Lisette Davis worked for several well-known multinational brands and non-profit organizations. With more than 25 years of marketing experience, she is a passionate marketing professional who has extensive strategic marketing wisdom. 

She started her own company, Sidra Marketing, in 2008 and has since overcome market decline and risen as a specialist in Customer Lifecycle Management that enables companies to benefit in profits and sustainability.

Lisette is sharing immense wisdom from personal experience. She quit her job and pioneered her own company according to what she loves to do and has seen great success. You lose nothing and have so much to gain by getting to know her through this valuable Spotlight interview.

Tell us about you and your business/career, and what you were doing before you started? Did you always dream to do what you are doing now? Or did life throw a particular opportunity your way?

I started working in the field of marketing and still do after 25 years! Marketing is my passion: I find it fascinating to observe the behavior of customers and get into their mind to figure out a way to make them enthusiastic. For me, marketing is really about finding and engaging your most passionate, your most enthusiastic customers and enabling them to tell your brand story or help sell your products.

After working for more than two decades in several marketing positions, I felt the need to ‘explore the world’ and share my passion for marketing. I have always had a huge interest in the diversity of organizations, industries and markets, so I set up my own marketing company in 2008 in the Netherlands. My company, Sidra Marketing, stands for passion, vision and results. I chose the name Sidra for its meaning: it’s Latin for ‘like a star’. I like to act as a star for companies and guide them on their marketing journey.

Leaping Into The Entrepreneurial Unknown

Starting as an entrepreneur felt like starting over: a huge challenge. But sometimes you have to take the leap. Explore the world and go out there. I’ve had my share of impulsive employers, which often lacked a clear vision of the market and/or a sustainable strategy. I decided to go for it, quit my job and focus on building my own company. This was a difficult decision because it meant no income for an uncertain period of time. That’s why I saved some money to get by for the first few months. I allowed myself four months to grow the business.

It worked out well. Being able to focus 100% on my own company delivered better results than when I had a full-time paid job. Within one month, I acquired my first customer and from there it was much easier to grow.

Overcoming Market Decline With Creativity

When I started as a freelance marketing consultant, the worldwide crisis had set in. Against the tide, I was able to grow my number of clients. Because I was working alone, I could only accept one or two clients at the same time. After a few years, this became a problem. Interesting freelance assignments were becoming scarce, as companies decided to do the job in-house instead of hiring a professional. The market declined further and so did the hourly rate for marketing consultants. The only answer to this was to be creative.

I brainstormed with other consultants and we came up with the idea to create a network.

As a network, we could accept more clients together instead of having to say no individually because we already had a client. Before we could implement this idea, I had to relocate to Singapore; I had to end my business and start all over again. For me, it felt like I needed to overcome a second setback, which turned out to be challenging. I spent the first year building a network, becoming familiar with the market and the business culture but also enjoying the new home country. I consider having a network as one of the most important things because it provides you with opportunities as well as support, which will not happen if you’re working alone.

Challenges Of Being An Entrepreneur

What is your biggest challenge/frustration as an entrepreneur or professional? How do you overcome that challenge/frustration?

The biggest challenge for an entrepreneur is acquisition. How and where to find new clients? Especially when you have a lot of work, there’s little time left for other things, such as acquisition. Every entrepreneur recognizes this issue. Even for me, as a marketing expert, it’s sometimes difficult to organize my own acquisition.

As a marketing and strategy consultant, I specialize in solving marketing issues for other companies, such as creating a strategy and/or marketing plan or constructing a plan to grow a company. For my own business, I found this more difficult because I’m biased and I tend to be more critical – everything has to be right. I want a lot of things done at the same time or within a short period of time.

I learned to take a step back and ‘hire’ myself as a consultant. What would I advise entrepreneurs in a similar situation? The secret to most marketing issues is to focus. If your business model is right and if you’re working alone, you need to start small and structure and plan your (acquisition) activities. One of the most important things is to make decisions: good or bad, they need to be made.

Another important part is to build and maintain your network. It takes time but will pay off eventually. I record and archive all business cards, including notes about where we met, what we talked about (if important), birthdays or other important things. Aren’t you pleasantly surprised if you hear from your network once in a while?

What is your biggest failure/lesson in life? How has that shaped how you work, and what you do in your business/career?

I have worked for a number of large international companies and, in my experience, internal communication is vital in most large organizations. You need to be visible, advocate your work and volunteer for challenging roles. If you’re not visible, your work can be of the highest quality but it will not be acknowledged.

Strangely enough, this also applies for smaller companies. I used to think that it was clear to people what I did when I had a short-term project with a client – especially because I work with a written and signed project description for my temporary role and activities. But even in small organizations, communication can be difficult or partial, or simply forgotten. But when you’re a consultant, it’s important to connect with your temporary colleagues; without their support it’s difficult to get the job done. So it’s crucial to tell your own story, reach out to people within the company and not depend on your client’s introduction or support.

Learn From These Lessons

If you could do it all again, what would you do differently?

Looking back, it’s so much easier to recognize things that could have been done better. I don’t regret the path I’ve chosen but it could have been a lot easier. One of the things is to partner with others. It creates not only new opportunities but also a way to get inspiration, get useful feedback and find innovative solutions while avoiding the feeling that you have to do it all by yourself.

Another thing is to differentiate. Your interests change throughout time and sometimes it’s nice to do something completely new. For me, as an expat, this meant curiosity about other business cultures. I got the opportunity to partner with Culture-Inc. and become their sales representative for Asia. Culture-Inc. is a Dutch company that specializes in international business culture. We assist business people and international teams to bridge different business cultures in Asia and work effectively together. We provide several training programs and (executive) coaching.

This means slowing down a little bit on the consultancy side, but the new ‘job’ makes me feel energetic and provides the opportunity to learn about different cultures, which will be very helpful for my marketing consultancy business.

Please share a quote or saying that you live by; something that you are known for saying to your family, friends or team.

My quote is directly related to the name of my business. As explained, I chose the name ‘Sidra’, which is Latin for ‘like a star’, a star that guides companies on their marketing journey.

My quote is: You can make everything shine (read: a success) with passion and vision.

Lisette Davis’ One Line

It’s time to let your company shine like a star! Partner with Sidra Marketing and create new opportunities to grow your business!

_{Edited by Nedda Chaplin
Images from Lisette Davis}

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