In this week’s solo episode, I’m talking about the mistakes people might make when it comes to running their own their business. I want to use my experience and knowledge in the industry to help you see where you might be going wrong. Although you may not be making any of these mistakes, hopefully this episode will give you a chance to look at the way in which you run your business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• When it comes to branding it is 100% worth investing in a graphic designer. Although you can create graphics, logos and artwork yourself - the difference a designer can make is incredible.
• Your social media profile images need to make it clear who you are. Whether you’re using your logo, a product or a shop front – it needs to be as clear as possible so people can recognise you right away.
• Cover images are incredibly important when it comes to your social media profiles. You need to be sure you’re changing your cover photo with the seasons and that you make it clear what you do as a business. Canva is a great tool for this.
• Your ‘about’ section is not a CV. You need to tell people exactly what you do AND make it personal. What do your customers need to know?
• Giving away ‘free’ information is a great way to add value and to get your customers to trust you. Whether it’s a free guide or a podcast, the more trust you build the better.
• You don’t have to be on every single platform in order to succeed.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

It is important to remember that you can’t be all things to everyone. Whilst you can try new and interesting ideas, you don’t have to see everything through. Try not to make leaps that are ‘too big’.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Mistake #1 Business’ Don’t Invest in Branding - 02:41
• Mistake #2 Business’ Don’t Use the Correct Profile Image on Social Media - 09:00
• Mistake #3 Business’ Don’t Make the Most Out of a Cover Image – 12:32
• Mistake #4 Business’ Don’t Think About Their Bio and About Section – 14:44
• Mistake #5 Business’ Don’t Want to Share Their Information - 17:28
• Mistake #6 Business’ Spread Themselves Too Thin and Try to be too Widespread – 21:04

Transcript below

Speaker 1: (00:33)

Hello and a super warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast and as always, I'm your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. How the devil are you? Okay. I've been doing some major batching and I feel like I'm on, I think I've done about four episodes of podcasts, so it gets to a point where I'm like, I don't know if I can talk to myself anymore in this room or it feels like I say the same thing over and over and it's not the content I'm saying over and over. The intro and the outro always feels like the same. So when I welcome you guys onto the podcast, I always feel like I'm saying the same thing and especially when you've just done four in a row, it definitely, definitely feels like that. Okay. So this week is a solo episode and this week I'm going to be talking about some of the mistakes I see people make, not just a social media majority social media, but some generally.

Speaker 1: (01:27)

And when I'm talking about businesses, I'm mainly talking about small businesses, although that actually this applies across the board to any size. But when I think about some of the examples in my head, it's tends to have been small businesses that I've been dealing with and basically this episode is coming out of a place of love. It's coming out of a place of take my experience and hopefully a bit of my knowledge and make sure that you're looking at what you guys do and just be conscious of, am I doing any of those things? Does it fit right for me or my business? And that's the other thing for me to say. Okay. When I come onto the podcast and I give my opinion, obviously it's based on many, many years of experience over 15 years now feels like, wow, I did it. It feels like less or more actually, it just sounds too many.

Speaker 1: (02:14)

And also having worked with thousands of businesses and seeing really good businesses do amazing things and seeing some businesses not so great doing dreadful things. So hopefully, although it's my opinion, it comes from a hopefully smart place. So I'm hoping you don't mind me going over these things, telling you the kind of mistakes that I see and ideally, hopefully you won't be making these mistakes. So let's get started straight off. Now I've given you like my caveat of please don't hate me for speaking so honestly about these things.

Mistake #1 Business’ Don’t Invest in Branding

(02:46)

Okay, let's start with the first thing. One of the very first things I see small businesses do is they don't invest in their branding. Now I get it. Totally get it when you're starting your business. And if you heard my story about how I started my business, I'm going to link to that in the show notes.

Speaker 1: (03:03)

But I can tell you it wasn't all big money and investing and you know, people helping me out. It was very much on my own. No savings, no salary. Oh my word. I've got to pay my bills and my mortgage so I didn't have loads and loads of money to start with. So I totally get that. Sometimes when you're setting up, you've gotta be really cautious where you're, where you're spending your money. But for me without a doubt, spending your money on some branding is really, really important because this is the face of your business, whether you're going to be a shop, whether you are a service, whether you're a product, whatever it is that you're going to be. One of the things they're going to see first is your branding. And we all know about sort of what we like and what we dislike and what looks good and what doesn't look good.

Speaker 1: (03:53)

So let's take for instance like, Hey, the branding can affect your business and I'm going to use some big examples. One that I like to use all the time is supermarkets cause it's super, super easy. So let's take Asda versus Waitrose. So when you look at Asda, it's very bold, clear font, it's very in your face. They use prime colours because prime colours, bold fonts and for wrrds is very easy for everyone to understand. They, their branding is all around saving money. It's bright, bold, primary colours, which are attractive to people. They are very simple in their marketing and that's who they're trying to, as opposed to that's what they're trying to target. They're not trying to target simple people, I'm going to have a barrage of people going, I show up at Asda. What are you trying to say it about me?

Speaker 1: (04:38)

But basically this brand is trying to be more applicable to everybody. And then when you go into the store, it's big, it's bright, it's about saving money. It's about quick and efficient for children and families and busy people. Then you look at Waitrose and how you believe you are not in the U K so as there is, um, well I wouldn't even say it's a low end supermarket. I would just say it's a more family accessible supermarket. Probably cheaper, well not, not that much cheaper actually, but anyway, you get my drift. But Waitrose is our kind of whole foods. So if you're in the States, that's whole foods. I'm trying to think of what might be an example of what Asda might be. Well Asda is Walmart, so, but I don't know, if Walmart's the same anyway, you get my drift. Whereas Waitrose, the colours they use are not primary colours.

Speaker 1: (05:22)

They're much more subtle. They're much more muted. The font in which Waitrose is written in is not big bold, bright brush in your face. It's saying we're much classier than that. When you go into the store, it's not about price, it's not driven on, look, you can buy five of these for half the amount of money. It's driven on the quality of the food. It's driven on the welfare of the animals and the health and the taste of it and the experience. So those two brands know exactly who their audiences are and they are producing a brand that will attract their audience. So if you are more concerned, more discerning, not more discerning shopper, and you want to make sure you're being healthy and you eat organic and the animal welfare and you have a bit of money, then Waitrose will be very attractive to you.

Speaker 1: (06:07)

You might not be attracted by the bright, bold price slushing, you know, use of Martin from Asda. I hope that makes sense. I hope I haven't offended anybody, but I just wanted to let you know that how important the branding is. Now, the other thing I always think about your branding is, and again, I'm going to be really careful here, is sometimes we create stuff ourself and we think it's amazing, like we look at it and think, I love it. It's brilliant because we're not graphic designers and because we've created something, we're really proud of it and absolutely. Why not? Totally. But there is a reason why graphic designers exist. And I'm only saying this because having worked in marketing for a very long time and being okay when it comes to creativeness, I think I've got a creative eye. I still absolutely would never create a brand for myself or for someone else.

Speaker 1: (06:59)

I would always get a designer to do it because that's what they're there for. That's the thing. And honestly the difference they can make just by even like taking your concepts. So even if you know what you want, but getting a design as a finish it, they'll just get the spacing right, like the typography of things. People will look at your brands and if you haven't got the spacing right on your letters, people will look at that and think what's wrong with that? You know, it's little things like this and I notice that the thing got to reason right and start a business. I haven't got time to be thinking about these things or go back and you know, look at what you've done already and think I haven't got time to have a rebrand. It's not always a paper. And it doesn't have to expensive and it doesn't have to be timely.

Speaker 1: (07:37)

It's just the fact of, honestly I would much rather hand over something that I know I am not, not qualified to do. You know, and like I said, there's a reason graphic designers exist. Now obviously there are marketing agencies out there who are amazing and have amazing graphic designers. There are freelance graphic designers, but sometimes when you're starting the business you can't afford to do that. So go and look at things like fiverr.com and people per hour and that sort of thing. Now the quality is going to differ massively and some people you might stumble across someone. I know someone that's found a graphic designer on there, that actually they absolutely love and they're amazing. Me - I've never had that much luck. I have a graphic designer that I've worked for years and years and he actually comes to my house. He's the only one who comes to the house and works with me here and, but he likes to spend a whole day so he doesn't do the kind of, can you do me that project?

Speaker 1: (08:28)

I hire him for a day. I fill his day full of work. But like I said, it doesn't have to be super expensive, but I honestly for me that's some mistake that lots of people make, but that literally is your shopfront. That's the clothes you wear, that's the way you speak. That's how your hair looks like and if you have done all that yourself or you've got someone who's pretty good on draw to do something for you, it's a very different thing. Like I said, I'd highly recommend going to professional to do that. For me that is super, super important and it can honestly make a massive difference. So that's the first one. Okay.

Mistake #2 Business’ Don’t Use the Correct Profile Image on Social Media

Going off the branding, one of the things I see all the time, and the reason I'm saying this because my husband and I were sat having cocktails in the town where we live and we were looking over the road and there was, this town has lots of small businesses, sort of you know, independent businesses.

Speaker 1: (09:18)

And there was a shop and I thought, gosh, I'm sure I know the owner of that shop. And I looked at the name and I looked at the brand and I thought, I sure I knew that that business owner, so I was like, Why not, I'll go and have a look at their social media in order to, I'm sure there'll be a picture of the owner on there as well, so I go on social media, I go into Instagram, I start typing their business name in. I looked down the left hand side, all the pictures, the profile pictures as they're coming up in the search and bear in mind, and I think lots of people forget this, when people are looking at you on social media, that picture is teeny weeny tiny. Okay. But I'm literally sat there looking at the shop with the logo thinking that's the logo I'm looking for and I scan all the way down and I scan all the way up, can't see anything, come off it, go on to something else, something else.

Speaker 1: (10:03)

And I'm like, this is ridiculous. I'm absolutely positive they should be on there. Went back to Instagram, started clicking randomly some of these accounts that the name was very similar to and ended upon this one account. That was the account of the shop I was looking at. The only reason I could tell was because we'd been over the road, had a look inside, and we could tell that that inside was the pictures that were on this Instagram. The picture on the profile was something to do with what they were selling. So actually they were an estate, they weren't an estate agent, they were a travel agent and it was a picture of a beach. Right. And it's like there was no point where I could have instantly gone. That's them. And that's the speed we need to do it. Because you know, if I wasn't looking for a reason, I would've gone. I can't find them. Let's not bother with that. But often I see this happen all the time.

(10:55)

People either use images of their product or service or the thing that they're selling, or they use some random image or they use a part of their branding, but not the branding. And honestly, I need that consistency. We are so busy that I need to be able to see a shop front or a bag or something and I need to be able to go to social media, or I've been on your site and go to social media or whatever, and I need to see that logo instantly. I need to have to go, Oh yeah, look, that's that. You know, I'm going to sort of say suggestions in there. Like I'm sure paper chase, they do this. So if you go to paper chase and you look in the shop, there's the branding.

Speaker 1: (11:32)

If you go to the website, there's the branding. If you go to their social media, there's the branding, but everywhere does it. You know, all the big places do, and often small businesses think they're being creative. But I promise you sometimes the creative stuff just doesn't work that way. So your profile pictures should absolutely, unless you're a personal brand for me, be your logo and I don't want it stretched. I don't want it squashed. I want it to be as clear as possible. Sometimes you might have to have your logo tweaked. Again, I'd use a designer in order to put it into that circle space, cause everything circle now online. But you really want a clear logo so that when I see it in that teeny tiny space, I see it in stay in, I know that's who you are. So and it needs to be consistent across all platforms.

Speaker 1: (12:16)

So use the same logo across all platforms. So that was absolutely one thing that I see people making that mistake all the time. Then not using that logo properly on their profile picture. So go check out yours, make sure you've got that there because I want people to see it and go, Oh that's so and so. And I recognise that from there and there and there. Okay.

Mistake #3 Business’ Don’t Make the Most Out of a Cover Image

The...