I’m a huge believer in investing in yourself. For example, many people go to college and they invest in their education. When they graduate, I know people become envious of them. More often than not, women will invest in their clothes, makeup, and hair. And that is great because it builds you up. When you start to become valuable, people are going to turn their heads around to look. Starting a business is just like that… once you start it, people are not going to look at you. They automatically have this assumption in their heads that you are not successful yet. And if they hear that you’re investing tons of money into starting your business, they’re probably going to look down at you even more! My advice: who cares? They have no idea how to do it, but you know.
1. The first thing that you should do is create a business idea
When you’re thinking about what you want to do, choose something that inspires you and makes you happy. You’re going to be spending a lot of time with this, so why waste your time on something that you are not COMPLETELY passionate about? Original ideas are always better than the same ideas that people have come up with before. If I went to a store looking for shoes, there are hundreds of shoe stores that are ready to offer the same thing. If I am looking for content from Joey Graceffa, for example, there’s only one place where I can find it. If he designs his own t-shirts, mugs, or stationary, people are going to buy it. He built himself up with his own unique personality and videos. Be original. Think of an idea that only you can achieve.
2. Don’t invest any money yet
You don’t want to spend all of your money in one place. Of course, it’s cool to have all the business cards, flyers, and office space, but do you really need it? I’m not saying that those things are not important, but you have to look at the fact that you haven’t even made any money yet. There are tons of ways to advertise, design, and sell online/in-person. In my personal opinion, I think that spending tons of money on these things is not worth it. I know that there’s a debate on this, but that’s just what I believe.
Here are some great tools that you can use for free when you first start out:
3. Using the tools that you have
WordPress
I’ll talk about wordpress first. It’s my absolute favorite website creator that I’ve used so far. I’ve found that Wix is way too difficult to use and there’s not enough tools to create a blog on there. You don’t have to purchase any of the premium plans right away. I haven’t. And I’m completely satisfied with that. I’m able to publish and organize my website pretty well. That’s all I can really ask for. It’s also user-friendly to use, so it doesn’t take much to get started.
GIMP
I haven’t tried this editing program out yet, but I’ve heard it’s amazing. It allows you to create icons that you can link to different accounts. I’m not into computer design/graphics, but the amount of customization tools that they offer is worth it. AND it’s free 🙂
This is my absolute favorite social media platform right now. It’s where I get 90% of my viewership. I can’t think of a better platform to expand your business than facebook. I don’t only use it for my websites, but I also use it for my piano studio business. For some reason, it does really well on facebook. I’m able to advertise everywhere and facebook marketplace is a fantastic tool for you if you are looking to sell/advertise.
I’m also a huge fan of making pages on facebook. Here is the link to my facebook page, if you needed an example. If you’re not using facebook, then I feel like you’re really missing out.
Picmonkey
I feel like all i’m recommending are things that I absolutely love! And yeah, that’s pretty much true. This editing software is also completely free. It helps you make your designs so pretty and professional.
Here’s a preview on the options that they give:
Yeah, it’s amazing. I highly recommend getting very comfortable using these because it can save you tons of money in the long run.
3. The next step is to just jump into it
If you’re looking for advice on business stuff, you’re in the right place. I developed Pocketfuloflearning as a way to help other people manage their business. Even if you’re thriving right now, it doesn’t hurt to get more advice and to learn.
I would focus on advertising first. You’re not going to get much traffic without effective advertising. The best way to advertise is to create a good flyer and send it out everywhere. You want many people to find it, and they’re not going to if it’s only on one place. Choose one social media platform and stick with it. It’s not worth it to spend all your time developing on all the platforms. As always, I recommend using facebook.
4. Advertising
So, you’re pretty much on your way. It looks like you’re beginning to get the hang of it, but wait! Do you have customers/viewers yet? If you don’t, you need to think about advertising. I learned most of my information from Suzi. She explains things so well, I feel like I have gained so much knowledge from her. Youtube, in general, is an excellent way to learn about starting a business.
I use all of my advertising on facebook and instagram. I don’t have quite a large following on instagram because I rarely post anything. If I did, I feel like I would be pretty successful on there.
5. Spending valuable time resting v. working
You have to know when to take a break. I know when I started, I could barely sleep because I was so excited. And then I realized that nothing happens over night. Even with advertising, I was expecting a phone call right after I posted the ad. It doesn’t work like that. After I post a blog post, I’m always expecting a heap of people to start reading it. It never happens like that. The process is actually extremely slow. It takes time and probably even years to get to a point where you’re making a substantial amount. Therefore, why work on it 24/7? Of course you should be putting work into it, but you have to take care of yourself too. If you feel stressed, the kind of work that you give will translate into just that. If you are well-rested and happy, the kind of work that you put out will be better. Take your time. Relax, and breathe.
6. Consistently give and set a schedule
If you have time, don’t hesitate to work on some things for your business. Give what you can and be incredibly patient. If you have trouble being productive, set up a schedule and work at it. I recommend using Google calendar because you can also open it on your phone as an application. Know when your meetings are and take the time to schedule them in. Not everything is perfect. I really don’t expect them to be, but your business is going to miss you if you don’t consistently put the effort in.
7. And that’s it!
There’s a ton of more stuff that I want to talk about, but you can look at my other blogs if you need more information on that. I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about it before somewhere. If you have any questions, please let me know. There are tons of resources out there!
Let’s start learning!
Pocketfuloflearning 