Everything is a process
Hey Sol Sister!
Prefer to listen instead of read?
I just want to give you a reminder that....Everything is a process! Especially in business girl.
This is your reminder to keep putting in the work to establish your business but aaaalso make sure that your FOUNDATIONS are set up correctly so that you can GROW. You know, I’m talking about your:
business plan
marketing strategy
core offer
financials managed
brand strategies
brand visuals (logo, colours, typography etc etc)
All of these are magnificent foundational aspects of building an iconic band but also will help fuel a healthy, clear mindset surrounding your business.
Mindset is everything to your success.
It honestly doesn’t matter how much strategy or planning you do. If your mindset is shit, you wont go far. You have GOT to be your biggest cheerleader. You have got to know the worth and value of your offer or product and 1000% believe int he benefits so that you can SELL them and HELP your ideal clients.
I've got 3 main tips to help you build a stronger foundation in your business. Let's dive in!
The amount of times clients come to me without a business plan is astonishing. God help me girl. If you come to me with no business plan and expect me to do all the heavy lifting in your business you better be ready to pay triple. Make sure you've got that down before you come speak to me or any other brand strategist or designer as you’ll just be wasting your money. I've had to turn away clients and tell them to come back when they have there business plan ready before I can work with them. Because if they don’t know what there business is or what they are selling - how am I going to brand your business correctly?
So my number one tip is - you guessed it - your biz plan - your business plan is going to provide you with so much more than just a boring document. Just like a Profit and Loss statement - a business plan tells a story about your business. It’s a clear ts going to help you build a plan to achieve your goals, it will help you see how much money you need AND assist you to attract investors.
Your business plan will be a concise, organised container of information about your business that you can use as a resource to gauge your decisions AND your growth over time. You will definitely change your business plan as you grow but just start somewhere - I encourage you to go to https://business.gov.au/planning/business-plans/develop-your-business-plan to find a generic free download if your seriously stuck and just need something to begin. Anything is better than nothing my friend.
My next tip has got to be your marketing right?
Marketing is a process in itself. You try something, gather data and then double down or change it up. And the cycle continues every time you launch a new product or offer etc. Marketing can take time and it does require testing. So be prepared to want to get to know marketing OR factor this into your budget when you build your marketing plan.
I almost think is Marketing and Branding like this:
They are both an art and a science. Branding being more the art and marketing being more the science. If I go further down that rabbit hole I'll probably have to start a whole other podcast episode.
I was talking to one of my dear clients recently, and god bless. They had no idea about marketing (self confessed right) and how she could actually be making her life SO much easier if she just made one small tweak to her branding - the colours - and she would see a bigger return on her marketing efforts based on the ideal clients she wanted to reach. With marketing, you seriously need to know who you want to work with. Don't be afraid to get exclusive, yes, discriminate. Because when you market to everyone you sell to no one. So make sure you understand your clients demographics but also their psycho graphics like there pain points, their goals and emotions linked to their goals. For an easy to understand example, if your walking along a footpath with no shade cover and it is mid summer, (as it is here is Australia right now) and the sun is beating down on you with every step and you can feel the tight beads of sweat falling down your spine with every step you take, you suddenly see an ice cream stand which has signage stating "coldest ice cream" "will cool you down immediately" and there is a little shady spot with comfortable seating which always the breeze to flow through - I bet that you'll stop and enjoy an icecream, am I right? Well this is a simple, yet perfect example.
Negative emotions = frustration, bothered, tired, unrefreshed.
Positive emotions after enjoying the icecream = needs met, feeling free, cooled down.
Everything is based off emotions when it comes to purchasing decisions.
And my final is of course your mindset. What resources are you going to use to motivate you, push you and keep you going when times are hard? My number one thing is you WHY. Why are you doing this? Why are you in business? There has to be a reason for all of this madness, otherwise you'd just go get a coushy job! right? So define your why never turn away from it. Now the second thing I want to mention is your community, your faith, your partner, your friends, who can you turn to to make sure that your succeeding? Do you have a mentor? A mastermind? Someone that has walked the path before you that can help you make those decisions and get you through. Because trust me, no matter what kind of business you run, there will be roadblocks, and set backs and sometimes high levels of uncertaintly. I want you to be ready for that.
Here is another tip on mindset - if you think about your profit and loss to much you'll loose that natural magnetic pull of ideal clients when you discuss the amazing value you create in your clients/customers lives. Double down on the value you provide and this will give you the strength far beyong a dollar sign to coninue to high ceilings to smash!
