The foundations of business: what you need to get right, from the start

Today’s episode of the podcast is all about the 3 main areas that you need to focus on in business, right from day one.

In this episode I delve into the what, why and how of each area and share my own personal experiences too.

If you know someone who's getting started in business, why not share the love and send them this episode, I'd really love that!

 
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

How to understand who your perfect customer is
The importance of consistency on social media
How to start building an email list


 
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
How to find your perfect customer podcast episode

Back to basics with your social media podcast episode

Learn how to start and grow your perfect email list podcast episode

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

 
Transcript
Hello and welcome to episode 306 of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing? So last week we had a, an interview, which I have not done an interview in such a long time, but it was really good fun to chat to Kendall. I really enjoyed our conversation and actually, it's just really nice. Like, generally having a rule of thumb that we say no to everybody.

And then when someone comes along, I think, oh yeah, I really fancy speaking to them, that I get to speak to them. So that was really cool. I really enjoyed that. But back to solos, as you know, if you've been listening for a while. I just do solo episodes now, apart from, like I said, the very odd one or two interview maybe.

And they're hopefully pretty practical, pretty short and things that you can kind of take and learn or, you know, might impact you in some way in a fairly short space of time. Because if you're like me. You are busy doing other things when you're listening to this podcast. So you are either doing the school run or taking the dog for a walk, or I often get ready in the morning and have a podcast playing.

So why not share with me where you're listening to this podcast? I would love to know. In fact, someone told me where they listened to me the other day. And it was really weird. And I was like, why didn't you share that when I asked? So yeah, so if you have somewhere funny that you listen to podcasts, then let me know.

Tag me in on social media, go and find me over on Instagram. That is my favorite. So today I want to talk about The foundations of business. And you might sit there thinking, yeah, well, no, I've got my business. I'm fine. I don't need to talk about foundations or you might be fairly new into your business and just discover the podcast.

And if so, then lucky you. I wish I knew this stuff from the very beginning. I think it's always good, regardless

Today’s episode of the podcast is all about the 3 main areas that you need to focus on in business, right from day one.

In this episode I delve into the what, why and how of each area and share my own personal experiences too.

If you know someone who's getting started in business, why not share the love and send them this episode, I'd really love that!

 
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

How to understand who your perfect customer is
The importance of consistency on social media
How to start building an email list


 
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
How to find your perfect customer podcast episode

Back to basics with your social media podcast episode

Learn how to start and grow your perfect email list podcast episode

Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter

 
Transcript
Hello and welcome to episode 306 of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing? So last week we had a, an interview, which I have not done an interview in such a long time, but it was really good fun to chat to Kendall. I really enjoyed our conversation and actually, it's just really nice. Like, generally having a rule of thumb that we say no to everybody.

And then when someone comes along, I think, oh yeah, I really fancy speaking to them, that I get to speak to them. So that was really cool. I really enjoyed that. But back to solos, as you know, if you've been listening for a while. I just do solo episodes now, apart from, like I said, the very odd one or two interview maybe.

And they're hopefully pretty practical, pretty short and things that you can kind of take and learn or, you know, might impact you in some way in a fairly short space of time. Because if you're like me. You are busy doing other things when you're listening to this podcast. So you are either doing the school run or taking the dog for a walk, or I often get ready in the morning and have a podcast playing.

So why not share with me where you're listening to this podcast? I would love to know. In fact, someone told me where they listened to me the other day. And it was really weird. And I was like, why didn't you share that when I asked? So yeah, so if you have somewhere funny that you listen to podcasts, then let me know.

Tag me in on social media, go and find me over on Instagram. That is my favorite. So today I want to talk about The foundations of business. And you might sit there thinking, yeah, well, no, I've got my business. I'm fine. I don't need to talk about foundations or you might be fairly new into your business and just discover the podcast.

And if so, then lucky you. I wish I knew this stuff from the very beginning. I think it's always good, regardless of what level you're in on your business or how long you've had it to go back and look at the foundations and make sure you've got them in place and then every so often review them. But there's certain things in business that are like the most important.

It's a case of if you did nothing else, marketing wise in your business, then if you did these three things, you wouldn't be going far wrong. And when I say three things, like obviously they're not just three simple steps, if only, but there are three main areas that I want you to focus on. So this episode, like I said, is perfect.

If you are getting started, if you know someone else who's getting started, then why not send them this episode? But also, even if you had your business for a while, then I think it's definitely worth listening to this and just thinking, okay, when was the last time I checked these things? Or am I still doing them?

Or did I do them first, right in the first place, which I absolutely did not. When I started my business, obviously I did marketing for a living. I knew marketing. However, marketing yourself and doing your own business is completely different from doing it to someone else. So I wish to goodness that I had given this enough thought in the early days.

So. The first thing of the foundation is, has to be understanding who your customer is. And I know so many of you will say, yes, I do know, but really do you know, have you gone through a really good exercise that helps you understand who your customer is? So one of the things that we do, and that I teach is looking at who is your customer, not only from a demographic point of view, or a kind of, you know, Are they like a certain age?

Are they in a certain location? What gender are they? Those are the simple things. What we want to know and the things that can really make a difference in our business is understanding what they're passionate about, what they love, what they hate, understanding what pains they have, and then which of those pains can you help solve?

So for instance, I deal with business owners and I can help them with many, many pains in their business, but they're not the only pains that they have. And I can help them, or I can relate to them by going, yeah, this is a struggle in your business, even if it's not something I can fix. Because what it's doing is it's demonstrating I know who they are and I understand them.

Because at the end of the day, all your customers and people in general, just humans want to be is seen and heard and that they matter. And the more you can get to know who your perfect customer is, the more you can demonstrate to them that you know them and you see them and you hear them, the more chance you've got to have a conversation with them and to convert them into a customer.

And as long as your product or service genuinely fixes their problem, then they should want to hear from you because you're going to help them. So like I said, step number one has to be understanding who your customers are. And like I've already said it needs to go deeper than just your basic stuff. It really does need to be the, what are the pains that they have in their business?

Who are they? Sorry, not just business in their lives or whatever it is that you deal with. Who are they? What do they struggle with? And how can you match and meet them? Also understanding how they align with your values. So some people, and sometimes we look at niche within this section as to whether you're going for a niche, sometimes the niche is you and you are your niche and you are the reason they're going to come to you.

So how do you make sure that your values align with theirs? Because you only want to work with people that have values aligned with your own. So again, how do you use that information to basically. Get that out of there or to understand that about your customer, because the next two things of your foundation and pretty much anything else you're going to do in your business is completely dependent on knowing who that customer is.

If you don't know who your customer is, you could have the best marketing in the world, and it would be the equivalent of having a billboard in the desert. No one would see it. And if people did see it, it wouldn't necessarily be the right people. Or the right people wouldn't know it's for them. I have this thing when I teach, would I know I'm your ideal customer by looking at your stuff?

And that's what I need to know. I need to read it and look at it and go, Oh yeah, that's me. And the places I need to read it and see it are somewhere on the internet. Now, step two of the foundations is some kind of Consistent social media presence. Now it only, it doesn't have to be on every platform. It can be on one platform, but you need somewhere that you show up.

You've got no choice. I'm afraid like, okay, you could just not be on social media, but you've got to show up somewhere. Someone's got to be able to find you. And the easiest and most accessible is through social media. You could obviously have a website and things, but easiest and most accessible is social media.

So do you have a social media account and are you consistently posting content? When I say consistently, I don't mean continuing continuously. I mean, are you consistently, i. e. every couple of days, every day, a couple of times a week posting content. And what do you post where you post the stuff you found out in the step one of the foundations.

So you post stuff that your ideal customer is going to be interested in, stuff that they'll resonate with, stuff that they will want to save or stuff that they will want to see. And if you know who they are you're going to start to understand what sort of stuff you can post. And obviously we can go into more detail on this.

And I've, I've talked about this in various different places on the podcast, but it really is, I don't want to get into the kind of what to post now, but it really is about that showing up consistently somewhere on social media. That has got to be one of your next things. Because someone needs to come and find you and see who you are.

And then the final thing of these three foundations has to be building an email list, because although I love social media, although social media is a fantastic way for people to come and find you and see that you exist, you don't own that platform, you don't own the data, you don't own your profile. It all belongs to whatever platform you're on.

So if tomorrow someone broke a term and condition on Facebook and it just wiped out your account, then basically you've lost all that data. So the, one of the key things are most important, which is why it's literally in the top three things of doing for a business is getting an email list. Again, going back to that, who your customer is, that's how we're going to bring the right people onto your email list.

Cause this is about the quality, not the quantity. Honestly, I could have a list of just 500 people. And if they were 500 people that love me and wanted to hear from me and wanted to buy stuff that I was selling, I'd be happy rather than having a list of 5,000 who aren't interested. So. Absolutely focus on quality, not quantity.

And really from day one, building that email list is key. And if you haven't built it and if you are much further on than day one, then start it today. Like seriously, seriously, seriously. There's not a business that I've come across in the almost 20 years that I've been in marketing and 10 of them in my own business that I have seen someone who and thought they don't need an email list.

Everyone needs an email list. And what often happens is people, create an email list, but they just do an opt in on their website. So they'll just have a box somewhere at the top or the bottom that says, do you want to join my email list? And then people can opt in that way. And that is kind of half the problem or where the problem is because it is very unlikely, especially in the early days, that people are just going to stumble across a website and search around and look for that box and then sign up.

So it's really, really important to work much harder at trying to get people on your email list. And it does take work, but I promise you with these three things in general, any amount of time, effort, or investment you make in these three will pay you dividends down the line. And that's the key thing.

It's down the line. You're not going to suddenly build an email list tomorrow, have 5, 000 people on your email list. I mean, if you do, then let me know how, cause that'd be amazing. Without spending a huge amount on Facebook ads, but like, and then suddenly sell loads of stuff the day after this is an investment for your longterm business, but it's crucial to get it started as soon as.

So what you need to do with your email list is you need to go back to understanding that perfect customer. Like I said, this is really, really step one in the whole foundation. And you need to understand what they need from you and how you can help them. And then you need to create something, which we call a lead magnet, in order for them to go, yes, I want this thing.

And because I want this thing, I'm going to give you my email address. And that's how you get them onto your email list. Now. If you're just getting started, you just need one and keep it simple. Often I've taught building lead magnets and building email addresses, email lists over and over and over.

And the one thing that everybody does without fail is they give them too much. So they try and give them war and peace. They put together a massive long PDF book or a massive long video series or a huge amount of content, and they don't need all that. What they need is a quick win. Now you and I know there is no quick wins in our business.

As in, you know, if you are selling, Copywriting. You can't just tell them two things and suddenly they'll be an amazing copywriter. If you were selling social media content, you can't just give them one secret and that'll get them viral. We know there's no quick wins. However, what we need to do is give them something small that they can try.

And they can have some experience of and then they'll go, Oh, this person knows what they're talking about. And then maybe you can give them some more. So when you're starting off on that email list, keep it simple and small. Now, again, I'm not going to go into huge amounts of detail. There are so many podcast episodes and so much of my content out there around this building, because I've done it very successfully for a long time and helped lots of other people do it for a long time.

I wanted to add it into the top three because it's so very important that we do these things. So once you have an understanding of who your customer is, social media content, where they can discover you and an email list where you can deepen and develop that relationship.

Those are the three most important things as far as I'm concerned in a marketing, from a marketing aspect in your business. But they can change. So over time, your perfect customer might change. Mine has. They've only tweaked slightly. It tends to have been a similar person, but as I niche down into certain things or as I show up in different ways, I do attract a different audience.

So they will tweak and change over time. Your customer's problems will change over time. Technology changes over time. Process and how people do things change over time. So you are going to have to tweak and change your customer profile every so often, which means in turn, it will have a knock on effect in terms of what content you're putting out there on social media, which in turn will have a knock on effect in terms of how you're getting people on your email list.

Because the way I got people on my email list eight years ago is not how I'm doing it today in terms of not just, you know, the format and what I'm doing, but what I'm giving them. So today my lead magnets are much different to when I first started out. And that's the case of every business. It will no doubt tweak and change at some point.

So. Those are your three things to ask yourself and to look at. Do you know who your customer is, who your perfect customer is, and know all those details about them? Are you showing up consistently on social media, and giving them some content that they want to see? And have you created an email list with your perfect customers on it?

And if you're sat here listening and thinking, yeah, I've done all those things, then is it worth going back and checking when you last reviewed them? And when did you last get new people on your email list? Because it is a constant thing of bringing new people on, making sure they're the right customers, making sure your content is right.

So just take this podcast as a Quick reference in terms of, okay, yeah, let me have a look at this. Let me remind myself whether all of this is still right. Okay. I am going to leave you for this week. Have a wonderful week and I will see you when I return next week.