Hi there -
Business owners get a lot of unsolicited feedback. Primarily from people who are risk-adverse and content in their corporate lives. I get it, they think we're crazy choosing the lack of stability from entrepreneurship… but they don't know what we're going through every day, which leads to some … terrible… advice:
BAD ADVICE: You don’t need a website
Let’s clear the air: you need a website for your local business.
This is irreplaceable from a Google perspective. You need to connect to Google My Business, and start tracking your site visitors, etc. You need something.
Even if it’s just one page.
Plus you need to own your presence. We saw Twitter fall down, Threads jump up (and down? is anyone still using it?), states banning TikTok.
The only thing you have is your address on the internet.
BAD ADVICE: You shouldn’t email your customers
They signed up for your email newsletter. They expect you to send them emails. Do it already.
The more often you email, the more they’ll think of you. And most businesses sell more than one product, so keep yourself on their mind when they need something else.
BAD ADVICE: “I tried that once, and it didn’t work”
There has to be some consistency before you can rule something out completely. So many business owners try one ad without optimizing the ad copy, or make one freebie that they never talk about, or post once on Instagram and never post again.
You need to try a few things for a while to see any growth. You need to talk about yourself a little more to get things to start moving along.
Basically, anything someone tells you if they don’t own a business
I don’t mean to be harsh here, but if you own a local small business, you are making moves that other people won’t be making. If they work a corporate job, chances are they have absolutely no idea what you’re going through (even if they may be the smartest people you know).
I’ve seen business owners throw away thousands of dollars worth of marketing because a friend at a party “didn’t get it.” These friends weren’t the target market.
If your friends live locally, they may be able to give you product ideas (we need more of ___ in our local community!). But they probably can’t give you business advice unless they’ve been there.
What other bad advice have you gotten as a business owner? Or have you accidentally given other business owners? Next week, I'll tell you a page you should definitely have on your website when you decide to expand to a multi-page site.
