Six strategies for entrepreneurs to avoid feeling like you’re sinking.

This summer, unfurl your brightly-colored beach towel, kick off your flip-flops and claim the nearest lawn chair with an ice-cold soda in hand. No one is looking! Toss that hat onto the deck and move those sunglasses into place – it’s time to jump in! 

Every entrepreneur knows what it’s like to make “the jump.” Let’s talk about how to avoid feeling like you’re just keeping your head above water. When you hit rough waters, no business owner wants to flounder around looking for advice, only to be drowning in a hundred different unhelpful responses. Give your business some well-rounded conditioning. If you can master these core moves, your business will make a splash!

Start By Getting Your Feet Wet 

If you’re just starting out, you need to ask yourself two fundamental questions: 

What Sets YOU Apart From Your Competition? 

What’s better about YOUR service? Are you eco-friendly? Do you have local delivery? Can you customize your products to your client’s wishes? Can everything be ordered with a simple click of a button? Beyond products or processes, what makes YOU different? Are you the healthcare professional who overcame a devastating car accident and understands recovery better than anyone? Are you the dog whisperer with a few well-trained cats at home as well? It doesn’t matter what your schtick is, as long as YOU know it.

Who are you trying to reach?

Can you name the person you are trying to reach? Could you spot them on the street? Tell me about their hobbies and what they do for fun. What are the concerns that keep them up at night? Where do they hang out and where can I meet them for dinner?

If you don’t know the answers to these two questions, test the waters! Try out your core message and see how it resonates with your target audience. Be flexible and willing to adapt. This foundational information reveals how deep you can go with your business. You don’t have to remain in the kiddie pool.

Swim Consistent Laps: Solidify Your SEO

Spectators never get to see the miles of laps done before a competition to build a swimmer’s endurance. Just like these laps, SEO (search engine optimization) works behind the scenes to build the stamina of your online presence. It’s not flashy, but it’s crucial to your business. Keep in mind that there is both offsite SEO (backlinks) and onsite SEO. Let’s begin with a focus on your onsite SEO. Use Google, SEOptimer, or other keyword research tools to help you find the best keywords for each page of your website. What keywords will give you the most views with the least competition? Be aware of price per click if you decide to invest in ads. Consistently use your keywords throughout your website and consider adding fresh content regularly to boost your onsite SEO. Every number makes a difference, just like every 1% gain gives you an edge to your competition. Regularly analyze your performance, make adjustments, and keep swimming forward. 

The Perfect Dive: a Solid Marketing Strategy

The perfect dive requires precision and planning, much like a successful marketing campaign. You might feel like you are teetering on the edge of a platform, worried about how quickly you might sink in your business. Don’t do that! As you toe that line, know that human behavior shows that you will likely need multiple interactions with a potential customer before they take the plunge and try your service. Before you just dive in, sit down and brainstorm the best possible ways to reach out to your ideal customer. Would they respond to an in-person product launch party at their favorite cafe? If you are an engaging speaker, podcasts might suit you best. A wordsmith? Go for a newsletter. Relatable? Maybe a video. Extra points for creativity. Just about anything goes when you play to your strengths and what your perfect client might prefer. If you want a little help on where to start, check out next month’s lunch and learn with Sarah Johnson. Whether you choose to utilize social media, email marketing, or content creation, streamline your message and coordinate with others who can help you see what you can’t on your own.

Let the Pool Games Begin: Content Marketing and Social Media 

Who said that social media had to be a grueling chore? Have some fun with it! String a net across the water and pull out a volleyball–set yourself up for some fun. Content marketing and social media can create ripples in the water just like a pool game. When you share valuable, engaging content that resonates with your audience, you invite the crowd! Volley comments back and forth on a variety of platforms. Showing up builds a loyal community. Crank up some good music while you play! Posting videos, blogs, and interactive elements can help you ride the wave of current trends and stay relevant. 

Tread Water: Web Development

Just like treading water requires constant movement to stay above the surface, web development requires ongoing work to keep up with updates, new technologies and user needs. You can never completely stop and rest! Maintain and update your site regularly to remain proficient. Treading water is invisible to the observer. Similarly, much of the work in web development, such as debugging or optimizing code, happens behind the scenes and may not be immediately visible to users. Let a professional coach you to make incremental progress with improvements and updates that build over time. At JamboJon, we love helping our clients keep their website in tip top shape!

How Do You Get Attention for Your Business? Go For the Cannonball!

Now that you’ve got a running start, create a big impact with a cannonball! This significant splash in the market could be a major marketing campaign, the launch of an innovative product, or a disruptive strategy that captures attention and gains a competitive advantage. This bold move makes waves in the industry, attracts customers, establishes a strong presence and demonstrates your willingness to take risks. 

Let’s look at a well-known example:

Many of us remember going to the local video store as kids to rent movies for the weekend. In 1997, Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph launched a small company with a bold idea that disrupted the decades-old video store rental model. (Cue the cannonball!) Netflix offered a new, improved video rental service that charged a per-rental fee, then mailed the discs to you. You could pick what you wanted and never had to leave home! But that was never their end goal.

In 2007, Netflix surprised the public with yet another cannonball:

“Rather than focus on improving delivery of physical DVDs, Netflix would reinvent entertainment delivery by providing its subscribers with instant access to thousands of titles that they could binge-watch on any device. While cable companies were preoccupied with traditional business models and quarterly revenue targets, Netflix was already looking a decade into the future and beyond.”

They became the first streaming success story. At a time when there was no consumer demand and hardly anybody thought it would work, they believed in a bold move.

“By the time everybody else caught on, Netflix had the best streaming technology, the largest library of titles, and the biggest subscriber base.”

(https://producthabits.com/how-netflix-became-a-100-billion-company-in-20-years/)

Not every small business can grow into a monster-sized company like Netflix. But you can still make an impact, regardless of your industry. 

Cesar Millan: Lean Into What Makes You Unique

Your cannonball doesn’t have to be a $40 million dollar jump into unknown waters. Simply go back to your fundamental questions. You need to remember what is different about YOU. If you find that you are a dog whisperer, how can you use those strengths to inch your business forward? Cesar Millan, THE undisputed Dog Whisperer, asked himself that very question. Cue another cannonball.

He said, “What I realized after I was in America for a little while was that dogs were ‘trained’ here, but they were not balanced. That’s when I said, you know what, I’m just gonna practice what I know — and these dogs, what they need is just the power of the pack. That’s when I started creating a pack of dogs that would follow me around L.A. 

“I also realized it wasn’t just about rehabilitating dogs but about training people. So it changed from dog training to human training.” (https://www.thewrap.com/how-i-became-dog-whisperer-2887/)

A man roving around South Central L.A. with a pack of 40 dogs gets attention. 

That led to interviews. Then a TV show. Then tours.

Measuring Your Success

As an entrepreneur, you’ve already had the guts to take a jump. You’ve analyzed the risks, the rewards, and now you’re deep into your passion like you’ve never been before. Enjoy the water! Keep getting your feet wet, practice those dives until they’re perfect, swim a series of laps, play a few games and tread water to hone your skills. If you’re ready to make a splash, go for a cannonball! Your business will be healthier than ever.

If you’d love a professional marketing and web development coach to help you perfect each of these skills, look no further than JamboJon.