Running a profitable business can be overwhelming and disappointing if you aren’t focused on income generating activities and consistently generating leads into your business. A lot of people talk about passive income, but there is no such thing. (But I will get to that later)
I will be the first to tell you.
Over the past five years, I have had to learn and semi-master several online platforms, software, and be the jack of all trades. I say semi-master because as soon as I learn something the platform changes and adds new updates. Ugh!
Sales, marketing, copywriting, and tech-repair women. You name it. I have DONE IT ALL.
There are a LOT of misconceptions swirling around in the internet streets about what you need to do to grow your business and to get it to the 6 figure mark.
What I will tell you before I go into the 5 Things You Need to Unlearn if you want to Bootstrap Your Way To 6 Figures you must master the basics which are…
- You need a viable product or service to offer to the marketplace (You can’t make money if you don’t have anything to sell)
- You must learn how to master the sales conversation
- You must learn how to properly market your services
- You must have an audience to sell to
- You must have a system and process in place for people to BUY from you and for you to service them
Those are the fundamentals. Try to grow a business without anyone of these things in place, and you will flounder. Most times in business you WON’T get a second chance. I am urging you to get it right the first time.
Now let’s get to the 5 Things You Need to Unlearn if you want to Bootstrap Your Way To 6 Figures.
Thing #1 You Need To Unlearn: Maintaining PRIVATE social profiles is hurting you. Imagine being able to make thousands and thousands of dollars because people can discover you without having to jump through hoops, fall in love with your content, and then connect with you so that you can establish a professional relationship with them and convert them into paying clients.
(In the wise words of my mentor, Stacia Pierce… If you are not seen, you will not be considered) Get visible and leverage social media if you are serious about making money and working smart.
Social Media is FREE. You should be monetizing it 24-7 Not worried about who is going to see your PERSONAL business. If you don’t want the world to know your business, simply do not share it. Lurking on social media is costing you dollars while the “It Crew” are making money. Make it work for you vs. against you.
Thing #2 You Need To Unlearn: Your friends and family are NOT going to support you, and in fact, you don’t want them too, not if you want your business to grow. You need real clients who have a need for your products and services, and you need them to use your products and services if you want to generate client case studies and showcase that your stuff works. All money ain’t good money.
You do not want false support. Sure that $47, $400, or $1000 sale made for good cash flow, but it is worthless if it came from a person who ONLY wanted to support you. “Support sales” will not birth repeat clients or viral marketing for you. If you want to thrive in business, you want to create a loyal fan base that will buy whatever you put out and be willing to tell the world about it without compensation.
Friends and family will support you the right way if you focus on being consistent and creating success stories then if they have a REAL need for your products and services they will become an ideal paying client. Which is what you should strive to create in the first place. Not charity or handouts.
Support is when your family and friends show up to your events and HELP you clean up and manage your event, and they HELP you that way. Now you need that to grow your business until you can afford to hire help. Got it?
Thing #3 You Need To Unlearn: “Self Made Millionaire” or “Self Made Anything for that matter is not REAL. That is the distraction and a bold face lie. You need people to believe in you, lend you a helping hand, offer you resources, tools, and help you network so that you can connect with the right people.
You wouldn’t have experiences to learn from or celebrate if it wasn’t for others. There will come a time in your business where you will hit a brick wall and be at a stand still.
You need to be humble enough when that happens to ASK for help. You will need to partner with others in some shape or form to build your empire. Your customers can make or break your business.
Take care of them, and they will take care of you. You are not going to wake up with an overflow of money without HELP from people. Even if you wake up and win the lottery. You aren’t a self-made millionaire. Thousands of people invested a few coins that went into the jackpot, and you picked the lucky numbers and won.
That money that you acquired was a by product of a collective effort. So NO ONE is self-made anything. You didn’t make yourself. Your parents created you. Got it? You need to go into business wth a strategic plan to create profitable and synergetic partnerships and joint ventures if you want to make entrepreneurship a lifestyle, not a short-term venture.
Thing #4 You Need to Unlearn: That you should hire a VA and outsource everything when you are first getting started. First of all, if you are hurting for cash hiring a team is the last thing you need to focus on right away.
Pump your breaks before you say but Wendy I need help.
I am NOT telling you not to HIRE help. I am saying hear me out for a second.
Every successful entrepreneur needs a team to thrive.
But you must first establish your systems, processes, and order of operations before you HIRE HELP aka a VA.
You will be required to train them. Do not expect to hire anyone to take over YOUR business and run it. They will have several questions, and you need to have the answers so they can be confident to create the vision you have shared with them.
Take some time to document your processes. Get your routine down to a science. This will allow you to identify your weaknesses and then hire people who are strong in areas that you lack. Give them directives and a blueprint to follow to help you grow your business. You will save yourself a lot of time and money if you do this first.
Thing #5 You Need to Unlearn: Stop saying that you are not a techy. We live in an information age and technology is not going anywhere anything some. In fact, it is getting more sophisticated by the day. You are at a disadvantage if you do not take the time to learn how to leverage online social media platforms (i.e. Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Etc.) or software such as (i.e. zoom, converkit, leadpages, clickfunnels, samcart, etc.) You will cripple your business growth if you solely rely on someone else to build and maintain your website, sales funnels, email marketing, social media platforms, accounting, etc. Take the time to LEARN that way you will know if someone is ripping you off, doing something wrong, and most importantly you can create success on demand.
Success requires you to be flexible. You must learn to as yourself and others the right questions. You must be willing to roll up your sleeves, and you must not focus on failure.
Your Business Systems Strategist
Wendy Nicole Anderson