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Jory Fisher: Hello, I’m Jory Fisher with JoryFisher.com. I’m very grateful to have this opportunity to speak with you a little bit.
I wanted to share with you some of the mistakes that I made when I started out as an entrepreneur and then hopefully give you a little bit of my experience that may be able to help you as well.
First of all, I just spent thousands of dollars … I’m embarrassed to say it … but thousands of dollars on websites and marketing materials before I was really clear on my niche. By that I mean, I didn’t know for sure whom I was meant to serve, how I could help people, what results I could help bring about, and yet here I was putting up this grand website. I actually had three target markets that I was trying to reach and that just did not turn out too well.
The other thing I did is I thought that I didn’t have any more money, after the website fiasco, to spend on business development, to spend on coaches and mentors who could help me. So I thought, well, I’ll just do this on my own. I spent this money on my marketing materials and now I can figure out the rest of it by myself. Not a good idea.
So here I was not clear of who I was meant to serve, how I was meant to serve them, what results I could bring about, and I thought I could do all of this on my own. Again, not a good idea because then I was afraid to put myself out there, and, by that I mean social media, sure, but also networking and speaking engagements, because my message was fuzzy. You know, I’m sure some of you, especially who are solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, know what I’m talking about. That was difficult.
My advice to you, if you don’t mind my sharing a little bit here, is that you really do need to be clear on your calling.
You need to know again
- whom you’re meant to serve
- how you’re meant to serve them
- what problem you’re meant to solve
- what results you can help bring about
When you have that clarity of calling, when you’re able to weave your, I say, Divine Purpose into your work, into your business, then it’s really going to make a huge difference.
The other advice that I would give to you, if I may, is that it’s important to invest in business development.
A really good rule of thumb, if you will, is be prepared to spend about 10%–15% of your allocated budget on business development. Think about where you want to be in the coming year or at the end of 12 months and be prepared to invest about 10%–15% of your budget into that, to business development. Otherwise, you could very well just be wasting a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of effort into a business that isn’t going to go anywhere.
When you are looking for a business coach or a program, do your research.
Make sure that you’re with somebody that you can really relate to and make sure you’re with somebody who has been there because if you’re hiring someone who doesn’t really have an idea of what works and what doesn’t work, then that probably isn’t going to work out too well for you.
Another piece of advice if I may, I’m trying to go with five, is to make sure that you come from a place of service. If you come from a place of service, if you get out of your own way, if you realize this isn’t about you, then that’s going to be of tremendous value to other people and, in turn, you’re going to have a much more purposeful and profitable business.
Finally, I would say whatever you do, pour your heart and soul into it. This is a marathon. Hopefully it’s not a sprint for you, and you need to be prepared to persevere. You need to be prepared to just pray about your business, meditate over who it is that God is having you serve and how you’re meant to serve them. Pray for your clients.
Don’t be afraid to get out there. This really is something that if being an entrepreneur is what God has called you to do and that’s the way He is having you help other people, then do it. Do it, again with your heart and soul and your spirit and your mind, totally 100%.
That leads me to making sure that you take care of yourself. Take care of your heart and soul and mind and spirit. It’s so important to stay healthy.
Again, this is Jory Fisher with JoryFisher.com wishing you a beautiful business, a beautiful life full of prosperity, grace, joy, and peace. Thank you and God bless.
Flickr photo by Laughlin Elkind
Thank you for this video. It’s as if you were speaking directly to me and where I am right now.
I’m so glad, Amy. Thank YOU for taking the time to watch and comment! Blessings to you as you proceed on your entrepreneurial journey.