Get Better, Not Bigger

Grow Better Not Bigger

You’ve probably been told over and over that your business has to grow or you are a failure. I’ve been to umpteen networking events were a large chunk of the biz owners get up and say, “I want to grow my business.” Yet, it’s never defined what that means or how the biz owner or his/her clients will benefit.

And if you’ve worked at a corporation — especially a publicly traded company — that company has been told it has to grow or it is deemed a failure. The irony is that most of those businesses fail BECAUSE they followed that mantra.

They expanded to meet demand and lost sight of their own values as well as the warm/collaborative relationship they had with their clients. Then they hit the proverbial growth wall and begin the painful contraction, laying off folks, shutting down buildings, etc. When a company retreats it tends to lose the verve and self-confidence it had during its early years.

Then they do start to feel like a failure. Much of business is psychological, if you lose your mental edge, you lose everything.

So, how do you do that? (more…)

The Art of Self Promotion

I’ve noticed one huge difference in the folks who seem to make it (on whatever terms they choose.)They promote themselves! Consistently. It’s that simple. You may think they are sending too many emails, but others don’t and folks sign up for their programs.Once a month doesn’t cut it! I’ve got a bunch of different lists, some overlapping and have been successful over my resistance to sending invites out.Most people don’t read everything, so you need to send it out more so they catch it when they do. I’ve sent things out and on the third time, someone says, “I want to take that and signs up.”

Our resistance to sending things out comes from messages we got in school, work, etc, that it’s sleazy to promote yourself. Better to hide your personality, your wins, your dreams, your business.

Ugh. Can we please stop that? It’s passé, useless and financially dangerous. If you feel good about yourself and your services, let folks know about them. Promote the crap out of them with a sense of conviction. You will see results.

Years ago when I first opened my business and sat around waiting for something, anything to happen, my husband kept saying to me, “But no one knows you exist.” I couldn’t grasp that for the longest time because I was too terrified to even hear what he said.

Promote myself? How conceited! (more…)

Get Your Business Butt Out There!

Maybe it was the long snowy winter of our discontent, but for whatever reason I didn’t do much net or playworking between January and mid-April.But I really need to because if I don’t keep myself visible, people will forget about my snazzy biz about being more fearless in a heartbeat. We all have way too much stimulations and distractions.

Hell, I can’t even remember clothes that I own once they are tucked out of sight. I think I need to buy a new shirt and then I open some strange drawer and it’s filled with shirts just like the one I was going to go out and buy.

A woman in my town emailed me every month about a different kind of networking event. None of the dates aligned with my sshhhhedule until last week. I went and I loved it! (more…)