Lessons

Lesson Info

What Makes You a Great Business Owner?

Hello everyone we are on lesson nine what makes you a great business owner so today's goal is to identify your strengths and weaknesses you can build a business that works for you right? We want two businesses fight our natural strength doesn't make us spend a lot of time dealing with our weaknesses right we want the ones that just make us feel like we're in the zone all the time right so in the last lesson we identified the strengths and weaknesses of your products and so really today we're going to do the same thing but the focus is on you doory it's going to be fine yeah all right so let's look at where we are in this boot camp we are in session one set the foundation for your sustainable business and we are almost at the end get into the home stretch on session one in less than nine what are your strengths? Weaknesses so your strengths and weaknesses as a business owner make you better suited for some markets then for others right we all have key strength that just makes her mark i...

t's easier wholesale was doing trade shows was really easy first market for me goodbye like to talk to people right? I kind of like to be on yeah three that I'm here up on stage talking to you guys right I like to be on I like to engage with people I like to talk I'd like to talk about my products that was really easy to make that work for me it just fits with my personality type sitting at my computer all day up loading listings toe at sea not what I wanted to spend my time on right even the same thing you know, for me retail craft shows I don't want to go to show every weekend in the rain what wasn't fun for me I know people who love it people who thrive on that for me I wanted to do the couple big trade shows a year that's awesome and then be in my studio right? So we all have those kind of strength sweet asses and when you have the best, you know, business opportunities for those that's what helps you grow so we're gonna die right in to exercise one we're gonna complete look at that another swat analysis right? But it's fun it really helps us understand that big picture of our business you remember swat is our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So what do you do? Well, what don't you do? Well, what opportunities come out of that and one of the threats in your business so when you're looking at your strength and weaknesses thes can include a couple of different things one is going to be your personality traits, right? Are you an introvert or you an extra for you know, where do you want to spend your time? Are you a person who likes to ask a lot of questions? Are you a person who would rather listen? You know, what are those personality traits that you have, but also what skill sets do you have? You know, you might make a product, but you might also be really good at photography or maybe really bad photography, right? You know, what different skills do you have that you could bring to the business and then finally your situation, right? So where you live, what restraints that you have, if you have to spend half a day, you know, taking care of your kids, that's something we want to look at, right? If you can't travel for some reason, we have to take that into account. Or maybe you just live in a super tiny town, and it makes it hard to network with people, and then you either have to build travel in or spent a lot more time on your computer, right? We want to understand these things. We can build that best fit business, and we've got all of these things laid out in your workbook as well. So when identify your personal strengths, what personality traits can you bring to your business? What skills do you have, and then what strength exist in your current situation we're going to hot seat some of you guys in a few minutes, so uh we'll talk about those in a minute and then once you identify your personal weaknesses so what personality traits might be problematic for your business? I personally tend to be a little messy and disorganized that's a weakness in a business, especially when someone's got to keep the books right so you won't acknowledge those things doesn't mean we're bad people. I think sometimes my husband thinks it does and when the house is a little messy doesn't really mean or bad people just means we have some weaknesses that we have to acknowledge and plan for in order for our business to succeed, and what we want to do is spend as little time having to address our weaknesses as possible, right? We want to move towards places that take us away from them, and then what skills are you lacking and a little bit we'll talk about it if you're lacking skills, whether you need thio, address those or hire them out because there's lots of different options if you're lacking in skill and then what weaknesses exist in your current situation, right is traveling not an option for you right now? Do you live somewhere where you can't connect with other people? Whatever that is all right, so let's get ready for some hot seats so who wants to be first in that? This is a real hot seat now because we're talking about your personal oh katherine I'ma let you go you have volunteered in a while you don't bought up here so remember when were talking about strength and weakness is that they could be personality skill set or situation let's start with the positive what are your strengths as a business owner? Uh I am organized too that's a good one. What else? Um I think I have a fairly good balance of, like, logical and creative okay oh good logical figure how to write that quick creative ballots well a ce faras skills I am really good at talking did you do all the ones on your website? Yeah ok, I looked at those feel good and I have a strong background in art into fine okay? And what about your situation? And he starts to come out of your situation it's ok if there's not something to consider where you located in the very okay so that could be positive if your customers are here. Right? That's true, I'm fairly close to the kind of market I feel like I should be focusing on uh there we go. All right, so you're close to your potential market place but definitely has its advantages all right, so what are some weakness is that you might have the perfectionist tendencies like you said before, I'm the kind that hesitates when everything isn't perfect gotcha yeah, that could be a big problem decision we're trying to get your product into market quickly write what else? Um I'm very shy ok? I don't like going on talking to people in putting my stuff out you know, a rejection of the press that you're up here that sharing all right that's a good first step all right, what else um you any skill set that you feel like you're lacking? I'm fairly new to the jewelry thing I've done a lot of clothing. Okay, so where do you think so being knew? What do you think that kind of makes you lacking in is the construction technique is it lingo? Is it a little bit of knowledge of material? Um um construction techniques so someone else anything else weakness is strength um I think I'll remain on anything in your situation that provides a weakness um, while I'm doing it all myself right now, okay? So, um I'm not great so good at the social media come, you know, the web design kind of yeah, yeah, we definitely want to make sure we're looking at all of these things because you know me, then start to talk about market places if this is an area where you're not good and you're not ready to hire someone then that may mean that an online shop is not the best first step for you, right? Anything else? Uh no, I think perfect. So I'm gonna let you sit down for now we're going to come back to this list in a little bit and talk about kind of again how that suits your marketplace that who else wants to jump up? Lisa all right, so strength. Um, I see a big picture. I'm a big picture person awesome. Also design. Okay? And sales I definitely don't have any problem talking talking about my partner. Awesome. Er what else? What skill set or I have a textile degree, so I really familiar with material about textiles and how they work. And so, like materials construction, you really didn't know that their foundation, their potential how to manipulate them off some stuff. What else? Thunk it up? Um ah, what about your hand? Your situation provides free, have a good a situation and I can take a lot of risks. Okay? I can take the time I need or but I tend to, so you kind of have that and like the time to grow right? I do have the time to go awesome, anything else? Um all my kids are grown yes, so that's the time yeah, okay, perfect about weakness that I have a long history and fashion into buying so I've done a lot of behind the scenes designs you kind of know the industry I know that in st yeah but not the men's industry oh slide it over here on men all right? What other weaknesses? So weaknesses I would say um I those conversations online that really get you from point a to point b if you were to look at my stuff you would be like oh it's a big push where I just post a lot of product and a lot of pictures but I don't have those kinds of conversations you're not doing like for lack of a better word we're gonna call it online networking but it's probably really more like online connection yeah the connection is a part that I'm really missing I guess I don't really understand because I'm a really I could sell in person right right although you're you're not a digital native not right so social media is not is not necessarily your your jam no I like to see people I see how they move I know what to put on my right right so you can really hear on your strength you can really like match with people in person yeah, I know right away what they're going to like off anyway they're going to pick up my booth awesome all right? What other weaknesses I would say I I have a huge sense of urgency which is kind of a push okay like if I have time but I don't like sense of desperation, right? Yeah just like really yeah yeah urgency around everything it's going to get it done so you're impatient that's really what it is you're impatient yeah e really like alright welcome to therapy down all right, so you're impatient what else? Um I procrastinate on all of the like I have in my calendar to do my banking on the first and they usually do by the eleventh but I would also guess because your big picture that you're maybe not always detail oriented right is that some of that comes through you know that okay, yes, you're procrastinating, which could be a problem, right? And how are you in terms of like the organization but keeping I'm very organized, okay? You are very organized awesome have a good sense of balance for business. I know what the priorities are if it's not you know really imperative then I'll put it off too long till it just is rattling in my head got you though, right? So you're going to organize, but we don't want you to procrastinate on things just because they're not priority priority, right, right, so what kind of cross nation and prioritization maybe is where I came and spell you guys gonna be like, what did you write on here? Meg and I have no idea anything else, anything about your situation or for weaknesses I have a really hard time talking about the process people come to me and they tell me they want to know like the behind the scenes and about the materials have pretty interesting story, but I feel like it's I feel like when you buy something like that it's really personal you're either struck by it or you're not I feel I feel awkward telling all of this stuff like I don't like to use sustainable even if I buy end lot okay? You know, I just wanted to be like this innate, visceral love of okay, so what you need to think about then is what you can tell people that exaggerates visceral reaction rather than having to get into those details because I personally am actually the same as you. I don't want to talk shop I don't want to talk process I want to talk about how you're going to love this place and you're gonna wear it all the time. So while you might perceive that as a weakness of like that kind of not wanting to talk process, I'm gonna put it here but I think that's a spin one right? And I think that's when we can spin um so that you're not worried about that. I don't know if I haven't said it sounds like you're not audio respect maybe, but you like the big picture, so maybe if you had and they're having to talk to somebody like a look book behind the scenes of, like, how you did, like kind of like a storybook of what goes through and if they choose to want to see what it is, you know, I have to tell them maybe that's possible, so yeah, that's kind of what I mean, I just like on the website and things yeah, I don't want to document all that's why, right? And I think the other thing is that that's okay, if you're selling a different selling point, okay, because not everyone needs to know the backstory, and for me, one of the reasons I don't talk shop is because the only people who want to talk shop our other jewellers, another makers, writers. So I think this is a case where, as long as you know how to sell people on the right things, like, let me show you how this is right, benefits, features and then we're actually going to want to like story and emotion, but how it fits into their life, how it's going to be there, like better how it connects with them that's okay to focus on without having to feel like you have to talk about all of those details so we can we can spin that weakness away, right? Yeah, but not nice to know that. So I don't have to be that big of a deal. So I think here right now, just looking at these it gives us a really good sense of what's going to become your better fit market places, so okay, thank you. Perfect. Okay, so we're gonna come back to this in a minute, so we're gonna move forward. So what we really want to dio is structure your business so that it highlights your strength and doesn't fight your weaknesses, right? We don't wanna have to deal with those weaknesses if we can avoid it. If you're not great on social media, we want to structure your business so that that's a less of a big deal, right? We want to do now on exercise too. Once we've established those big strengths and weaknesses and I want you to assess your weaknesses that we can move on right, we want to make it. We want to neutralize, we want to come not a big deal, so when it comes to your personal weaknesses, you have three choices you can avoid, you can improve or you can hire not everything can be avoided what you got? You got to do taxes you have? You gotta do all that stuff. So for me, that's that's a higher right had my stack of paper to my accountant and move on, right? But there are some things that potentially you could avoid. It's really hard to say that you can avoid social media in this day and age, but if you don't want to talk to people in person, you could avoid a craft show you could avoid there's a lot of things that you can kind of let go of. Another thing is that you could potentially improve, so one of the things is, you know, you might have a weakness, but it might be something that's easily learn herbal based on your personality, right? So I talked about how doing trade shows with kind of a natural fit for me, but when I first started, I really felt like sales was a weakness of mine. Part of it is because I had never had a job in sales. All my work experience was food service. I could tell you an ice cream cone that was about the extent of it right, but I have the personality type to be good at sales, I like to talk to people I like to engage I like to observe like lisa was talking about I like you fit people to their right product you know, I like to teach all of these things make me actually naturally suited for sales, so I just buckled down and I learned the skills that I needed to but it wasn't fighting my strength I was just applying skills to strength I already had, so if you've got a skill set that you're missing, figure out if you could do it with your strength then of course there's the hiring option any part of your business can be hired out to someone else. Whether that person is an employee or an independent contractor, you can find someone to do anything for your business if you have to write. So if it's a strength that you it's a weakness that you cannot avoid and it's not in your best interest to improve that, hire someone and move on, right? So go out there and figure out our there personally areas that have to be done in order to run your business. I got to do my books right? You get some stuff you gotta do, you might have to at least have a even if you're selling in person, you probably have some kind of presence, right? You should at least claim your social media yourself on social media so someone else can use it and pretend to be some horrible version of you, right it could happen we want to claim that right so figuring out what absolutely has to be done and the thing about who you can hire or outsource to to take care of those areas some things might make sense to ring in an employee something it just makes sense you know, talk to my count when I need to write so thinking about what makes sense maybe you hire someone to do a little bit outside social media work and then figuring out how to your weaknesses stack up against your personality traits are there things you could learn or improve? You know if you're super organized and you're good at the big picture we can probably fix that procrastination stuff with better systems in your business right? That's probably actually a pretty easy fix for you so figuring out what those are and now we want to figure out is how to your weaknesses compare with the product opportunities you identified in less than eight right? So well leo we talked about you know your we want to get you away from that because that's really oversaturated want to get you in stores selling wholesale so you would look at do you have any weaknesses in my business they're going to make it difficult for me to enter that market that makes the most sense for my products and figure out if you need to do that you know, hiring or improving in any way so then in your workbook you go ahead and kind of list your weaknesses and figure out if they're in a void ah hire foreign improved and when you want to deal with that by so maybe you decide on you spend the next six months learning to become a better sales person, right? That's what I did I was like, this is the year of sales and I'm gonna figure that out you also just might say I'm gonna find an accountant in the next thirty days right? That's my job so some of those going longer some of them may be shorter figure out what works for you. All right? So let's go ahead and when I actually want to do is hot seat but we're gonna come back to look at who were already out here full bar chart over katherine why don't you pop back up here and let's talk about some of your weaknesses and figure out if we need teo avoid higher or lauren or improve? All right, your perfectionist, how did that kind of bear out on your business? Uh, well, like I said before, it makes me hesitate when all the things are not perfect awesome. So I think in this case this might not be a higher but you might need a second voice to just say hey, you know what that's good move on so coach and adviser mentor someone that at least in the beginning teaches you how to kind of recognize hey, your perfectionism is holding you back let's move forward, right? Because this impacts every aspect of your business. All right, what about this one that you're a little shy? What can I do about that? Um, or should we do you think we can you want to just avoid it and stick to market places that are better fit? Well, I mean, I could hire somebody to go to shows for may and do you think that shows are the kind of the best fit angle so that it's worth it for you? Or do you want a retail shows trade show? Yeah, but so you think that's probably an angle that needs to be dressed so that we have to kind of figure out this piece you think probably okay, I mean, I could definitely improve it a little bit on my own, but I don't think I can fully take that on myself. I agree. And I think the other thing to do here is, you know, if your goal is to sell the boutiques, maybe trade shows are not the way to reach them. You can you get up every day and sense of emails and you could actually work with someone to help you draft an email template so if you're feeling like I don't want to sound sales here, pushy or any of those things even over email that makes you uncomfortable have someone help you draft a template that talks about what's great about your product sense and emails, or you could use a postcard mailings or some catalogue mailings so there's a lot of ways that you could work to build the wholesale business that don't make you stand up and talk to someone and don't require you to hire someone to work shows because while you can probably find someone fairly inexpensively to work shows, whether they're good at it or not is a totally different story, right? So better to see kind of what traction you get first, without having to go the show around it all, because this can be a big sticking point for that. So how about this kind of new to the jewelry market? Definitely, I can always research and learn, right? So maybe thinking about taking a class on this is, I think, a big thing for a lot of people when you're thinking about product development, because I always think, you know, if you just kind of have the basics off, whatever category you're working in, the more you can learn, the more you can do something different that differentiates you from everyone else out there, so, you know, kind of figuring out how you can strike a balance right? So maybe it's like I'm in a budget for taking you know, one class every so often or we're looking into something but don't go crazy with it right? You got to move forward with your business too right? And then what about this social media piece right? So that's something that you feel like it's not great for you it's not great but I've actually been reading a lot of articles about it and I've kind of started to come up with a plan for it um it's just staying on top of it posting frequently so this sounds like this is something that you are absolutely willing tto learn on then maybe it's just putting the kind of this system into place so an editorial calendar something that helps remind you to kind of move forward that because I think that you know people who tend to have a more introverted personality can actually really thrive on social media once you sort of get the system down so I think this is a perfect example of you know something that you can ignore or really kind of plan your business around and then some things that you could do a little bit of learning on awesome perfect at least let's talk about your students are up here all right so let's talk about the online connection peace what do you think avoid higher improved um I just think it's not my market yeah, it definitely doesn't play to your strengths I think this one is I would have someone I would hire just to get like a baseline set up but I would just kind of let it go okay, so, um how about you're impatient? How about that? You're kind of a sense of urgency yeah, what do you think? I think I can use it ok, I think I can spin it and use it in a healthy way I like that so use that kind of energy, the energy to move your business forward and just write your name on those people who just wants to work and push hard and I think for you right it's absolutely a spin, but then figure out how to avoid those kind of burn out potential you kind of have to keep an eye on those things, so if you're a person who has a real sense of urgency and you're like, I want to go go all the time and I can say this because I'm also like that right? That you don't sleep for two weeks, right? Exactly? So you have to make sure that in this case you have to find a system for balance, right run a little bit of self care doesn't have to be a ton, you know, just take every friday off but I know for me that I'm like what you want me to take a whole day off that's insane, right? Uh, but you want to make sure that your building in and some of that and I think we're going to talk about this, not wanting to talk processing, I think that's something that you can kind of get around let's talk about this one, not knowing the men's industry. What do you think? That one I think I should do a little research, a little research that was definitely a learned right? You can learn that one, I have to know it in order, teo any of the others, right? And I think because you are so good at the kind of in person and the networking and the big picture, you know, we talked before about doing that kind of visual research, but I think the more that you can do in person, the more you're going to get out of it. So can you go to a menswear trade show just to walk the floor, right? Walk the floor hiccup catalog see what's going on there? That seemed like a way better way to get to know this industry even for you than spending time on social media, because you're not going to make those connections there, but I bet if you go walk cement straight, so you're going to make some connections. You know where you're going to get to know that you're going to know it inside and out real quick, right? So even when we're thinking about that learning makes the learning fit your strength because that's going to maximize your time, you could learn as much from a whole trade shows you would spending three weeks online looking at stuff, right? So, yeah, so that's a perfect example of that all that great and you think church's is probably the best marketplace where my I feel I think we're gonna talk about that a minute, but I think it's probably your best your best fit for sure, but yeah, I think it's hard, especially in terms of learning this it's a good place to start, at least checking out the market. So right, also. Thank you. Thank you. I never thought of that. All right? And so now, actually, that's, what we're gonna do is we're going to move into exercise three and we're going to identify the opportunities based on your strengths because everyone's opportunity's gonna look a little different in everyone's business is going to be built a little bit different, so based on your personal strengths and weaknesses, what markets are best suited for you? So I think we're talking about the view do you think trade shows I think trenches wholesale yeah, but some elements of rita have to find a good retail outlet so I can connect with my customer you know, something that's a regular basis where you can get regular feedback, right? Well and honestly selling two stores you can really get that as well you clearly are a relationship person and that's what wholesale is so while you may not get to deal with as many customers, a good store owner is doing what you're doing and then there turned around and giving that back to you so you might be surprised at how much of that you can get when you form these really great working relationships with stores. And I think because of your skill set trade shows are the really obvious one you know, you don't want to kind of sit at home and male catalogs and the air like you just see that's like, sucked all the energy out of you, right? You want to go to the trade shows, you want to make the connections you want to get to know your stores and honestly you're goingto kind of do that great thing where you're going to fit the best products on the store buyers and then I wouldn't be surprised if then you're at shows and all your buyers for using your bag over everybody else's so I think that's the great market opportunity for you, captain, what about you? So you have a very different set of skills in a very different personality type from lisa. So what do we think are probably your best market opportunities based just on your strengths. So taking out your products for just a second what do you think that's on your strength? Um well, as far as being shy goes, I do much better like one on one and then I do in front of it a crowd of people, you know, right. Um so that I think means for you you know, if you are talking about kind of reaching out to stores and working that avenue, then you could dio a lot of that kind of emailing and sending mailings but then scheduling some sales appointments and going into stores so you can have that one on one interaction and have that opportunity to make the sale. And I think the other thing that we've agreed about that for you is because you are so new to the jewelry industry making those appointments and trying to kind of work with some store buyers one on one they can give you some feedback on your product and they could say, you know what I think of you that are in different chain I think this option would be better so that gives you that opportunity to get that feedback without having to go to a trade show and deal with that really overwhelming scenario. We got some other people based on your strengths, what you guys think or some of your best market opportunities anything monica well obviously specialty boutique stores but then I think that there's a lot of potential with hospital gift stores I'm like lactation consultants like people in the medical field that can recommend especially around the breast feeding in the nursing scarf so one I think for you to write so you kind of can have that a feeling of being like a resource right as opposed to you again, that kind of sales anything so I think really it's like let's go to monica like let's be friends with her and go to lunch and talk about the secrets and all those things that I think really fits your kind of personality yeah, so awesome we're so what about you? What do you think? What market opportunities that your personality? I don't know because I I like talking to people in person too, so like an art show type situation it would be good but it's not feasible for custom jewelry? I don't think right, so you have a really kind of interesting thing, but you know it could be because you could take the orders and fulfill after oh, so there might be some opportunity to some art shows that might actually be a good fit for you to get your products out because you have an interesting aesthetic and I think your aesthetic tracks the kind of audience would go to an art show so I wouldn't let the fact that you make custom limit that I think if that suits your personality there's a there's a totally away, it can be done, you know, and especially if you want that high touch, right, you know you want that high touch, right? So you go, you make the connection people buy from you, and then you follow up with him a day later to get the photos. Right? Alright, yeah, that seems like a perfect fit for your skill set. Okay, I think I would do best likes with social media, like especially my scrapbooking, right? Projects it's like here, this is how you can use it, although it also made me think of I like small groups and, like, just talking about it. So maybe if I did, like workshops where teaching like, ok, this is how you do it. And if you want more, got war and write and yours is the perfect example of where it's not education, to get someone over the barrier of buying them product it's an education because they want that creative fulfillment I think something like workshops could be really a really fun way for you to sell and really kind of build your profile too if you know not just the person who produces the scrapbooking stuff but as a person who's the expert in this kind of really designed driven scrapbooking world that could really be awesome for you but I think something with one on one connection because whenever I talk about our products I love him so much that that comes across more than something on social media where could some cheesy only so maybe trade show something like that where yeah I talked to think trade shows or such a good especially so text right yeah so high touch and it's a high enough price point that that's not the kind of thing that you want to schlep to a craft fair if you get no definitely want to be working with stores you want to be able to tell that story so that stores can then go in and tell the story of the customers think that's a great fit for both you and your product yeah. What do you think is the best market based on your strength um probably interior designers um contractors are other artists so so things are going to make that one on one connection yeah for sure because I think my strength is that I can take people's ideas and like customize what they wanted to make and tables I can make that happen so gotham definitely aware what's best for your I think for me I tend to also be a little bit introverted and I prefer like smaller groups of people so I think that sending emails to boutiques and then setting up appointments like sales appointments with autumn that is perfect all right, so we kind of just started to talk about the spokes and the last listen, we're really going to finalize this what is the number one market that your products should be and now you know, we kind of have gotten the big picture but now we're really gonna hone in on where you guys are going to be focusing as we move forward and in that next lesson we're going be joined by a really special yes tiffany whips who has actually taken a number of creative life classes and now we're going to actually bring her up on stage and let her talk about some of the successes that she's had in her business but first let's look at your lesson nine homework so I want you to complete that personal swat analysis and then I want you identify which weaknesses can be avoided which should be outsourced we should hire someone or which you might wanna work on improving because they really are something that does will eventually play to your strength and then I want you to share a photo on instagram with the caption. This makes me a great business owner doesn't have to be a photo of you. If you're not a selfie person, take a picture or something. Your studio. Take a picture, something of your skill, set, whatever, but share that on instagram and use our hashtag make love cell, and I'll see you guys in the neck weapon.