We’ve been truly lucky to have gained the experience of running our business for the past 25 years.
It always amazes us when we think about how we started, from zero and without much of a plan except knowing that we had skills in web designing and we offered this skill as a service.
Fast forward 25 years and we know so much more now.
So what would we do if we started our business today? What strategies would we employ to get up to speed?
Here’s what we would recommend a newbie entrepreneur to do. Think of this as a blueprint that’s been tried and tested.
Connect with Your Audience
Before offering any services and products, engage with your target audience. For example, if you’re entering the health and wellness sector, get out and start talking to potential clients. Understand their pain points such as time constraints for fitness and identify their needs, like personalized workout plans or quick meal solutions.
Unlike health and wellness, when we started in web design, many people didn’t understand what a website was about. They thought it was a frivolous expense as they perceived it as an online brochure. We had to educate potential clients why a website was important to their business and this is an ongoing process until today! (Even though we have written a book about this, people still come up to us and ask us questions about using websites!)
Create Custom Services
Develop services based on the feedback and insights gathered from your target audience. If the consensus is a demand for convenient wellness solutions, tailor your services to offer online fitness coaching and personalized nutrition plans. Ensure that your offerings directly align with their needs, providing solutions that stand out in the market.
In our case, we created website packages for different budgets. We experimented with several packages and each time we became more skilled and adept at what we did and started producing results for our clients, we raised our prices. After all, websites are bespoke and custom to the business owner’s needs. Anything that needs customisation should be priced higher. Anything that is not customized can be offered at a lower price.
Diversify with Products
To avoid the feast or famine situation especially for service-based businesses, consider creating products alongside your services. For instance, if your services involve virtual fitness classes, introduce branded workout equipment or nutritional supplements. This not only provides additional revenue streams but also adds stability to your business.
In our business, we created products such as our book and our entrepreneur game (which is now our signature programme and workshop). It is important to know that if you’re not selling products, you are trading time and there’s only so much time to trade!
(This is why we teach product creation within our Big Timer programme so if you want to know how you can join this programme, leave your name and email to be updated).
Establish a Credible Online Presence
Build a website that not only showcases your services but also highlights the unique value proposition of your products and most importantly, your story! Ensure your website emphasizes your credibility as well as your solutions. Leverage platforms like LinkedIn to share your expertise through articles on topics that you have experience in.
We’ve always used our website to showcase what we could do for clients who have problems with marketing themselves or how we solved their biggest website problems such as being invisible online and not getting their right customers. We have been writing articles and sharing them on our website since 2005. Articles are the best way to educate your clients and a great way to demonstrate that you know what you know.
Network with Purpose
Join both online and offline business groups to introduce your new venture. Actively participate in discussions, share your experiences and offer valuable insights. Attend industry-specific events for a start to get to know your peers and industry folks but be creative as you gain more networking experience. Go where your peers or competitors won’t go. Check out events that are complementary to your business. If you’re a lawyer and have an established presence within the legal community, it’s time to diversify the network. Show up to legal conferences sporadically. Instead, how about heading to a social media conference?
We started by speaking for free in as many local events as we could. When you speak for free, you are perceived as the expert. Potential clients will perceive you as a problem-solver and aren’t shy to come up to you and ask for help. We chose speaking as a platform because that’s the fastest route to getting known and being seen. If you’re in business, you must choose a platform to market yourself – speaking is one of the fastest routes.
Leverage Content Marketing
Write articles and contribute to portals and platforms, particularly on LinkedIn. Position yourself as an industry thought leader by sharing valuable content. If you’re in the fashion industry, you could contribute articles discussing sustainable materials, ethical production practices and the impact of fast fashion on the environment.
In our industry, we took a contrarian approach and wrote about the significance of website content when many web designers only focused on design and visuals. We spoke about organic SEO when many agencies were selling paid SEO and advertising. We emphasized marketing as a focus in our websites because we knew others wouldn’t. It also meant we had to work harder and walk our talk and use ourselves as our best example, showing others how we leveraged our website to grow our visibility, credibility and profitability.
Tap into Personal Connections
Reach out to friends and personally introduce them to your new business. For example, if your business revolves around personalized gift services, send personalized samples to friends and ask for their feedback and referrals. Personal recommendations can be powerful in establishing trust and credibility.
As a business, we’ve always worked best with clients who are referred to us by other clients. Word-of-mouth referrals are much warmer prospects (and often become a sale) and those who are more liable to trust you compared to someone who just googled us. Until today, we still get referrals from our current clients because who knows us and our work ethic if not our clients who have stayed with us for umpteenth years?
Coffee Chats for Feedback
When you first start your business, you have lots of time. Why not invite 100 friends or contacts for one-on-one coffee sessions to gather feedback and insights about your business? If you’re starting a consulting business, use these sessions to understand their specific pain points in the industry and tailor your services accordingly. These personal interactions can also lay the foundation for potential partnerships or collaborations.
We wished we had done this in our early years but we also created our events where we connected entrepreneurs openly and freely and this again has been an invaluable marketing strategy. When people know, like and trust you, they are more likely to send business your way! Check out our live webinar series that we’re starting in March.
Identify Potential Partnerships
Explore collaborations with 1-3 business people who align with your vision, values and goals. If you’re in the tech sector, consider partnering with software developers or IT experts. Identify synergies that could lead to mutually beneficial partnerships such as joint ventures or co-creating innovative solutions.
We are selective about creating partnerships after a few mishaps with people who were not aligned with our vision and objectives. We are quite discerning now about who we partner with. Consider the partner’s reputation, years in business, business culture and values. If there’s no match-up, keep looking. Just because someone pitches you doesn’t mean you need to accept every pitch that comes your way.
If you are starting your business today, consider the above key advice that you can use based on our 25 years of experience. We teach all this and more in our Big Timer programme. If you are interested in the programme, sign up for updates.
Or check out our live webinar series that starts in March.