Build Your Brand

Start A Business - Foundation First

This is the third in a 4-5 part series that examines how I (finally) decide to start a business that I will be marketing online.   You can read the second post here and the first post here.   Make sure to leave your comments at the end of this post.  I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

 

Systems.   Personal web pages.  Squeeze pages. Autoresponders.  Opt-in boxes.  Blogs.  Online shopping carts.  Create  something tangible that has value;  that serves a purpose and speaks to a large audience that is delivered through these software systems.  That ultimately results in a sustainable income.   An income that depends solely on your efforts. 

Create something tangible that has value;  that serves a purpose and speaks to a large audience.  Looked at another way,  find a product to sell and people to sell it to. 

Drilled down even further:  find something to say.  Something that you know so intimately that you never tire of the topic.  Something that you have a boundless passion for and that you are knowledgeable about.  And, given these two factors,  make sure that "something" is what other people will want. 

That "something" that other people want could be information. " How to"  information.  How to:  plant a vegetable garden.  Build a log cabin for fun and profit.  Start a pet sitting business.  How to home school your child.  How to write an e-book.   How to teach your dog circus tricks in 10 easy lessons.  How to write an article;  make pasta from scratch ... the list is endless.  And the online market for information like this is huge. 

Think digital products. 

Figuring out  your area of excellence lays the foundation for you.  It  may be one of the most elusive  exercises you undertake until you realize that you truly do have everything inside you to be successful.    Start with where your own passions began.   

It's worth it to do this exercise as many times as it takes to help you drill down to your own emotional triggers.   Every time I get stuck,  I come back to it.  Think of it as peeling an onion and you're that onion.  Each thin piece peeled back reveals one more facet of who you are.  

One of the most important elements of this exercise is to really focus on what you want.  Be careful.  It's so easy to be pulled into someone else's  "Plan B."   These days, there are a lot of options and you need to be fierce about protecting your idea. 

The neat thing about doing this exercise is that it's enormously helpful no matter what you decide to pursue.  Digital products  may not be your thing.  That's okay.   Give yourself the time to patiently  dig into what you feel strongly, passionately about first  and then come back to read my next post.   We're just getting started!

 

 

 

 

Starting A Business

This is the second  in a 4-5 part series that examines how I (finally) decide to start a business that I will be marketing online.  You can read the first post here.   And,  please leave your comments at the end of this post if anything I write resonates with you. 

 

If I look back on my career path, I see a definite pattern.  Every 8-10 years,  I switched jobs.  For many reasons, all perfectly valid at the time I made them.   Suffice it to say that I've never been afraid of sticking my neck out and trying something else.  

What might be fair to say is that one of my deliberate career choices was the one that took me back into the classroom as a high school English teacher.   And from there,  off to graduate school to earn my Master's degree.   

The wall that I kept smacking into during those years was the wall of "there are no permanent fulltime teaching positions available unless one of our staff drops dead or gets pregnant and takes a six month maternity leave."   Fortunately,  there were a few of those six month leaves of absence so that I got a taste of having my own classroom.  My own students.  And I loved every minute of it.

I would have taught for free. 

That's passion.

Remember that because "passion" - passion for something - is going to be one of the emotional drivers that I keep coming back to.

Fastforward to 1997 and I had come to the realization that I was not going to be hired fulltime.  Seems that there was another hiring freeze on in the one district that I had racked up a 16 year track record with as a per diem sub.  It would take me another three years to sever my ties with this school district, but that year marked a critical turning point for me. 

That year, I made the second deliberate career choice in my life.   I signed up as a distributor with a company in the direct sale/network marketing field.   During the seven years I was with that first company,  I built a consumer network of 200-plus individuals  that would generate over $10,000.00 in monthly sales volume  at its most productive period.  I attended eight company conventions and  embarked on a program of self-development that is largely responsible for who I am today.  For that,  I will be eternally grateful. 

The company was Arbonne International.   Back in 1997, there were approximately 30,000 distributors.  And, the internet was in its infancy. 

While some people were trying to figure out how to harness the vague perameters of the online world to develop what would ultimately be "internet marketing business models,"   I was wrapping my brain around how to develop  residual income using a network marketing business model.

For several reasons (none of which are important here),  I resigned as a distributor with Arbonne in 2004-05  and went on to explore a few other network marketing companies.   I also began to reach out to small business owners and solo practioners in my community.  This is when I began to build my professional brand as a "consummate networker."  

All this time,  I'd been poking around the internet,  trying to figure out the business models that would let someone make a sustainable income online.   Nobody was stepping up and volunteering that kind of information.   But they were out there and some of them were becoming very successful. 

I kept poking around and over time,  found myself following a couple of people whose online messages resonated with me.   This was long before Twitter, so "following" someone online had a slightly different meaning back then.  

I continued my online research.   And, as luck would have it,  signed up with another network marketing company.   This company was a bit different than the companies  I'd worked with in the past.  Most of the experienced field leaders were building their organizations using systems that internet marketers have been using for years.  Systems? 

Systems.  How about:  autoresponders.  Squeeze pages.  Opt in boxes.   Personal web pages.  I learned about pay-per-click ad campaigns,  got my first peek at the behind-the-scenes preparations for Webinar broadcasts and was a regular participant on  some of them.

It was fascinating to understand how these systems knit together to create an automated process with a series of predicatable actions that would lead to a series of predictable results. 

Systems.   Imagine what I could do on my own with these systems working for me.

 

 

 

Why I Started This Blog

Almost a year ago,  I  wrote my first blog post to reach out to women who were re-inventing themselves.   If you want to read the more detailed explanation of why  I decided to start this blog,  you can click on this line of text.  And, to check out my special interest blog,  on the abilites that dogs have to change  your life, I invite you to visit:  HealingRescueDogs to see what I'm doing.

And, to read my recently published articles,  you can click here.

A Friday Potpouri of Women Business Owners

This post's outrageous disregard for SEO (how many people do you suppose are madly googling "potpouri?" )  owes itself to the fact that it's time for a bit of fun and nonsense that feeds my delight with other people's "stuff."  

Other people's "stuff" that will, in turn, feed my creative muse.

One of my most favorite blogs to visit is one  that belongs to Linda Lawrence.  I've known Linda for a long time now even though the times when we see each other are at the area arts festivals that she "vendors at."   I get lost in the colors and love to hear all of the ways that she finds to revel in teasing out her own muse.

From glass-blown jewelry to vintage clothing. 

One of the newest "blogs on the block"  features vintage apparel snapped up by the daughter of another friend of mine.   Morgan's got a passion for fashion and she's just begun to put her unique look together online.   Lately, I've been stopping by to see what she's picked up and how she's creating different looks.  

She's just added an etsy shop and that's a fun, whirwind tour of all of her finds.

Interestingly enough,  I just finished reading  A Vintage Affair, by Isabel Wolff.  This was purely escape reading - is there any other kind?   This book is a fabulous "companion piece" to Morgan's blog. 

From vintage clothing to fairies and pixie dust.

If you need to endulge yourself in pure whimsey and pretend (and don't we all need some of that?),   plan on spending a lot of time in Donna Antonucci's fantasy fairy land.   I've known Donna for so long that I can't quite remember how we  met.   Her talent touches my soul and makes me smile.

These three women  found ways to successfully brand themselves as artists and business owners.  Linda and Donna have been at this a while and their brands are anchored in  consistency,  perserverance  and  a fearless  conviction that they had something - "some stuff" - that was worth their time to develop. 

Morgan's fledgling online business is  at the opposite end of branding.  She's truly "the new kid on the block."   Her conviction and passion are just as fearless.   And her journey is only just beginning.

All three women hunkered down in their passions with a complete disregard for practicalities.  That they have unquestionable talent is obvious.   That they chose to take "the path less chosen" when they started out is something that needs to be recognised and celebrated, especially today, when so many women despair of finding an outlet for their own passions that can be developed into a sustainable business. 

So.  If you find yourself at a crossroads or if you've smacked into a wall and you're stuck,  take time out to explore what Linda, Donna and Morgan are doing.  There's always a detour to take or a window to open.  You'll know it when you see it.  Trust me.