March 2017 - Mumpreneurs WA

It’s not often that I come across people in business who have no idea about building relationships. I suppose when you start out you go through a bit of a spamming stage of wanting to shout out to the world of what you do but this subsides quickly once you have to really get down to business. Warning: You can’t build your business without real relationships. You need to network and be interested in people not just pretend to be interested but really be interested. Here are my top tips for building relationships.

If I haven’t meet you or conversed with you online don’t inbox me your sale pitch

Huge mistake, big mistake and a rookie mistake. Don’t inbox me or ring me talking all about yourself and flogging your wares to me. I don’t know you and I don’t care what it is that is going to change my life or my business I have no relationship with you. When you don’t care about me and you only want my money. Bing Bong you are gone.

You need to be authentic

If I am really your target market and you want a relationship with me. Care about me. Actually be real and not a fake, fair weather relationship. At Mumpreneurs WA we have built real relationships with each other, we care and we support each other. It’s meaningful. I don’t get spammed and love to share at any stage businesses of our Mumpreneurs when ever I can help them and I know they do the same for me. Why? I know they care about me and I care about them as people and I care about the friendships. It’s not rocket science and it’s really that simple.

Get out and start networking

It’s like snail mail you just can’t beat it. The same with real, face to face networking. You need it. You can’t network all the time and be everywhere as you won’t get any work done. But it’s vital you do network with your target market. There are many great networking and business groups. My favourites of are Mumpreneurs WA (lol of course and you can network with your kids), District 32 is insanely good value for all the events and business support you get and Joondalup Women in Business where you get invaluable business education. Not only do get to build the relationships with other business women but you can form great alliances with other businesses.

Business relationship building can take some time. I am not a shy or reserved person and I found it hard when I first started business networking. The groups I am involved with are so friendly and warm it’s hard not to keep going back for more. This is all a part of building your brand and your business.

What are your favourite business networking groups?

Cheers Julie xx

Business is hard. There is so much too do it can be quite overwhelming. Yes you can outsource but in the beginning money is tight and you could easily sell a kidney, get into debt and blow the budget with your new business. Here’s my top tips on How to run your business without selling a kidney.

Time management with scheduling

There are great website that can schedule all your posts for your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and social media. If you are time poor, you can sit down on a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon watching a movie or drinking a glass of wine and schedule your posts for the month. My favourite is Bufferapp and on Facebook you can schedule on your business page with the drop down triangle when you go to publish. If you have run out of ideas follow Andy K Business Mentor and Inspirational Speaker she has loads of great idea’s of what to schedule for the month.

Use Freebie website

Customer Relation Management can be expensive. When you are first starting out use the freebies sites like Waveapp, Agilecrm or go old school and use a spreadsheet. These are all free (and more great advice from Andy K). One of the best tips I got from Suze Trappit from Cherish Cherub Babysitting told me to until your business is groaning and you have to up grade from free or outsource do it then not before. Suze was a one woman show for a while doing everything and now has 3 employees and over 100 babysitters.

Follow what you need through Facebook or email lists.

If you need a professional photographer for business shots follow a photographer you like. Vibrance Studio or ShaBo Studio photographers offers great deals at times to get the professional shots you need at affordable prices. If you follow them or subscribe to their email list you will get a good deal when they come up and they are fabulous photographers.

Follow the people you love and take up their great offers. The best business coaches or entrepreneurs online can give you heaps of tips online. Two of my favourites are Janine Davison from Exposure Coach and Sarah Cordiner from Main Training. These ladies are legends. They are a must follow if you are in business.

Learn how to do it yourself

This is a hard one and the most painful part of running a small business. You have to learn how to do it yourself. I built websites through WordPress, created my own graphic on Canva, learnt Vector images and more. It’s a never ending story as they say. Sometime you just have to take the time do the god damn tutorials which there are thousands of freebies on Youtube to help you. It always makes me groan when I have to start learning something new but I do feel great when accomplishing it.

“Business is easy” said no one ever. It has the ups and the downs but you don’t need to sell your kidney to run your business. There are loads of great freebies to use when you are a micro business or in the start up phases. When business is booming you can up grade but until then there is heaps of great resources online.

Have a fabulous Business Day today and if you know someone who needs to read this. Please share with the buttons below and tag them. Thanks.

Julie xx