to cover immediate needs.
• Growth-focused investments are harder to justify when cash flow is tight.
• The mental fatigue of worrying about the business makes even simple marketing tasks feel overwhelming.
• Sometimes they made a common mistake of starting with clerical/VA marketing help, rather than having an expert help develop strategy first.

And yet, in all my years of experience, I have never had a single client say, “We should have waited six more months before bringing you in.”

The Difference Between Hiring an Expert and Hiring a VA

When businesses realize they need help, their first instinct is often to hire a virtual assistant (VA) or someone to help with execution of the basic tasks. While this can seem like a logical step … oh yay one more thing I can take off my plate! … there’s a major difference between hiring someone to do the work you tell them to do and hiring someone who knows exactly what work needs to be done.

When you hire a VA first, you’re still the one responsible for providing the strategy. You have to determine:

✔ What tactics are most effective – including ones you aren’t even aware of yet
✔ How to prioritize marketing tasks that get the right results
✔ Whether the current approach is even the best one

For most business owners, marketing is not in their primary zone of genius—and it shouldn’t be. You don’t need to become a marketing expert on top of running your business. But when you hire someone without deep expertise, you’re still forced to drive the direction yourself—which means missed opportunities, wasted time, and a lot of trial and error.

On the other hand, when you bring in a marketing expert first, the entire dynamic shifts:

✔ You don’t have to figure it out alone. We assess what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus—so you don’t waste time on low-ROI efforts.
✔ The right strategies are put in place from the start. Instead of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks, we create a plan that’s designed to generate results.
✔ If you later bring on a VA or marketing assistant, they’re already set up for success. A good marketing plan means your VA has clear direction, and you don’t have to waste time figuring out what to delegate.

Bringing in a marketing expert early means your efforts are smart, strategic, and built for growth—instead of a series of disconnected tasks that don’t lead anywhere.

The ‘We Should Have Called Sooner’ Realization

For every client who has told me, “We should have brought you in sooner,” it’s not just because of the marketing improvements we implement—it’s because of the opportunities they missed out on by waiting.

They didn’t realize what was possible until they saw the impact of a real marketing strategy.

• They didn’t know how much more ROI they could have achieved if their website had been set up correctly from the start.
• They didn’t see the lead generation potential in a properly structured content strategy.
• They didn’t realize they were overlooking key audience segments or spending money on the wrong tactics.

It’s the classic case of you don’t know what you don’t know. And by the time they realize it, they’ve already lost time, money, and momentum that could have been fueling their growth.

Early Expertise = Easier, More Affordable Growth

The irony is that when businesses bring in expertise earlier in their journey, they often need less help. Instead of requiring an urgent, full-scale overhaul later, they can:

✔ Get guidance in smaller, more manageable steps. A few one-hour strategy consultations spread over several months can help a business course-correct early before small problems become expensive crises.

✔ Implement things gradually. Instead of rushing to fix years of neglected marketing in a panic, they can integrate changes at their own pace, keeping costs lower and maintaining better control.

✔ Avoid costly mistakes. Whether it’s a website that doesn’t convert, an ad campaign that burns money, or a brand message that doesn’t connect, businesses that seek expert advice early avoid major pitfalls before they happen.

By contrast, waiting too long often means they need to move fast—which requires bigger investments, more implementation support, and harder decisions under pressure.

Are You in the ‘We Should Have Called Sooner’ Zone?

If you’re reading this and feeling even a slight pull of recognition—if you’ve been pushing off getting help, thinking you can figure it out “soon”—this is your sign.

The best time to bring in marketing expertise? Months ago.
The second-best time? Right now.

You don’t have to wait until things feel urgent. Whether you need a full outsourced marketing team or just a few strategic conversations to keep you on track, let’s talk about what will work best for you before your runway gets too short.