SBL Student and Business Owner Publishes His Ideas On Marketing Research

An established entrepreneur is boosting his business abilities by completing a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) at Regent University’s School of Business & Leadership (SBL). Jason Crowther has journeyed from working for someone else to becoming his own boss. Now his goal is to move from running small businesses to larger endeavors. He’s learned how marketing research can help make this happen and is sharing advice to others in his situation.

Crowther is the Dean of Enrollment at Grace College of Divinity in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He started working there in 2012 and helped increase its enrollment by 46.1 percent the first year he was there. He has a degree in divinity, but his business background began when he started his own window cleaning business after working for a similar small business. He quickly grew that company to 600 clients. He has since sold the business and bought another, and he is nearly finished earning his MBA at Regent.

“I think it was really important to pursue the degree because I got to see things at different levels, not just the small level,” said Crowther. “I had a few employees and a small organization, as compared to some of the case studies we had dealing with multi-national corporations, different kinds of businesses. That was exciting to me and a really good learning experience.”

During this learning experience Crowther was tasked with writing an article to submit for publication. Having recently attended an enrollment seminar where experts with large budgets talked about the importance of marketing, he decided to tackle the topic from a smaller standpoint. He used his personal experience as a business owner and research gathered as a student to share marketing advice to readers of Young, Fabulous & Self Employed Magazine.

“Marketing research is something that I find very interesting because it has helped me build the businesses I have and contributed to my enrollment success at my current job,” said Crowther.

The course project and article recommends some do-it-yourself marketing research tips for self-employed and “bootstrapped” entrepreneurs. One is taking a “fire bullets instead of cannon balls” approach to marketing. Crowther says it’s important to try several new ideas by placing a minimal amount of resources into each effort so that failing on one of them won’t drain your business.

“With success you later fire ‘cannon balls,'” writes Crowther, “which would be the same idea with more resources.”

Crowther is set to graduate from Regent in the spring of 2015. He lives in Fayetteville, North Carolina with his wife and two daughters. He aspires to one day be involved in helping others start businesses and organizations.

“I think it’s good to plan,” said Crowther, “but I think one of the best things to do is actually start something. Even if you start something and fail, there is so much that you learn in that. The important part of the learning process is that you actually start something. It might not be the thing you’re most passionate about or will do for the rest of your life, but at least you’re getting experience starting an organization or business.”