As a small business owner myself, I have worked very hard since 2001 to have a recognizable brand for both Motivational Steps and the Small Business Community Network (SBCN). If you have a strong brand presence, and you continue to network with your contacts, and build relationships, both face to face and online, you will certainly reap the long term rewards.
Sadly a lot of SMB's make excuses when it comes to the actual hard work required to build a successful business, and if they really think being their own boss means working less and enjoying more free time, they are defintely not going to be in it for the duration. I do my best to be honest when people come to me for advice and I am consistent with the mesage I share. Build strong foundations for your business, be consistent with your marketing efforts, know your target market and network effectively.
I researched day after day when I decided I wanted to start my own business as a motivational speaker, knowing I had no corporate background, no business experience at all, I knew it would be difficult to break into the already saturated world of speaking and actually earning money! Taking into account that I had returned to school just a cople of months after going throudh a double mastectomy, and I was continuing with my year long course as well as working on my small business, I look back and raelize I am successful now because I was dedicated to building my business and not cutting corner. Nothing comes easy if it is worthwhile, and to me being a small business owner was something I was passionate about, believed I could do so I was prepared to do the work involed to reach my goal.
Despite having no budget at all to build my business I succeeded, and I know other people can do the same if they take the time to work out their desired outcome. I knew that I wanted to continue raising awareness about breast cancer so decided to make Pink the colour of my brand, and I always were something Pink. But it was my message that really resonated with people, especially when they realised I had been wroking 3 low paying jobs all at the same time before my second diagnosis of breast cancer and I was at the point where my home could be taken off me by the bank.
Looking for opportunities that did not cost money was also something I excelled at, and this worked out great for me because most of those opportunties have paved the way for my continued success today. But a lot of people ignore the opportunities staring them in the face, they think they are already too busy to do extra work or follow up on a lead so they lose out.
I have always had a strong community spirit and early on I decided I wanted to volunteer with certain organiztions, whether this was by my sharing my time for free at events, speaking or generally helping out I was and still am passionate about giving back.
Even before social media as we know it came into being I was online working at building relationships and sharing my articles and tips in any way I could so that I had a great online presence.
As one of the co-founders of the SBCN I am always read to help SMB's and I never expect anyone to do things my way, because something worked for me. I suggest they take my ideas and use what works for them and add their own ideas. Sadly a large percentage of people decide to do nothing but try and sell, sell, sell and then realise nothing is happening and a few of those people decide then to build strong foundations. This does mean they had to go backwards in order to forwards but those people do have a better chance of being successul than the ones who give up!
I want to share with you one of my recent blogs which I wrote for the TELUS Talks Business website and this might offer you some ideas on how working in your community and giving back to your community can also help you succeed.
Ultimately it is up to you.
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