Quick, tell me about your business
Quick, tell me about your business!
You meet a potential client at the store or at a networking event and they ask you: “What do you do for a living?” What’s your response? Are you ready to fire up your best “elevator speech”? Can you remember your elevator speech? There is a lot of marketing material that needs to be developed when you are an entrepreneur. An elevator speech is one of them, a tag line is another but how do you develop this material? You start by developing your very first marketing piece: your purpose.
A statement of your purpose allows you to clarify your existance as a business to your employees, your potential clients and even to yourself – since we sometimes lose track of why we started it all. It is a perfect piece to insert in your profile on facebook or linked in. A purpose statement is a short and concise declaration of what your business offers, its “raison d’être”. Although it no longer requires being just one sentence, still, it should not be too lengthy. The best purpose declaration will be to the point and inspiring to you, your employees and your clients.
Declaring your purpose is the second most important step in developing your business. The first is your vision. A vision expresses where you desire to be. You need to know where you are going with your business to be able to get there. Think of your business as a trip where you are navigating to a beautiful destination. Knowing the location of your destination is not enough to get you there safe and sound – you also need to know where you presently are in the middle of the ocean. Without that information you will not know which direction to go and it makes it impossible to tell your coordinates to those who need it. You need two points of reference to succeed – a beginning and an end – where you presently are and where you are aiming to be.
Your potential clients can only know what you tell them, so if you are not clear on who you are and what your purpose is then neither are your potential clients.
A clear purpose will convey the essence of who you really are. Start by asking yourself the following questions and then develop a sentence that will best embody your answers.
- What do you do?
- Who are your clients?
- Who are not your target clients?
- Why are you in this business?
- Why is it important to you? This question will keep you motivated when the going gets tough and if the reason is honourable, share it with your client – it may just be the marketing hook that you need.
- How are you helping your clients?
- How do you provide your services?
- Where are you offering these services?
Make sure to review these questions periodically. Your answers may change along your journey therefore, your marketing material will need to change too – make sure to update it when needed.
Here is what I do: I help you maximize the success of your business and your personal life. I am a professional coach who offers public speaking, one-on-one coaching and seminars. Feel free to contact me – I’ll help you, that’s what I do.
Gaby Da Silva, Professional Coach
Gaby Da Silva Coaching
www.gabydasilvacoaching.com
450-458-4341