AKA: If you build it, they won’t come (unless they hear about you)
Do you remember the movie ‘Field of Dreams’? Side-note: it came out in 1989 which to some of you may sound like 5,000 years ago. Anyway, I digress.
Kevin Costner basically has a vision (or hears voices, or both) and ends up building a baseball field on his farm with no audience or team, or any kind of sensible plan. And whilst this makes for a really warm and fuzzy, God Bless America kinda movie, in real life, this kind of approach to your business is a disaster.
If you’re starting out in business & you want to stand out…strike that, even before standing out, if you want people to even know that you exist as an option, guess what you have to do - you have to tell the people that you exist!
That process of getting your name out there and making sure people know what your business is, actually has many layers to it.
If you want people to know what you stand for, what makes you unique and above all, if you don’t want to be trying to grow your business in a vacuum, here are some areas you need to focus on:
Figure out your ‘why’/your values/your USP/your Ideal clients
Conduct competitor analysis
Figure out what your content pillars are
Write at least 10 pieces of content before you start a new social media account
Get out there on the socials
Build a website
Build a mailing list
Network - Join communities of people in your field/other small businesses
Learn about SEO keywords
Track your progress - understand what is working and where people are finding you
I'll be posting more about each of these points in more detail, but for now, consider this scenario:
I want to hire someone to clean my couch. And you own a new furniture cleaning company.
What will make me pick your company over someone else? You all seem to do the same thing. But maybe we Zoom beforehand so you can see the state of my couch, maybe you only use environmentally friendly products, maybe you come as a team of 4 & do an ACapella performance while you work?
Figure out why I should work with you, what makes you unique, what your values are.
That's your step 1!