I have owned my own service-based Marketing business for just over five years. I spent less than $100 to start it and I’ve seen a lot of success come from it. Some months are better than others and some days are more fun than others. Some clients are the best and some are the worst. It has given me both flexibility and sleepless nights. I wouldn’t change the last five years for anything.

With so many recently out of work, I am seeing many posts about people taking the leap to start their own business and for that I say, good for you! If you have had a dream, why not use this time to fulfill it! Maybe you worked for a Marketing agency and now you are going to start your own. Maybe Finance is your passion and it’s time you become your own boss. Maybe you have the dream of managing the future of Social Media. All of these are incredible goals.

However, before you take a leap into becoming a service-based entrepreneur, I want you to read this so that you don’t waste your money or your time.

How to start a service-based business.

First. Ask yourself these questions.

• Why are you starting a business?
• What are your goals for the business?
• How much are you willing to sacrifice for the business?
• How much time do you have to give to the business? Spoiler alert. It will take years to launch and be successful. Practically every hour of your day to be exact, because even when you aren’t working, you will still be thinking about it.
• How quickly do you need to make money? (If the answer is “soon,” it might not be the right time to start a business).

Next…

• Create a business plan. Focus on the product, costs and marketing.
• Make sure you do a SWOT analysis and focus on the competition in your field. Can you fulfill a need that isn’t getting met?
• If you are service-based, don’t hire anyone (yet). Start by getting in the trenches yourself. Research, self-education and hard work can teach you what you need to know to promote your expertise. Don’t be sold by people promising you six figures in six months, or a hundred thousand followers in three months. Remember, Marketers who help you market your business are also excellent at Marketing themselves.
• Network, network, network. Reach out to your contacts and connect with them. Don’t spam them, connect with them. Let them know what you’re doing and ask them for advice. Don’t sell to your network. Connect with them.
• Be the expert in your field. Scratch that. Not just the expert. Be the unique voice in your field. Show others what you know and how you live by it in your own life.
• Do not spam your current network and sell the same people over and over again. Become your own publicist and find the community that is interested in your service. But, don’t spam them either. Create content that connects with their passions.
• Use free or budget-conscious Marketing tools. Create social media handles and do your research to understand how to be effective on social media. Download the apps to help you create crisp marketing materials. Buy a domain and use services like GoDaddy or WordPress to make a basic website that outlines your services.
• Test the waters and be open to adapting based on feedback and industry changes.
• Spend time being authentic online and connecting with like-minded industry professionals.
• Fail. Then fail again. Then, get up, figure out the lessons, learn from them and get back out there.

Don’t give up and don’t get frustrated if you aren’t a success overnight or even in a year. Owning a business is hard work. Especially now. Especially in our new future.

“Think of the three pillar process of Social Media like a tripod holding a camera. The camera is your business and the tripod is the way you market it on Social Media. Take a leg away and your business falls.”

Using Social Media is the social norm. We know this because in the same way that our grandparents traded in their flip phones for iPhones, they now also now have Facebook accounts. Social Media is second nature to every generation.

Consumers use Social Media to get information, share information, read opinions, share opinions, look at pictures, post pictures, find a love connection and stalk an ex. You name it, there’s a Social Media platform for that.

Now that Social Media has become second nature to the consumer, successful businesses are on Social Media not just for revenue generation, but to create a strongly branded footprint on the digital platforms.

But why? Why should a business be on Social Media? To get new customers? Not exactly. Going into Social Media expecting Post A to result in Customer A is going to set a business up for unrealistic expectations. The purpose of Social Media is branding, storytelling, creating consumer awareness and encouraging consumer engagement. From all these factors, can a business get new customers? Absolutely. Will they get new customers from doing it? Quite possibly!

However, just like a business takes the risk when printing 500 flyers to pass out, or spend money to advertise on a billboard or in the local newspaper, Social Media efforts don’t promise new customers. They do promise branding and awareness building, just without a formulated return on investment. These reasons are why businesses struggle with investing in Social Media. It’s new enough and it’s risky enough to make it scary. It’s time to jump off the high dive! Savvy businesses are waiting for you in the pool!

The Modern Way to Market

For a business to succeed on Social Media, the expectations of Social Media must shift and three pillars must be set in place. More than 1 billion people are on Facebook and 800 million on Instagram and it’s up to the business to look into those eyes and show them the out of the box ideas, campaigns, topics and strategies in a way that gets them engaging with their brand. But why put the time and effort into Social Media if it won’t promise a new customer? Marketing itself is a trial and error industry.

Business A can spend $100,000 marketing their products and only receive a handful of new customers. Business B can simply do one crazy organic marketing campaign without spending a dime and become the most trending topic in the world. How does it happen? Catching the consumer at the right time, right place and in the right way. The only way to do it is by taking the chance and by knowing that you may have failed attempts before getting a winning one.

The Three Pillar Process

At Elite Market Savvy, I encourage my clients to use a three pillar process. This process is used as the base to implement new ideas, campaigns and sell through storytelling and it will allow the business brand themselves to the largest online reach. While Social Media doesn’t promise new customers, the three pillar process will give you the best fighting chance. Here’s how it works…

Paid — investing money into paid ads via platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Google AdWords. This is a trial and error process and it will take time to collect the data to see what works and what doesn’t.

Organic — selling your business through your daily “story.” Creating an organic voice on Social Media that gets your audience talking about you even when you aren’t selling your business. Here you show your heart behind your business.

Influencers — These are the new “celebrity” and the new way to brand your business in a way that merges paid advertising with organic marketing both online and offline.

The Tripod Effect

Following the three pillar process is vital for a business to succeed. Why? Think of the Three Pillars of Social Media like a tripod holding a camera. The camera is your business and the the three pillar process if your tripod and the way you market it on Social Media. If you take one of the legs away, the tripod will fall and your camera breaks. The same goes for your business and Social Media. Creating a strategy that uses these three pillars as your virtual tripod keeps your business standing on Social Media. Take away a pillar and your Social Media brand won’t give you the results you desire.

Successful businesses in today’s modern marketing world know that it is a necessity to have a presence on Social Media. Why? Here’s an example: A local blogger stumbles across your business. They experience it authentically and love it. They love it so much they want to tell their followers about it and they have over 10,000 Instagram followers to tell. Without warning, they post about your business. Luckily, you are on Social Media and you do a great job of letting your customers know you are. You post signage throughout your store, you include your Social Media handles in every email you send out, you personally promote your Social Media handles to your own family and friends, you engage with local influencers, businesses and consumers online and you stay up-to-date with industry trends. Your staff is also excellent about sharing your Social Media posts with their own followers and friends. Because you did such a good job sharing your Social Media, this local blogger knows how to find you and tag you in their post. You wake up the next morning to see your Instagram handle has 200 new followers overnight, 400 new profile views, 100s of new likes and you have dozens of product inquiries in your inbox. How did this happen? Just from this one tag by a local influencer. This happened because you were prepared for this opportunity. After months of diligently posting, working hours on your Social Media and often questioning why you were spending the time and money to do so, it all paid off. All it takes is the right person to share the right post and your business doubles over night. This is the power of a vocal generation. This is why businesses need to be on Social Media.

About Lindsey

Owner of Elite Market Savvy & Creater of Out of the Box Marketing Ideas

It’s 2004 and the topic of something called “Facebook” started floating around campus. It was a weird concept. “It’s like Myspace” friends would tell me. However, I barely knew what Myspace was! “It’s cool,” I remember a friend saying. “You create a profile (what’s a profile!?), add a picture (I had just barely gotten a digital camera) and talk to your friends there (why can’t I just talk to my friends in person or on the phone?)” Even texting was a new concept. You see, I am one of those “awkward” millennials. I was in high school when dial up was the only way to access AOL. Napster was a cool way to get music for free and you were really cool if your parents got you a Nokia cell phone with colorful screen covers. Apps for a phone? It was called the game of Snake. That’s it. I would spend hours chatting with my friends on AOL Instant Messenger and get scolded by my parents when I went over on my cell phone minutes (because it was supposed to be for emergencies only). I nearly escaped college without the experience (or burden) of Social Media.

Then Facebook came along.

I remember the day I created a Facebook profile. You needed a college email address to join and we had NO idea what the point of it was. So what did we do? We had a game of “who can get the most friends on Facebook.” We tried to get “followers” before “getting followers” was even a thing! My friends and I would walk around our college bar and ask our friends if they were on Facebook, then we would friend them the second we got home (Why did we have to wait until we got home? Well because cell phones were only used for calling and texting, duh!) That was it. That was our entire experience with Facebook in college.

Since creating her first Facebook profile that day in 2004, I have continued to be on the forefront of Social Media.

After five years in Marketing and Community Relations for Apollo Group, I joined Yelp in 2010 as the head of Marketing for Phoenix and surrounding cities. During my career at Yelp as the Senior Marketing Director, I grew the community to become one of top 10 largest Yelp markets in the world. As the only Marketing employee in charge of the area, I helped business owners increase their brand awareness by creating creative marketing and social media strategies to engage with their target audience.

I have been involved in Social Media since its inception. After organically growing the Yelp Phoenix Twitter handle to 12,500 followers from 0 and the newsletter to 500,000, I started my own business in 2015 to work with clients on creating and executing a social media strategy and management plan that meets their short and long-term goals. This is done through thinking outside the box and coming up with creative online campaigns to create an engaging conversation to drive traffic.

I am a Wildcat with an Undergraduate University of Arizona and I also hold an MBA in Marketing. With over 13 years of experience, I work with clients to create an out of the box strategy that aligns Digital Marketing with traditional Marketing. I work with clients to identify their target market, I train them on ways to market to their target demographic, I execute creative Marketing campaigns and I help them maintain a positive reputation both online and offline.

Visit www.elitemarketsavvy.com for ways Lindsey can help your business achieve Marketing success!