One thing I know as a business owner is that we want support from other business owners. However, we assume that they know how we want to be supported. There are multiple ways to support your fellow small business owner.
Financial Support
This is the biggest way in which we all want to be supported. Stop for a second, I want you to think about how you fiscally support other small business owners. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your giving to them? Honestly, most people score below a 5. Generally, we want others to do for us what we won’t do for them. This is something I work on with the women that hirer me for consulting. We create a budget that allows them to at least support one business owner a month. Having a budget in mind can help you so much when supporting other business owners. Even if you can only afford $20 a month, that is a start.
Emotional Support
You could say there is a tie between the two, but honestly, I feel financial support is the biggest and this one comes second. Not to discredit the need to be emotionally supported. With most of my clients, at the start of consulting, it took almost 90 days to get to the root of their emotional problems; in regards to success, making money, and running their own business. I don’t advocate consultants that are solely cheerleaders. I understand that you do need someone to be their for your emotional hang-ups, as well as, to push you forward. Under the ICB Consults Instagram, you see a community of women advocating for each other. It’s beyond amazing to see people say that they are going to buy something from you, that they’re praying for someone, or giving virtual high fives. If you purchased, The Power of 10 Network, then I recommend you be the emotional support for the people you listed. This is huge to some, especially when, they don’t feel anyone is in the corner.
Social Share
Utilizing your platform to share other businesses is also a big deal. In the last two months, I have constantly shared on my social media accounts about Brandi Howard Law Education. Brandi is a dear friend of mine, but most importantly, I believe in what she is doing. I want to see her succeed in business. A trick I share with clients is to do 80/20 sharing on social media. When you do your social media planning for the month, find a few business owners you want to highlight to your audience. Maybe the people you selected for your Power of 10 Network. Schedule some tweets, pin a blog, post a product, comment on an Instagram post, or even share their Facebook post. I am thankful for everyone that social shares my business. It truly helps me reach a broaden my audience.
One of the biggest things to take away from this is, share with your supporters the specific support you desire. If you need to reach your sales goal share about it. Don’t be ashamed of it. If you are feeling down get with your followers to create a pen pal group. If you’re needing more social sharing, ask people.
Ask for what you want for your business, in order to, garner the support you need.
