Date Time Marketers Move Needle for Entrepreneurs AUSTIN, Texas – Entrepreneurs often focus their efforts on financing and innovating. Yet marketing is just as crucial to the growth of a small business, according to new research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin. In the first empirical study to isolate the role a marketing professional plays in the growth of small-business ventures, Ugandan entrepreneurs coached by marketers increased sales, profits, assets and employees more than similar entrepreneurs who did not receive any business coaching during the same two-year period. The study, forthcoming and online in advance in the Journal of Marketing, answers a resounding “yes” to the complicated question of whether marketers matter for entrepreneurs. “Now we know that linking an entrepreneur with a marketer is actually critical for stimulating growth,” said co-author Stephen J. Anderson, assistant professor of marketing at the McCombs School.