What’s stopping you from marketing your business the way you want to? Money? Lack of time? Or peer pressure from your competitors?
You probably wouldn’t think that your competitors would stop you doing things, but look a bit closer and you might see things differently. Recently we’ve been working closely with a client who has an enormous amount of talent for what she does. Having brainstormed how she might promote her business effectively, workshops are something that have come up time and again.
But twelve months on we’re still awaiting that elusive workshop date to be booked into the diary.
She’s accepted that it will work. But something’s holding her back.
Well it’s not that she doesn’t have the time. Nor is it that she doesn’t have the money. What’s stopping her is the fear of what her peers have to say when they see she’s running these workshops. She’s a bit worried that they’ll think “who does she think she is?” to do this training. And most of all, she’s worried that these peers will be angry at her for breaking the industry “code”. For somehow letting amateurs in on the professional secrets.
And I get that. We all have that “who do I think I am thinking I can pull this off” moment. Hell, there are plenty of people that have more detailed, expert knowledge than me on specific subjects. While I was writing my book I would be fired up one moment; anxious and depressed the next having spent another hour looking at industry “experts” who had been in the exhibition business for 50 years and thinking “Who do I think I am to write a book on exhibitions? What do I know?”
But I carried on because I knew I could bring a new dimension to the accepted wisdom on exhibitions. And there simply wasn’t another “how to” book out there on exhibitions for small businesses. But I digress. My point is that if I had spent even a small proportion of my week hanging out with those industry experts I don’t think I’d have got past Chapter One. Because I’d have talked myself out of it.
It’s easy to think that you’re not good enough/ don’t have the experience/ don’t have the right to run your business in the way you want to when you’re constantly being influenced by your competitors. But what would happen if you started hanging out with your clients, and listening to them more than you listened to your peers?
I reckon you’d become more confident, you’d be more attuned to what your clients wanted, and you’d start grabbing every moment and running your business the way that you wanted to. What do you think?
I completely agree. Never let lack of confidence stand in your way; there will be more than enough real barriers to navigate without creating imaginary ones!
I wrote my book on Bridal Jewellery nearly 2 years before it hit the shelves, by which time there was lots I wish I could have added to it. But it’s all a journey, don’t wait to arrive at Destination Perfect or you’ll never do anything!
Clare that’s so true. Too often we wait until we just get to Destination Perfect (which of course never arrives) and in the meantime we miss out on some important experiences. Here’s to enjoying the journey!