How to reach your vision with Customer Personas

After having a few businesses, I have had the opportunity to learn quite a few lessons from where I have failed and succeeded. It was my nail polish company that taught me the importance of knowing who my customer was. I would hear that term all of the time, but I never completely understood what they meant by it. It took me having to close my company to finally learn what it meant to know my customer.

When we know our customer, it gets easier to identify the products we create, how we market, and what people are looking for. This can be through the development of customer profiles. These profiles allow you the capacity to understand the mindset of your central buyer/customer. But how do you do that?

I personally have come to find, in the spiritual world, that it is best to create the customer profile you want to reach versus trying to find a customer to market to. The best way to do that is by creating a profile for what you want to do. Then figure out what type of people are attracted to that? What is their income range (this helps with price)? Their lifestyle? What do you have that they need?

This is extremely important when it comes to operating a business that uses products or direct consumer work. Create your customer profile from what you’re doing and watch the results!

Checkout this link that takes you through the process of completing the customer persona: https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/media/blog/how-to-create-customer-personas

The Importance of Faith and Success

Everyday, we are faced with seeing commercials and people telling us how we should run our business. They tell us how much money you should be making, how you should market to make people want to buy from you and all these other techniques that sometimes make your success seem too practical. I honestly believe that faith has alot to do with success as well. Most people who approach their work from a hustle mindset usually end up always only making ends meet. It’s the people who move off faith and what makes their soul fly that always have enough and seem to have more peace.

In 2023, I made the promise to myself to live a simpler life. I am living a life based on faith more than fear. I am doing what makes me happy and free and no longer doing something just because of what it provides for me. This is the abundance mindset. The more we move by faith and purpose is through not feeling as if we have to have all the answers. We can never be prepared for the unthinkable so we might as well live now. One thing that has helped me is creating a peaceful space to sleep and meditate in (when I’m not falling asleep on the couch lol). My diffuser and essential oils are amazing! I have them in my Amazon store, here: Amazon Store.

All in all, live your life how you want to live your life. Faith is more important than being practical at this time of the year.

Did you know about the success of Small Businesses??

Did you know that over 70% of businesses don’t make it through their first year of business? It is said if you can make it to year 3 then there is a good chance that your business will be successful!! The reason for this is because when businesses first start they are still learning, even with all of the planning they put into place, they are still learning from trial and error. Check the stats!

Top Small Business Failure Statistics: Only 22% of new small businesses and startups survive their first year in business. 30% of U.S. businesses fail in the second year. Half (50%) of all small businesses in America fail in their first 5 years. Around 70% of small business owners fail in their 10th year.- simply insurance

With these statistics, if 100 businesses started in your city this year, in 10 years only about 3 of those businesses will still be functionally operating. Its far from easy and alot of gurus don’t talk about that part with business; the resiliency that is needed. It takes alot to run a successful business in 2023, post pandemic! The advice we were learning before isn’t the same advice we need together in this digitally driven society.

Business owners come to find that alot of advice they learned from the “gurus” didn’t really work for them because it didn’t relate to their personal path. Instead of learning concepts we are told to duplicate steps that were taken by people before us, even if you aren’t 100% sure of your audience.

Whatever you do, do not give up when it gets hard. It’s when it gets hard when you are tested the most to see how much you want something. It’s usually the need to pivot when we come across these mishaps in the beginning stages of our business. Use the first year as the time when you get a better understanding of what you want out of your business, learning your customer profile, and the community.

Failure in business is actually a good thing because it shows you where you need to focus and tighten up. Use this week to make a list of things you feel you need to tighten up in your business. What do you feel is potentially holding you back? Use this time to brainstorm and identify those potential snafus in order for you to get ahead of them.

Whatever you do, keep going. Keep pivoting. Keep learning. Keep growing.

Tips for Starting Your YouTube Channel

Here, I’m going to share a quick 5 tips for starting your YouTube channel that will take the minimum amount of work or time!

1. Use your phone!

   Most YouTubers start out with their phone and this year is no different! I used my phone for the first 2 years, got a camera, and now I’m back to my phone again. Phone cameras are pretty good now and especially with creating shorts, it’s easier!

2. Think about how you can add value

   Alot of people have a hard time finding their niche or identifying where they can add the most value into their work spaces. The website answerthepulic.com is a very helpful website where you can enter your topic and find which questions people are asking the most online. This will benefit you by knowing what people are asking for. With YouTube being the 2nd most popular search engine, you will be putting yourself out there for people to find you.

3. You don’t have to start with long-form content

   If you don’t feel comfortable doing long videos, you can simply make shorts where you give information in a short period of time. People are loving the shorts and YouTube has started monetizing them!

4. Find a way to keep it connected to your business

   Your channel helps keep your business out there, so include your links and have your website together with the release

5. Promote it when you’re comfortable

   Many people can share that people have tried to kill their YouTube dreams. Many have also shared how they kept it quiet for a long time before sharing it with people they knew. It seems as if, if you aren’t ready to hear critical feedback or people trying to stop you, wait before promoting it to people you know. Simply keep it out there and let the algorithm work until you make business connections for your channel.

Financial Tracking in Your Business

When we take the first step to becoming business owners, we don’t always know where to start and what steps to take. One of the most overlooked is in the area of finances and tracking your expenses properly. It is important that you have a system created to help you with the tracking of your finances to ensure you have proper accounting for when tax season comes around. You don’t want to miss any itemized deductions that could help you in the future.

Below are a few financial tracking programs that can get you started! I have personally used Mint!

Mint Intuit: Budget Tracker & Planner | Free Online Money Management | Mint (intuit.com)

Expensify: Expensify: Easy Money

Quicken: Simplifi by Quicken

When starting your Business...Always Remember!

Starting a Spiritual Business or any business that deals with you using your spiritual practices while creating, can have its ups and downs. I remember when I first started in 2018, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I felt like I was prepared but I really had no idea of the amount of tears I’d cry, nights I’d go without sleep, and the days when the bills were more than the income.

Unfortunately, I had to learn it all alone. At that time, I didn’t have anyone around me who was willing to take me under their wing to guide me along my journey into entrepreneurship and spiritual growth. Because of that I had to learn it all as I went along the path. I had to fail a couple of times first and now I feel like I’m finally in a place where I understand what I am doing…. 5 years later!

I want you to know that no matter what your journey, what you have been through in your lifetime and what you are walking into… every day that you do your best; know that it is in divine alignment with your purpose.

Today, I want you to look yourself in the mirror and remind yourself of why you started this journey. Remind yourself of why you finally told yourself yes to the goals and visions you have had of yourself. It makes me think about the book, The Year of Yes, by Shonda Rhimes. That book helped me so much when it came to stepping out of the box and into my personal power. I literally stopped telling myself no and said yes to more things…. and found out that was exactly what I needed.

When you are starting a new business, you have to realize that you are your biggest fan. If you do not believe in yourself, you cannot expect other people to. If you do not invest in yourself, you can’t expect others to invest in you. Thankfully, you’re doing that now. You are investing in yourself! So always remember that!