Social media, for many introverts, is a great way to interact without having to be face-to-face with anyone. Social media how-tos for introverted entrepreneurs is a delicate balancing act. Some days you just need to get out of the office and interact with people!
If you’ve been avoiding social media because of your introverted tendencies, you may be inhibiting your chances at success for your business. You should have a social presence and interacting behind the keyboard is easier for introverts once they get the hang of it and the lay of the land.
Social Media How-Tos For Introverted Entrepreneurs
Share relevant content. No matter who you are and what you’re doing on line, be relevant and share content your followers want.
Keep your status updates simple. No matter if you’re an extrovert, ambivert or introvert, social media updates don’t have to be long and overly involved. Use short, simple sentences and you’ll get interaction.
Feature your customers. If you don’t want to talk about yourself, then talk about and highlight your customers. Shine the spotlight on them, tag them, ask them to share and you’re performing a great service.
Focus on your team. Share information (not overly personal) about your team members. They will love being in the spotlight (ask them first) and will likely share that with friends and family and that will expand your reach in an organic way.
“Talk” with your audience. If they’re commenting on your updates or your blog, comment back. Social media is all about interaction and building connections.
Highlight your expertise in a way that addresses a customer pain point, not in a “hey, look at me!” way. Show your talents and expertise through the content you share.
If you’re an introvert, don’t try to change your personality. You are who you are. Embrace that and move forward!
We know we are usually uplifting and offer “what to do” ideas for entrepreneurs. Today, though we want to discuss 3 reasons to not be an entrepreneur. The reason for this is that we hear so many people thinking about going into business for themselves and thinking they will be:
Overnight successes
Be rich beyond measure
Will have nights, holidays and weekends off
3 Reasons To Not Be An Entrepreneur
Get rich. We mentioned it earlier, but many would-be entrepreneurs think they will be rich beyond their wildest dreams if only they own their own businesses. They see the income the could potentially make but don’t take into consideration, the expenses needed to support that income. Remember when you’re self-employed you are responsible for so many more bills and expenses than you were when your employer footed the bill on many of those items — insurance, office space, payroll taxes and more.
Unlimited time off. If you think that owning your own business means daily hours-long lunches, coffee dates with friends, weeks-long vacations and not working nights, weekends or holidays please see “get rich” as a reason you won’t get rich. If you’re out on your own and if you’re not big enough to hire a staff or even work with contractors, then you will need to work a LOT of hours. Vacations may become a thing of the past unless you start making enough money to afford one and even then, we bet you’ll be working.
If “he/she” can do it so can I! We call this the “why not me” syndrome. If you aren’t specifically motivated and driven, you’re likely doomed to failure. Not just anyone has what it takes to run a business. Not everyone has what it takes to motivate him- or herself enough to succeed. If you don’t have a boss cracking the whip, will you hold yourself accountable or will you be looking at “unlimited time off” as your motivation to be an entrepreneur?
We applaud any, and every, entrepreneur and solopreneur who comes across our path. We know the sacrifices they made to get there and those they make to remain viable. Do you have the drive to be an entrepreneur? Do you not know where to start? Reach out, we can help!
In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season — which for many people starts on Thanksgiving Day and goes until the second day of the new year, it’s time to count your blessings. As an entrepreneur, I count on my positive attitude to get me through the day and to power through challenges.
It’s not every day, though that we do stop to count our blessings. We don’t often enough stop and think about all for which we have to be grateful. Attitude colors everything and it can make it bright or it can make it dark. This is true not only at the holidays, but year round.
It’s Time To Count Your Blessings
I love this thought: “A person is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.” If you wake up and think, “I have to go through so many horrible things today… it’s going to be a bad day.” Then, chances are it will. Even if you’re facing a challenging, or bad, day you can wake up and think, “It’s going to be a challenge. I will, however, come out the other side and my day will be better after I get through XYZ.”
Dread is natural, but you may be able to turn it on its head and wake up in a better frame of mind. The challenge you’re anticipating may not be as daunting as you’d imagined. Even if it is, having a more positive attitude will help you recover from the challenge more quickly.
Picture this: If you’re a negative person and if you’re unhappy, negativity and unhappy people will follow you. Your attitude will impact those around you. Like brings like. If you’re happy and if you surround yourself with like-minded happy people you will be happier and your attitude will soar.
What can you do to adopt an attitude of gratitude? You certainly don’t want to look at others’ suffering as your blessing, but you can stop and look at your “suffering” through a different lens. If, for example, you’re angry about work — think about those people who don’t have a job and would love to have one. If you’re unhappy with where you live, think about those people in Alaska or Hawaii who have lost their homes — they would likely trade places with you in a heartbeat.
I urge you to take a moment today to count your blessings. Write them down so you can see all you have to be thankful for. Think about your blessings before you fall asleep at night. Face each day with a smile because there are many people who will not be given the gift of a new day.
If you’re continually telling your employees or the vendors with whom you work that the customer is always right, you need to stop saying ‘the customer is always right’ and there are many good reasons to stop that right now. Some of them you may never have thought about.
We truly think that believing the customer is always right leads to poor customer service because your employees won’t care how they treat them because if they offer stellar service or poor service, the experience for the customer is always the same.
Stop Saying ‘The Customer Is Always Right’
However, I think businesses should abandon this phrase once and for all — ironically, because it leads to worse customer service.
Here are the top five reasons why “The Customer Is Always Right” is wrong.
If your employees are NEVER right because the customer is ALWAYS right, why should they give it there all? There’s no reason. You should be loyal to your employees and if you are, they will probably offer better service to your customers simply because your employees are feeling heard and valued. You certainly don’t want to reward poor service, but it’s more expensive to a business to replace employees than it is to treat them well and in turn they will perform at higher levels.
This mantra gives horrible customers carte blanche to be rude to your employees and to complain no matter how high a level service you offer.
Some customers, no matter how well you treat them will still complain and will also think they have you over a barrel and you will be forced to give more and more away to a customer to whom you should show the door.
You’ve been there yourself.
You KNOW there are sometimes that customers are just plain wrong and they will holler to the rooftops that “the customer is always right.” Your customers need to know you value your employees and that you welcome their input and that you trust your employees’ opinions on a customer interaction.
Make your employees feel valued and heard and you won’t have to worry about whether the customer is right — you know they will likely be happy and you know your staff will be happier. What measures do you have in place to show your employees they are valued even in light of a yelling customer?
Are You Smart About Tech For Your Business? Tech can be our friend or tech can be a bane of your business’s existence. Whether you’re bogged down in email or if your site gets hacked or your website or computer get hammered by ransomware, technology can make running your business easier and more effective if you have a plan in place.
Here are a few things you will want to look at right now and take care of so you’re using tech to its best effect for your business.
Are You Smart About Tech For Your Business?
Make sure your social media pages, website and domain name are in your name. Don’t hire a company to build your site or your pages and have everything in their name you need to own it from the get go even if you’re hiring a pro to build and monitor it.
If you have tech — social media pages or a website or a cash register, learn to use it. If your entire staff doesn’t come to work one day would you know how to keep your business operational? You need to know how to do it all, even if you don’t always have to.
Make your passwords safe and don’t keep them in a location that’s easy to get to. Also, don’t keep a file on your computer that reads, “passwords.” Use a password program like Dashlane or Last Pass to generate strong passwords and store them for you. Make certain your password for the password program is extremely long and strong and keep it in a location that cannot be easily accessed.
Keep documents and information off site. You may want to upload documents and other items to the cloud and make off site backups. If you’re a paper heavy office, scan that information in and take a copy of it all off site.
If you have an employee leave the company, make certain you immediately revoke his or her rights and access to your website, their email and any other sensitive information. Change the passwords on social media and keycodes on the doors.
Technology is great. You just need to use it correctly and safely!
Working from home. It sounds like a dream! You can stay in your pajamas, have meetings in bed and generally be relaxed, right? Well, maybe. Many entrepreneurs find that when they are working from home they need to get dressed — even if it’s jeans and a t-shirt, comb their hair, brush their teeth and act as though they are going to an office. How to set up a successful home office is something not too many new entrepreneurs consider.
Sure you can work from the corner of the kitchen table, but do you want to? Can you have client phone calls in the middle of dinner chaos? To truly feel as though you’re running your own business you need to treat it, and yourself and your workspace as viable entities.
How to set up a successful home office
Set up a work space that is yours and yours alone. It is all right to grab an end of the kitchen table when you’re just starting out, but when you claim your own space you are on the path to taking your business more seriously. Find a space — even the corner of a spare bedroom, set it up to feel like an office and work from there.
Meet customers outside of your home when it’s required. Don’t bring a client or customer into the chaos of your home or into your cramped spare bedroom office. Rent a co-working space for a day. Ask a friend who owns an office if there is space you could use for the occasional client meeting. Meet at a nearby coffee shop.
Set work hours. If you don’t want to be working 24/7 you need to establish office hours. Let clients know when you will be available. More importantly, let your family and friends know when you’re working and that you don’t want to be disturbed. If you don’t establish hours and guard them, no one will respect that you have office hours.
Hire a sitter. You can’t run a business if you’re hoping to schedule client calls when your children nap. What if you schedule a call and that is the day your child won’t sleep? Even if you only claim one day a week as child-free you need to do this in order to get your work done. Same goes with pets — you don’t want dogs barking in the background of an important client call, either.
Know yourself and know what will make you feel like a “real” business owner — because you are one! Claim your space and set up a successful home office.
Do you consider your home office a success? If not, why not? If so, what makes it that way?
