25th March 2022
It’s all well and good having a business starting to get off the ground, but it’s even better if you advertise it, even if it’s just to make other people aware of what you do, so that they know that it exists. Thankfully, now, things are starting to get off the ground a bit, but it’s just the start, and I know that I’ve still got a long way to go yet. I can’t just expect things to happen overnight, because now with experience, I’ve realised that’s basically impossible, as well as it being unrealistic. If big things were to happen overnight, it’d just be overwhelming, sure, fun at first, but also overwhelming, a bit like an insanely sharp and narrow peak.
I finally managed to get around to advertising commissions, something which I’ve put off for a long time now, because ideally, I’d like to have more than one client, which is better than none. On the surface, it seems a lot than it actually is, because all I have to do for the advertisements is just tell potential customers what I plan to do (along with what I can also offer), have a starting price, include some add-ons, and offer some previous examples of what I’ve done.
Pretty easy, right? Well the hard bit is actually getting people to see those ads, and convince them why they should use my services compared to others out there, who have more of a track record, and therefore, more trust.
Well, it’s a starting point, and at least I’m getting somewhere with it, but this is where pitching comes in. The final aim is to pitch for 5 minutes, which from the get go, sounds really daunting, but if you work on it over the course of the year, it starts to get easier, the more you do it.
Sure, I’ve had to start everything again from scratch from the New Year, mainly by rewriting the business plan along with the pitch, by focusing on what I can realistically do, but so far, I’ve managed to write a pitch which is just under 2 minutes (1 minute and 41 seconds, to be precise), which doesn’t sound like a lot, but at least it’s better than nothing.
At least I’ve got a somewhat realistic business idea, which can be realistically done within a short amount of time, and at least the tangible results are starting to show through now, albeit at a slow pace, but that’s how it’s supposed to be, where you just chip away at it over time instead of having grand plans, and expecting them to be fully realised overnight, which will never happen.
I’ve shunned social media as a marketing tool in the past (and I still somewhat do), but I’ve realised that in order to build a strong reputation, I have to be on it if I want others to be aware of what I do. It feels like I’m shooting myself in the foot here, but at the same time, I don’t want to end up becoming a luddite who constantly lags behind the times, by refusing to use what literally everyone else uses, however, I have to do this effectively, and realise that social media shouldn’t be the be all and end all of marketing. It can be one marketing technique, and I’d have a few other techniques up my sleeve as well, just to balance it out.
Sure, I can whinge about algorithms being unfair all day, but I have to realise that it’s a constant thing which I can’t control. What I can control, however, has been right in front of me this whole time, and it’s fairly simple. I just have to post consistently and network with others. Pretty straightforward, right? I just have to do those things without spending all day being on social media mindlessly. I have to make it work for me, and the only way to go about it (in my opinion and experience), is to come up with a social media schedule, where I’d create some gasp content in advance, and schedule it, so that it looks like I’m consistent with what I post, and what I do.
In order to actually make it seem natural, I’d spend about 10 minutes before, and 10 minutes after the post comes out networking with others, just so that they’re aware of who I am, what I do, and if they make it on time, they’ll see my new post as soon as it comes out, as well as (hopefully) interacting with it. I’m literally just taking a page out of the book from the social media workshop that I attended last week, since it’s the only way that I can realistically use social media effectively.
I’ve tried a whole range of different methods, by completely forgoing social media, to being on it all the time, installing software to completely block those sites, and whilst it does work for a short amount of time, it’s actually harmful in the long run, so the only way I can use it in moderation is to schedule my content, have a 30 minute window for each platform, and have those sites blocked for the rest of the time.
So, that’s been my week, and in a way, I’m glad things are starting to take off, especially after having spent the first few months just thinking about wildly extravagant ideas which could never see the light of day. I’m making progress, and that’s the most important thing, because it’s better than no progress at all. Now, to actually create a social media strategy.