Let me start by saying I love my small business owners and entrepreneurs. They are awesome people who go out on a limb and put it all out there to grow a business they are passionate about. Entrepreneurs tend be people who would prefer to work 80 hours for themselves then 40 for someone else. It’s just what the prefer. I myself am not that different. Refusing to settle for the status-quo and wanting to constantly find ways to improve myself, my business and the lives of my clients. I am constantly looking to level up my business and yours.
Today I want to have a little heart to heart with my fellow entrepreneurs, if you want to grow and level up your business you are going to need to do some work. I am not talking about the outsourcing of a newsletter or the writing of some content. I’m talking about some soul searching. You know the kind that really makes you think? Question? You know the soul searching that leads to an awesome new product or an amazing idea that can transform the way you do business. The soul searching that let’s you really put it all out there.
Step 1 to Leveling up: Soul search about what it is that you really do for clients and how your business impacts the lives of your clients.
Prepare to work, work , work, work. No one will ever be as passionate about your business as you. It’s just a fact and no social media campaign, email newsletter, membership site or opt-in offer will ever replace the one on one conversation. Let’s be clear, all of those things will help you get prospects, warm up leads and get people to talk to but at the end of the day unless you have 10’s of thousands of followers be prepared to have a selling conversation.
Step 2 to Leveling up: Be prepared to put in the work, especially at the beginning. See three new people a day, set three new appointments and always have 10 people on the table for you to talk to about your product.
Understand what your brand is and what it isn’t. A lot of marketers or brand people will talk about being “on brand” but what does that really mean? To me, being on brand means the imagery, language, colors, style and tone, basically, everything you do should look like you. It should have a tone, a feeling, a personality and it should scream this is me. Being on brand should showcase and authentic side of yourself, something that differentiate you from the thousands of other people that do what you do.
Step 3 to Leveling up: Being on brand should showcase you and your company’s personality in an authentic and original way.
Find your ideal client. Leveling up your business requires you to understand who your ideal client is. How old are they? Are they male or female? Do your clients have a particular theme in common? What are they into? What types of businesses do they own? Knowing who you ideal client will allow you to understand what it is they want from you and how you can help them move the needle forward. An ideal client should be someone you can attract to your business very naturally; while you may have to do some selling they should be someone who gets you and your business. An ideal client isn’t someone who you have to do a lot of work to sell. An ideal client is someone who can go on your website and say, “that’s me”.
Step 4 to Leveling up: Identify your ideal client and continue to hone the characteristics that make them ideal.
Consistently create amazing content. In this digital age we live in it is essential to continuously express your expertise to build your brand ecosystem. Showcase your authentic self. Remember its ok if someone doesn’t want to hire you because you posted something personal on social media, it simply means that person wasn’t your ideal client. Be you, be an expert and consistently create. If you struggle in creating content work with someone who can coach you through the writing process or edit your work or simply outsource it and edit the work if it needs to be. Many good content creator can create the work in your voice however I do recommend to my clients to write their own blogs even if it is only once a quarter. The most important thing is to create consistent, extraordinary work.
Step 5 to Leveling: Take your content to the next level, commit to a blog, commit to a social strategy and work towards a goal.
Send me a note on how leveling up your business is going at jamie@outliermarketinggroup.com ~ I’m here and happy to help you level up!
