Latest news with #socialmediaagency
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
How To Think Bigger In Business
How to think bigger in business Most entrepreneurs play a dangerous game with their ambitions. They set goals defined by what looks achievable instead of what might transform their life. They accept the constraints they see around them, never questioning if those limitations actually exist. Their vision becomes a hostage to their calendar, packed with tasks that feel productive but never push boundaries. The result? Businesses that plateau, founders who burn out, and potential that remains forever locked away. Approximately 20.4% of businesses fail within their first year, and around 76% do not make it past their tenth year. Many of these failures are attributed to limited vision, inadequate planning, and an inability to adapt or scale. common symptoms of "thinking too small" in business strategy. When I founded my first business at age 22, I made this exact mistake. My social media agency started with modest goals that seemed sensible for a new entrepreneur. Only after scaling to 20 team members and eventually selling for seven figures did I recognize how unnecessarily small my initial vision had been. The limitations existed only in my mind, installed by well-meaning advice about being realistic and practical. Most people naturally gravitate toward goals that feel achievable. The business down the street doubles their revenue, so you aim to double yours. Your industry buddy expands to five employees, so you target six. This comparative thinking creates an invisible ceiling that limits what you believe is possible. Most people never question these constraints because they seem so reasonable, so grounded in reality. But it's a trap. The goals that guide your business didn't appear from nowhere. They came from somewhere or someone. Your parents who encouraged practical careers. Business books written for average companies. Industry expectations about what success looks like in your field. Your own past experiences of what worked before. Take a moment to ask where your definition of success originated. When you examine these influences, you'll see that many aren't relevant to your unique situation or aligned with your true aspirations today. What you call realistic thinking often masks fear. The resistance you feel toward bigger goals represents the edge of your comfort zone, not the edge of what's possible. The founder who avoids raising prices fears rejection. The coach who won't create a group program fears failure at scale. The consultant who won't write a book fears public criticism. Pay attention when you catch yourself saying something isn't realistic. This signal points directly to where your growth awaits. The goals that make you slightly uncomfortable reveal your path forward. The vision that seems both exhilarating and terrifying marks your best direction. Your thinking cannot expand beyond your environment. If you spend hours scrolling social media featuring modest successes, moderate goals become your ceiling. If your business friends all define success similarly, breaking from that pattern feels risky and unreasonable. Find people operating at the level you want to reach. Join communities where your wildest goals sound ordinary. Follow people whose achievements make your current targets look conservative. Your vision expands automatically when surrounded by bigger thinking. The questions guiding your decisions determine your business size. Most founders ask: Is this achievable? What's the safest approach? How do I minimize risk? But these questions naturally produce conservative plans and incremental progress. Try asking instead: If resources were unlimited, what would I build? What would I do if I knew I couldn't fail? How could I help 10x more people? The brain faithfully answers whatever questions you ask, so choose questions that unlock bigger possibilities. Big thinking requires commitment before certainty. If you wait until the path looks clear and success guaranteed, you'll never take meaningful risks. Every game-changing business started with incomplete information and imperfect plans. The willingness to begin before everything's figured out separates those who transform industries from those who merely participate in them. Take imperfect action, build momentum. Once moving, you'll attract resources and discover solutions invisible from the starting line. The way appears when you walk on it. You just have to commit to a path. Any path. Remove the artificial constraints limiting your vision. They are only real if you make them so. You can let them go right now. Question the source of your limits. Recognize when fear masquerades as practicality. Change your environment to expand your possibilities. Replace limiting questions with expansive ones. Start before clarity arrives. Your business can never outgrow your thinking. Your bank balance can never outgrow what you believe is possible. Level up your world today.
Forbes
29-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Zen Entrepreneur: How To Stay Calm When Everything Goes Wrong
The zen entrepreneur: how to stay calm when everything goes wrong When you panic, you fail twice. First in the moment of overwhelm, and then again with every bad decision that follows. Entrepreneurs who lose composure when problems arise create a cascade of problems throughout their business. Teams scramble. Resources drain. Solutions become impossible to see. Everything gets harder when your emotions run wild and your judgment clouds. But the ability to stay centered when chaos erupts is the competitive advantage nobody talks about. I discovered this the hard way during my first major business crisis. After building my social media agency, when covid hit we shrank by 25% in one week. While my instincts told me to panic, I forced myself to step back rather than rush forward. That pause revealed a service model pivot that not only replaced the lost clients but increased our margins. The breakthrough came from stillness, not frantic action. Most entrepreneurs respond to problems with increased speed and urgency. They work longer hours, hold emergency meetings, and make rapid decisions to regain control. This reactive approach feels productive but actually compounds the problem. Business chaos resolves with better thinking. The quality of your decisions determines your outcomes. Your response to crisis gets determined long before the crisis arrives. The entrepreneurs who maintain composure during chaos have built that ability systematically through daily habits and practices. Your calm presence becomes a business asset you can rely on when everything else fails. Physical training forms the foundation. Exercise isn't just for your body. Regular movement stabilizes your mood and strengthens your resilience. Make some form of physical activity non-negotiable, even on your busiest days. Sleep deprivation and good decisions rarely coexist. When you sacrifice sleep for work, you sacrifice the quality of that work. Most entrepreneurs push through exhaustion during difficult periods, believing the tradeoff makes sense. It never does. Create strict sleep boundaries. Turn devices off at least one hour before bed. Keep your bedroom cool and dark. Wake at the same time daily. Your brain solves problems during quality sleep that your conscious mind can't crack while awake. Constant input creates mental fog. Emails, notifications, news feeds, and social media train your brain for distraction, not focus. When crisis hits, this scattered attention becomes your biggest liability. Schedule daily periods of complete quiet. Start with just 10 minutes and gradually increase. No phone. No computer. No input of any kind. Just sit with your thoughts. Meditate. Visualize. This practice seems trivial until you try it. Most entrepreneurs can't last five minutes without reaching for their device. Master this skill and you gain immediate advantage. Business problems trigger your nervous system long before they reach your conscious mind. Your body prepares for danger through ancient survival pathways. Blood diverts from your thinking brain to your limbs. Heart rate increases. Muscles tense. This biological response worked great for escaping predators. It's terrible for making strategic business decisions. Address your physical state before attempting to solve anything. Five deep breaths can reset your nervous system. Place one hand on your chest and one on your stomach. Breathe slowly, making your stomach hand rise more than your chest hand. This activates your parasympathetic system, downshifting from fight-or-flight to rest-and-digest. Physical relocation changes mental perspective. When facing a business crisis, the worst place to solve it is likely where you first discovered it. Your mind forms strong location associations that can trap your thinking. Take your problem for a walk around the block. Drive to a park. Sit in a coffee shop. The change of scenery brings solutions that you couldn't see in your usual environment. Start with making space for perspective. When markets shift, technologies fail, or plans collapse, most people rush to action. They react to surface problems rather than understanding root causes. Do the opposite. Stay calm to gain time. Spot the patterns beneath the chaos. When everything goes wrong, your response determines your outcome. Fight the urge to immediately fix everything. Create space between stimulus and response. Train your calm, protect your sleep, create silence, respond with your body, and shift your location. Turn apparent disasters into unexpected opportunities.
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
5 Ways To Land Sales Calls With Your Dream Customers
5 ways to land sales calls with your dream customers Most business owners make getting in front of dream clients harder than it needs to be. They create elaborate outreach strategies, throw money at expensive ads, and wait for gatekeepers to grant them access. Meanwhile, their perfect clients remain one email away, completely accessible but totally out of reach. 61% of sales professionals say cold calling is their least favorite task, but 82% of business buyers have accepted meetings with cold callers. Cold email gets a similar rap, yet 80% of buyers say they have accepted sales meetings via cold email, and 77% report responding favorably to cold outreach. I built and sold my social media agency by mastering the art of getting calls with precisely the right people. The strategy was surprisingly simple: create pathways for conversation. When I eliminated the complexity from my outreach, my calendar filled with exactly the people I wanted to speak with. No fancy tech stack needed, just a systematic approach to human connection. Your ideal customers are people with problems to solve, sitting on the other side of a conversation you haven't started yet. But you need to approach them. Too many founders post personal photos on social media, send generic cold emails, and wait for the phone to ring. They hope the right customers will magically find them. When they don't see results, they blame the algorithm, the economy, or their industry. The real problem? They've overcomplicated what should be straightforward and under-personalized what should be unique. A different strategy gets you on the phone with your dream clients, fast. Drop the sales pitch. Nobody wants to be sold to, but everyone wants solutions to their problems. Instead of saying "I'd love to tell you about our services," try "Based on what's happening in your industry, it probably makes sense for us to meet. One day you'll need this." This shows you've done your homework. You understand their world and you're offering value, not taking their time. The mere exposure effect kicks in. They're being warmed up to you without realizing it. When people hear "I want to sell you something," mental barriers go up. When they hear "This might solve your problem," those same barriers come down. Lead with their needs, not yours. If you have a sales team, make sure they're hitting their numbers. If you're solo, maintain your own discipline. Sales is fundamentally a numbers game. The calls made per day determine your success. One connection in twenty might be your ideal scenario. One in fifty might be reality. Either way, volume wins. Set daily contact targets. Track who reaches out to whom. See what messaging lands and double down on what works. Perfect clients rarely appear on the first try. They show up after persistent, strategic effort. We're all drowning in information and your ideal clients don't need more data. They need someone to tell them what matters. Instead of pitching your services, share valuable insights about their industry that they can't find elsewhere. Curate content that helps them get to the crux of what matters. When you become the person who helps them get perspective, they'll book the call themselves. I built a weekly newsletter about AI for coaches that broke down what was happening in AI. Not selling every week, mainly just helping them understand what mattered. Within months, coaches were approaching me about my tool, not the other way around. Your perfect customers leave clues everywhere. Follow them with intention. Find the real person behind the corporate title. What matters to them outside work? What causes do they support? Where did they grow up? What sports teams do they follow? Reference something they genuinely care about in your outreach. Most people try too hard to sound professional and forget to connect human-to-human. "I saw your post about mountain biking in Colorado. I was there last month and thought you might find this useful..." It requires homework, but it makes you stand out. People do business with people they like, and people like those who notice what matters to them. Sometimes the best approach skips cold outreach entirely. Join the masterminds, attend the conferences, and become active in the online spaces where your target customers are already comfortable. When you're in the same room, the conversation happens naturally. I landed some of my biggest clients by showing up where they were already spending time. Sometimes that meant investing in a high-ticket mastermind. Other times it meant speaking at their industry event. Or simply being present in the right rooms. People do business with those they know, like, and trust. Proximity builds all three faster than any email sequence. Getting calls with your dream customers isn't complicated. State their best interests. Push for consistent outreach volume. Become their trusted information curator. Dive deep into their social presence. Show up where they already gather. Your perfect clients are waiting for someone smart enough to approach them the right way. Make that you.
Forbes
14-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Build In Public Or Keep It Secret? The Growth Hack Entrepreneurs Miss
Build in public or keep it secret? The growth hack entrepreneurs miss Most entrepreneurs don't strike the right balance with building in public. They hide everything they're working on or they share random updates without strategy. They switch approaches based on mood, posting revenue figures one week then going silent for months. Inconsistency confuses their audience and ruins their impact. While they flounder, others with clear sharing strategies build loyal followings or secure market advantages that compound over time. I've built and sold a social media agency and seen firsthand how sharing strategies makes or breaks business growth. Some of my clients dominated their industries by carefully controlling information flow, while others thrived through radical transparency. The difference was simply how deliberately they chose their approach. To win in business, you need to choose one clear sharing strategy. No middle ground. Build in public or keep your secrets. Each approach brings distinct advantages when executed with intention. Let's break down both paths so you can pick one and double down. Building in public means sharing your journey, including failures, experiments, and wins. But in a very intentional way, completely on your terms. This approach builds trust rapidly and attracts like-minded people to your world. When you document your process consistently, you create content that serves as both marketing and proof of expertise. Share your frameworks after you've tested them. Show the thinking behind your decisions. Take people behind the scenes of your business in ways that add value to their lives. But don't air the entirety of your dirty laundry. Instead, share the details after you know the outcome and you can create a narrative around it. Don't rush to post. Neither oversharing or undersharing is the goal. The key is balance. The proof is everywhere that this can work brilliantly. CopyAI went from $1 to $50,000 in monthly revenue by openly sharing their metrics and milestones on Twitter. Webflow rode transparency all the way to unicorn status worth $2 billion, turning their struggles and pivots into community-building fuel. Superhuman built their email tool in public, discussing challenges openly, which shaped their product and created a rabid fan base in the process. Others like Buffer, Ghost, Gumroad and Nomad List share everything from revenue to employee salaries, making transparency a cornerstone of their success. When done strategically, building in public creates a magnetic pull that silent companies simply can't match. But plenty of successful companies do the opposite. Apple famously keeps products under wraps until launch day, creating massive anticipation and preventing competitors from copying their innovations. Stripe, now worth $70 billion, quietly built their payment infrastructure with minimal public fanfare. SpaceX keeps many projects classified until they're ready to unveil. Even Notion grew largely through word-of-mouth rather than broadcasting their roadmap. Strategic silence can be just as powerful as transparency when executed with purpose. Some founders move in the shadows. They focus entirely on execution without broadcasting their moves. This approach works when your edge comes from proprietary methods or you're in a highly competitive, fast-moving market. Let other people overshare and give away their next moves too soon. Play this game by channeling all your energy into execution rather than explanation. Set clear boundaries on what you won't discuss on podcasts. Create inside-only documents about strategy and vision. Share results with your team but not your audience. Move deliberately and reveal your hand only when you've already secured your position. Deciding whether to build in public or keep your secrets depends on your unique situation. Here are the key factors to help you decide: Are you energized by sharing and community engagement? Do you love showing up online and talking through challenges and how you're solving them? Or do you prefer working quietly without external feedback? Choose the approach that aligns with your natural strengths. Is your industry collaborative with plenty of room for multiple winners? Or is it zero-sum with limited opportunities? Transparency works better in collaborative spaces. You never know which doors might open by being open. You never know who might get in touch when you share your truth. But that doesn't happen in every industry. Does your edge come from unique perspective and execution? Or from proprietary methods and insider knowledge? The more unique your methods, the more you might want to protect them. But don't focus on your competition because that keeps you playing small. Let them follow you, but don't follow them. Your marketing mix matters. Consider how many other avenues you have available: founder-led marketing, paid ads, user-generated content, influencer partnerships. Your business might have many better options to increase exposure and revenue without sharing your journey. However, if you're running a "boring" SaaS business with limited marketing appeal, building in public might be your main opportunity to stand out. When conventional marketing paths are closed or too expensive, transparency becomes your edge. Once you've chosen your approach, establish clear principles for what you'll share and what you'll keep private. For the build-in-public crowd, this means determining which metrics, processes, and learnings you'll make public. When and how often to share, ensuring it resonates with the right people. Deciding where your business ends and your personal life begins. Whether you'll share the numbers or the feelings behind them. For the secrecy players, it means establishing even clearer rules about what information stays within the circles of your business. And making sure your team knows the rules too. If you're building in private, you'll have to build your content strategy around other tactics. Revisit boundaries regularly. As your business develops, so should your sharing strategy. What made sense to share at the startup phase might need protection as you scale. What needed secrecy early on might become your best marketing asset later. Stay intentional as you grow. Too many founders waste time trying to play two games at once. They want the audience growth from building in public but are too afraid to share anything truly valuable. They want the competitive advantage of secrecy but still crave validation from an audience. But you can't win by straddling both approaches. The world rewards those who make deliberate choices and execute with conviction. Your move, founder.
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
7 Actionable Steps To Start A Digital Products Small Business
Turn your expertise into a business that runs without you. You don't need a warehouse to start a business. A digital products business sells value, not stuff. Physical inventory ties up cash and creates logistical headaches. Meanwhile, digital entrepreneurs turn their knowledge into assets people can buy round the clock. The same product sells once or a thousand times without additional cost. When done right, it creates freedom, impact, and income that grows far beyond what's possible trading time for money. I sold my social media agency in 2021 and have since built multiple income streams through digital products. The contrast is striking. My agency required 20 team members to serve clients. My digital products business needs just me, my VA and my AI. With a few key systems we reach thousands of customers worldwide. A digital products business sells downloadable or digitally accessible items that provide value without physical delivery. You create something once, set up systems to deliver it automatically, and earn money repeatedly without additional time investment. Many digital entrepreneurs get stuck here, creating products nobody wants to buy. But successful digital entrepreneurs do the opposite. They identify the problem first, create simple solutions, price based on value, and test ideas before investing significant time. This guide means you can too. Digital products come in many forms and here are some examples: Comprehensive teaching on a specific topic, usually delivered through video, text, and supporting materials. Courses work best when they lead to a specific, desirable outcome for a defined set of customers. Structure the content as a toolkit like this, creating a clear pathway to success for your audience, with quick wins and measurable progress. Fill-in-the-blank documents that save time and reduce guesswork. These sell well because they deliver immediate value. People buy templates because they want results without creating systems from scratch. Subscription-based access to content, tools, and connections. The recurring revenue model provides stability, while the community aspect increases retention. Focus on creating consistent value that justifies the ongoing investment. The bigger the group, the more value members get. Digestible knowledge in downloadable format. Lower price points make these accessible to a wider audience, and they can serve as entry points to higher-priced offerings. Write them to solve specific problems, not just share information. Digital utilities that automate tasks or provide specialized functions. While these require more technical development, they can command premium prices when they solve significant pain points. Both one-off and recurring payments can work for software. The best digital product comes from your existing expertise. If you're a marketing consultant, perhaps it's campaign templates. If you're a fitness coach, it might be training programs. A top coach can make the AI version of them to replicate their coaching without physically being there. Listen to what your audience already asks for. Pay attention to the questions that repeatedly come up in your work. Consider three factors when selecting your product: The intersection reveals your winner. Start there. Your first digital product should be simple to create yet valuable to buy. Choose one that matches your skills and solves a real problem. Find their real pain points; ones they would pay to overcome. Before building anything, validate your idea by posting content about the topic. Watch which posts get engagement, questions, and direct messages. Test your offer before even making it. That's market research at no cost, showing you what resonates before you invest significant time. Unlike services, digital products scale without extra hours. But you need three essential components: a sharp offer, a landing page that converts, and a payment system. Start simple with platforms that handle the technical aspects for you. Kajabi, Podia, Gumroad, and ThriveCart can process payments, deliver products, and manage customers without requiring technical expertise. Pick one platform instead of cobbling together multiple tools that might not work well together. Don't just hand over a file. Make the experience feel valuable and professional. Create a clear onboarding process that helps customers implement what they've purchased. Consider how you'll deliver the product, what instructions to include, and how to follow up. The way people feel about your product determines whether they'll recommend it. A thoughtfully designed experience turns one sale into many through word of mouth and builds a business that doesn't rely on you. Don't undercharge just because your product is digital. Price based on the outcome, not the file size. Customers buy outcomes, not files. If your template saves someone 20 hours of work, that's valuable regardless of how long it took you to create. Start with research. What do similar products sell for? What results does your product deliver? How much would someone pay for those results? Then set a price that reflects this value while remaining accessible to your target audience. You don't need a massive audience, just a clear niche and consistent content. Teach what you know, show results, and give away value that earns attention. Then offer the shortcut through your product. Pick one platform where your ideal customers spend time. Focus your energy there instead of spreading yourself thin across multiple channels. Consistency beats occasional brilliance when building an audience. Don't spend months building something nobody wants. Pre-sell your product, run an alpha test, or release a mini version. Learn what people actually want before going all-in. The most successful entrepreneurs test ideas quickly, collect feedback, and adjust. This approach reduces risk and ensures you're building something people will pay for. The upside of digital products is freedom and scale. The downside is noise and competition. You might need to update your product or launch something completely new on a regular basis. Success comes from creating quality, showing up consistently, and thinking long term. Your knowledge becomes your asset, and digital products turn it into income. Don't underestimate the work required to get this off the ground. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Turn your expertise into a business that runs without you. Pick your product. Build the systems. Design the experience. Price it properly. Get visible. Test your idea. Understand the trade-offs. Each step moves you closer to a business that generates income while you sleep. Package your knowledge right and the world will pay for your expertise.
