In Part 1 of lessons learned I’ve shared with you 3 important things about mindset and attitude towards business that I’ve learned in my business over the past years.
Today, I want to share some thoughts on the business & marketing lessons learned.
Lesson 4: Consistent Marketing Bears Fruit.
For me, marketing is like planting a seed.
When you put a seed of a tree in the ground, you do not eat the fruit of that tree the next day. The seed needs time to grow. You need to give it water and fertiliser and you need to nurture that seed and help it grow into a big tree. Eventually you will be able to eat the fruit. However, if you stop to give it water, the seed or the tree will die before you can enjoy the fruit and you will have to start all over again.
It’s the same with marketing. It is something you need to do daily, consistently. When you plant the first little “seed” into a prospects head, you can’t just leave it there and think you’ve played your part. You need to water it frequently with more follow-ups and valuable information so that it can grow into a giant tree and start bearing fruit when that client is ready to work with you.
The truth is, marketing rarely gives instant results. It is a process and the marketing effort you put in today, will mostly reap results in future. So consistent marketing will bring consistent results.
Lesson 5: Clarity Goes a Long Way
There are many things in business you have to get clear about, but for me the most important ones are clarity about what you want; what you do; who you work with and how you help them.
When you are clear about what you want, you can set goals and put plans in place to reach those goals.
When you are clear about what you do, who you work with and how you help them, you can tailor your marketing to consistently attract the clients you want.
A mistake many solo-preneurs make is to work with all sorts of clients because they are not clear about who they work with and how they help their clients. This not only results in a struggle to market your services effectively, but you often get clients you just don’t want to work with: people that drain your energy; people who do not pay; people that do not commit to your programs; people who always complain. This makes your business un-enjoyable and is not why you started it in the first place.
When you are not clear on what you truly want from your business and who your ideal clients are, it is an uphill struggle. However, when you become clear about what you want; what you do; who you work with and how you help them, the whole situation changes. Your marketing becomes super easy, you start to attract the right clients, they get better results from working with you, they recommend you to other people, your business and income grow and you at last have fun doing what you love to do.
Lesson 5: Align Your Plans And Goals With What You Really Want.
One of my mentors always says: “When you are clear, you can be clear”
It is so true, because when you have clarity on the things discussed above, you can set some pretty clear goals and then start creating plans and making decisions that are aligned with those goals.
It often happens that entrepreneurs are spinning their wheels in one place. They are doing a lot of stuff and are working really hard, without progressing. In some instances they even miss huge opportunities to progress faster or they say yes to an opportunity that does nothing more to their business apart from giving them more work.
For me, the problem here is because they have no real direction or end goal in mind. They often do not really know what they want, so they cannot put any worthwhile plans in place… and this goes all back to having clarity.
When you are clear and know what you want, you not only set clear goals and create better plans, but it also becomes easier to start saying yes to the right opportunities that fit your plans and will help you achieve those goals faster.
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Love and Success
Francis
