Top 5 Ways to Boost your Business
Do you sometimes feel disconnected from your entrepreneurial journey? Perhaps running your business doesn’t feel quite as much fun and exciting as it was in the early days when it was all hustle, opportunity, making beliefs and dreams a reality with that first business card, brand new website and first few customers…
We can all look back at the early days and know at the time it may well have felt like we were burning the candle at both ends to get our business off the ground, but we were filled with that insatiable hunger to just make it work! The 2am finishes felt like part of the launch process as much as living off the freezer contents to account for start-up investment.
Fast forward a few years in and it can sometimes feel like the spark has gone out (temporarily) when the reality of cash flow, order books, client retention and business growing pains kick in.
I know, I’ve been there. Which is why I’m sharing with you my Top 5 Business Boosting tips that will re-light your entrepreneurial fire, boost your bank balance and send your business energy soaring through the roof:
Connect back into your ‘why’. Grab your journal, find a cosy and conformable spot. Wrap yourself in a a favourite blanket, light a candle, play your favourite track and write! Take a trip down memory lane to those early days of starting your business. What big dreams were you following? What did you know you could create? How much enthusiasm did you have despite maybe having hardly any money to start your business, an empty order book and no idea how you were going to make it work? Driven by passion and self-belief alone, you did it! So let’s reignite that inner knowing that you are exactly where you need to be on your business journey and, it’s all possible!
Think of your network - past, present and future. Write a list of all of the clients that you’ve loved working with in the past who may be delighted to hear from you again: who did you get great results for that might be looking for their next project and it’ll be your job to inspire them? Who is current retreat customer that might love an exclusive discount rewarding them for their custom, a preview of a new product range, or the heads up on a secret new offering you’re working on where they get an early-adopter discount?
Get creative! Give yourself the task of creating a new product or offering that would give potential clients a new way of working with you. Try something you’ve been thinking about for a while…go on, make it happen and forget all the reasons why it might not work. What if it was the best decision you ever made?
Get out there. And I’m not talking about a networking event. We seem to think this is the only way to meet other like-minded business owners, or potential clients. But I’m all for ‘doing’ business in a natural way. So why not take yourself to a non-work related event and simply enjoy being in conversation with people you’ve never met before. Enjoy the time away from the desk and enrol in a cookery course at a beautiful location like Daylesford, Thyme, or a flower arranging course that’s been on your wish list for forever and a day such as this dreamy one at Petersham Nurseries. You will be amazed how just talking about what you do when someone asks will reignite your own belief in yourself. Talking about what you do outside of your usual context can shed a whole new light on your business and career. And who knows who might be cooking at the station next to you…a wonderful like-minded entrepreneur who might just be the connector to your next big client, or your next raving fan!
Inspire yourself! One of the main reasons we can feel disconnected from where we’re ‘at’ at any given moment is because we are bored. Ramp up the vision…set a new exciting goal (or scare-citing as one of my Mastermind clients termed it: that feeling when it’s scary but super exciting all at the same time); and just GO FOR IT! Get the vision board and start creating that next level goal and have something so damn exciting to work on that you’re leaping out of bed in the morning with more enthusiasm than ever for making your dreams a reality.