The Only 2 Things You Need to Grow Your Solo Biz
As great as most one-person business owners are, I see many put themselves at a disadvantage in the early stages of their solo biz journey…
Here’s what plagues most rookie one-person businesses.
The Solopreneur Curse
Lack of Accountability: Many have little to no accountability. Spending the majority of their time on their own with no one really holding them accountable to how they invest their time. Especially in the beginning.
Unthrottled Creativity: In many cases, solopreneurs are also very creative. This is a bad thing - or can be. When your overabundance of creativity leaves you unfocused, chasing shiny objects, or thinking about new ideas instead of sticking to the game plan… it becomes more of a hindrance than a help.
High Ignorance Tax: You don’t know what you don’t know… It’s the truth for all of us. If you’ve never ran a solo online business before, you’ll earn a lot of stripes over the first few years. And yes, the learning is valuable… But the faster you pay down this ignorance debt, the sooner you’ll see the business take off and support you and your dreams.
With nobody steering you in the right direction, mismanaged creativity, and a big portion of ignorance due to a lack of experience…
Many new solo biz either quit too soon or waste an ungodly amount of time ‘working’ on things that just don’t move the needle.
What I’ve learned over the past 4 years, is that there are really only two things you need to focus on in order to become successful.
What you Sell (the offer)
How you communicate this to the world (the media).
1. The Offer
If your true intention is to build a sustainable business, then your offer is paramount.
Your offer is not a product. Your offer is not your sales pitch.
Your offer is the holistic culmination of:
a problem you’re target customers have
a potential solution to this problem (aka your product, or service)
a method of delivering the solution
a promise to the customer that they’ll benefit from the solution
an assurance that the risk of purchase is non-existent or minimal for the customer
With an offer, we’re talking everythinggggg… not just the thing you’re selling
Your offer is not only the solution to the problem you solve for the customer but also their satisfaction of the way in which the problem is solved.
If you focus on developing a great offer, you’re on the right track.
Most newbies (me included), get too caught up in the the elements of a new business that don’t matter nearly as much.
Distracted Solopreneurs spend too much time on:
Perfecting their website
Tinkering with their bio’s
Flippantly Cold DM’ing to ask people if they have 10 minutes to talk
Coming up with a logo
Doing “research”
These are all tiny legos of the castle.
Your offer is the throne.
The offer will always come first.
2. The Media
If you truly believe your offer is a great solution to a very real problem, then media is your best broadcast mechanism.
Your media serves as the marketing for your business.
I talk a lot on content marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing because together these 3 marketing efforts will not only promote you offer but potentially even open doors to revenue streams.
At the base level, the steps in the buyer’s journey is as follows:
Attention - ppl need to notice you
Awareness - ppl need to recognize you
Interest - ppl need to care about what you say and do
Desire - ppl need to crave what you provide
Action - ppl need to solve their problem with the solution you provide
People can naturally swing from one vine to the next with the media you produce and distribute across online channels.
As a new (5 years or less) solo business, you’ll want to do everything you can to put your best foot forward. Remember…
Your media will serve as an attention-getting, trust-building, interest-generating, action-inspiring mechanism that perfectly walks your target audience closer and closer to what you offer.
Media makes them aware.
Media helps them to trust you.
Media is the curb appeal and golden entryway to the castle; where your customers’ problems vanish into nothing when applying the solutions (offers) you provide.
The Perfect Harmony of Both
Like most things in life, the best outcome is found in the balance of both the offer and the media.
Admittedly, when I jumped into solopreneurship, I spent way too much time on media alone. I would spend literally all day trying to come up with, record, edit, and schedule 2-3 short-form video clips. 😳
Mind you, I didn’t even have something to offer even if I wanted to…
Clearly, I hadn’t learned the rule we’re discussing today.
The core of any business is having something to sell.
The only way to sell is to broadcast to the world what you have to offer.
This entry is less about ‘how to create the offer/media’ and more about ‘time and priority management’.
The problem we’re attempting to solve in this entry today is non-existent business growth due to a lack of experience, focus, and accountability.
In order to truly gain something from reading today’s entry, ask yourself the following Q’s.
Action Steps
What’s you to-do list list and calendar look like for this week?
What % of each day is dedicated to perfecting your offer or multiplying your media?
Are you sure what you’re doing is the most important priority based on where you’re at?
If you chip away at crafting a great offer and continually produce media to share with the world, it’s only a matter of time before this focused effort begins to pay off.