How Much Should I Spend on Marketing My Small Business?

Patrick McFadden • March 31, 2024

In the world of small business marketing, variations of this question consistently looms large:


  • How much should I allocate towards marketing expenses?
  • What percentage should you pay for marketing?
  • How much does marketing cost on average?
  • How much should you spend on marketing as a startup?
  • What is the average marketing budget for small business?


It's a question that lacks a definitive answer but demands careful consideration and strategic planning.

Marketing Budget Example

You're running a company generating $100,000 in monthly sales. Is there a magic percentage you should earmark for marketing expenditures? The reality is, there's no one-size-fits-all formula etched in stone. However, one thing remains certain – neglecting marketing investments can impede your business's growth potential.


Traditionally, businesses often earmark around 10% of their revenue for marketing initiatives. However, it's important to note that this figure can vary based on various factors such as industry norms, business goals, and growth strategies.


For instance, if you're operating in a highly competitive market where brand visibility is paramount, you might consider allocating a higher percentage of your revenue towards marketing efforts. Conversely, if you're in a niche market with loyal customers and low competition, you might be able to allocate a smaller percentage towards marketing while still achieving your objectives.


The key takeaway here is that while there's no magic formula or one-size-fits-all approach to determining your marketing budget, it's essential to view marketing expenditures as investments rather than expenses.


By investing strategically in marketing initiatives, you're essentially fueling the engine of your business's growth. Whether it's investing in digital advertising, content marketing, social media campaigns, or traditional marketing channels, every dollar spent should be aimed at amplifying your brand's reach, engaging with your target audience, and ultimately driving sales and revenue.


Moreover, neglecting to allocate sufficient resources towards marketing can hinder your business's ability to expand its customer base, outpace competitors, and stay relevant in a rapidly evolving marketplace.


In conclusion, while there's no definitive answer to how much you should spend on marketing your small business, it's crucial to approach budgeting decisions with careful consideration, strategic foresight, and a willingness to adapt to changing market dynamics. By treating marketing investments as integral components of your business strategy, you can position your company for sustained growth and long-term success.

Guiding Principles For Small Business Marketing Budgets

As a starting point, allocating approximately 10% of your revenue towards marketing endeavors is a prudent move. But here's the crux: we should perceive marketing expenses not merely as costs but as investments in the future prosperity of our businesses.


Why the emphasis on this investment mindset? Because effective marketing isn't just about throwing money at advertising platforms; it's about strategically positioning your brand to captivate your target audience and propel growth.


Every dollar funneled into ads, SEO, content creation, email campaigns, or promotional activities should be seen as a strategic investment aimed at enhancing brand visibility, fostering customer loyalty, and driving revenue.


But the journey doesn't end with budget allocation; it commences with strategy. Without a coherent, customer-centric marketing strategy, our efforts risk dissipating into the digital void, yielding lackluster results.


Strategy serves as our guiding compass, directing us towards channels, messages, and demographics that promise the highest returns on investment. It's about crafting compelling narratives that resonate with our audience and leveraging data-driven insights to refine and optimize our campaigns.


In essence, it's not just about how much we spend; it's about how judiciously we invest those funds. The goal is to extract maximum value from every marketing dollar, leveraging analytics, consumer feedback, and market trends to inform our decision-making process.


As entrepreneurs and business leaders, we must embrace a strategic mindset when it comes to marketing investments. It's about envisioning the long-term trajectory of our brands and making calculated decisions that propel us towards sustainable growth and success.


So, the next time you find yourself grappling with your marketing budget, remember this: it's not merely an expense; it's an investment in the narrative of your business – an investment that has the power to shape its destiny.

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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