Advice for Business Owners Who Want to Grow (including Sales)

As I reflect on my 10+ years offering my work and creating a business around it, there are some things I would have done differently which may be helpful to some of you.  For my first several years in business I wanted to focus more on sharing my gifts, abilities and services, hoping clients would just find me. I was using the “build it and they will come” approach to marketing and sales. My journey from unwilling salesperson to authentically selling and attracting clients is in this article.

I’ve already posted about the importance of SEO.

As content creators, I think we may lose the forest for the trees. Great content, offerings is awesome. But doesn’t feel so awesome if no one is finding you. Many of us try to serve others and also attract potential customers using social media, which is great. But I sense many of us are a bit shy, or just non-strategic about any calls to action.

Many of us are not sales people. Many of us are not technical. Many of us are not marketers. Because of this we may prioritize our efforts on the wrong things and miss out on the bigger opportunities at different stages of the business.

I hope this list below is useful as any fellow practitioners here are desiring to grow, desiring to better serve their community and/or want to be more focused in your delivery.  This list is oriented towards tools, where to focus for growth and technical (not on you and what you are offering).

If I were to start things off now, I would:

1.  Be intentional with great content and making that available (just like many of us do on our website, on social media). (no change here, just a reminder that that is the main focus as content/value/experience/healing creators/facilitators)

2.  Create a community (possibly **instead** of a website) on a platform like Mighty Networks, or Kajabi. On Mighty Networks you use your own url…  So why not just use a platform that already has so much built in, and is searchable for SEO as long as the content is public?  This wasn’t available at the beginning and there is so much emphasis on website, but.. the options are better now.  There is nothing I do on my website that I can’t do on mighty networks or something like it (kajabi is popular, but pricey!).

3.  Given 2., I would create a paid and an unpaid part of the membership in the community.  Many think they can’t form a paid membership to help support their work until their community/audience is a certain size. That’s silly. If you are adding value from the start and your community sees this, then you could start financially supporting your work right away, even as it grows.

4.  I would skip over anything related to donations for my work. If it’s free, it’s free, no strings attached, no asking for donations. If it’s for pay, it’s for pay. Hustling for donations or gofundme’s for my work just isn’t my nature.

5.  Work in these categories can be life changing… Pricing is hard because it is so subjective. With metaphysical, healing and wellness work it can be challenging to price it. What is it worth? Our clients look to us to make that decision, and we do in our pricing. Most of us undervalue ourselves, and what we are offering, all the time.  For pricing on paid offers, I would from the beginning set prices based on the intended value I am offering, in comparison to other relatable products/services. This is for you, more so than your client. Mindset is huge when it comes to pricing.  Asking yourself, Is this offer comparable in value to a McDonald’s Combo Meal or a Dinner with Wine at the best restaurant in my area? How about dinner and wine at the best restaurant in the world? Is a certain service at least as valuable as a night in a 2 star hotel, or the Four Seasons?  Is a certain course or workshop more like the value of a movie or a day pass at Disneyland?  And remember, a meal, hotel stay or an entertaining event often has very limited duration of value compared to the life changing experiences and upgrades metaphysical and wellness work can provide.  This framework of comparison (for you) is incredibly useful. We can do a class or a live talk at some point on pricing, because that is a big topic, I have a lot of opinions about. I can help with pricing and copy in private sessions or coaching, if desired.

6.  Once I had something specific I wanted to offer for sale I would hire a funnel design expert (findable on Upwork), posting a job there and finding the right person. That expert could then help me think through the full flows to purchase and to set it up for me. I could focus on what I am offering and why, getting it all ready to provide an incredible experience while the technical expert in funnels and possibly ads is helping the most people find me, that offer and invite them into that funnel.  I’ll post separately on funnels and sales techniques, lots to say there.

7. I would carve out time for work and non-work, putting away the computer and anything related to work for certain hours of the day.  This would help set boundaries between me and my work for the benefit of myself and my loved ones. The 24/7 nature of social media is not healthy, especially for entrepreneurs that utilize it to interact with their community, grow their business, create income.

8.  I would minimize time on facebook, instagram, etc.  I would focus less/none on social media likes/follows/subscribes.  Just post valuable content, have the intentional call to action in each one to invite them over to more meaningful, less noisy, spaces (their email/your newsletter and as a member in your community on a platform like mighty networks that doesn’t have an algorithm, ads, quizzes that create internet profiles of them, etc.).  I would create valuable content on social media and as I meet potential clients and/or community members my main focus would be to a) invite them to the community and/or b) invite them to subscribe to my newsletter.  I would not try and foster a community on social media, at all.

9.  I would post content *at least* 2 times a month in the community (non-paid area) and in newsletters, even just to say hello and let them know I am thinking about them and care about how they are doing. I don’t like to bother people with newsletters and I know this is silly, they signed up for it. I’ve gone many many weeks at times not sending a newsletter even though during those weeks I’m traveling with a group, doing a weekend workshop, teaching a ten week course. I should’ve given little updates in newsletters so folks felt more connected to what I was doing, what is coming up, checking in.

I hope this is helpful!  I know it can be hard to get started, perhaps especially now.

Believe in yourself. And remember, if a passion is costing you more than it is making, that is cause for reflection and pause. This is especially true if that pattern of losses continues for more than 9 months. I love to help with that in private sessions.

Some ideas are better hobbies than businesses.

It can save you thousands of dollars and years of effort and time to know the difference.

With love,

Jill