Tips to Increase Your Likeability and Grow Your Business

In order to grow your business, any business, you must be able to successfully sell yourself, your company, your products and/or services. How do you do that you ask? Well, herein lies some key tips to successfully selling your wonderful self: Increase your likeability.

People want to and enjoy doing business with people they like. This is something my dad, Bob Milner, a veteran entrepreneur, small business owner for the past 40 years, and most popular guy in the town of Lake City, Florida, always told me and demonstrates on a daily basis. This is an adage my mother, Natalie Clawson, a working mother of five, life-time entrepreneur and the best sales woman on earth if you ask me – also taught me at a very young age. Here it goes: If you can sell them on you, you can sell them on just about anything else, provided it makes sense and it’s something they can justify.

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5 Tips to Building Your Start-Up

business man writing business strategy concept

It’s not easy starting your own business. There are uphill battles that every entrepreneur faces when embarking on this highly arduous, extremely rewarding journey.  We know that – and are here to help with a few tips to hopefully make that journey a little easier.

Know Your Bread-and-Butter

This is an absolute. You MUST understand your bread-n-butter (i.e. your clientele, customer, end-user, partner, etc.) and know their needs like you know your own. And even more so, try to put yourself in their shoes and anticipate their needs before it’s even a want in their head. Try and be two steps ahead of their needs at all times if you can – it’ll pay off big.

Have a Business Plan

Drafting a business plan is not just a start-up tip- it’s an essential. Having a clearly defined description, mission, objectives and a plan to meet those objectives will help keep your business on track. Set goals. Maybe how much revenue you want to acquire at a certain time or how many locations you want to have? Whatever it is a business plan will help you guide you, and give you a concrete pitch to present to potential partners, investors, etc.

Keep Your Operations Lean

This is a tip that if not adhered to diligently your business could fail before it has even taken off. Yes, expenses are a necessary evil to the running of any business, but it’s a slippery slope if you build them up to a level that you’re losing money before you’re making it – or enough of it. Until you’ve established a steady revenue stream and a healthy income/balance sheet – avoid leasing that 5,000 square foot office space and purchasing that new Mac computer.

Establish Credibility

Talking about how great your business is yourself can only get you so far – and it’s not very far. It’s important to establish credibility for your business and yourself. Consider creating a blog and guest blogging for sites such as The Huffington Post or Mashable, adding testimonials to your website and/or marketing brochures, attending industry and networking events to grow visibility for your brand, and webinars to expand your knowledge. Of course, be sure to share what you can via social media to spread your credibility even farther.

Find Support

Whether it’s a team, business partner, an agency, investor, friends and/or family, it’s virtually impossible (or highly difficult) to start and grow a business on your own.  Unless you want to work 100 hours or more a week, and lose your sanity in the process, be sure to find support that you can trust.  Try bringing on freelance help, outsourcing your social media and web presence (hint hint – Windmill), aligning yourself with strategic partners and/or investors to lighten the load.

These are just a few to get your startup – well, started. Have more to contribute? Leave us a comment! We love hearing from you – almost as much as we love businesses.

 

Advantages of Working in a Small Business

What’s the ideal company size to work for? Sure, everyone may want to work in a large Fortune 500 company, but in some cases, that “dream” job of yours may not be what you think. In fact, working in a small business can actually help your career more in some cases. Here are some examples of why working in a small business may have more advantages than you think.

More recognition

One of the advantages of working in a small business is the opportunity to really get to know your coworkers. This is especially advantageous if you are managing others, as you can really learn what motivates those that you are managing. If you are the one being managed, working in a small business enables you to be recognized more for your hard work.

More experience

Another one of the greater advantages of working in a small business is that you learn numerous skill sets or, as most say, “wear different hats.” If you are thinking of running your own company one day, this is especially beneficial as you can use these skill sets to build your business without breaking the bank. This can include but is not limited to learning accounting, administrative duties, how to write a business plan and more.

Job acceleration

Moreover, working in a small business can enable you to get promoted to other positions or in some cases, create your own, faster than if you were working in a large company. Small businesses are flexible – with typically only a few big decision makers. If you’re skilled and motivated enough, those decision makers can move you up quickly – maybe even allow you to create your own department!

Less distractions

Because you are working in a small business, chances are that there are less people around you than normal. That being said, you will have less people pestering you about their weekend plans or what was on TV last night. Not to mention, working in a small business will leave you very much occupied as there is always tons to do and accomplish.

Have more to add to this list? Comment below! We love getting conversations started.

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