DEAR ENTREPRENEUR,
Imagine being the person who had this big idea, an idea so big that it would lead to the invention of the very first automobile. No, this is not a discussion about Henry Ford, but rather about the lesser-known Karl Benz, the person who actually invented the automobile*. An invention as iconic as one that took us from traversing across countries on the back of a horse to being able to get around by a roaring engine, and yet the person who initially had the idea wasn’t recognized for the idea. The same goes for the invention of the light bulb. Thomas Edison right? No, that was Nikola Tesla*
What I am trying to prove with these two examples of legendary inventions is that a business idea involves a lot more than ‘just an idea’ for it to be a success. It involves a commitment to an idea that is so strong that you have no other choice but to follow through. The extremely valuable lesson in Karl Benz’s strategy, which was teaming up with the Daimler Group, which eventually led to manufacturing Mercedes-Benz. This collaboration proves that your network is your net worth, but it is also not the only way to follow through on an idea for it to be a success, it is only one of the ways.
Of course, times have changed since then and the dynamic with coming up with big life-altering ideas is a little more intricate, but the principle is the same: take the idea and do something with it!
So you had the idea, started the business and success is still out of reach. You can change that through:
- Being specific
- Understanding Your Goal
- Setting up your business and brand with a strong foundation
- Following through
“Make a choice and stick with it”.
Having too many ideas is never a bad thing, that is what drives us and keeps us going. But not being able to choose which one to focus on when it comes to business is what holds our success back.
This is mainly because with too many ideas that we want to implement we start to prolong the production process from the very first step. By choosing which idea or concept you would like to focus on first you are allowing yourself to take the next step in the process, instead of staggering because there’s too much that needs to be said and no way to say it all. We are multi-faceted, we have so much more to us than just one idea and that is great. But it is how we put forward these ideas that make them seen and heard.
So make the choice, choose which idea you would like to focus on, and choose that knowing that there is time to come back to the other things you want to implement and create. Focusing on one idea first enables you to tweak and perfect it in ways that ensure an income and proof-of-principle. Once you’ve done this, you can move on and expand, go back to the ten other ideas you had. So instead of juggling ten ideas, bound to lose a couple along the way, you take it one idea at a time never dropping the ball.
Once you have chosen which idea you would like to focus on you need to understand the value you attach to this idea and what value you want this idea to provide.
“Shift your focus to being value-driven”.
Having a clearly defined value attached might not seem like the most important decision, and a lot of people think that it isn’t. They believe that their idea is so great that it does not need a purpose to justify taking the action. This is why most people are not successful; because their belief that originality will prosper overpowers everything.
But as Benz and Tesla have proven the idea won’t necessarily set you up for success, it is only the start of a moving process. This “moving forward motion” is where the value comes in, to drive the momentum, to keep you motivated when you’re a couple of months into having started your business. We are human, we tend to lose focus when things have become a part of our daily lives. As business owners, we cannot afford to lose this focus. The easiest way to guarantee that you will stay on track for months to come is to have a significant value attached to your goal.
Understanding the value behind what you want to accomplish sets the foundation for the marketing strategies that you will use, but it is also the biggest consideration when branding your business.
“Create a foundation that can carry the weight of your expectations”.
There is no shortcut to success, no matter how the world would like to portray it. You cannot guarantee an ‘overnight success’ through getting millions of followers and going viral in two days and then proceed to make millions. You’d think we’d learned from the early ‘one-hit-wonders’ in the music and entertainment world that short-cuts don’t last unless you strategically work at them.
But you can start your business up for success by creating a strong foundation. Your foundation is not purely marketing jargon and strategies either, it also contains personal development that is crucial for you to make the best of what your business can achieve.
The foundation of your business development consists of:
- Knowing your audience
- Knowing your marketing mix and focus on one business idea to market
- Have a business coach who holds you accountable.
- Learn how to sell energetically and love for what you do
- Growing your network (it is your net worth)
- Patent your intellectual property
- Having systems and processes in place for lead generation and nurturing
- Make your brand as visible and accessible as possible (short-form and long-form content).
Personal development (or in simpler terms your mindset) is achieved through:
- Learning to manage your emotional anxiety
- Working through your inner child and trauma
- Acknowledging and releasing your Resistance
This last point called releasing the resistance is also known as fear and inaction. It is having a fear of failure and then failing because you did not even attempt anything in the first place.
The importance of releasing the resistance (following through):
I have seen this process of not following through happen on countless occasions with not just entrepreneurs but humans in general. We get the idea, we start full steam ahead, and somewhere along the line we forget why we started and the idea becomes a distant memory. Releasing the resistance is made possible by having a clearly defined strategy in place.
Your business success is dependent on not only having a business strategy but having a marketing strategy in place that will propel you forward and not just let you idle at the start line.
The strategy consists of:
Identifying your product/service.
Evaluating the price of what you have to offer in accordance with the market.
Being at the right place at the right time is essential in both the online and offline sphere of business development.
Promoting your business comes when you’ve established the previous three points.
Knowing your target audience links in with promotion, if you don’t know who you’re audience is your every effort will go unnoticed. Luckily I have a free target audience training that can help you understand who your business is catering to.
Your business idea will always have a chance for success, it’s up to you to execute it. But if the execution of an idea is not your strong suit you don’t have to do it alone.
KNOW WHEN TO ASK FOR HELP!
Great ideas need even greater actions in order for them to be a success, let Karl Benz be that lesson and learn from it. But times have changed since 1888, sometimes success only comes when you accept that your current marketing strategy just is not going to work and then doing something about it. The best way to understand why your efforts did not lead to success is to engage with industry experts that understand how advertising affects consumer behavior and who are willing to re-direct your business for the better.
A Free 30-minute strategy session with BrandSashka does just that. I look at your current business model and discuss with you how to re-align your current foundation so that it can be in line with your brand’s purpose. The strategy session includes a customized breakdown of which marketing is best suited for you, what advertising technique can be implemented to get you seen and heard on digital platforms. The session will not only tell you which branding approach provides stronger lead generation that will set you up for success but it will give you the strategy needed for you to follow through with what you’ve started and to finally be that success you deserve to be!
Let’s break the stigma that we have to do it alone, shall we?
