From starting a business and making time for yourself, to learning about hashtags, post, and if national television can help or hurt your growing business.
Since starting my own business, I have received a lot of emails from new entrepreneurs asking for advice on how they can start their own business. From a 23-year-old who wanted to start her own head band line, a prominent doctor who markets vitamins in a pack, to a 67-year-old couple from the south Virginia who have a million-dollar idea for fancy containers. The most interesting call came from Brazil, a new mom and business owner who also makes ghee butter called and asked if I could offer advice on how to manage her time more wisely so she could produce not only breast milk for her baby, but produce ghee butter for her wholesale orders. Breast milk!? yes breast milk…Being a new mom at the time we launched my business I went through the same hurdles and had to find a way to manage my time better as well. My baby needed to eat, but so did my customers. A lot of people were depending on me and I had to find ways to make my time work better.
A light workout or even some alone time can get the creative juices flowing.
-Divide your time and make schedules, it really works! But you MUST follow through on me time.
-Dont be greedy! enlist the help of a local food packager or a kitchen, if that doesnt work or is too expensive a local culinary class has students that would love to learn for experience and get college credit. If you dont work in the food industry, enlist the help of local college students.
-Set reminders and get up! shut it down and keep it that way until you can come back to it. Believe me the work will still be there.
-You’ve heard this before but make time for yourself. I started a business with 2 kids, and a side career and a working husband who needed my attention and time. It’s not cool, to lose sleep at any age. It catches up to you and depression always follows when you lack sleep, proper nutrition and water. Exercise is important and so is having a life away from your business, and family.
With over 275 emails and counting, I have managed to help numerous businesses just by giving some basic, good advice. When I started this new venture into ghee butter, I fell on my face numerous times. From trade mark issues as we were formerly known as “Gheelicious”, to photography images with black background I could never have used for a website, to marketing my product the wrong way. A friend of mine had to explain what a hashtag was and how I should be using it in my post more. It’s not easy starting off at any age as an entrepreneur. With technology being so rapid, its hard to keep up at any age and It can be downright intimidating and scary to most new business owners. From set times to post on social media to finding the right content and making a post fun and exciting. –
-Make sure your company has a great logo! and something that looks great on a white and black background. It should also “speak” your company mission.
-High resolution images are always best, they are clear and crisp, with a great professional feel. Images that are low resolution and not clear turn off customer and make them check out your competition.
-A great page to add to a website is “Our Story” or a great mission statement. As a company that strains butter, our mission statement is -Leave the straining to us. Nike has “Just do it” to motivate people and there are many other great statements that are brilliant in just a couple of words. For example if you manufacture dog food a great simple statement might be something like “Chow Time”.
Being on television to reach millions of potential customers in a matter of minutes may seem like the greatest idea for many companies but is it really? If you are a company that has a great niche business like building tree houses, installing over the top aquariums, or making something custom made that has a “wow” factor. I would certainly recommend a reality show. Some networks are amazing, with shows that have taken businesses to the next level and have given them global recognition.
With so many great talk shows on the air today, a product can get discovered or dropped…Being on a talk show is the most profitable way for a business to get noticed without having cameras in your face 24/7. However saying the wrong thing, and promising a “miracle” product can get a company in some legal hot water. A lot of businesses have made it to Forbes magazine after being on acclaimed health shows but when their product was tested, and the results didn’t match the promise; there products were pulled from shelves.
Here are some tips;
-Find a talk show that has the right demographic, if you have a product that is meant for senior citizens, maybe the View isn’t the best choice to go on.
-Once you find a show, get in touch with their integrations department and see how you can work with the show and be a sponsor. This can cost a lot of money but if you are large company with the funds this is a great option.
-Check out some reputable sites for casting calls and stay far away from anyone asking for money, or for you to use their photographer. A legit casting call will be one where a producer calls you and speaks to you and takes your interview before being on the show, a whole team is involved from travel to wardrobe. Do your research and always ask for a name, a company, and network. This may seem very obvious, but a lot of people have given thousands of dollars up front not knowing that they are dealing with non reputable companies.
-Google the show you are interested in being a part of and reach out to them, their is always a contact person, email address, or even a mailing address.
A business is hard work! Its takes a village and sometimes a country to help. I am still learning what works for us and what doesnt. This year we are determined to be in grocery stores and fulfill more wholesale orders. Being a producer for many years before I started my business really helped me launch my company. I have always enjoyed helping others, if you would like some advice please contact me: [email protected]