Advice to First-Time Business Owners

Patrick McFadden • November 22, 2013

As a marketing consultant, I receive a lot of email from first-time business owners and entrepreneurs who are trying to get established in marketing their businesses. Because I make my email address public , it’s pretty easy to get to me.

However, by the time I hear from people, they are either confused about marketing, don’t know where to begin, been scammed by low hanging fruit, and/or frustrated by bad advice. They can’t afford any consultation or maybe even coaching, and they are fully convinced that they have a killer-service or product idea. “If only people knew about my offering,” they plead.The biggest problem is that most people just don’t know where to begin marketing their business.

So as a first time business owner or entrepreneur , what do you do? Here’s what I recommend:

1. Define Your Purpose.

Marketing must have a purpose, a goal. You must have a reason for marketing your business.

To better define this ask yourself, “What exactly is the outcome you really want from your marketing?

Or even better What is the primary reason you’re marketing?”

Are you trying to:

  • increase sales revenue.
  • increase brand awareness.
  • increase sales conversion rates.
  • develop new products and services.
  • increase product units sold.
  • increase share of market.
  • increase share of customer’s business.
  • increase number of new accounts
  • increase number of new relationships.
  • increase public relations placements.

“You can’t hit a target you cannot see, and you cannot see a target you do not have.” – Zig Ziglar

 2. Identify Your Ideal Target Customer

Who, precisely, are you trying to reach?

What channel—online or offline— has this persons permission?

Today with more media and things grabbing for our attention—Facebook, TV channels, radio stations, YouTube, Twitter, Pintrest, email,  podcast, etc.—you don’t have a prayer at mass marketing (attention is scattered) but you do have a chance if you have a clearly defined and understood ideal target customer.

“Successful marketing is almost always specific, not general. And that “almost” is close to absolute because you can no longer run an ad that reaches everyone. Now, instead of interrupting the masses, the marketer, business owner, or enterprise has no choice but to choose their ideal customer.” – Patrick McFadden

3. Choose a Profitable Niche

Marketing has changed, in terms of it becoming smaller and tighter rather than massive and bigger. This means, “trying to appeal to everyone, you’ll end up appealing to no one.”

This is often the danger of small business planning and execution, trying to be everything to everybody.

The secret to cultivating a niche is that the more time you spend in the trenches (commenting on blogs, speaking at events, writing articles for media outlets, creating educational content, etc.), the more expert you become, the more you expand your territory and the more people you can expose to your expertise.

“If you want to soar with the big birds, you have to find your piece of the sky.”

Finally, don’t lose your vision. This is probably the most important thing I can say to you. Yes, you will be rejected. This notion that on the first day everyone has to come is unrealistic. What’s going to happen is a few people are going to interact with you, enough that they understand the value, they trust you to deliver the value and they pay you for it.

Like many things in life that are worthwhile, it doesn’t comes easily. But if you stick with the plan, the strategy, the journey, you will eventually succeed.

Question: What advice do you have for first-time business owners and entrepreneurs?

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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