Entrepreneurship has long been the backbone of business in America. As increasing numbers of professional workers leave the corporate workforce to strike out on their own as entrepreneurs, a key worry can be finding enough opportunities and connections to create a sustainable income while meeting career objectives. Although competition is fierce for clients and customers, businesspeople can follow five simple ideas to stand out from the crowd and create their own opportunities for success.
Branding
No matter what industry or field you work within, you need to appropriately brand yourself to capture the attention of potential partners and clients. Whether you will be approaching individuals or executive business teams, they will need to understand who you are, what you do, and what sets you apart from the crowd. Between naming your company and representing yourself through graphics, taglines and reputation, ensure your brand is well representative of who you are. Your image is a huge part of how clients will see you, and it’s important to make a good first impression. Need help protecting forth an image you want potential clients to see? You can always take leadership coaching in Cleveland, or look at other brand image services from Nutter Consulting.
Niche vs. Generalist
Avoid casting too wide of a net when it comes to discussing how much you can offer and figure out which specific niche you can fill, instead. While corporate jobs can sometimes be very generalist in nature, entrepreneurs are much more successful when they focus on filling a narrow niche. This doesn’t mean to limit the clients you go after; rather, hone your own offerings down to a very niche product or service that you can best fill using your natural skill sets.
Geography Doesn’t Matter
With plenty of opportunities to network online as well as offline, you no longer need to focus only on hunting down local opportunities. Take to your social pages to proclaim your offerings and track down the perfect portfolio of clients for your business. Whether you connect within your time zone or halfway around the world, the global (and easily connected) nature of today’s marketplace makes more opportunities available now than ever before.
Employ Six Degrees
Tagging onto the point above, the world is incredibly small when it comes to how people are connected with one another, especially within certain industries. Create a circle of influence chart for yourself – mapping out who you know and who they may potentially know can open many doors for you in terms of new connections and opportunities. Also look into getting involved in industry organizations or on professional networking sites like LinkedIn to find more connections. Often, an introduction can quickly lead to a new contract!
Don’t Bypass Crazy Ideas
Entrepreneurs and solopreneurs alike need to think as far outside of the box as possible. From partnering with unexpected affiliates to jumping into projects you may never before have considered or worried you wouldn’t be able to take on, your business will expand and ultimately succeed if you keep your eyes open, put 110% into what you’re doing, and dismiss nothing as too crazy to try.
Tricia is a mom and a blogger from Beverly Hills. There’s not much more to her than that!