102. Starting a Business From Day One

I have a lot of friends starting business right now and with that, I’ve been seeing a lot of patterns that are kinda sabotaging their businesses.

Now I’ve been doing the whole business thing for 10 years and I have watched other businesses come and go for a good while.

And I know you never asked, but I just wanted to give my advice for starting a business from day one.

1 – Give Yourself Grace

You’re not going to have everything figured out on day one. So don’t apologize for being slow, or for being new or for not knowing all the answers.

You just started! And nobody is going to expect you to be on the level of a business owner who’s been doing it for five years.

If you’re constantly comparing yourself to someone who’s been doing it longer, you’re just  diminishing your own talents and gifts. And it’s just good to learn how to give yourself grace now, because it will help you further down the road.

2 – Be Consistent

Show up online, keep doing your parties and trade shows, keep doing your Instagram lives and all the other events. Follow through with your marketing plan. You need to be consistent in whatever you’re doing.

A lot of people put themselves out there and get excited, but then don’t see the sales come in so they immediately stop. Or they’ll just pop in occasionally to ask for sales after like a three month hiatus.

If you want sales, you have to put in the time. The more consistent you are, the more people will see that you mean business and are not just a one-week fad.

3 – Know Your Clients’ Pain Points

What is keeping people from buying from you? Is it price? Is it time? Do they not understand what you’re providing?

Pause this episode and write out your clients’ pain points. If it’s price, tell them why they need it, what it includes and how it compares to others’ prices.

Once you know their pain points, you can speak to those and help them resolve them with your product or service.

4 – Get Good BTS

BTS can be everything: shipping the product, designing or creating the product, how you’re prepping, what you’re doing before and after appointments, conversations you’re having with collaborators or clients.

Make sure to show BTS because it takes people on the full journey and that’s much more valuable than just showing the end product. People are more excited to support you when they’ve seen the whole process.

5 – Pretend You are the First Person in Your Industry

Dumbing down what you do will actually do more than you think it would for your marketing.

I see a lot of business owners assuming people will know why they would buy from them, why they need their product or service or why it’s helpful. But reality is, people don’t know because they’re not in your industry. The majority of people don’t know.

And the more people know about what you’re providing, the more they’re going to buy.

So act like you are the expert and tell them every little thing about what you’re doing. Explain all the details in your posts, on your website, in your marketing.

6 – Put out Group Offerings with a Little Discount

This could be mini shoots or parties or group classes. Group offers are huge, especially when you’re first starting out because it adds excitement and helps people see who you are. They maximize your time while maximizing your ability to make more money.

7 – Push Through the Cycles

This one is pretty similar to staying consistent. After you start your business and have those feelings of quitting, you have to keep pushing through – you have to stay consistent. You’re going to have these cycles all the time so you have to learn how to push through. The cycles won’t go away but the more you push through, the easier it will be.

A lot of people quit right when things get tricky or hard or uncomfortable. But you have to push through that! When you keep pushing through, you’ll see that you actually can run a business.

8 – Learn, Learn, Learn

Read books, take classes, hire a coach, do group coaching, learn from your mentor. There are so many things you can do to help you upgrade your skills and increase your value to clients. The more you invest in education, the more confident you’re going to be. I still invest in education, there’s alway something to learn.

I really want to encourage you to find a mentor, a coach or someone online who is all about where you want to improve. Because the more you can surround yourself with people who can pull you to the next level, the easier it will be to improve.

So there you go! All my tips if you’re starting a business from day one.