Just Start! Building Your Business On the Side with Brendan Hufford from Entrepreneurs and Coffee

What this episode covers

Most people have a sexy, romantic view of becoming an entrepreneur – quit your day job and be happy and live your dreams. Well, being an entrepreneur actually involves hard work, early mornings, tough days, etc. It is not for everyone. Sometimes you get hit hard and don’t get back up. Your business fails. Instead, you should have a side business. That offers more freedom, leverage, and insurance in case you lose your day job. A great way to grow your side business is to build an online community. This allows you to communicate and work with people all over the world. You can bring value, share passions, and inspire them. Who does your business serve? What are they interested in? What can you provide that people can benefit from? By offering value-added content via an online community, you are giving your business a voice and helping people. You are letting people know that you care about them and that they are important to you. Do not focus on return on investment (ROI). Just give and give and give. Find ways to be more valuable than other businesses. Don’t focus on success, but on value! Your online community should focus on the following: * Give people a place to talk: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc. * Give them something to talk about: Engage them with questions, tips, and other content. You will gain incredible feedback about product development and other areas of your business. Spend 20 percent generating valuable content, and 80 percent engaging with your online community. Now, get going and tweet away!  About Brendan: Brendan has been an entrepreneur since the fourth grade! Entrepreneurship is just part of his nature. He has his own podcast series titled, “Entrepreneurs and Coffee.” The series focuses on talking shop, getting actionable advice, and asking questions. Challenged Issue: In this podcast, we challenge you to build on online community that drives your business forward and allows you to try new things to lead to greater sales, customer retention, and success. Brendan’s Actionable Tips: * Learn people’s names and stories. Then invest in them and put value into their lives. Engage and help them whenever and wherever possible. * Become a media company. Use pictures, videos, and other media items that are empowering, entertaining, and educational to share with others. * Bring value beyond your brand. Help people with things that don’t matter. Ask about things that do not relate to your brand. Top Quotes: * “I am very much wired for this.” * “I don’t think being an entrepreneur is for everybody.” * “We’re more connected today than we were yesterday.” * “Online community can bring you a lot of things. I think it is incredibly valuable.” * “At the end of the day, we all want to feel valued.” * “You need to be talking to people.” * “That media that you create around your company is really valuable.” * “In the end, you’ll see a lot more sales, you’ll see a lot better business, and people are going to become repeat customers over time.” Guest Links: * Brendan Hufford (http://brendanhufford.com/) * The 10 (FREE!) Tools I Used To Start My Business and Grow it to $100k in Revenue (www.brendan hufford.com/ee) * Entrepreneurs and Coffee Podcasts (http://www.eandcoffee.com) * OK! Kimonos (http://www.okkimonos.com/) * Gi Reviews (gireviews.net) * HustleHeart.Co