What do you think is your biggest obstacle to marketing your small businesses? Yes you have competition, and your prospects have information overload. But I’d say your biggest hurdle is probably you. That sounds harsh, I know. But for entrepreneurs one of the biggest risks in business is our own limited perspective. Here’s why:
From the inside, it is difficult to view your operation with your customer’s eyes. We tend to see what’s not working, but we don’t fully recognize the business’ strengths and opportunities. The creativity and inspired passion that motivated you to launch the business gets bogged down in schedules and routines and before you know it you are no longer zooming.
The solution is what I call the Zumba principal. Zumba, if you haven’t discovered it yet, is an hour of musical rhythms and movement with an eclectic mix of Latin/ Middle Eastern/ Carribean influence. It is fabulous exercise and it’s sweeping the country. At the end of the hour you hardly know you’ve been working out because it is so fun and completely turns around a bad attitude about exercising. The problem is our minds like to classify things, and there’s a tendency to get stuck unless we give ourselves the opportunity to look at things another way. Zumba is a solution because it lets people see exercise differently and love it!
If there is some quagmire that is slowing you down, some bad attitude that is stifling your business energy right now, and keeping you from achieving your dreams, here are three simple ideas for getting a new perspective:
Do something new. If you usually start your day checking email, begin instead with your highest priority task. One trick is to write on a post-it two or three things that will have the most impact on your business and stick it on your computer or your bedroom door where you’ll see it first thing and start focusing immediately on what you want to make happen today. Or if you usually tackle your to-do list first, start the day with some quiet time to focus and clarify your intention for how you want the day to go. Schedule a creative break. Take off two hours and visit a gallery or museum. Read a poem. Go to the bookstore and sample some new music or look at art books. Experiencing someone else’s creativity is a great way to spark your own. Ask for other perspectives. Ask colleagues, clients, suppliers and friends about what they see as your business’ strengths. i.e. “I’m doing a marketing review and would appreciate your perspective – what particular strengths of my company would you promote if you were me?”
Try just one of these tomorrow and see if it shifts your view and your energy!
Diva Toolbox Contributor, Maggie Anderson Words That Work is a marketing communications expert and coach who works with executives, consultants and coaches on effective communication strategies to stand out so they attract more opportunities and prospects. She is the author of the Marketing Kit for Experts Do You Stand Out Enough? available here.