Owning a business can be heaven. Freedom to call your own shots, manage your own risk, live by your values, and spit in the eye of all those who said you’d never be able to do it.
Owning a business can also be hell. Endless hours, time spent on tasks you don’t enjoy and aren’t good at, financial insecurity, struggles to find customers, and the weight of responsibility that comes with ownership.
The truth is, owning a business can be both of those things on the same day. Yet, some business owners are good at creating more “heaven” than “hell” moments. Business is a skill, and it can be learned.
Wise entrepreneurs know that they need to keep evolving…to keep upgrading. The more you learn, the more successful and rewarding your business can be. Here are three pathways that are important when your online components aren’t where you want them to be.
#1: Upgrade your tools
Running a business means you need to watch your bottom line. You need to think carefully about every dollar you spend, and make sure you’re spending wisely. Unfortunately this can lead business owners to make hasty, business-strangling decisions simply for the sake of saving a few dollars a year.
When you’re running a business, you need professional-grade tools.
- You need to be serious about web security and hosting.
- You need professional site design that speaks well of you.
- You need grown-up web publishing tools, not the freebies that amateur bloggers use.
This is an unbelievable time to present a business online, because top-quality professional tools have become amazingly affordable and easy to use. But you have to make some investment in your site. There’s no reason to overpay, but you also don’t want to nickel and dime yourself right out of any credibility.
#2: Upgrade your communication
Current marketing has become a complex, nuanced business. Content is what works — but it has to be content intelligently delivered, with sound strategy. Your content and marketing need a healthy measure of both art and science — art to create something worth your prospects’ attention, and science to convert that attention to business.
Intelligent use of social media, well-defined content strategy, solid understanding of copywriting, and the commitment to build a framework of appealing content — they all work together in well-deployed modern marketing.
It’s not calculus but there are a lot of elements. CQ Marketing exists to help keep you thinking about all those elements, and how to bring them together.
#3: Upgrade your mindset
The biggest difference between successful business owners and their less-successful counterparts is mindset. The rest of it can be learned or outsourced.
Successful business owners keep their focus on what matters most in their businesses. They know what to get obsessive about…and what they can safely dismiss.
Focused business owners know how to manage risk intelligently — not by taking crazy chances, but with thoughtful, informed risk-taking.
Happy business owners know that a business should be a pathway to a more rewarding life, not a prison or a weight around their necks. They understand that the business should serve them, not the other way around.
We have some approaches that can help
You probably know that CQ Partners provides a number of resources for you — including web marketing programs and essential services that deliver results without costing a fortune.
Our WebArt digital marketing packages are the most comprehensive online program we’ve ever offered. This year, we’ll be adding even more services. Serious resources for people who are serious about developing their online business.
