5 Steps You Must Take to Build a Business
When you’re building a business, it’s a lot like taking a cross country road trip. If you follow all the directions on the roadmap (more like Google Maps), you’re sure to end up at your destination. Following the directions guarantees you’ll arrive exactly where you’re trying to go. When building a business, sometimes if you don’t know where to go or how to get there, you get lost, frustrated, and may quit. However, when you follow the steps to building your business, you can guarantee you’ll get from point A to point B with success! Today, we’re going to walk you through the Chic Roadmap to Building a Business!
Step #1: Establish A Strong Business Model
First, before you ever start building your business, you’re going to want to collect some data and start establishing a business model. Ask yourself the following questions:
-Who is your ideal client?
-What problem are you wanting to resolve for them?
-What makes you (or your business) different from others in your niche?
-What are your beliefs about your products, services, or experience?
Without answering some of these foundational questions, you’re going to feel like you’re throwing spaghetti at a wall. Instead of hoping for something to stick, you can start identifying some of these foundational pieces.
How have the products, services, or experience impacted your life? Make your business model personal! Once you find your target audience and you’ve identified the problem you solve, it will be easier to decipher what makes you different from others who are also serving your target audience.
Do you create a unique experience when people come to you? Do you take a natural approach? Do you provide more personal services or are you more professional? Identify the things that make YOU and your business stand out from others! Lay out your mission statement!
Once you’ve laid the foundation, it’s time to move to step two!
Step #2: Develop a Marketing Strategy
Next, after identifying a strong business model, it’s time to develop a marketing strategy! Small business owners usually start out doing everything within their business- from the marketing and photography to the customer service, etc. It is your job to establish and develop a marketing strategy.
When developing a marketing strategy, you need to have a front end and back end strategy. For starters, your front end marketing strategy is your social media accounts, while your email list is your back end marketing strategy. When you build a business, you may be more prone to put a lot of emphasis on the front end marketing strategy. However, your back end marketing is just as important, if not more important.
When building a business, it is critical for you to have an email list. If you only interact with your audience through social media, you are missing out on so many opportunities. Another thing to note is that you don’t own anything on Instagram and Facebook. If those platforms decide not to exist, you will have no way to connect with your audience. You should be funneling people through an email list and creating content for your audience there. Email is a very personal way to connect with your audience and close deals! Majority of our deals at Chic are closed through our email platform.
Put emphasis on your front end and back end marketing strategy! Find what social platforms your target audience is using, and start using those platforms to market your business. Start gathering emails by creating a weekly newsletter with exclusive content! The most important key here is that your mission has to be consistent whether it is on your front or back end marketing.
Step #3: Build Customer Loyalty
Next, you may see a lot of business owners putting a lot of emphasis on new customers. However, you should consider how to reward the customers that are loyal to you and your business. How will you show you appreciate their continued business and support?
When you put more attention on your loyal customers, they will continue coming back for more! The great thing is that they normally bring their friends also. When you treat your loyal customers right, they will spread the word about how your product, service, or experience has impacted them and their life.
If you do not have a loyalty program, ask yourself how you like to be thanked for being loyal as a customer.
What would it look like if you started rewarding your loyal customers for sharing how they love the products or services that you provide?
A great way to get your loyalty program started is to start asking your loyal customers for referrals. Is there an incentive for referrals?
Spend more time treating your customers right and making sure they are having a great experience. Do you ask people about the service you are providing? Are you created an experience when people are working with you? Are you checking in with them after a few weeks to see how the products or services are doing for them? Do you send them some free samples or a discount off their next purchase?
These are the types of things that you want to think about implementing when building a business. Focus more on making the experience as wonderful as possible for your customers and reward them when they are loyal to your business! A hand-written note goes a long way too!
Step #4: Staffing or Recruiting
By the time you reach Step #4, you should have established a pretty solid business! You have been running your business solo for a little while now, but your business is growing pretty rapidly. In this step, you should know what you are capable of in your business. You should know your target audience very well and have a successful marketing strategy.
In this stage of building a business, you may find that you don’t have enough time to get everything done within your business.
Are you at a point where you have been doing everything yourself but you really need to bring someone in for help?
Remember: You cannot do it all! When hiring someone to assist you in your business, there are many tasks that you can pass along! For example, things like scheduling emails, creating newsletters, posting on social media, answering customer service emails, designing graphics are great tasks to have an Administrative Assistant or Social Media Manager to do!
When you as the business owner are trying to do all the things, there are a lot of things that aren’t going to get done well. With such little time, you may find things slipping through the cracks or mistakes being made. If you do everything, you won’t be able to spend enough time making sure everything is done well! Therefore, when you bring people on board, someone can actually do the job better. There are some jobs as a business owner that you are going to need to do, but you can find tasks that you can easily delegate so you can focus on growing and building your business.
Step #5: Position Yourself As The Expert
Last, when building a business you MUST position yourself as the expert in your industry! You should be taking part in collaborations, speaking events, free webinars, etc. You may struggle with self-doubt or imposter syndrome, but you have to present yourself as the expert! Truly start showcasing your abilities!
In this stage, it is important to continue developing yourself in your expertise! For example, if you are in the business of nutrition, you should continue learning and growing in your knowledge and experience of nutrition. As a business owner, you HAVE to continue growing and developing your skills.
Invest in ways to make yourself better so that you can continue serving your audience well. Building a business doesn’t stop once the business is established. You want to continue growing and scaling. In order to grow and scale your business, you as the business owner must grow and scale as well!
Ready to Start Off the New Year Successfully?
Join the Chic Community
The Chic Roadmap is something we will be teaching in 2022 to our Chic Community Members! This community only opens up a few times a year, and it is a first come first serve basis. We want to make sure that you have a spot to learn the skills and strategies to build your business. So be sure to get on the waitlist for Community Membership! Get on the waitlist HERE!
Vision Board Workshop
FREE OPPORTUNITY! Join us for our FREE workshop, “Chic’s Empowering Vision Board Workshop” on December 28th @ 7pm EST! You’ll leave this workshop with:
-Clarity in your business goals
-Empowered to go after what you really want in life
-Simple steps for creating the life and business that you love
-A downloadable resource that will help you manage your time and help you stay focused on what matters most instead of getting lost in the weeds
-A clearer understanding of what you want to say YES to and what you need to say NO to
If you want success in 2022, join us for this vision board workshop! Register HERE!
Make Chic Happen Podcast
Be sure to listen to this week’s Make Chic Happen Podcast episode, “The Roadmap to Building a Successful Business”.
