Sophia Noreen: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another fantastic episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen, and I'm going to be your host for today. And if this is the first time you are tuning in, welcome. We speak all about entrepreneurship and how it fits in with your life and fits in with everything in between because we know that your life is not in a bubble. When we are on this journey of entrepreneurship, it is filled with ups and downs. And this is the reason we started the podcast because we want to help you along this fantastic journey.
Today, I really want to talk to you guys about something that I think is extremely important. I want to talk to you guys about the three things I wish I knew before starting on my business journey because these are tips that will help you no matter what stage of business that you're in. The first tip is that you need to understand that your business will take time to grow. Let me say that again. It will take time for your business to grow. You need to be patient. I think a lot of people are really in to make it happen fast, quick money. You see it all over the internet, all over Google, all over YouTube, how do you make a quick dime? So now, I want to tell you that if you are in the business to create a brand for yourself, a personal brand, or even a product-based business brand, it does not matter, it will take time. And I have a hack though on how this actually happened quicker for our business, Also Sophia. That's our product-based business. We actually were able to leverage social media through influencer marketing. And I think this is something that many businesses don't get right, and then they get discouraged and they just stop using influencer marketing. Remember, if somebody is going to be promoting their products on their platform, that's great. You got your audience. But now, the goal for your growth for your business needs to be reaching new audiences. And so why not borrow the audience of an influencer?
I think that if you can find the right influencer, either on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, you're gold. And when I say right influencer, they have to be the people who have the community that would purchase your product, or even joins your personal brand. We have shout-outs through Instagram, for example. If you have a community and it matches the community in that influencer's community, it's a bit complicated, I guess, but if you know who you're talking to and that influencer is talking to the same people, then that is the influencer that you need to bring into your team. These content creators are making a business themselves. They are basically trying to leverage their personal brand to make an income, and they're influencers. So obviously, we have an amazing program that we've launched two times already called Influencer Marketing Made Easy. I will put the link in the show notes, or I'll put the link at the bottom of this video so you guys can check that out. But that is the thing.
Influencer marketing was a thing that allowed us to grow our business, Also Sophia, faster. And if you've missed it, we have previous episodes on our podcast that talk about influencer marketing, and how it actually helped us also get into bigger retail. So it's not just about making sales, it's also about the brand name awareness that you get when you have an influencer team with you. The reason why we even made the program, to begin with, guys, was because people were asking for help. So I can't obviously go around and help each business create an influencer campaign, so this is our way of giving back to you. So that is my first tip. You need to be patient with the growth of your business. But there are things that can speed up the growth of your business, and one of them is influencer marketing.
There are so many other growth strategies, which we won't get into right now because there are a few other tips that I think you should know as a business owner on things that I wish I had known before I started. Tip number two, you need to know where you are going with your business. I'll say that again. You need to know where you are going with your business. And the reason I say that is because so many people just think that the business is going to run itself, and you will somehow magically fall into the mansion or the car or you'll, I don't know, whatever the goal is for you to even start your business.
You need to have concrete goals with a concrete vision, a vision. If you don't have a vision of what you want your life to be, or you don't have a vision of how you want your business to look, perhaps you're in a larger retailer space, perhaps you're a hobby shop, perhaps you're in a farmer's market, it does not matter. You need to have a vision. And then you have to have that vision broken down into smaller goals, which will be then correlated to your actions. Again, when you're a new business owner, you may not be able to conceptualize that vision and break it down into smaller goals. It takes practice, it takes discipline. But the more you do it, the easier it becomes. So for example, if I go back to our previous example of influencer marketing and how we grew using that strategy, we were trying to be patient, but we thought, you know what, let's speed this up a bit. Let's go and promote our product and our brand through influencer marketing. That is an example where I'm like, okay, I want our business to be this much bigger. Okay. Say, for example, I want to 10X our growth next year. So whatever 10X is, let's say I was making a thousand dollars in the next month, I want to be making $10,000.
So if you know all your numbers associated with your website, and we have had a few episodes in the past regarding conversion rate on your website, basket size on your website, then you should be able to calculate how many people you need to come to your website to be able to check out. So I'll say that one more time. If you know your conversion rate, you know your basket size, you should be able to calculate how many people need to come to your website, perhaps through influencer marketing, to be able to make your sale of $10,000 the next month. Okay, so those are things that you need to consider. And that's what I'm saying when you have your vision, you have a vision that I want to make $10,000. Now, how many people do you need to reach to make that amount of money? And that's a short-term vision or goal, and all of your actions then should align to make that happen. So I may want to use influencer marketing then as a strategy to increase the number of people that will come to my website. I might want to use Facebook ads. I may want to use YouTube ads, or Google ads, or I might want to go and do more content creation. There's a ton of things that you could do now to make that goal happen. Again, tip number two is to know where you want to go. That could be a long-term goal, that could be a short-term goal. It could be something that you want to accomplish in the next 10 years. But you do need to take that vision and break it down into smaller goals, and then action items associated with each goal. Okay, so that's tip number two. That's a bit more intense, but I think any business owner needs to realize that you just can't dream it up and expect it to happen. You really do need to take it into action. So make sure you get really serious about your goal setting and planning out your time, and of course, making it happen.
Okay, my last tip for today, tip number three. You do need to trust your instincts. You are going to have a ton of people that will give you unsolicited advice. It's common, it's unfortunate, but it does happen. A lot of people will just tell you what they think about your business. A lot of people will be doubters about your business. And a lot of people will wonder why are you even bothering or starting. Many people said to us at the beginning that there was tons of competition. There's competition in everything. Not a good enough reason not to start, so expect to get unsolicited advice. And my best advice then for you is, if you require a community or a mentor to help you elevate yourself and ensure that you're getting sound advice from somebody who actually has gone through the process, then make sure that happens for you. Don't succumb to somebody else's thoughts and reasoning because they may not have the right information. They may think they have the right information, but they might not. And so we want to make sure that you are not second-guessing yourself because you are being steered in the wrong direction by somebody else who may not be seeing what you can see. Not everyone is going to have the same vision as you. Not everyone's going to have the same drive as you, and you want to make sure that you are not being advised incorrectly. So make sure you do find a community or a mentor who can help you. And that way you're not feeling so lost when it comes to the process.
Okay, guys, let's go from the top. These are the three things that I wish I had known before starting on my business journey as an entrepreneur. Number one is that you need to be patient. It will take you time to get noticed. You can do different hacks like influencer marketing and guerrilla marketing, which I'll leave a link in the show notes of the podcast so you can check out Influencer Marketing Made Easy. Next, you need to be able to know where you are going to go. You need to have a vision. And then along with that vision, you need to be able to plan out action items. All your action items should be aligned with your vision and your goal. Tip number two is really heavy in that you need to have a strategic plan in place, but trust me, as a new business owner, you will want to invest that time and energy to plan out and properly structure your goals and next steps.
And tip number three, we want to make sure that you're following your instincts and that you are getting the right advice from the right mentors and community. Do not go with the naysayers. Look at their credentials. Why are they the most appropriate people to take advice from? You will receive unsolicited advice. And sometimes you should just say, thank you, and that's all. You don't need to act upon it. You don't need to think too much more about it. Make sure that you get the right people in your circle that can advise you correctly when you get stuck and you need that mentorship.
Okay, guys, that's all I have for today. Again, guys, if you're loving this podcast, make sure you hit subscribe or follow on wherever you listen to podcasts. Talk to you guys later. Bye.
