“Start Before You’re Ready”

Do you find yourself excited about starting your new business but you’re not getting the word out about it because you don’t have a website yet?  Creating a full blown website can seem like a long and daunting task – honestly because it can be!  Don’t let not having a website be the excuse you use for not letting the world know about all the great things you have to offer.

While you’re working on that website,  get these things going in the meantime:

Be Active In Facebook Groups

Find the groups where your ideal clients hang out and start reading the posts and see where you can add value.  Don’t go in and immediately start promoting your services but instead start by being helpful, making connections and establishing yourself as an expert in your field.

Create a Facebook Business Page

Once you become active and start to get noticed in those Facebook groups, people will naturally become curious and will want to know more about you. They’ll most likely click on your profile and start snooping around to get more info on what you do.  Create a Facebook Page for your business and have the link to that page in your personal profile.  Start creating interesting content whether it’s written posts or doing live videos.  Even if no one is there to watch live, they can always catch the replay.

Get Active on Instagram

Let’s say you’re a photographer and want to show perspective clients your work but you don’t have  a website to show them your portfolio.  Instagram is the perfect social media platform for creatives!!  It’s very visual and you can use it like an online gallery.  Start posting your best work and begin to engage and connect with your ideal clients.

Start An Email List

Just because you don’t have a website doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with perspective clients.  Sign up with an email provider such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact.  Ask your friends and family if you can add them to your list and start with that.  You have to start somewhere!  You can have links in your emails to both your Facebook Page and Instagram Account.

Having a website is nice to have but as you can see it’s not the “be all, end all” to starting your business online.  No more excuses – get these other things going while you’re working on that website of yours!

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Earlier this week I was scheduled to teach a Marketing Fundamentals workshop at the KRVC office in Riverdale.

I taught 2 previous workshops there in the past couple of months – one a vision board party and the other about Instagram.  Both were really fun with about a dozen people in attendance – the perfect amount for the intimate KRVC office.

I was hoping and expecting the same turnout for this workshop but when 7pm rolled around (the official start time)  it was me and a big old platter of cheese meant for a dozen people!

At first fear and self doubt kicked in but I only engaged in that way of thinking for a minute.  I thought to myself, well I did my part to show up and the worst that could happen is I stuff myself with cheese and crackers.  What could be wrong with that?!?  One of my favorite foods!

Sure enough 3 people did end up coming and it turned out great!  (and I had to share the cheese!)  Instead of me standing up at the front of the room giving a presentation, we all sat together at a table and had the chance to connect and really dig deep on the individual businesses.

It turned out to be more like a group mentoring session than a workshop – being able to give personalized solutions to their individual business needs.

In this case, as is true most times, it was quality over quantity that won out.  When you make the effort to show up great things can happen!  Connections are made, relationships are started or strengthened and business happens!

So next time you want to put yourself out there whether it’s to run a workshop,  write a blog post, start a Facebook group or anything else, just show up and do it and don’t focus on the numbers.  Whether it’s 1 or 1000, you can still make a difference and an impact.

Quality over Quantity.

There’s so much buzz about Instagram – it definitely is a super popular social media platform right now that lots of businesses are using to attract and engage with their clients. If you think you’re ready to jump on the Instagram bandwagon, let’s get started!

I bet you thought the first thing I was going to tell you to do is create an account.  Wrong!  If you’re planning on using Instagram for your business, you need to determine how, and if,  it will fit into your overall marketing plan.

Is Instagram the right platform for your business?

Things to consider:

• This is a big one – does your ideal client even hang out on Instagram?  How do you know?  Start asking your current clients or people you would like to do business with.  If not, then this platform may end up being a waste of time, and we all know how precious time is when it comes to our business.
• Will you enjoy this type of platform?  Instagram is a VISUAL storytelling platform.  Do you like visuals like photographs,  graphics and videos?
• Do you have the resources and know-how to create consistent content for your feed?  Do you enjoy photography?  Creating graphics?  If not, do you have people you can hire to do this for you or will you buy pre-made visual content like stock photography?
• Do you have time in your schedule to post on a regular basis?  How often will you post?  Think about a schedule you can commit to including the number of times you post each day and the number of days you post each week.

If you answered yes then it’s time you get started on Instagram!

To make things easier for you, I created an Instagram Startup Guide.  FREE and yours for the taking!

Personally I LOVE Instagram!  It’s my favorite social media platform and I highly recommend it to fellow creatives!

If you are currently using it, put your account name in the comments so I can check out your feed.

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