---
title: 115 Good Marketing Can Kill a Bad Business
description: "### The Demand Before you spend another dollar on marketing, honestly audit whether the operation underneath it is actually ready. Good marketing accelerates a bad business toward failure faster, not slower — it's a sequencing problem, not a marketing problem.…"
url: "https://kb.jeffreysummers.com/docs/115-good-marketing-can-kill-a-bad-business-2/"
updated: "2026-07-30"
category: Perspective / Perspective Fieldbook
---

# 115 Good Marketing Can Kill a Bad Business

### The Demand

Before you spend another dollar on marketing, honestly audit whether the operation underneath it is actually ready. Good marketing accelerates a bad business toward failure faster, not slower — it's a sequencing problem, not a marketing problem. Build something worth marketing first.

### The Work

Before you spend another dollar on marketing, audit whether the operation underneath is actually ready:
The last marketing spend you made:
What did it get people in the door to experience?
Did the experience deliver on what the marketing promised?
☐ Yes — the operation was ready, the marketing worked as intended
☐ No — the marketing accelerated the discovery of a gap
What you will build before you spend the next marketing dollar: