With each year in business we learn a little more. No book
about "Small Business for Dummies" will ever replace the knowledge
gained from true experience. Being an entrepreneur is truly a profession to
learn as you go.
Just as we learn each year, we make mistakes each year.
Failing
to realize that social media is a forever-changing medium
No one is a social media expert. An expert is someone who’s
studied something for years and knows everything there is to know about a
certain subject. Social media changes every day, in so many different ways.
Simply getting your business a Facebook, Twitter, and
Google+ page, and updating every couple of days no longer cuts it. Social pages
have been great for creating brand awareness in the past few years. They
provide places for your customers or potential customers to go to check out
your business’s personality, ask any questions they might have, and participate
on a personal level by “liking” or “favoriting” and commenting on different
posts.
Though now, with things like paid Facebook advertising
becoming more and more prominent, social outlets may start being less about
building brand awareness and more about creating revenue.
The best way to be a “social media expert” is to embrace the
ever-changing nature of these sites, and participate in using them every day.
Post once or twice a day on everything. Not only will this keep you updated on
what’s changing with every site, but it’ll show your audience that you’re
present.
Putting
little emphasis on creating partner relationships
If you feel like your business is simply maintaining; that
it’s no longer gaining new customers on a regular basis, I can’t put enough of
an emphasis on exploring different partner relationship options. Partnering
with a company introduces your business to an entirely new audience that it
wouldn’t have otherwise been introduced to were it not for the partnership.
Even if you’re simply cross-blogging with a new outlet,
you’re exposing something you wrote- causing you to be an expert in your field
to the eyes of your new readers, to an entirely new audience. You’re also
varying up the content on your blog by posting something written by someone
else.
I encourage every small business owner to get creative with
their partnerships this year. Reach out to companies you haven’t thought of
before; really broaden your scope.
Spending
money in all the wrong places
Every entrepreneur knows you need to spend money to make
money. The trouble is: where to spend it? When you first open your doors, it
can be tempting to create the perfect, creative, modern space- and
understandably so. People do tend to work better when they like the environment
they work in.
However, skip the fancy office for now (while in the
beginning stages of your business.) Maybe start with a mini fridge over the
fully-stocked-hundreds-of-dollars real thing, start with simple desks but comfy
chairs, if you have interns- pay them, and celebrate office occasions (like the
holiday party and birthdays) in-house with a potluck or cheap catering.
As you grow, feel free to splurge a little more each
year. Just remember that no one gets to start with the fancy office. This
year, spend your money in places more likely to put money directly back into
your pocket.
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