Running a successful business. It can look easy, kind of like an ice skater effortlessly gliding on the ice.

But here’s the truth. For every successful business owner there is a story of pain, sweat, and tears.

There’s a saying: it took me 10 years to become an overnight success.

You see, we only see the moment when a successful brand or business is a success. We don’t see the years of hardship that proceeded the success.

I think of Tom Selleck. After he landed the role of Magnum, he spent that first year in Hawaii getting any odd job he could because the success of the TV show hadn’t happened yet.

So what are the myths? Here’s some ideas to give you another perspective.

1) Running a business is easy.

No. no. No. No. I am speaking from experience. There are late hours, tons of risks, setbacks, discouragement. Times when a business owner wants to throw in the towel.

2) Business owners are wealthy.

No. no. No. no. Most business owners do not start out wealthy. They risk everything for the HOPE of seeing their business dreams come true. And business owners when they do have a breakthrough pay lots of taxes. This can be a struggle.

3) Business owners are perfect.

No. No. No. no. Business owners make mistake and they are human.

4) Business owners don’t have a life.

No. no. No. No. Business owners usually have families and hobbies and interests.

5) Business owners always wear suits and ties.

No. no. no. No. Business owners come in many forms. Plumbers, Landscapers, Architects, Hairdressers. Dog trainers. Coaches. Playwriters. Authors. They don’t all wear a tie!

6) Business owners are selfish.

No. No. No. no. They are usually deeply committed to their communities and supportive of their employees.

I hope this brings you a different perspective of business owners and that running a business is not easy. If you are a business owner or an aspiring one, I hope this encourages you that you too can build your business, build your brand, and build it to success!

Cover photo by Adobe Stock

Vector realistic isolated neon sign of Myth Busting frame logo for template decoration. Concept of quiz and mystery.

By comicsans

Perhaps your business is stuck and you feel like you’re going nowhere fast. It may be that you are out of alignment.

What in the world does that mean?

Here’s a personal story. In my married life years ago, there were misplaced priorities that prevented me from reaching my goals and the goals we had as a family. The reason? Our marriage was out of balance and we had stopped putting Christ in the midst of it, which spun off into our businesses.

Everything was dried up. We experienced failure after failure.

When you peel away the layer of this onion, you find at its core it was because we trusted in money, not God. We believed we were slaves, not heirs, and we took on burdens that were not ours to hold. In addition, we did not ask for help but instead tried to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. At the heart of it, I didn’t trust that God cared for me or that I mattered.

Our lives were spinning out of control, all because the foundation was sinking. We were building our household on a lie.

So God, being the loving Father He is, would not bless us. Since we were stingy with each other, others were stingy with us. Since I didn’t believe in myself, I communicated that unconsciously without meaning to.

Being a small business owner is a journey of faith. When we replace that faith with trying to do it all on our own or working out of desperation, joy is sucked out of us. We burn out quickly. Frustration ensues and we can’t seem to make those breakthroughs that we so keenly need. Burdens pile on and on and on.

But when we are in alignment, with Christ, in our marriage and in our family, we have joy, energy, love, and confidence. We stop swimming against the tide, but instead wait for God as He tells us what the next step is and how to complete it. We realize that our job is to plant seeds and His job is to produce the harvest.

It’s so easy to put off happiness until we get that perfect pot of gold we are seeking. For instance, saying you will be happy when you lose 50 pounds, or you will be happy when you make a certain quota in your business. In our case, we put off getaways and dates because we had to work and we couldn’t “afford” it. In effect, we put off loving each other and as a result we almost lost everything we had, including our marriage.

But the truth is, a marriage counselor or even worse a divorce lawyer is much more expensive than regular outings together! Keeping a balance in devotion to God, marriage, family, and building a brand is so important.

To be successful, we have to stop compartmentalizing our lives. That’s the beauty of entrepreneurialism. When we live whole and free and motivated by inspired action, we are able to build with joy and then we will experience results.

That is the epitome of branding success!

Knowing your why is a very important way to be in alignment. After all, if you understand what inspires you you will work more effectively and therefore have more branding success. I’ve created a free mini course to hep you find out what’s driving you so that you can achieve your dreams. Click here to sign up.

Photo by Adobe Stock

Partnership.

By BillionPhotos.com

As a work at home business owner, a tagline or slogan is no less important than a big-time corporate office.

Why is that? Because it gives a clear message why you are in business and what your business does for its customers. As the saying goes, brevity is the soul of wit. As a society, we are used to sound bites and the Internet is a noisy place, full of competition. You need to make a sound bite for yourself!

This is especially important in networking and social media. It’s an opportunity for you to introduce yourself, to stand out.

What does a slogan do? It helps your prospects understand better what product or service you provide and if the tagline is memorable, will keep your business in the forefront of their minds. This means when they have a need for your particular product or service, they will think of you and be more likely to contact you.

So how exactly do you write a tagline?

Think through the question most often asked in social circles, “What do you do?” What is your 60 second response? This is often called an elevator speech. Now cut that speech in half. Then cut it to 10 seconds. Can you get your message across in that amount of time and is it memorable?

Alliteration is a useful tool when it comes to writing slogans and taglines. So is humor, as long as it is tasteful and fits with your business. In networking groups I’ve been involved in, a couple of the ladies share some funny taglines that make people laugh. Often they rhyme. These are memorable for sure!

Using keyword research can be invaluable. After all, you want to make sure people online find you! This was the main method that my husband and I used when creating his tagline, “Safeguarding lives through strong and robust building design.” Building design was our main keyword. We also wanted to make sure his personality came through when writing the tagline. Because it shows what makes him different from other architects.
You want to also make sure your slogan is results-oriented. What benefit does your customer get from working with you or purchasing your product?

Here’s the main advantage of writing a tagline or slogan: It helps distinguish you and your business from the competition. It can brand you as an expert. Like my husband’s tagline shows that he is an expert in strong building design. That is a very unusual specialty and he is capitalizing on it through his slogan!

Do the same for your work at home business and you will experience branding success!
 

Sound Bites By kentoh

Adobe Stock