Part1
Part1When you’re building a solo business from scratch, the key word for many months or even years is ‘surviving’. In the beginning, your main focus is normally on getting enough clients, keeping the bank manager happy and being able to pay the bills.
The truth is your business is literally in survival mode until you can find your groove, kick things up a notch and start implementing strategies to take your business to the next level.
So, over the next 6 weeks, I want to give you 6 easy and cost effective, but crucial strategies to take your solo business from merely surviving to thriving in the next 12 months.
Okay, so let’s fire away with…
Strategy 1: Discovering YOU First
May I ask: How well do you know yourself?
When I ask this question to my private clients, we always have a good laugh, especially when I compare them with onions… and illustrate the question on the hand of the movie Shrek.
Can you recall the situation where Donkey and Shrek had the following discussion?
Shrek: For your information Donkey, there’s a lot more to ogres than people think.
Donkey: Example?
Shrek: Example… uh… ogres are like onions!
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes… No!
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry?
Shrek: [peels an onion] NO Donkey! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
Like ogres, there’s a lot more to you than meets the eye. You have layers too. How well do you know your layers? Are you prepared to peel back a few and see for yourself… you may be surprised at what you find.
Truth is, we often think we know ourselves pretty well, but when we are confronted with some thought provoking questions we sometimes choke on the answers. Questions like:
- What are you truly passionate about?
- What gives you untold energy when you do it?
- What motivates you to keep going when the business road starts to creep uphill?
- What are your values and those things you won’t compromise on while doing business and marketing your services?
- What are your fears and the things holding you back from playing a bigger game?
- What is your greatest strength or weakness in your marketing?
- Why do you want to be in business for yourself?
- What do you ultimately want from your business?
Building a thriving business while marketing your services fearlessly and effectively starts with knowing yourself. It starts with being aware of who you really are and what you truly want.
So take some time out today to really, really answer those questions about yourself. The answers might surprise you, but will also give a lot of insight and self-awareness on how to operate your business and how to market it successfully.
For example, when you know what motivates you, you can build it into your marketing plans to help you keep momentum. When you know your fears, you can start working on overcoming or eliminating them from your marketing to move forward. When you know your strengths, you can build on them to attract more clients.
Thus, self-awareness and the knowledge of what makes you tick is the starting point of building a client-rich business and taking your business from merely surviving to thriving….
Love and Success
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Click here for Part 2: Plan, Prioritize, Take Action
