Why great marketing leaders think like business owners

Starting my own business - and supporting a few smaller businesses with their growth as part of that – has provided a helpful marketing reminder.

Because now I'm the person signing off every invoice, chasing every pound of ROI and worrying about quarterly performance, I've stopped only thinking like a marketer. I've started thinking like a business owner.

I’m no longer just a CMO. I am the CFO, the COO and the CEO. And worryingly sometimes the CTO! Every marketing decision I make has to justify itself not against marketing objectives, but against business objectives.

It’s perspective I wish I’d had earlier in my career, before I got entrenched into the large corporate machine.

In larger organisations, it can be easy to become siloed. Budgets feel more abstract. Stakeholders can feel like gatekeepers. And if you’re not careful, marketing can drift further from the business results it's supposed to be driving.

When you get closer to understanding what the CFO, or any senior stakeholder, is worried about, the relationship changes. It stops being transactional and becomes more collaborative. You’re not defending your budget. You’re speaking the same language and working together towards the same goals.

Start spending the business' money like it's your own. Be curious about the pressures other leaders are dealing with, and don't lose sight of the bigger picture beyond your own function.

This mindset won't just make you a better marketer. It will make you a better business partner.