Entrepreneur Dilemma, Split Personality

By: Stan Washington
Date: January 12, 2015

When I joined the ranks of becoming an entrepreneur I did not know I had to split my personality in order to make it. On my very first day, I turned on my computer expecting the reports I would get in the corporate world, but there were none.  I quickly realized I had to generate the work by marketing my company.

When I held a meeting at my house, several people forgot how to use the bathroom and now I was the janitor. When I had packages to deliver, I became the delivery person. I soon realized I needed to do these things well so I had to stop and put my mind to each thing since.

Marketing is Not Sales and Sales is Not Marketing
I tried to combine Marketing with Sales and had miserable results.  I had to split these two extremely necessary functions of my business into their proper places. I would tell people about my product or service and sit back and wait for the sales to roll in. When I got no response, I would jump into sales, bugging and pestering everyone.

I needed to do a better job at marketing my business to build brand awareness and to froth up some buzz about what I was doing. I had to take time to get my message straight and market to my audience.

When it was time for sales, I had to do it my way.  I don't like the pushy sales types so I had to do sales within my personality. Natural is a better approach, this way I didn't have to "seem" sincere because I am.

Operations is not Social Media and Social Media is not Operations
One day I woke up with a huge goal to streamline some of my business processes and made the mistake of looking at my social media pages. I got distracted with the goofy video of a guy skateboarding from one hose to another. Hours later after answering friend requests, tweeting and liking pictures of aunt Selma I soon realized my goal had slipped away.

Turn off Social Media once you have completed your "Personal Engagement" for the day. Reach out to your clients and potential clients. Work on improving your customer service and seek feedback.

On Social, do it well. I mean get away from the pictures of your dinner and post items that are helpful to your audience.