4 Lessons Learned from Starting a Business
About three years ago I noodled on leaving my corporate gig for a full-time, contract or freelance digital marketing gig.
Since then I’ve gone out on my own, launched an agency and have learned quite a few lessons along the way.
Outside of the corporate bubble, I’ve come across a slew of bad advice and bad business practices.
I try to learn something from everyone I meet along the way — the good or the bad — so here’s some of the questionable business advice I’ve heard over the past few years and what I, as a professional and as a business owner, learned from them.
1. Writing Fake Reviews is OK
So, I’ve been asked to do this more than once since going out on my own.
I’d like to think this is obviously ethically wrong, but it’s not. Some people — businesses and agencies — see no problem with this from an ethical or moral perspective.
Fine. Ethics and morals are indeed fluid and in the eye of the beholder.
But the Federal Trade Commission definitely says you can’t do this. Or, you can, but face fines.
Companies and agencies have already felt the wrath of the regulations: in 2013, 19 companies faced $350,000 in penalties for paying for fake reviews.
While a small-to-medium sized business may never become the target of an investigation from regulators, it is a possibility.
And really, why would you want to compromise the integrity of your marketing agency or your client?
2. Write a Book
Books are something that used to be valued — that used to be a huge goal — that used to be something you’d pour your heart and soul into.
With the advent of self-publishing and Amazon and e-books, it’s easier than ever to get a book published.
Anyone — literally anyone — can publish a book. And there are tricks to getting listed as a best seller on Amazon. Just check out what Brent Underwood did to become a best seller (in short: it took $3 and 5 minutes).
But what’s the return? If you write something and it’s amazing — what’s the return?
OR if you write something just to say you wrote a book — aren’t you just contributing to the problem of crap content and devaluing the work other authors put into writing high-quality material?
While writing a book could be a good tactic for some people — it’s not a shoe-in and, like all business and marketing tactics — it may not be right for your business.
Even Ryan Holiday, who has made a lot of money from publishing books, says:
Writing a book because you think it will get you clients is not a good reason. Writing a book because it will look good on your social media profiles isn’t either. Same goes for: “It will boost my career,” “I want to impress people,” “My competitor did it,” “I heard you can make money speaking this way,” or “It looks fun.”
A lot of people want to be professional athletes. That they think it will make them rich or that it seems cool on TV is not remotely enough motivation to get them through to the finish line (nor is it what sports are about). Likewise, there is only one reason sufficient to produce a great book: you have something important to say, and you can’t not say it.
So consider the return before you dive into writing a book.
3. Strategy is Valued
I was so naïve.
I thought that business owners wanted strategic thinking: recommendations for achieving big goals.
Nah.
No business owner wants to hear that all the ideas they have in their head don’t count as a strategy.
They want a partner to bring it to life.
So when I say that “strategy isn’t valued,” I mean that there are plenty of people out there who have big ideas; who can talk at a “high level”; who can point to the big problems in a business model and say “yep, you have a leak there.”
But the true value lies in being able to put together a plan to make that strategy — that vision, that dream — a reality.
It takes time, dedication to learning, and the ability to evolve to make that a skill set as a professional.
It takes guts to:
● Commit to learning how SEO works
● A/B test social media ads
● Build an email list
● Use data to guide your business decisions, not your gut feeling
And it takes balls to admit that something that worked five years ago — lookin’ at you, black hat SEO — doesn’t work today.
4. Say What You Need to Say to Get the Sale
Sales is a weak spot for me. I just struggle with closing the sale.
So when I got the advice to fib while cold calling —i.e. saying I specialize in a specific industry when I most certainly do not — I was a little taken aback.
How can you start any relationship based on a lie, let alone one that involves the exchanging of money for a service?
Nope, not for me. I’ll just have to learn the skill of sales — just like I’ve learned skills like social media marketing, data analysis and copy writing.
5. It’s Not Good to be Nimble
This gem comes from an interaction in business school.
Said “business professional” didn’t think that being nimble was good — that it indicated instability or a lack of a strategy.
I get the sentiment: If you’re too nimble or agile — or you pivot too frequently — you could set yourself up to not try anything long enough to see if it will work.
From a business owner’s perspective, however, being adaptable means you can serve your customers’ needs — so you’re not running a business based on your own preconceived notions of what your customers need — but rather on the reality of what they need; on actual market demand.
And from a marketer’s perspective: you absolutely must be nimble.
Our friends over at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google are changing algorithms to be more and more customer-centric, which means your marketing and advertising needs to be able to adapt to those. Quickly.
Digital Marketing — and Services Businesses — Looking Ahead
Are you a fan of Game of Thrones?
Good, me too.
If Daenerys Targaryen taught me anything, it’s that freeing people is the way to build trust.
Putting them in shackles only makes people question you and your character.
So, as digital marketing and business pros, let’s focus on freeing ourselves from the old, stiff ways of doing business.
With education.
With continual learning.
And instead of saying “no, it won’t work because…,” let’s look at “yes, that’s a possibility, and we could also test this approach.”
Marketing and business will only become more automated. Lean on each other to build authentic, high-quality products and services. It’s the only way to survive and then thrive.
Meg Hogan is the founder and Chief Strategist at Stunning Strategy, a Pittsburgh-based social media agency.
