The foundations of business: what you need to get right, from the start

Today’s episode of the podcast is all about the 3 main areas that you need to focus on in business, right from day one. In this episode I delve into the what, why and how of each area and share my own personal experiences too. If you know someone who's getting started in business, why not share the love and send them this episode, I'd really love that!   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST How to understand who your perfect customer is The importance of consistency on social media How to start building an email list   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE How to find your perfect customer podcast episode Back to basics with your social media podcast episode Learn how to start and grow your perfect email list podcast episode Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter   Transcript Hello and welcome to episode 306 of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing? So last week we had a, an interview, which I have not done an interview in such a long time, but it was really good fun to chat to Kendall. I really enjoyed our conversation and actually, it's just really nice. Like, generally having a rule of thumb that we say no to everybody. And then when someone comes along, I think, oh yeah, I really fancy speaking to them, that I get to speak to them. So that was really cool. I really enjoyed that. But back to solos, as you know, if you've been listening for a while. I just do solo episodes now, apart from, like I said, the very odd one or two interview maybe. And they're hopefully pretty practical, pretty short and things that you can kind of take and learn or, you know, might impact you in some way in a fairly short space of time. Because if you're like me. You are busy doing other things when you're listening to this podcast. So you are either doing the school run or taking the dog for a walk, or I often get ready in the morning and have a podcast playing. So why not share with me where you're listening to this podcast? I would love to know. In fact, someone told me where they listened to me the other day. And it was really weird. And I was like, why didn't you share that when I asked? So yeah, so if you have somewhere funny that you listen to podcasts, then let me know. Tag me in on social media, go and find me over on Instagram. That is my favorite. So today I want to talk about The foundations of business. And you might sit there thinking, yeah, well, no, I've got my business. I'm fine. I don't need to talk about foundations or you might be fairly new into your business and just discover the podcast. And if so, then lucky you. I wish I knew this stuff from the very beginning. I think it's always good, regardless of what level you're in on your business or how long you've had it to go back and look at the foundations and make sure you've got them in place and then every so often review them. But there's certain things in business that are like the most important. It's a case of if you did nothing else, marketing wise in your business, then if you did these three things, you wouldn't be going far wrong. And when I say three things, like obviously they're not just three simple steps, if only, but there are three main areas that I want you to focus on. So this episode, like I said, is perfect. If you are getting started, if you know someone else who's getting started, then why not send them this episode? But also, even if you had your business for a while, then I think it's definitely worth listening to this and just thinking, okay, when was the last time I checked these things? Or am I still doing them? Or did I do them first, right in the first place, which I absolutely did not. When I started my business, obviously I did marketing for a living. I knew marketing. However, marketing yourself and doing your own business is completely different from doing it to someone else. So I wish to goodness that I had given this enough thought in the early days. So. The first thing of the foundation is, has to be understanding who your customer is. And I know so many of you will say, yes, I do know, but really do you know, have you gone through a really good exercise that helps you understand who your customer is? So one of the things that we do, and that I teach is looking at who is your customer, not only from a demographic point of view, or a kind of, you know, Are they like a certain age? Are they in a certain location? What gender are they? Those are the simple things. What we want to know and the things that can really make a difference in our business is understanding what they're passionate about, what they love, what they hate, understanding what pains they have, and then which of those pains can you help solve? So for instance, I deal with business owners and I can help them with many, many pains in their business, but they're not the only pains that they have. And I can help them, or I can relate to them by going, yeah, this is a struggle in your business, even if it's not something I can fix. Because what it's doing is it's demonstrating I know who they are and I understand them. Because at the end of the day, all your customers and people in general, just humans want to be is seen and heard and that they matter. And the more you can get to know who your perfect customer is, the more you can demonstrate to them that you know them and you see them and you hear them, the more chance you've got to have a conversation with them and to convert them into a customer. And as long as your product or service genuinely fixes their problem, then they should want to hear from you because you're going to help them. So like I said, step number one has to be understanding who your customers are. And like I've already said it needs to go deeper than just your basic stuff. It really does need to be the, what are the pains that they have in their business? Who are they? Sorry, not just business in their lives or whatever it is that you deal with. Who are they? What do they struggle with? And how can you match and meet them? Also understanding how they align with your values. So some people, and sometimes we look at niche within this section as to whether you're going for a niche, sometimes the niche is you and you are your niche and you are the reason they're going to come to you. So how do you make sure that your values align with theirs? Because you only want to work with people that have values aligned with your own. So again, how do you use that information to basically. Get that out of there or to understand that about your customer, because the next two things of your foundation and pretty much anything else you're going to do in your business is completely dependent on knowing who that customer is. If you don't know who your customer is, you could have the best marketing in the world, and it would be the equivalent of having a billboard in the desert. No one would see it. And if people did see it, it wouldn't necessarily be the right people. Or the right people wouldn't know it's for them. I have this thing when I teach, would I know I'm your ideal customer by looking at your stuff? And that's what I need to know. I need to read it and look at it and go, Oh yeah, that's me. And the places I need to read it and see it are somewhere on the internet. Now, step two of the foundations is some kind of Consistent social media presence. Now it only, it doesn't have to be on every platform. It can be on one platform, but you need somewhere that you show up. You've got no choice. I'm afraid like, okay, you could just not be on social media, but you've got to show up somewhere. Someone's got to be able to find you. And the easiest and most accessible is through social media. You could obviously have a website and things, but easiest and most accessible is social media. So do you have a social media account and are you consistently posting content? When I say consistently, I don't mean continuing continuously. I mean, are you consistently, i. e. every couple of days, every day, a couple of times a week posting content. And what do you post where you post the stuff you found out in the step one of the foundations. So you post stuff that your ideal customer is going to be interested in, stuff that they'll resonate with, stuff that they will want to save or stuff that they will want to see. And if you know who they are you're going to start to understand what sort of stuff you can post. And obviously we can go into more detail on this. And I've, I've talked about this in various different places on the podcast, but it really is, I don't want to get into the kind of what to post