If you’ve thought about having your own business but haven’t jumped in yet, you’re likely stuck on the first question: Where do I start?
When you look at what other people with successful work from home businesses are doing, it can feel like you’re looking at one of those 1000 piece puzzles where 90% of the pieces are green grass with tiny little variations in the shades of green that are enough to drive you insane.
Your new business can feel like that puzzle you don’t have the time, patience, or even ability to put together.
If only you had a roadmap, imagine that.
What if each puzzle piece had a number on the back of it and all you had to do was connect the pieces by numerical order?
Your new business can be almost that easy, and we’ll talk about how in just a minute.
But first let’s dispel the myth that keeps most aspiring entrepreneurs from ever being successful or even giving it a try.
That myth is that your business is a 1000 piece puzzle.
It can be. If you want it to be. When you become more advanced.
But the truth is, when you’re starting out and trying to reach that first income goal, your business doesn’t have to be any harder than those wooden shape puzzles with six different animals in them.
The ones where each animal has a small peg attached, and your toddler just has to figure out which hole each shape fits in.
The even better news is, your business puzzle only has three essential parts to it.
Yes, you can do more and you will do more.
But these are the three pieces that hold the puzzle together, so before you do anything else, make sure you’re doing these three things.
1. Reach Out to Someone Personally Every Day
It’s amazing how many entrepreneurs are introverts.
And finding this online gig is like the holy grail for introverts.
You don’t actually have to talk to any real people. Instead you just post stuff online, and people grow to know, like, and trust you online, and they buy from you online.
Without you ever having to speak to them. Hallelujah.
While certainly there is that “make money while you sleep” aspect of your online business, the real magic comes from making money while you talk to people, especially as you’re building your business.
This doesn’t mean you have to call someone up and try to sell them your stuff every day.
It just means you have to reach out and connect with people.
Not even with the idea of selling them.
Just with the idea that the more people who know about you, the more people who will buy from you.
So what does it look like to reach out to someone personally?
It may mean messaging 10 of your LinkedIn connections and saying, “I do X, I see that you do Y, would you be interested in talking about how our businesses complement each other?”
Or, “I’m trying to build up a referral network of people I can trust. Would you like to talk more about what you do so I can add you to my network and send any potential clients your way?”
The point is just getting to know more people as people and not just website visitors, or social media followers.
You might reach out to someone who likes your content a lot, or someone whose content you like and just be real. Say, “I’m trying to get to know more people, wanna chat about our businesses for 20 minutes on Zoom?”
The only agenda here is to make a personal connection with people.
Those people may never become customers but some will, and more importantly it will open unknown doors for you and put you top of mind when it comes to others referring you.
2. Put a Buy Button in Front of Someone Every Day
This is a huge mistake that even many seasoned business owners make.
So you’ve got this great product or service, and you’ve even set up a little website, and you’re posting on social media to build your audience.
But how many people are actually seeing something from you each day that includes a “buy now” button they can click on and actually send you money?
I hear you protesting, “But I can’t sell on social media, everyone will hate me and unfollow me.”
To a point, you are right. Not every social media post should be a blatant sales pitch. We all hate that.
But if you’re adding value to your social media connections, you should also be consistently, gently, offering them a link where they can go check out what you’re selling.
And, remember your business doesn’t just live on social media.
Build an email list and you can put a link to your buy button in every single email you send. Again, just make sure you’re adding some value so they’ll actually open your emails.
How you’ll get your buy button in front of people is going to be different for different people. You may use some paid ads, or start a Facebook group and have links to your products and services pinned to the top, or drive people to your offers through blogging, or posting YouTube videos.
There are a number of ways to do it, and you should be using more than one of them.
The point is, don’t think your job is done for the day because you’ve created some content and posted it on three social media networks.
Your day is not done until you’ve gotten some eyes on a buy button.
3.Take at Least One Step Towards Your Goals Every Day
You have to actively monitor yourself each day in your business or you can find that weeks, and then months, go by and you’re still stuck in the same place you were when you started your business.
Once you have your business and life goals mapped out (which is another discussion for a different day), when you’re planning your day you need to ask yourself: “What step(s) am I taking today to bring myself closer to my goal of making $1000 this month?” Or launching a new product this month, or signing on 3 new clients this month, whatever the goal is.
And at the end of the day, you need to again ask yourself, what steps did I take today to get closer to that goal?
It’s easy to get lost in doing the fun things in your business, and in doing the boring admin stuff in your business, and in running around on the internet all day in the name of working, only to discover at the end of the day you’ve made no progress toward your ultimate goals for your business and your life.
Checking in with yourself and having the right to-do list are essential to making sure you’re not just spinning your wheels.
But How Do I Make All This Happen?
Okay, it’s only three things, but if you’re a new or struggling business owner, you may be saying, “But I don’t know how to reach out to people, or how to even get a buy button up, or what good, realistic goals look like.”
Remember how we talked earlier about making your business as easy as a puzzle with numbers on the back?
While that may be a bit of an over-simplification, you can take 90% of the stress and stumbling out of your business by having a business mentor.
Your mentor can’t do it all for you, and you have to make some mistakes along the way if you want to grow into your greatness.
But a mentor can be, and often is, the key difference in those who find success in their business and those who throw in the towel.
So you can go out and do these three things on your own, learning by trial and error, or you can save time, money, and your sanity by hooking up with a mentor.
If you’re a stay at home mom or a struggling entrepreneur and having a successful business would be life-changing for you, then Kids Party Characters owner Cheryl Jacobs may be the right mentor for you.
Cheryl began with nothing but two beautiful babies who needed to be fed and has since started 10 businesses, including Kids Party Characters, which she runs from home and has turned into a six figure venture.
Cheryl has opened up a great opportunity for a select number of people to get a license to Kids Party Characters.
With a license, you have the right to book parties in an exclusive territory, access to over 200 of our unique costumes as well as our casting director and acting coach.
And, you receive personal training and mentorship from Cheryl and the team at Kids Party Characters.
Basically, Cheryl’s done everything she can to help you become a successful business owner as quickly as possible.
Think this might be the right opportunity for you, or have more questions? Book a free, no-pressure chat with Cheryl right here, and she’ll help you sort out what’s best for your life.
Want to learn more about the magic we create at KidsPartyCharacters.com? Connect with us on Facebook for daily updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment