I Never Imagined This Step Would be The Hardest

I never imagined that describing my business would be so freaking hard!

It’s not that I don’t know what my business is about, but it’s the delicate task of finding the right words, or more like the correct words.

In my attempts, I keep going around in circles, shuffling the words around, trading some words with others, then testing it out loud only to realise their still remains potential for misinterpretations.

The struggle is finding the correct words that offer minimal incorrect interpretations. And how to explain the value and experience of something that is not a product to people (target and non-target audience) in a precise manner is more difficult than it sounds.

UPDATE inserted on 15 July: Through feedback, which I am grateful for receiving, I realised that I didn’t explain myself correctly. The difficulty is not in the description of what the business is, but is finding the correct words to describe for who my business is for, as I need to make sure it is inclusive to all those I want, and this is where interpretations of terms can get tricky. And this is why the business description (the pitch) is difficult to get right.

My daily tools

The internet has made the interpretation of words almost feel like it’s never ending, with everybody around the world putting in their two cents. And these ‘two cents’ are further complicated with meanings influenced by the reader or author’s mother tongue and experiences.

There are some terms in my business that have so many different interpretations that will affect the reactions of my target audience. I need to be careful. I want to make sure the words conjure up the right understanding of what the business is and whom it is for, so that it actually touches the audience I am seeking to assist. One exercise I read about is to use the vocabulary that my target audience uses — not a bad idea, but what happens when your audience is global?

Some words I am struggling with are:

Entrepreneur

Freelancer

Contractor

Self-employed

Now for many the first four words describe someone who is self-employed. But for some people self-employed doesn’t include entrepreneur. Personally, I believe an entrepreneur is definitely self-employed, because they are employed in their own business, and their own business is paying their salary. A freelancer is an entrepreneur to a limit and a contractor is a freelancer and both are self-employed.

In addition, I believe that someone who has a side hustle is also self-employed even if only partly, because some of their money is self-made through their own initiative. And thus, I want to also be inclusive of these people, especially if they are interested in taking their side paying hobby to the next level.

As I try to avoid misinterpretations, I end up with business descriptions and pitches that are too long.

And being a mono-entrepreneur has also made the ‘finding the correct words’ hard with no consistency in being able to bounce of words.

The difficulty does not lie in not knowing what the business is, but it’s about communication and as we all know, misinterpreted communication can be a make or break.

Maybe the answer for me is to not worry too much. If a person gets it, they get it, and if not, they can either ignore it or if they are curious, they can then check it out.

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