Building and growing a business is no easy task. In fact, entrepreneurship is like running a marathon without a finish line. For this reason, it’s imperative you choose to do work you enjoy to the point that it doesn’t really feel like work.
One of the key ingredients to Fastmarkit’s growth has really come down to simply asking. For instance, when you need help lifting a heavy box, you are more likely to ask someone for help, right? Pushing to scale a business is similar such that you need help growing it, so if you never ask for introductions or pitch to prospective clients to see if they are in need of your services, you’ll likely find it more challenging to progress.
Anytime you throw up an ad or write a piece of content, you are essentially finding a way to attract the right audience towards your products/services with the intention of creating an experience that will result in some sort of an ask. A great example I can use here is GaryVee. He gives away a ton of free content. This content has created a massive community of followers. From there, he will ‘ask’ his community to buy his new book, participate in upcoming events, trends, etc.
“Essentially, any time you are deciding what content to distribute free of cost, it needs to be a strategic decision. You need to be thinking three steps ahead. Because by giving away something for free, you’re looking to create leverage that allows you to eventually do something for profit, right? Right. So figure out what kind of content will get you what you want, and who needs to see it for that to happen.”
In today’s blog post, I want to highlight why simply asking for help is a key ingredient for business growth and success. My hope is that it will help you in your own endeavor as well.
Let’s get to it…
Give value but keep your expectation in check
I want to be clear that you shouldn’t ask without giving any sort of value in exchange and on top of that, you shouldn’t expect to always get that “yes” you’re looking for either. Hold yourself accountable for the fact that a part of growing your business means that you will have to network, you will have to attend events, you will have to generate good content and distribute it properly, and so on. It all comes down to you. That’s where the real flex is. You can control the steps you take to growing your business, but you should NOT put that expectation on other people.
For instance, doing cold outreach is a part of running and growing a business. At some point you have to do this. You have to get comfortable with sales whether you want to or not. With cold outreach comes the awkwardness of saying “hi” to someone who has no idea who you are and pitching them hoping that they will want to have a conversation with you. And once that conversation takes place, you then have to find a way to really understand their pain points and communicate how you can solve them.
So keep these key tips in mind:
- The best thing you can do is to just start blogging. You don’t need to write every single day, but you should establish a cadence for when new content is published; how you plan to repurpose existing content; and where you plan to share it all out so that you can reach your target audience.
- If you are going to have any expectations, expect to hear a lot “NOs”. Truthfully, nobody really cares about what you do until they can see what you can do for them. That’s why the content you produce is going to be helpful.
- Focus on building a brand over just getting transactions. Balancing both is going to play hugely to your advantage.
Let go of your ego and just go for it
Have you ever wanted to do something but then you start overthinking the process that you end up hindering yourself from making any sort of progress?
Congratulations, you’re human.
On the flip side, if you recognize this already, then what you can do is have a deeper perspective on the fact that your ego feeds into your insecurities more than anything. Personally, I remember I had to get comfortable with cold outreach; I hated it. However, I knew that if I didn’t just go for it and push myself out of my comfort zone, I wouldn’t be able to grow my business.
All that said, consider these tips:
- Write down specific three goals you want to achieve every single week. Then break down these goals into bite size chunks daily.
- Take action above all else.
- Don’t put too much weight on what other people might think of you.
Clarity is important for making progress
If I had never reached out to companies to see if they were interested in getting marketing help, I would have never known how many actually needed my help. Further, I actually appreciate people who just straight up tell me they aren’t interested. That means I don’t need to waste my time. I can keep moving ahead. That’s clarity for me.
I have also encountered companies who have had no intentions of signing on as a client but strung me along to pick my brain and get the consultative help they wouldn’t get otherwise. This serves as clarity too. On top of that, be okay with having transparent conversations.
There is such a thing as a bad sale. Make sure that no matter what you do, you choose to work with people who share the same vision for success as you do. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself in a place where you’re constantly giving to meet another person’s demands and dreading to do work for them.
Wrapping it up
Communication is at the heart of scaling a business. In an effort to do so, it is within your communication that the valuable content you push out will give in order to attract the right clients to your business.
Be persistent with your efforts, keep your expectations and ego in check, and more importantly, make sure you are enjoying what you’re doing. In other words, have a bigger purpose than just making money.
