Many experts, authors, and gifted people around the world are starting new businesses with the start of the New Year. If this is your path, here are tips from my own 11-year journey as an entrepreneur to guide you to bigger success faster. My business anniversary is February 2, and boy oh boy, I’ve learned some hard lessons along the way. I hope by sharing mine, you can get to success faster.
- Dream bigger from the start. In the beginning, my focus was on serving clients in my own Puget Sound backyard, even though successful people who were familiar with my publicity expertise and storytelling gifts were telling me to think nationally or globally. If I had it to do over again, I would have put more emphasis on NATIONAL and GLOBAL REACH of my message right from the start.
- Feel the fear, and do it anyway. I felt fear about what could happen in my life and work if I stepped up big time, and everything I had to learn seemed daunting at the start. Small thinking stood in the way of me serving so many more people so they could welcome the credibility, visibility, and prosperity they have always wanted. If I had it to do over again, I would have stepped forward faster, in spite of the fear, so I could make more impact faster.
- Lead with juicier, higher value, and leveraged offerings first. When I was just starting out, I put a lot of emphasis on creating the absolute best $10 product about do-it-yourself publicity that I could create. Yes, the Media-Savvy-to-Go Publicity Tips Booklets have sold by the thousands since debuting in August of 2006. However, it is so much easier to make a bigger impact for more people and my own balance sheet by leading with a juicer, higher value, and leveraged offerings. Today, the Broadcast Your Brilliance Webinar Series and Bye-Bye Boring Bio PLUS! programs deliver great value for many around the nation and the world at price points that make it a whole lot easier for me to make a good living. Whether you create an entry level product or something much more, you still have to create all the systems to support those offerings. By leading with a deeper offering from the start, the rewards are greater for all.
- Get help. In the beginning, I struggled with the idea of investing in help to fill in the missing pieces in my skill set. That meant spending a lot of time doing tasks that were not in my zone of genius. I was stubborn in thinking that I could figure out everything that needed to get done, including web, shopping cart, affiliate programs, sales page copywriting, and all the rest. If I had to do it over again, I would have hired help sooner. Today my virtual assistant, webmaster, and other technical support team members allow me to do more of what I do best, while they work in their zones of genius for values that make good business sense.
- Invest in yourself. Working with a business coach has been a game changer for me. There is nothing quite like being told with great specificity and absolute candor where the missing pieces are in your mindset and business model so you can move forward faster. It’s not pretty most of the time, and my box of Kleenex gets plenty of use. But I keep on keeping on, and things continue to come together, step by step.
So there you have it. My top five things I would have done differently if I had known then what I know now.
Now it’s your turn. If you’ve been in business for five years or more and are still in business, share what YOU would have done differently to get to success faster. Your tips just might accelerate the success of a worthy business owner who needs your inspiration right now.
I close with a quote often shared by Oprah Winfrey which was shared first with her by Maya Angelou. “When you know better, you do better.” Amen to that.
