Creating relationships with those who “made it”

Reaching out to your market’s influencers can be a business life-saver. Busy people with thousands of followers and great businesses who already went through what you are experiencing in these early stages are a an invaluable knowledge source. But getting their attention it’s not always easy.

Create real connections with the leaders on your industry: reach out and offer them value. Trust me, most of them hear constant pitches of people who want to take advantage of their position, but are not interested in the people behind the business, only their fame.

Among the non-scalable things you can do: create content upgrades specifically for their blogs; introduce them to people you think can help them in any way; send them videos, podcasts, books, anything that you think they’ll find valuable. HELP them in your business without expecting anything in return. Be a friend, and they will acknowledge you as well.

Image from ashleyelladesign.com

Community engagement

Chances are you are already part of several Facebook groups, use Twitter, Instagram, and a plethora of other social media outlets. Being active and engaging with the community can be time consuming, but providing value with your comments or even sharing useful things is the right way to be recognized in the sea of digital faces: aim to be the name that people feel familiar with when you pop up in their newsfeed.

The key here is -again- to be genuine. See how that word keeps popping up?

Many new business owners are too focused on sales and followers that forget that being honest and showing themselves as real people (and not a number) is the real secret behind “selling without being salesy”.

Patience is King

Don’t be bummed out if the numbers are small at the beginning: it is completely normal, especially with non-scalable marketing. But you’re creating much closer connections than regular marketing practices ever could.
Don’t judge the size of your business based on the successful ones. You are not there yet, but you will be! Focus in doing the right things, even when they seem laborious and inconsequential. Quality does much more for a business than quantity when it comes to the human asset.
And lastly, learn to enjoy the process of growing a business. You will regret not paying enough attention to everything you can learn along the way.

What non-scalable things are you doing for your business? Tell me in the comments!

Sol of Build Your Success has been her own boss for the past 7 years: from freelancer to branding strategist, and now as a business coach, she helps business owners pinpoint what’s going on in their business and provides growth strategies for smart entrepreneurs. She’s passionate about sharing her knowledge so everyone can build their own success and live the life they dream of. Join her facebook group, or follow her on pinterest or twitter