Module three

business

 

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The roller coaster of entrepreneurship is a fast-moving yet thrilling one. I’ve never felt such proud highs as when I’ve completed beautiful design projects or such deep lows as when I’ve ended a partnership. That being said, I fully believe that life is meant to be lived, and the countless blessings and joy I’ve felt from pursuing this creative business leave me confident that I made the right choice to start a business, without a doubt.

When you decide to pursue a creative business, there are several things you need to be sure of before you get started. Of course, you primarily need to make sure that you have an actual passion for the products or services that you’ll be offering. If you’re a mother, like me, or if you have some other full-time gig, you know just as well as I do the detrimental effects of wasting time and money in less valuable places in this season of life when those resources are so important.

Beyond having a passion for your craft, there are four crucial questions you must know the answer to:

  1. Why are you doing this (entrepreneurship)?

  2. What can you do/offer?

  3. Who are you doing this for?

  4. How are you going to do it?

Armed with the answers to those four questions, you’ll be ready to rock and roll when it comes to running your creative business.

Let’s jump right in!

 
 

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?

Have you identified your “why”? Your business won’t feel as purposeful or fulfilling to you if you haven’t yet figured out why you’re doing it. 

Stay-at-home moms have enough on their plates without adding more work simply for the sake of working. If you desire an entrepreneurial journey, you have to look beyond the “busy-ness” of business.

There are countless reasons and motivations for starting a business. Whether you’re driven by a desire to boost your income, make new friends, develop your talents, or share a message with your audience, all the things that make you want to run this business represent the pillars upon which you should operate.

Is your business a mechanism to direct frustration about things you can’t control into something productive and creative? Is your goal to turn your creative talents into a tool that brings your family more fun money to travel? Do you have a message to share that’s close to your heart and just needs an outlet to help spread the word?

If you’re not motivated by a “pillar” like this, then your business doesn’t stand a chance.

Take some time to do a deep, introspective dive into the following questions:

  1. Why do I want to be an entrepreneur?

  2. What’s in it for me?

  3. What downsides can I identify, and what are the benefits that outweigh them?

So, what makes you want to be a creative business owner? No one can answer this for you. If you can pinpoint the specific reason(s) you want to be an entrepreneur, you’ll be well on your way to building a strong foundation upon which to build your business.


WHAT CAN YOU DO/OFFER?

Once you’re committed to the life of an entrepreneur, the next step is to nail down what you want to officially offer.

You have a lot of things that make you special, and that’s what you’ll want to focus on when you develop your creative business. If you’re unable to identify or share the things that set you apart, customers will just see you as another drop in the ocean of endless opportunities. What makes you distinctly YOU?

In his book Genius Zone, Gay Hendricks shares countless ways to distinguish between skills that you’re just competent at, skills you’re good at, and skills within your zone of genius. As he puts it, the more time you spend in your zone of genius, the more fulfilled you’ll feel and the greater impact you’ll have on those around you.

If you’re struggling to recognize the ways that you can set yourself apart, start with some basic questions:

  1. What do people come to you for?

  2. What are you really good at?

  3. If we asked your mom or best friend, what would they say you are good at?

  4. What would other people describe as your best traits?

As you answer these questions, you can start to get a rough outline of what others see when they look at you and your actions. You’ll see patterns in behavior and areas for improvement that, when combined, give you insight into what you might want to offer or how you should position your offerings.

Once you discover what you can offer and the problems you solve for your clients, you can begin to position yourself as a guide to your audience. Another great book to help you with the positioning of your business is Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand, which discusses the concept that most entrepreneurs fail to connect with their audience because they’re positioning themselves as the hero. In reality, if you treat your audience as the hero and assume the role of guide or mentor, you can speak to them much more clearly, offering a solution to their most basic, internal needs and desires without getting in your own way.

You’re the one who knows best what you’re most interested in and what you want to sell. I can’t make those decisions for you, but I CAN help you brainstorm your offerings by presenting the questions you should consider answering when looking to run a more efficient, successful small business.

Are you looking to sell only a few high-value offerings each year, targeted towards those who appreciate the value and are willing to invest in your quality and expertise, or are you looking to appeal to the masses with the budget-friendly offerings that you produce in bulk?

Are you elite, the result of years of education and experience, and delivering a service or product your customers aren’t likely to find anywhere else? Are you laid-back, willing to travel for a good time, and willing to go out of your way to find a connection with your clients or customers?

These are the qualities that make your business YOURS and provide a unique twist on what you offer to your target audience.

Click below to download the Brainstorm Your Offerings Workbook and answer the questions to uncover the pillars that represent your motivation in starting this business.

 

WHO ARE YOU DOING THIS FOR?

Operating your small business without a good idea of who you’re marketing to is like opening an Italian restaurant in the middle of a big city and serving the dishes to just anyone passing by, or even walking into the French bistro down the street and passing out ravioli and breadsticks.

Those guys didn’t want ravioli and breadsticks. They wanted a chocolate croissant.

Your efforts are wasted, the food doesn’t get enjoyed, and by the time the customers who really wanted to try your chicken parm walk through the door, you’re out of food, out of energy, and out of business.

Before you say “goodbye” to profits, say “hello” to your target audience.

The reality of operating a business that works with and caters to its dream clients with all its marketing efforts is that you’re spending less time weeding through the gunk, less money investing in programs and marketing channels that don’t fit your business, and less brain power questioning your choices.

As you learn in Building a StoryBrand, you’re the guide, not the hero. You’re Yoda, not Luke Skywalker — that’s your audience.

You have to change your perspective from “What do I want from this business?” to “What does my client need to complete whatever quest they’re on?”

What is your plan? Who are you helping, and how are you helping them? 

What if you could reach out through the internet and share your product or service with the exact right people who would most value and appreciate what you had to offer? Talk about efficiency and purpose — that’s the goal right there!

Establishing a target niche to create for and advertise to will go a long way in making your business efforts more intentional and streamlined. With a clear audience in mind, you’ll be able to speak their language, capture their interest, and connect with them more quickly, saving you time selling or communicating before they book.

But before you can market to them, you need to define who they are and what value they’re getting out of what you offer. Once you can better understand how to serve your audience, you’ll have a clearer direction on how to reach them and how to market to them. Being able to clearly explain what you offer is a great place to start when refocusing your efforts to cater to your ideal client. We recommend crafting a “Bio Blurb”. This is a quick sentence or two that can act as your bio on all your platforms and channels (like your Instagram profile description), as an intro on your website, or even as an introductory description of your business during a short in-person conversation.

I’ve put together a workbook to help you identify who your target audience is and craft a Bio Blurb. Take a few minutes to pause your study here and complete it thoroughly.

 

Once you’re finished with your workbook, let’s walk through a few examples to help you see how pinpointing your ideal customers’ needs will shape how you run your business.

Perhaps your target client puts a high value on beautiful family pictures so they can feel the joy of extra attention and praise when they share them on social media. As a family photographer, you can capture that need by using phrases surrounding that desire for status and praise in your marketing materials (something like “Wow your friends and family with Insta-worthy family pics!).

Maybe your ideal customers are those who trust you to put together a beautiful floral arrangement for their wedding without their input, so as a floral designer, you might target your offerings to brides who feel overwhelmed with all the decisions involved with wedding planning (something like “Looking for ‘done-for-you’ florals? I’ve got you covered.”)

Get in the mindset of your client and think through how you might present them with a solution or plan that solves their internal struggle, whatever it is, using your products or services. This description of your target audience is critical to have on hand as you continue to grow your business.

  • When you’re captioning your Instagram posts or choosing what topics to write about on your blog, write for that target client. 

  • When you’re designing your packaging, think of what they would appreciate.

  • As you plan future offerings, consider what would appeal to your freshly-defined target customer.

Giving your target client a whole personification, as if they were a real person or even a friend, makes it so much easier to connect with them — just act like you are speaking to them in person.

This will help your audience feel heard, and increase your chances of reaching them on a personal level, engaging their interest enough to follow along or click through your pins to your website.

HOW CAN YOU DO IT?

You, and your skills, are worth something to someone. Your first step is to nail down what you can offer, then figure out who sees value in your offering and how it serves them, and then you simply need to monetize it.

Ask yourself: How can you monetize what you do well?

The first place to start is to consider whether your best traits lend themselves more naturally to a service or a product. But, you can likely offer both. For example, if you paint, your primary offering is likely going to be a piece of artwork. But, you could also teach painting classes, which is a service.

Alternatively, you might be really interested in becoming a fitness coach, which is a service-oriented offering, but you could also develop a course to sell digitally online, which is a product.

There are lots of ways to monetize the things you do well. It’s sort of like a puzzle or game to see how you can make money doing what you love. This is one of my favorite parts of being a creative entrepreneur: I get to make money doing something I’m passionate about. As they say, if you find work you love to do, you never truly have to "work."

One recommendation I have for you as you determine how you’re going to be offering your skills to your target audience is to always plan on incorporating some form of passive income into your business. We’ll talk more about the various types of income streams you can take advantage of later on in the course. But the main thing to remember is that you’re going to hit a limit on how much time and effort you can devote to your creative business. Passive income is the only way you can grow and increase sales, without raising your rates, and sometimes that isn’t a great option.

This goal should always be in the back of your mind as you’re growing your business, reaching for the sustainability that will allow you financial freedom and the ability to spend more time with your family without sacrificing income.

One last strategy to keep in mind as you pursue the entrepreneurial life of your dreams is to always prioritize your time in a way that makes the biggest impact. What’s going to move the needle the most? If you’ve got a spare 15 minutes, should you engage with customers on Instagram, answer emails, or work on client work? The answer to that question might change through any given day, week, or season, but learning to identify the top priorities within your business and choosing how to spend your time wisely is a valuable strategy to ensure continued success.

Now that you have a clear picture of what it looks like for you to be an entrepreneur, it’s time to jump right in. The next section of this course outlines all the basics of getting legal and handling money within your business — both super critical and the most often neglected discussions that small business owners like to avoid having.

While these topics may seem daunting or overwhelming, the reality is this: those who prioritize their financial and legal literacy by learning strategies right off the bat grow exponentially faster than those who struggle along, trying to fake it until they make it. You’ve got enough to balance as a stay-at-home mom — give yourself a leg up with a solid foundational understanding of the best legal and financial practices for creative small businesses.