Grow Community

First tip is community. So none of us do this on our own. It may look that way sometimes, but all of us that run successful businesses or companies have all had help along the way, from a team. Friends and family, of course, but peers and other colleagues and networks. So this is where the power of community comes in.

So for example, I’m in a couple of business communities with other entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. Coaches and creatives. People running their own business, and running their own show solo. So in that network, I can find a lot of support, sounding boards, other peers and colleagues to talk to.

Perhaps they have the same challenges that I do. And just some camaraderie that really helps, especially in the early stages of building a business, when we feel that we can be on our own, and nobody’s helping us.

So really understanding the power of community. And that means also giving to community and being generous. So not just asking for help and advice. Contributing yourself. Helping other people. Supporting other people. Offering your feedback and advice. And it’s that reciprocity that really helps, and it builds.

Learn Marketing

My second tip is to learn marketing, digital marketing, mainly in this day and age, but not just digital marketing. So it’s really important, especially if you’re solo in your business, you’re wearing many hats, to really understand the power of marketing. What it’s about. How to market authentically, genuinely. What platforms to use.

So really take some time to do some research. How you want your website to work for you. Whether email marketing is a thing for your business. What about social media? What about podcasts? What about video? All of these different elements will come into your marketing strategy and your communications plan, of how you’re going to present your business to the world.

Really diving deep into some marketing would really pay off in the long term for you to understand for yourself how it works. And maybe down the line, you outsource, you hire a specialist to do that for you. But it’s very important for yourself to understand how to market your own business.

Practice Gratitude

My third tip is gratitude. This is about how you approach your work on a day to day basis. Many of us are home workers. Many of us are lone workers. So sometimes we have to pick ourselves up and really get ourselves in the attitude of gratitude. And that just helps everything. Maybe your day is tough. But if you turn everything around to see how your glass is half full, and not half empty, that’s really going to help get you through the day.

And then when other people connect with you, they feel a generous person, a grateful person. It’s the person they want to connect with and support and learn more about, maybe collaborate with. So just reminding yourself every day, and if you meditate it’s a great space to do that.

Every day, get in the attitude of gratitude. And at the end of the day, be thankful for what you’ve achieved. Focus on those really positive things. Those 100 steps that you did that day. Don’t focus on the one thing you forgot to do. Always focus on the things you’ve achieved. Get in that attitude of gratitude.

Invest in yourself

My fourth tip is to invest in yourself. Now in the early days of growing a business that can seem counterintuitive. Maybe finances are tough. Incomes not coming in. Revenue is not as high as you wanted it to be. Investing in yourself will be one of the biggest gifts you can give to yourself, especially at the early stages of a business.

Yes, there’s a lot of free courses out there. Downloads. Videos. Workshops. Yes, but they’re only going to give you breadcrumbs, because they’re free. All these free things, remember a lead magnets for other companies to get you into their marketing funnel.

So investing in yourself means find a mentor, find someone who can teach you. Pay for their course, pay for their book, pay for business coaching sessions, pay for therapy. Whatever it is that you need to invest in yourself to get through the day, to up your skills, to build your confidence. All of these things will save you such a lot of time and money in the future.

Investing in yourself, I see it like this. All the free content out there is like breadcrumbs. Whereas if you pay for a course, pay for a book, pay for a session with someone, you get the full meal, you get the full picture, you get the whole story beginning, middle, and end, and you made a valuable contact.

Learn to say NO!

My fifth tip is to learn to say no. And for me, this is one of the most important things. And again, especially if you’re just starting your business or growing your business, we may want to say yes to everything. We’re enthusiastic. We want to get started. We want to network. We want to connect. We want to blog and podcast and we want to do everything. The thing is we can’t, we don’t have enough time in the day. So you need to get focused and you need to learn to say no.

Then you need to learn to discern which things to say yes to, and which things to say no to. And this is where your community could really help, or a business coach could really help. Working out what is the next best step for you to get you and your business where you want to go. And learn to say no to the things that are going to take you off course.

In this day and age, there are so many distractions, there are so many rabbit holes to go down. It’s very important to stay focused and grounded and clear on where you want to get to. When you have that clarity, it then becomes easier to say no. No to the things that will take you off course. And many of us have a little bit of a people pleaser in us and we don’t want to offend. And we don’t want to say no.

Well, you can politely decline an invite. You can politely say you would love the idea, but right now you just don’t have the bandwidth. Learn to put yourself first. That’s part of what learning to say no is about. Learning to put yourself in your business first.

What is it that you need to do to get yourself where you want to go? And is that thing a distraction? Is that podcast going to help support your business or distract you? Is that collaboration going to help your business or distract you? And when you learn to navigate like that, things do become simpler.

It’s either a YES, or a NO. Anything that’s a maybe’ something that someone told me a long time ago, was if it’s a ‘maybe’ that’s a NO or NOT NOW. So if you don’t like saying no, maybe try imagining a shelf, like a shelf of books, and you can put the idea on the shelf of books. Not now, later. You don’t have to completely discard it. Then turn around and focus on what you need to do for you and your business, to take it that step further.

I hope you found these tips useful. If you feel you’d like one to one coaching with me, please get in touch with me I’m adela@jackdawcoaching.com