What Happens If I Don’t Market My Business?

Businesses today are caught up in the hamster wheel of endless marketing. The fear of losing customers, not gaining customers, not reaching the audience drives us forward like rats in a maze. What if we stopped? It’s preposterous, I know that, I am just mulling things over.

This week I am in Sete Cidades, a tranquil idyll nestled in the crater of a volcano on the island of Sao Miguel. The birdsong is deafening, flora and fauna beautiful and the views are breathtaking.

Marketing by Smell

This place has some 700 residents, they all know each other, many are ambivalent towards visitors. The whole island is well maintained, a wealth of natural resources attract tourists but the local businesses are certainly not vying for their trade. We found the village bakery by smell alone, they produce delicious bread, one type, and will deliver. Opening hours are until sometime around 10 or 11am, when the bread has gone.

Open for Business, if you can find us

Bread Delivery

This relaxed way of living surely has its merits? Chatting with the locals (they all speak English), this is the life they choose. On investigation, the young have left for Canada or the USA, they are following the money. It is a place of contradictions, the people who live here don’t want to become rats in a maze, but they could certainly do with a bit more money in their pockets.

A Relaxed Approach

We have swum in thermal sea pools, visited a tea plantation, and a rum factory, climbed bell towers, hiked and more, all for free. We would have happily paid for all of these things to increase the workers’ income. I know the residents don’t earn enough to live on but that doesn’t seem to bother them. People here place relaxation above revenue, some struggle to pay for the bread at their door which cost the princely sum of 30 cents.

I am trying to think of a way to morph the two lifestyles into a perfect way of lifestyle balance.