Suddenly *Not So* Single Journey

Starting a small business and the lessons we’ve learned…

Author: thenicknick

Carolina Home Enhancements

Not everyone is meant to work for someone else.  At the same time, not everyone is meant to run a small business.  That is the first and most important lesson.  I knew that from working for other companies for so many years.  My almost husband knew that from working with his father in a mostly independent fashion.  It wasn’t such as stretch when we decided to branch out and start our own exterior remodeling company: Carolina Home Enhancements.

Being your own boss is incredibly cool.  There’s no one telling you what to do all the time.  (Okay, maybe the almost husband tells me what to do a lot, but who can blame him?  We have a lot riding on this.)  And while that seems like a huge plus, if you aren’t motivated, then there’s no one there to motivate you.  This motivation has to be something intrinsic.  Yes, the power comes from within.

When you fail, there’s no one to blame.  And when you are first starting out, even if it is a great idea, there’s a good possibility that you will fail.  The odds for success, in all honesty, are not in your favor.  Most small businesses do.  If you are starting on shoestring, meaning low on capital and even lower on savings, then the odds are even greater.  We didn’t have any back up money.  We had work one day and then the work dried up.  It was a situation where we decided we had to create our own jobs.

There are expenses associated with doing business that most people never anticipate.  For some, these costs are overhead, for others, the cost of doing business.  Money must be spent on advertising.  Even if you have the best business in the world, unless people know it’s out there, it doesn’t matter.  Money must be spent on a website, unless that happens to be one of the skills.  It doesn’t matter how far removed your business is from being web based, even brick and mortar businesses need web pages and web presence.  That means SEO.

We decided to reach out to our computer guru that I had been working with writing SEO articles.  We struck a deal.  Never underestimate the power of barter.  It is a valid form of currency for those that know how to use it.

There are loads of companies out there promising to get a new website instant ranking.  Sure.  In theory it is possible.  In honesty, the best way is through systematic creation of back links and social marketing efforts like Twitter and Facebook Fan pages.  What is most important is that people not only know your business exists, but that they are also able to find you.

That’s why you need to have a phone number.  Even with emails, most people want the comfort of human contact.  And when we decided to update our website, at the suggestion of the computer guru, we decided we needed vanity numbers that would link to our existing phone and build our brand.  That’s why our last four digits are: 4CHE.  Brilliant, huh?  I came up with that.

Our phone is finally ringing.  All of our efforts have finally started to pay off.  And my almost husband/business partner/boss is pleased with our efforts.  It’s all about honing in on the talents you bring to the table.  I use my words.

This post was sponsored and was in behalf of Grasshopper.com, a company that sells toll free numbers for businesses.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 27th, 2011 at 9:03 pm and is filed under Recommendations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.