You want to run a business of your own but all the things you are told you need to do feels impossible.
But it can be done with time and persistence.
I will tell you that trying to run a business
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I know there are a lot of people working full-time jobs trying to start a business. You want desperately to get out of it and I don’t want to dash your hopes but I also want to tell you the truth so you don’t have the wrong expectations. It can be done but you have to set it in your heart and mind that you will never give up.
Are you ready to commit to that? Awesome!
Then grab your walking shoes my friend because this is a journey worth taking.
3 Focus Points To Run A Business
There are 3 areas that every business needs to have in order to sustain itself and without them, you can not expect to make money or grow your business. This is a quick overview and then we will dive in a bit more deeply.
Build Your Audience – Work continually to bring more eyes to your business. If people don’t know you exist you can’t build a relationship with them and they won’t
Build A Relationship – You have to earn your audience’s trust and give them a reason to buy from you. This is key for any business no matter what you are offering. You do this through emailing them, showing up
Maintenance – And every business has maintenance work. Whether it is packing up product or planning content. This is stuff that you have to do no matter what. Tedious? Maybe, but it is necessary. These are the things that you could possibly higher out if you had the money.
Each section has a chunk of time you should be giving to that area. If you can give more then do it.
Build Your Audience – 4-6 Hrs Per Week
This section gets the most time because there is no way your business will survive without marketing or outreach. Whether that is social media, blogging, YouTube, Podcasting, collaborating with other business owners, or finding features you have to be continually bringing more eyes to what you do.
Your business is like a funnel. You need to meat lots of different people because only 1-3% of the people you meet are going to buy from you. I know its sad but that is the average. People also have to see something 11 times before they will take action on that thing. Whether it is a post about coming to see your Facebook page or to actually buy something.
Related post: What is a visibility plan and why you need one.
Tasks that could be included in this section are things like…
- Writing a blog post.
- Writing social media posts
- Sharing content from other pages.
- Researching what THERE PROBLEM is and finding ways to answer it.
- Creating videos (to go with your blog posts or to build a YouTube channel.)
Build A Relationship – 2 hrs Per Week.
Whether you sell a physical product or you sell digital products and services you have to give your audience a reason to want to buy from you. Unless you are Wal-Mart or Amazon people are not going to come to your website and buy from you no questions asked.
They have not learned to trust you.
The best way to keep in touch with your audience is to start building an email list. Which is a group of people who have given you permission to send them emails and eventually sell to them. The people who are on your list are going to be far more likely to buy when you have something to
To help understand a bit more. Read this post – What is an email list and why should you have one.
Maintenance – 2hrs Per Week
Maintenance is simply that. The stuff you have to do to keep the doors open. Whether that means setting up a system, answering emails, packing product, or planning a launch. The more maintenance you have to do the less time you will have for the other areas. When you are starting your business you need to think about all of the things that will come along that you HAVE TO do to keep things running.
Creating systems like re-purposing content is going to be your saving grace. If you are wanting an online business that does not include physical products then I highly encourage you to read this post. It walks you through how to take your base piece of content like a blog post and re-purpose it into videos and social media content.
Getting Others To Help You Run A Business
If you start to add up everything that needs to be done you might need to and you don’t see a way for you to do it yourself, consider hiring someone to do it. It used to annoy me to the core because so many leaders in the business world would throw that phrase around like it was as simple as setting up an email account.
Don’t they know that people start businesses that don’t have any money for that kind of thing?
Some don’t think about ways to get scrappy with building a business because they did not have to. Some build a business because they are tired of working for someone else. Not because they need the money or want a better life for their family. And that’s ok. We cant get angry with them for something they don’t understand.
It does take a little bit of money but I want you to hear me out. You can higher someone for just a few hours a week. You don’t have to be ready to higher them full time.
Or if you don’t have that much then you can find someone who is willing to tried skills. Get someone to manage your social content and you can help them build a website. Or create graphics for them.
You can do this. It just takes time to refine your methods when you are trying to run a business.
Know that it takes time but if you make time for your business the little things will add up. You will have to put in a lot of hours first before you see the reward.
