Happy Monday everyone! Hope all of you had a great weekend! My weekend was a bit crazy, prepping for a Daytime Morning show segment, covering Springtime celebrations. It's amazing the amount of prep that goes into doing a five minute segment! But to be honest, it's one the moments that I'm the happiest. Oddly enough, being on television feels very comfortable to me--I would do it more if I can.
Me. In my happy place. Thanks to Daytime Morning Show (NBC).
But not to get off topic, I was going through some old blog posts (like back in the day, when I started my work) and I stumbled across a blog most I did covering "Marketing." It makes me smile to look at my thoughts back then and where my mindset was.
Today, I'm reposting the post along with a few updated thoughts I have regarding start ups and putting your heart out there.
If you have any other tips, please feel free to share in the comments section! Would love to hear from you!
Research...Research....Research
(FREE): This is a big,
okay huge, one for me. I knew from the moment I decided to become a business
owner, that I wasn't going to rush the process. As much as I wanted "the
now," I was going to take my time. This led me to the big question, of
"how the heck do I get myself out there?" I spent hours scouring
different businesses in the industry: florists, photographers, planners,
wedding blogs, event designers, venues, etc. High-end, low-end, I wanted to
soak it all in. I made a spreadsheet with every site I had been to, along with
all of their contact information. I also got in touch with NACE, a great organization (along with a
few others) that seemed to cater to the businesses I had been researching.
2. Your Visual Brand
($50+): I did spend some
time on this, even it wasn't pretty at first. And if you can invest in this
step, I say go for it.I purchased my domain through Go Daddy and got going
through Fat Cow, and had a friend help me with a template (my current
site) which had basic functionality, to upload my content and my
photos. I designed my current logo using Microsoft Publisher and clip art (if
you can believe that). Using my logo, I also created my business cards ($50.00
to $250.00). In the beginning, yes it can be hard, but I told
myself that it was more important to get out there and when I
could elevate and afford the look of my product, I would.
3. The Big
Plunge, Making Contact ($150.00 to $200.00): I knew off the bat that whatever came out of my hands had to
beautiful. At this point, I had done less than a handful of dessert tables with
some "okay" pictures but I had to make it work. I went to Staples and
got white, glossy laminated folders, clear labels and photo paper. On one side
of the folder, I made a personalized letter (not dear Vendor, Dear XX Events)
and on the other side, I did a one page collage of the work, along with a mini-bag
of jelly beans. I took my Excel spreadsheet of contacts and just went at it.
Was this time consuming? Yes! Halfway through, did I want to give up? Um, yes,
but then I figured if I stopped then I probably wasn't built to be a business
owner in the first place.
4. Follow Up, Follow
Up, Follow Up (FREE): Two weeks after
my mailers went out, I went back to my list and followed up with EVERY one of
my conatcts via email. And it just wasn't any email. Every email was extremely
personalized. After my "research phase" I would regularly visit my
contacts websites so it was easy for me to say "Hello Amanda, my name is
Natalie from Chic Sweets. Hopefully by now you've recieved a packet of
information. Can I just say, that I love your latest blog entry from the
wedding you did at XXX. Fantastic!....." Or something along those lines.
And you know what? I was getting responses back! Once they responded, I went
onto the next (scary) step which was scheduling meetings.
5. Face to Face Follow
Ups ($20 to $25): Again, kind of
nervewracking if you've done anything like this before, but as I mentioned
before, I was determined to make things happen. Although there were a few that
did not have the time to meet, for the most part I was able to catch
up with quite a few. Before I went into each meeting, I always had a
plan/agenda in mind:
- Introduce
YOU: Be honest. Be yourself.
Be Authentic. I made a point from the very beginning to put it out there.
I was new; still working full time; still trying to make connections;
still working on my (weak) portfolio. And you know what? As humbling as it
was to be so honest, there wasn't a vendor I spoke with that couldn't
relate at some level, which in return always made for good conversation
and more importantly, great advice and further connections.
- Get to know the
VENDOR: Not everything can be
about you, right? Just like a job interview, I went into each meeting,
knowing as much as I could about that vendor. Visited their website, their
blog, facebook page, other vendors they had worked with in the
past. At times if I felt nervous or that there was a lull in the
conversation, I would go back to what I knew about the vendor and take it
from there.
- Marketing
Materials: Although I was working
full time, I didn't want to spend a fortune on creating materials for each
visit, so I kept it somewhat simple. Since I'm a "sweets girl" I
created a small favor package full of sweets, with not my logo but
THEIR logo on the package. I just assumed that I was one of many
"newbies" reaching out to these industry vendors on a
weekly basis, so why not give them something that was personlized for
them? Great response from this AND many times the vendor would go back
(after our meeting) take a picture of what I had created for them and post
it on facebook or twitter....with something along the lines of "chic
sweets visited us today! Yummy sweets" Again, just another small tool
that created a buzz.
6. Get Honest with Yourself. Passion Does Matter: This is a tough one. It's important that you get down into the personal reasons of why you want to start your business. Sometimes it's a culmination of reasons, but in those pots of reasons there needs to be an underlying passion and love for your work. You'll find that passion will slow down, grow, slow down again, but's always there, that craving to always do what you love. At the end of each year, I take time off to let off steam, write thoughts down, see where I am in with my business.
Are we growing? What worked this year? Where did I fail? What lessons have I learned? What didn't I enjoy doing? Am I happy?
As business owners, those questions may sometimes be painful to answer but it's so important to always face it.
I hope these few tips are helpful and hopefully I can continue to touch base on different areas more frequently! And please if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to share. Would love to hear from different business owners and their approaches!
Have a great week friends!
