My friend doesn't have a clue but wants help.

Hey Guys,

I have a friend who runs a small clothes store specialising in hip hop fashions. It hasn't really taken off yet and I think the reason is that he hasn't advertised outside of the hardcore music scene that he is known in (he also produces music dvd's and mixtapes so people know him through this).

He has come around to thinking that he wants to advertise and get some business in but I am finding it tricky working with him. I don't take money from friends so everything I am doing for him is gratis but it is such hard work trying to show him how to make money.

He is stuck in the mode of thinking that his industry is different from everyone elses, I am sure anyone who has done any consulting knows exactly what I am talking about.

He is talking about getting his site in the search engines for keywords. He has decided what keywords are best for him without any research and after running them through adwords and doing some research I can see that they won't be bringing him any business.

I have also researched some good keywords but he doesn't like them for some reason, he seems to want to market on keywords that people SHOULD be searching on, not on what they actually ARE seaching on.

He has had some adverts made up which without sugar coating are crap and are money in the bin. I felt that maybe going down the route of being cruel to be kind was the best way to go so I told him he needed to start at the beginning, define who he is going after, build some guarantees, develop a USP and start collecting peoples details. I couldn't in all conscience recommend him to spend money on advertising until he had the basics covered well.

He is very resistant to this again and cuts me off mid sentance as I am trying to explain things. It got to the point where I told him to shut up and listen lol.

This is pretty much one of my oldest mates who I grew up with so I think that it may be that he will never listen to me properly so I may need him to refer him somewhere else. I really want to help him make his business a success but I do not know what to do.

I don't want to refer him to someone who will charge him a fortune. I think if someone could do the basics like work on his usp, benefits, guarantees etc.. with him then I can take it from there and do the technical stuff and advertising with him.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do?