Posts Tagged ‘own business’

Its one thing to quit your job to start your own business. It is another thing entirely to explain it to friends and family. Close family is okay, because they usually know you better and understand what you are going through. In my case, the job that I quit was in the family business (no, not mobsters), so there was obviously a lot of talking about it there. Recently, though, I have rubbed elbows with some more distant relatives and friends and got a chance to tell them what I am doing.

It can be an eye opening experience to tell people who care about you that you quit your job. This is especially true when their world-view involves getting a job and working hard at it all of their lives. What I have found is this; the more focused you are with your new business venture, the easier it is to tell your friends and relatives about it.

Early on, I would stumble around the question of what I am doing now to make money. I have goals, but I didn’t have great focus. When someone asked me what it is I do exactly, and I couldn’t answer them in a sentence or two, I realized that I didn’t have the kind of focus it was going to take to succeed in my own business.

Sometimes we exist in our own little bubbles. We have our close friends and family. Maybe they don’t understand what we are doing, but they have come to accept it. Then we have our online community. They are 100% behind us, but they aren’t asking for details and accountability. So, when you run into your wife’s uncle and he asks how you are going to make money with your new business, its time to swallow hard and hope you have a good answer.

Ideally, we would all start with a good answer. Tim Berry, who is someone I greatly admire, is always talking about having a plan. I agree with him. But the reality is, sometimes we end up working things out in the wild. Or at least I do. I sort of jump into things with both feet. For me, quiting my job and starting a business was just long overdue. I needed to be able to grow in ways that working in that business just wouldn’t allow me to grow. So I did something that no one in their right mind would advise anyone to do. I just went for it.

It was only after spending some time going for it that I started to realize I needed a focus. Questions from friends and relatives helped. You want to be able to sound good and make sense when you are telling someone how you plan to make money. If for no other reason than to get them to leave you alone. More than that, you want to know for yourself that you have a plan to make money.

So, for me, it was only after I went out on my own that a plan started to formulate. Now, when a relative asks about the job, I say that I have started my own business designing websites and doing online marketing for small business. I don’t mention this blog, I don’t mention all of the other projects I am involved with. I focus on the area that will make the most sense to them. It also happens to be the area that I can make a living at, right now.

In telling this to relatives, I realize too that this is the area that needs the most focus right now. Its funny how, when put under a little pressure, a plan will come together. I know that I struggle with planning. But when I am best at it is when I run into friction. If something I am doing now isn’t working, I tend to be able to jump in and plan out a fix. When I first started my business, telling others what I did wasn’t working. It was something vague, like I want to help small businesses be successful. Well, the pressure helped me define that and better explain it. Right now, my focus is to help small businesses be successful at attracting leads online. I do that by building web sites and online marketing campaigns.

Thank God for the friends and relatives who will burst the bubble we sometimes allow ourselves to live in, just by asking a few simple questions. Sometimes, they are questions we are afraid to ask ourselves. If you are in business, whether just starting yours or if you have been doing it for years, do you have anyone asking you uncomfortable questions?

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Hi, I am Bradford Shimp, and this is my story. I have recently started a new business, Broad River Creative, and I wanted to share my journey with you.

photo credit: OakleyOriginals

All Business Answers Podcast

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On this podcast, I am joined by Desiree Scales, founder of Bella Web Design, in Atlanta, Georgia. Desiree left her job at a major airline over 10 years ago to start her own business and hasn’t looked back. Today, she balances the demands of business with the importance of her family. She has purposefully created a business that she can run from home, but has used a creative business model to allow the business to scale up easily.

The is part one of a conversation that I had with Desiree. In this section, we learn the story behind Bella Web Design and gain some insight into how she manages her business. In part two, we will hear Desiree’s thoughts on social media for small business.

Follow Desiree on Twitter at twitter.com/desireescales.

Visit Desiree’s web site at www.bellawebdesign.com.

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Call for Interviews: I am looking to interview business owners, authors, experts, and interesting people on a regular basis. If you would like to tell your story on this podcast, please contact me.

Credits: This podcast was recorded using Skype and Pamela. Thanks to Joe Magennis and Desiree Scales for technical advice. Music by Kevin MacLeod. Editing done with Audacity.

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of AllBizAnswers.com.

This is part of a series of posts on what you can do to be more successful in your business this year. To get a free report full of success tips for your business, click here.

As a small business owner, it is very easy to shortchange your own business in favor of helping your clients. What I want to ask you is, “what if you were your next client?”

Taking time out to focus on your business is necessary. If you don’t get a handle on the details of your small business, things could easily spiral out of control. So do yourself a favor. Schedule in some time to focus on your business.

Do Your List

There are many things that you can do to improve things. This might include finally putting some procedures on paper. You probably have a whole list of things that you have been putting off. Get them done.

The Things You Can’t Do

There is another element to this, however. Say you run an HVAC company. If so, I bet your furnace is in tip-top shape for the winter. But how about your books? Your marketing? Not surprisingly, we tend to focus on our area of skill. This is actually a good thing. Too often, though, we don’t bring in other skills to help make our businesses better.

If you are a caterer, you probably don’t spend much time giving clients advice on their web site. If they need help, what would you do? I bet you would refer them to someone you know who does web sites. When you look at your own business as a client, maybe you’ll realize that it is time to refer in some other businesses and professionals to help.

Bring in the Professionals

You wouldn’t try to do things yourself that are out of your area of expertise for your valued clients. But for some reason, you have a tendency to suffer through your weak areas for your own business. Stop. Get some help. Bring in the professionals.

If you want to be the best business possible, you need the best help possible. This includes great help in accounting, legal, marketing, even systems development. Unless one of those is your own area of expertise, you need to be hiring out for those. Is it going to cost money? Sure it is. But it will also help you create a more solid business that will be much better at generating profit and cash flow. In other words, it is money well-invested.

If you were your client, you would treat yourself better. You would give yourself the same advice I am giving you. You would bring in the experts when you didn’t know how to fulfill a need. And in the end, you would have a tighter, more efficient, and more profitable business.

photo credit: Rocker_44

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Bradford Shimp builds web sites for small businesses at BroadRiverCreative.com. Follow Bradford on Twitter @bradfordshimp.

A while back, I bought a Flip Video recorder. Those are those neat little pocket size cameras. Part of my justification for buying it was that I was going to record business videos, both for this site and for clients. So far, I have a lot of videos of my kids, which is absolutely great. I love the video camera, I just haven’t used it for business yet.

All of this leaves me in the position of recommending that you use video to promote your business without having successfully done it yet myself. Video can be a very impacting form of marketing. The trust factor on video marketing is high because prospects can see your face and hear your voice. Humans are good at judging other humans by facial cues and the like.

Beyond being effective, video is easy these days. Every video camera comes with some form of software to help you get it on your computer. From there, its just a few clicks away from YouTube and other video sharing sites. Those sites make it easy to embed your video on your own business web site. And if you can’t figure any of that out, chances are that you have a kid or a younger relative who could easily do it for you.

So the technology is there. Its cheap and easy to create video for the web. Most of us already have all of the equipment we need to get started. This means we can use this high impact marketing method virtually for free. So what is standing in your way?

I personally have several excuses. They are as follows:

• I am camera shy. I have a hard time being on that side of the lens. This, of course, is psycho baloney. You just need to pretend the camera isn’t there.
• I don’t know what to say. While I can recite whole speeches in my head when I am day-dreaming, I tend to clam up in front of a camera. This can be fixed by writing a script and memorizing it. Start with a 30 second video to make that easy. I used to be in plays in high school, so I know that I can memorize and act. So a script would solve that problem.
• I come off as stiff and stilted. Again, poor excuse. Time and repetition, along with a good script, will fix this. If you don’t believe me, go to WineLibraryTV.com and watch a few recent episodes of Gary Vaynerchuk’s great wine show. The man has presence and charisma. You’ll think that you could never be that good. When you are feeling good and sorry for yourself, go back and watch Gary’s very first episode. It will be enlightening. You may come to realize that Gary is so good at video because he has been doing it every day for over two years. Time and repetition will make you better.
• I am embarrassed to talk to myself in front of a camera. I haven’t figured out how to solve this one yet. One idea is to get someone to interview you, or just to be there to help you along. Another idea is to just get over it. I personally feel I have to record myself when no one else is around. Maybe practice will make this wear off as well.
• I don’t have a good place to record. I work from home and don’t have a lot of “blank” walls. My office is in a small room upstairs that used to be a bathroom (and will hopefully become one again when we get around to remodeling it). The fact is, it doesn’t matter where you record. Try to get enough light so people can see your face. Also, make sure you can be heard, so no recording in the middle of a highway (not without a microphone, anyway).

So those are my excuses. As with most excuses, they are pretty lame. I have just accepted them because it is easier than moving out and doing videos. But a video sprinkled here and there on this blog could really add some interest. It could also open up new opportunities for me.

How about your excuses? Are they better than mine? Or are they just silly things standing in your way. Think of what a few good videos could do for your web site. Suddenly, you can get that great elevator pitch in front of every visitor. Or you can talk to your customers about how to better use your product. Also, consider recording customer testimonials on video.

Video is cheap, easy, and effective. Excuses are also cheap and easy, but they are debilitating. I am going to work on overcoming my excuses and record some videos. I hope that you will join me.

photo credit: edbrambley

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Bradford Shimp helps small businesses build great web sites and create a web presence that builds the brand and brings in leads.

Do you ever feel like you are the king of the world one day, with things just clicking in your business, only to find yourself wondering what you are doing and where you are going the next day? I have been personally struggling with this of late. The problem comes from having a general idea of what you want to accomplish with your business, but having no real, day to day, plan of how to get there. Call it non-planicitis.

You Need a Plan

The truth is, without some kind of plan, you have a much harder time staying on task. Staying on task directly relates to meeting your business goals, so it is very important.

You need to know where you are going if you ever want to get there. So, if you feel like you are hitting walls pretty often, or if you find yourself constantly changing direction, stop everything. Take the day off and work on a plan. Thats what I am going to do. Its time to refocus and really get a handle on where you are going.

Track Your Progress

Once you know where you are going, you need to put in place markers along the route so that you will know that you are still on track. A good plan includes a step by step map that takes you from where you currently are to where you want to be. Draw the map, and then trust it every day. For me, I think my map will include some non-blog writing every day. I really want to create some info products, but in order to do it I have to work on it a little every day. Your daily tasks will be your own. Your job is to make sure that you know what to do every day to get you to the goal.

Learn the Power of No

Just as important is knowing what not to do every day. I, for one, am easily distracted. Because I am in the beginning phases of my own business, I could take it literally anywhere. If you are in a more established business, you are already a little more focused. But it is still possible to take your business off the path if you are not careful. Say no to things that aren’t going to move you toward your goal.

I think the only way to keep things moving forward daily, and to avoid rabbit trails and walls, is to have a good plan. Read my article on business planning for some advice on how do that. Or just think of your business path as a map. Figure out where you are going, and then put in place the steps and the daily activities that will get you there.

Happy planning. I hope you have smooth sailing.

photo credit: Horia Varlan