~by Jane Hinchey~
What will bring your business success? Three things.
From my experience, here are the top three things your business needs, right out of the gate, if you want your business headed on a path to success.
1. Skill set
It goes without saying really, but I’ve seen many entrepreneurs get this wrong. You need to be skilled in what you do. But I wanted to go a little bit deeper on what this actually means, and how you can get laser focused on your business offerings. Like many entrepreneurs, we want to be everything to everyone, we have a ton of stuff to offer and most of us are multi-talented. But then we’re spreading ourselves too thin, we’re offering a bit of this and a bit of that, and in the end, our potential clients get confused about what it is we actually do!
Choose one thing. One service that you can offer your clients, and then get really good at it, become known for it, famous for it. Become an expert in this one thing. Make it crystal clear that this ‘thing’ is what you do. Talk about it all the time, do interviews, blog posts, social media posts all around your ‘thing’, and your business will grow and flourish.
2. Tools
Arm yourself with the right tools to not only sustain your business, but to grow your business. We’re talking about email service providers (to grow your list), scheduling software (to book appointments), and a website (to sell to your potential clients 24/7). While you’re thinking about tools, think about systems as well, because having a system in place for everything you do in your business is really going to help when it comes to growth, when you’re ready to start outsourcing some of your tasks. How easy is it going to be to hand over the distribution of your newsletters when you have a system in place on how to do it?
Think outside of the box for a second. Hiring a team to support you is one of the most valuable tools your business can possess. Why are you spending your valuable time on doing tasks that, while you’re capable of doing, aren’t in your zone of genius and aren’t what you do best? That’s where you need to be spending your time. Outsource the rest. Even if it means hiring a virtual assistant for two hours a week, do it. What can you do for your business with those two hours?
3. Mentoring/Mastermind
It’s super important to surround yourself with like minded people, fellow entrepreneurs who get you, who understand the struggle, who will celebrate the highs and kick you in the butt to keep you moving during the lows. There are different ways to approach this, you can hire a coach or mentor, someone who has already done what you want to do and who you can learn from. There are mastermind groups where you’re part of a small group who are all at the same level in business and keep each other accountable.
When I first started out 4 years ago, I did it alone. It was tough. At times depressing. No-one in my family is an entrepreneur. None of my friends were entrepreneurs. So no-one around me “got it”. When I was struggling, their advice was to “get a job”. Wow, so not helpful guys. And it took me a long time to find my tribe, to find my people who got me, where I was part of the right conversations that lifted me up, supported, encouraged and gave me ideas when I was stuck.
I went to local networking events, but discovered 99% of the people attending did not have online businesses – they were brick-and-mortar, and our struggles were different. And I also discovered they were very much male dominated. And let’s face it, men and women do things differently. I found myself making excuses not to attend.
I don’t want you to have to waste time like I did. My shortcut for finding like minded people is in Facebook groups. Yup, I bought a program, and part of that program was access to a private Facebook Group, and lo and behold, that group was full of my people. Now I’m surrounded daily by women who are building up their businesses with guts and gumption. My kind of people.
Meet the Author: Jane Hinchey
Jane Hinchey is a business coach for women entrepreneurs. Using the law of attraction, along with practical and fun techniques, she’ll show you how to build the business of your dreams.
