Important Lessons for Future Small Business Owners
Here are some important tips/ lessons for the future small business owners. This one is the most important: Tell yourself you are and will continue to be successful.
Three years ago today with the push of a button, I launched a website. With a few sentences on Facebook and LinkedIn as well as some personal emails, I made an announcement. I was in business -- a one-person public relations shop.
While I didn't know exactly what the future held, excitement abounded. Of course, I couldn't know all that I'd learn in the subsequent three rotations around the sun. Here's what I would tell my 2016 self and those of you yearning or planning right now to pursue your entrepreneurial dreams. These lessons are important for keeping going and for getting going, too.
1. People want to support you.
Know that the people in your circle want to support you. That could be by giving you some business. But there are other ways, too. Think about how different friends, family members and professional contacts can help you -- and ask for it, always offering what you can to reciprocate. Maybe it's a LinkedIn recommendation -- and you offer to write one in return. Maybe it's chatting over coffee and when your connection asks "Who is a good referral for you?," you ask the same.
I once asked a friend to introduce me to someone she knew at a company I wanted to get work from. Not only did I end up getting to work with that company, I made a new friend, too.
2. Prepare to be your own IT.
What I miss most about my old corporate life: the IT help desk. I've become a pro at solving many of my own IT issues and glitches thanks to the power of Google searches and Facebook crowdsourcing. When necessary I employ IT pros to help me with my testy wireless printer or to do things like get all of my email accounts to flow seamlessly into one in box. Worth every penny.
3. Celebrate your successes.
This is the biggie. Every new client and each new piece of business should feel like a big deal. They are. Take a moment for a fist pump. Tell yourself you're knocking it out of the park. Our internal dialog is important. We are who we say we are, so we might as well tell ourselves we are wildly successful and killing it.
I didn't really appreciate this until I interviewed and wrote about Jen Sincero, author of You Are a Badass at Making Money. Now I talk about manifesting what I need for my business all the time. It's mindset.
4. Expect a some slump.
Progress is not a straight shot upward. I know this. But I was surprised and disappointed in myself when 2017, my first full year in business, didn't end as strongly as 2016. My husband called it my sophomore slump. He was right. While the early supporters in my circle were key to my initial success, I couldn't count on them forever. I needed to expand my network. I needed to understand these things take time. I also needed to do my own PR, which brings me to...
5. Create and Use your own Personal Relations.
Nobody will ever care as much about your work, career or business as much as you. You have to create your own PR. Write articles on LinkedIn or start a blog. Add testimonials to your website. Spend time on your business Facebook page. This is how you should work in a way to come out or avoid of slump. Doing all of these things will made you feel in control. Keep on doing something. It will also lift your spirits and remin you of the work You have done exceptionally well and you will be the most proud of. See, it really is about celebrating your successes.
6. Find your people.
Find the people who you need for various aspects of your work. Perhaps you work with a coach, and there are several kinds -- business coaches, sales coaches and life coaches, for example. Find a networking group -- or two or three. Try to belong to a few different groups, including one for fellow entrepreneurs and another for fellow PR professionals. It's good to have people you can bounce ideas off of and network with. Because if you work from home, these groups are especially important. These people fill a void that my fellow cube dweller colleagues used to occupy.
7. Don't mind working more.
You should never mind working harder or longer at anything for building your business. Knowing that this would be required no doubt kept me in my cube longer than it should have. Would you want to go to evening networking events after a long day? Would you want to do work on the weekends? Turned out you don't mind. It's ridiculous you ever thought otherwise, because you have worked hard and cared a lot at every single job.
You should work more, but also on your own terms. If working an hour in the evening or on a Saturday frees you up to pick up your daughter from ballet class or go to yoga class, then you don't mind at all. you are working to build not just your business but the life you I want for you and your family, too.
8. You will need Boundaries.
Because you likely won't mind working more, you will need some boundaries. No cell phone at the dinner table, for example. That one is still tough; I won't lie.
Another example, you should nott email clients back at say 10 p.m. unless there is a crisis -- and so far (knock on wood) there hasn't been one. People -- bosses and clients -- will treat you as you allow yourself to be treated. Since you don't want to be on the hook to answer emails at any hour, You typically won't answer them in the late hours. You might reply at 5 a.m. on my way to the gym, but You don't expect a response until normal business hours.
9. Hire people.
As soon as you are able, hire people so you can take on more work and grow your business. There's another benefit that is just as important, and that's getting to experience client service from the other side -- from the perspective of a client. When I contract work I pick up on what I appreciate as a client in terms of responsiveness and output. It's a great reminder to make sure I too am providing excellent customer service.
10. It's going to be all right -- great even.
Don't believe it? Reread the third item on this list.
nice topic- great
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