Entrepreneur

The Importance of Trying New Things and Failing Along the Way

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Starting a business is one of the most exciting, intimidating, and humbling experiences you can have. As an entrepreneur, I’m constantly torn between two roles: being a business owner and being a worker. Both are demanding in their own ways, but entrepreneurship has taught me lessons that go beyond day-to-day tasks.

The biggest lesson? Effort doesn’t equal success.

That can feel discouraging at first, but it’s also freeing once you accept it. You can put in countless hours, grind day and night, and still fall short. On the flip side, sometimes the right opportunity arrives at the right time, and things fall into place more easily than expected. That’s why luck is such a big factor in business—though, of course, luck favors those who are prepared.

Networking plays just as big of a role. You never know where opportunities will come from, so you need to be willing to put yourself out there. Advocate for yourself and your business. Talk about what you do, share your vision, and don’t be afraid to connect. That being said, selling to friends and family should only happen if you genuinely believe your product or service will benefit them. Otherwise, you risk making things awkward, and no business gain is worth losing trust or straining relationships.

Another reality is that not everyone will want to see you succeed. Some people may even act like they don’t. And that’s okay. Not every relationship is meant to become a business relationship. If blending the two puts a personal connection at risk, it’s often better to walk away and preserve the friendship.

At the heart of entrepreneurship is trying new things, failing, and learning. You learn from your own failures and from the failures of others. Every misstep teaches you something valuable—what not to do, where to pivot, how to improve.

So if you’re considering entrepreneurship, here’s what I’d say:

  • Don’t expect effort alone to guarantee results.
  • Welcome luck and networking as powerful tools.
  • Advocate for yourself and your business.
  • Protect your personal relationships.
  • And above all, take risks and  keep learning—especially when things don’t go as planned.

The journey isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. Entrepreneurship isn’t just about building a business; it’s about building yourself through experiences, challenges, and growth.

#business #enterpreneurship

Entrepreneurship in 2017

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Marketing Strategy

Entrepreneurship has tremendous opportunity to be a driving force in 2017,  while more multi-million and billion dollar retailers and manufacturers are filing bankruptcy and going out of business.  There are unclaimed customers in the market looking to engage with new businesses. Having a better marketing strategy for creating brand awareness communicates value to the potential customers.  The U.S. economy is unsure of the immediate future.  The internal uncertainty has raised concerns about what has become common business practices such as outsourcing and technology investments, which are expensive investments for startups, making competition more difficult.  Because the internet has given rise to brand building strategies and engagement with more access to small-business, niche-markets customers, the digital age is filling the needs quickly.  Digital marketing and social media offers small businesses the ability to compete in a broader market by increasing the amount of ideal customers while also giving businesses the opportunity to reduce marketing costs for communicating value to unqualified customers.  The loss of larger firms provides an increase in expertise in the market and it is up to the entrepreneurs to develop the relationships and strategies through team-thinking for problem-solving in the changing economy.

Brand Awareness

Marketing Strategy utilizes the information about the industry, the firm, and the competition to form a plan that operationalizes the value proposition of the firm.   Marketing is an essential business function that is often undervalued by small to medium size businesses.  This is easily identified by the lack of distinguishable brand awareness for products offered by entrepreneurs. While only a handful of brands can effectively communicate their value to qualified customers, every downtown street and industrial complex in America is saturated with small businesses that are not maximizing their content to their greatest ability.  As a result, brand equity is left in limbo for the digital-savvy business owner to profit while the other businesses are forced to wade through the trenches of increasingly obsolete marketing practices.

Digital marketing and Social media

To increase Brand Awareness, businesses need to develop relationships with influencers in the industry.  Each social media platform is different and shares various content on social media profiles.  To ensure the consistent usage of linking images or content, the businesses will distribute consistent content in accordance to the specific platform’s purpose.  Social media requires constant monitoring and fine-tuning.  To drive brand awareness, it is key to set up regular meetings to analyze metrics and go over the performance of the brand development strategy.  Through an initial investment in time and utilizing apps the long term strategy will save the company time and money consistently as the business grows and increases the ideal customer base.

Ideal customers are educated about the firm’s offerings while being early adopters, brand promoters, and ambassadors who actively seek to improve the experience through partnerships with the firm.  The ideal customer is both willing and pleased to pay full price because they believe in or have a strong connection with the value proposition of the products and services offered.  Even at full price, the ideal customer feels like they are getting a good deal.

Greatest startups in 2017

The 2017 entrepreneur does not have to be the cheapest or fastest to market if they can utilize the expertise available in the marketplace and implement a sound marketing strategy.  The greatest startups in 2017 that are operating with a “good enough” marketing strategy will win out over the “we are working on it” marketing strategy.  At the end of the day, perfection prevents production just as often as “a bad process will beat a good person…” W.E. Deming