How do you overcome your fear of not knowing where or how to get started when you think you are ready to start promoting your entrepreneurial vision online? By Jon Isaacson We have come a long ways from free trials of AOL and waiting for the dial up modem to connect with the internet to now constant connection to information on multiple platforms. Web content continues to evolve from the eclectic early MySpace communities to generic sites built on GeoCities to now being the super highway for disruption and innovation. Even though our personal use of the internet portal borders on addiction, there are many entrepreneurs, side hustlers and weekend warriors who are relatively in the dark when it comes to utilizing resources that are both simple and inexpensive. If you aren't sure how to get your vision working for you through the resources that the internet provides, here are a few simple tips to getting started. Start with what you use. Are you on Facebook? Have you ever mentioned your business or the skills that you want to monetize on this platform? Most businesses endeavors start with approaching your friends and family as your initial client base, if you, your friends and your family are on Facebook why wouldn't you utilize this finger ready medium to promote your entrepreneurial venture? The next step would be creating a Facebook Page for your business, this is free, it is simple and it could serve as your businesses first foot print on the moon of internet commerce. Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. Francis of Assisi Start with what you know. Do you have knowledge, skills and/or products that could be of use to others in improving their lives? Share what you know about these items and distribute that information in as concise and clear an information package as you can manage. There is plenty of useless information on the internet, if you are authentic and have genuine information to share, there are people that are ready to listen. The internet is a platform that is always working for you and can expose you to clients that you otherwise would not physically be able to reach. Think in terms of what you can contribute that can serve others by saving them time or money by sharing the experience that you have acquired. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. Barry LePatner Start with whom you know. Talk to the people who know you, your experience and your products/services, ask them about what they appreciate about what you do as a starting point for where you can connect with potential clients. It's one thing to have positive input from your friends and family, the next question for an entrepreneur is whether those feelings will transform into purchase orders. Having constructive input from trusted resources such as friends, family and mentors is essential to building your message, your network and your business. To read more about identifying, leveraging and building your market, read our article The Four Essential Who's of Breaking Into a New Market. If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started. Drew Houston As an entrepreneur, if you do not know where to start - start with what you are already using, start with what you know and start by trying your branding out on people whom you already know. If you are on a platform such as Facebook start with what you use, what you know and who you know by experimenting with promoting your business through that medium whether you post on your personal page or create a business page for your organization. If you want to share your insights and ideas with the world there are blogging resources such as Wordpress that make setting up a site simple and free, with a few clicks you are ready to start assailing the web readers with your quips. If you feel like you are ready to take a shot at having a personal or business website, tools such as Weebly make starting an entry level site easy. If you start you can adjust as you learn, if you never start you will always fail. I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. Michael Jordan The voices inside you are probably battling between the comforting voice cheering you on, "You got this, if those idiots can do this than so can you!" While the voice on the other shoulder take a different tone, "There's no way you can do this, they're all going to laugh at you." Your first attempts will probably look like first attempts, your first articles may be boring, your first site will likely struggle to gain traction, but the reality is that 1) you'll be laps ahead of everyone else who is still sitting on their thumbs and 2) everyone else started out the same way. Whether it's learning a sport, an instrument, a language or how to navigate the modern market, the most important thing is to not enable your fears to cripple you - start somewhere and you will learn as you go. If you hit a wall or decide you want some assistance, you know where to find us.
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If you would like to network with local rental property owners and managers while possibly learning something about avoiding insurance claim pitfalls, join me as I discuss this topic for the Lane Rental Owners Association. This is a new workshop for this group and the official title is "Avoid Claim Pitfalls - Fire & Water Damage Claims!" Course #2012-17 which is eligible for two continuing education credits, upon request, for Licensed Brokers and Property Managers. There is a cost for the course, which includes lunch, presentation and materials, ROA members $40 and Non-members $60. When: Wednesday, March 29th, 2017 Time: 12 - 2pm Location: Hilton Garden Inn Address: 3538 Gateway, Springfield, OR 97477 Pre-registration is required the Friday before the class is held with a maximum of 15 attendees. Call the Lane ROA office to register 541.485.7368, hours are 10am - 4pm Monday through Friday. Event registration HERE. If your organization is discussing relevance, odds are you aren’t. BUT, if you are willing to admit that you may be closer than you think to the solution. Relevance has long been a waste bucket that get’s all the blame for why organizations are not connecting with the culture or the market. If we can blame relevance for our lack of market engagement than we don’t have to dig any deeper into our vision, mission, systems or delivery. To be relevant means to be, “Closely connected or appropriate to what is being done.” Being relevant means taking notice of what is happening and connecting to those values and actions that keeps the system in motion. If you recognize that you don’t understand, you can begin your journey to engage by observing what is happening, finding those whom you trust that are active in the movement and then figuring out where your core values, knowledge, experience and skills can contribute to that organism. Confront reality so that you can connect with the culture and collaborate to make a difference. An organization, whether for profit or charitable, is by definition irrelevant when they discuss the culture from the sidelines and lament that their product or service is not being well received. If you are saying, “No one is coming. No one is buying. No one likes us.” Or whatever fancy speak you use in the confines of your secret huddle sessions, the nature of your conversation is holding you back because you are asking the wrong questions. Instead of why is no one coming, ask yourselves – what are they doing? For example, if a church is noticing declining membership and blames it on relevance they might remark, “People are not coming because they aren’t going to church.” This isn’t an answer as it is first shortsighted confirmation bias from a very narrow survey group, it is a redundant reflection where your group has merely reframed the observation from question to statement and the conclusion is not based on digging beneath the surface. They aren’t coming is an effect, what is the cause (see more on effect vs. cause HERE) and like a disease, if you do not chase down the cause you will never reach a solution for the effects. Things are getting done and organizations are making positive impacts around the world, relevance is asking the right questions to connect with the work that is underway. As we dig into causes for the effects that we do not find appealing, we notice that we have to get our hands dirty in the soil of the culture in order to extract answers. As an organization you may need a guide, you may need interpreters and you may need new tools. If you recognize that the culture or market is has (or is starting to) pass you by then you need to understand that you are in unchartered territory, everything around you has changed while you were blaming relevance. Again, admitting that will get you closer to the remedy than refusing to recognize this reality. Please remember, the key to relevance is not discovering how you can get people back to your organization but how your organization can recognize, connect and engage with what is already in motion. The market changes but businesses who want to says, “We’ve always done it this way, the market will come back around when they realize the new methods aren’t that cool,” that organization is dying. What is happening and how can we help. If the culture or the market is not engaging you, maybe you need to confront the reality that you aren’t helping. The economy is still in operation and there are businesses that are growing, relevance is finding where you fit in the puzzle to collaborate to make the world a better place. If you think that I am wrong, you are right. Enjoy your power sessions on relevance. If you are earnest about wanting to be relevant, the first thing you need to do is take that term out of your vocabulary. Start with confronting reality and say it out loud, “I am not relevant. We are not relevant.” If you can do that, especially if you can do it as a team, you are finally on the right path to reaching what you say you want. Ask good questions so that you can discover what is in motion around you. Find a way to connect with stakeholders in the movement that you want to engage in and simply ask, “How can we help.” As you change your mindset, evolve your approach and put your hands to work, you will find that you are closer to being relevant than you ever were in your relevance conferences. Connect. Collaborate. Conquer. In meeting and interviewing successful people, once common theme motivated individuals share is the practice of writing down your vision. I’ve recently met with a local Eugene, Oregon entrepreneur who made his money through property investment, he wrote down his business plan as he set out to change careers and even now in his late 60’s he refers back to those scribblings and is surprised about just how ambitious he was as well as how much he was able to achieve. He noted that there was something about writing down his business plan that set things in motion in his mind and as he says, “My feet got to work.” The plan doesn’t make itself but the discipline of writing your vision down and holding yourself accountable is powerful. Another interview I conducted was with renowned author, speaker and business coach Lex Sisney who wrote his initial vision statement when he was only 12 years old (hear part 1 of the interview HERE). Lex is now based in the Santa Barbara, California area, so we can call him a local entrepreneur even though his empire has spread from as far as China, Minnesota and California. Lex would refer back to that document that he created as a young pre-teen and too was surprised by just how much those details played out in his life. Mr. Sisney noted in our interview that around age 29 he realized that he accomplished what he had mapped out as his original vision and found that he needed a new direction in life based upon the new information learned through that process. Much of what Lex set out to discover in that second phase of life has become the experiences and principles he now teaches through his book Organizational Physics. If you aren’t sure where to start in your entrepreneurial journey, take it from these two and write it down. There is something about clarifying your vision and the practice of writing it down that generates a sense of accountability which can help to motivate your vision from conceptualization to materialization. Connect. Collaborate. Conquer. |
AuthorThoughts on personal and professional development. Jon Isaacson, The Intentional Restorer, is a contractor, author, and host of The DYOJO Podcast. The goal of The DYOJO is to help growth-minded restoration professionals shorten their DANG learning curve for personal and professional development. You can watch The DYOJO Podcast on YouTube on Thursdays or listen on your favorite podcast platform.
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