Ever thought about starting your own biz? Follow these 9 tips for success- Part II
You’ve
heard the statistic before: Nine out of 10 small businesses fail. So what are
those 10 percent who are successful doing differently?
Having recently
launched my own life and career coaching business for women, I thought I’d
share my top 9 tips for success. This is the second article in a two-part
series. The first article covered tips 1-5. If you missed it, you can read it here. Below, you’ll find tips 6-9.
6. Get comfortable
with self-promotion.
In
order to make an impact on the world with your service or product, people have
to know about you. Many people—especially women—are uncomfortable promoting
themselves, but if you decide to become an entrepreneur, I believe marketing
must be your top focus—especially in the beginning.
Some
people think of marketing as sleazy or dirty—and certainly, when done the wrong
way, that’s how it can come off. But I believe that there’s an authentic way to
market your business by demonstrating to potential customers that you genuinely
do care about them and can offer a solution to their problem.
I
can say that I wholeheartedly believe in the value I provide to my private
coaching clients—and I believe that if there’s someone out there who needs my
help, it’s my duty to help them find their way to me. So I look at marketing as
the tool that helps them find me—not in a pushy way—but the message being,
“Just so you know, I’m here and I have the skills to help you stop struggling
and reach your life and career goals. If it feels right for you and you think
working together would be a good fit, I’d be more than happy to help.” See, not
sleazy, right?
7. Done is better
than perfect.
I
definitely struggle with this one, as I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist.
But I have learned to let go a bit over the past few months. If not, I would
still be “preparing” to launch my business, rather than enjoying the ride!
Don’t
let analysis paralysis hold you back. Repeat after me: Implement, implement,
implement! Don’t get me wrong. You certainly want to be sufficiently prepared
and have a well-thought-out strategy when you begin any endeavor, but you won’t
know whether something works or not until you’ve actually implemented the
strategy and can see the results, which leads me to the next tip…
8. Fail fast & forward.
8. Fail fast & forward.
This tip is an extension of #7. The only way to know what’s effective and what’s not is by trial and error. The key is to learn from what doesn’t go exactly as planned. You want to jump in and try something, determine very quickly whether it’s working or not, why that is, and then course correct right away—either by tweaking your approach slightly or taking a different route altogether, depending on what’s at the root of the “failure.”
9. Hustle!
As
Marketing & Lifestyle Expert Marie Forleo has said, “Before you become an
overnight success, you must be an everyday hustler.” One of the key goals for
many entrepreneurs when they start their businesses is to have more freedom and
live a more flexible lifestyle (and this was big for me, too)—but in the
beginning, while you’re establishing your business and your credibility, it
takes many, many long hours, and tons of hard work and dedication. It will not
be easy. It will be exhausting, it will be draining, and there will be times
when you question what you are doing and if you’re up to the task. But if you
put in the hard work up front, I truly believe you will reap the rewards in the
end.
Being
an entrepreneur is not for everyone, but I can say without question that I love
it! And in those tiring, dark moments, I keep the following quote I once heard
top of mind. “Entrepreneurs live for one or two years like most people won’t, so that they can spend the rest
of their lives living like most people can’t.”
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