Savvy Entrepreneur: Don't Let Fear Stop You

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I have a terrible habit.

When confronted with something new, an idea, suggestion, or opportunity, I look for the reason it won’t work before anything else. I acknowledge it with “Yes, but...” the but usually being a short tirade depicting how ludicrous the idea was to begin with. 

It drives my husband crazy, but more importantly it limits me. I don’t sit with the possibility. I don’t imagine how it could work. I let my fear of failure speak first and quickly say, “Yes, but...”

I declared this my year to embrace failure and this terrible habit is keeping me from my goals, but I'm tackling it head on. I’m sharing this because I suspect many of you have the same terrible habit.

So what do we do?

When you feel that sudden tightening and urge to quickly shoot down anything new; stop yourself. Take a moment and say nothing. Sit with the fear and get comfortable with it.

Then shift your mindset.

Think through the idea, is it really all that impossible? Probably not. A big task, maybe. A new direction, quite possibly. Requiring of new skills, hopefully.

I use two techniques to help me push through that fear. First I think through to the end result. What if I were to make this work? What would I gain? Where new possibilities would open up? How absolutely wonderful could it possibly be? Often that’s enough to push fear aside.

If I need a little more coaxing then I imagine the worst-case scenario, how bad would it really be? Chances are not so bad, probably something you could deal with, accept even as part of being a creative entrepreneur. Sometimes by imagining the worst-case scenario you see that you can easily avoid pitfalls by preparing for them, even better.

However, if even after taking time with the idea, imaging positive outcomes, planning for inevitable pitfalls, you still feel that deep down, gut wrenching fear. You must ask yourself if there truly is a reason you shouldn’t push through. Trust that gut instinct. Although if it’s just the “yes, but...” fear yelling louder, take a small step forward, notice that the sky hasn’t fallen, your friends and family still love you, and the world is not laughing and pointing at you. Everything is fine.

Keep taking small steps, each one will get easier.

Fear is natural, but if we let it rule we accomplish nothing. Instead we must act even though we are fearful. 

What will you tackle this year?

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 Genevieve not only writes The Savvy Entrepreneur she is the Co-Founder of Lightbox SF where she empowers creatives to take over the world. Check out the blog or how to work with her.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

Savvy Entrepreneur: Push Through The Slow Times

Have sales been feeling a little stagnant lately? Have you hit the after-the-holidays-before-the-spring slump? It's normal; things tend to slow down a bit in January, February and sometimes, even March. Regardless of being normal, this may cause mild or even severe panic for some of us. I'm here to tell you to take a deep breath, take a few, and calm down. All you need is a new perspective.

The slow times do not signal the end of the world, they are temporary, just a part of the cycle and something you can use to your benefit. Instead of focusing on the amount of money coming into your bank account, look at the extra time you have since you're not filling orders.

This is the time to focus on making your business better, getting things done that will allow you to run more smoothly when sales pick up again. This is the time to focus on the things that get pushed aside when you’re busy. I promise all that hard work will pay off in sales. You just need a little patience.

Have you been meaning to update your website? Now is the perfect time to take new product shots or rewrite your product descriptions and about page. Block out an hour or two a day and within a week or so you'll have it all done.

Or maybe you've been thinking of expanding into new markets. Spend the extra time you have researching these markets. What problems can you solve, how do they get their information, what key points need to be addressed for a purchase to happen?

Keep in touch with your customers; sometimes they just need a little nudge. This slow time is perfect for reaching out with an update on your shop, new things you’re working on, or even a special sale just for them.

Collect inspiration for new products or a website refresh. Read new blogs, waste an hour or two on Pinterest (you know you can, I now give you permission), go shopping out in the real world. Your brain and creativity needs to be fed just like you do. Find some tasty vittles.

Keeping up with Facebook and Twitter is one of the first things to get neglected when you’re busy, so get back in the conversation and make some new connections. Participate in a Twitter chat, see what topics are trending, find some new competitors and “listen in” on their conversations.

Use this downtime to work on your business, give yourself a little creative refresh, or connect with customers and peers. Soon enough things will be moving again and you’ll find yourself wishing you had just a fraction of the time you have now.

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Genevieve not only writes The Savvy Entrepreneur she is the Co-Founder of Lightbox SF where she empowers creatives to take over the world. Check out the blog or how to work with her.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

The Savvy Entrepreneur: Business Groups Rock!

One of the 3 things I stress to all my clients is gathering a solid, supportive, and like-minded community to help you grow your business. There’s nothing like having people in your life who get it when you’re feeling overwhelmed by keeping you listings up to date on Etsy, feeling run down by craft fairs, or totally jazzed because you just made your 100^th or 300^th sale.

Today I want to share with you the importance of a business group. When Shelly and I first started Lightbox SF we asked a few of our friends who also ran their own businesses if they’d be interested in meeting once a month to talk success, struggles, and general business. We ended up gathering 7 or 8 women to start. We’d meet at someone’s house on a Sunday afternoon for nibbles and wine while we all took turns sharing the good things that had happened over the last month, where we might have hit a roadblock or two, and mining the group’s varied experience to help us solve issues. It was totally inspiring and motivating. I am still friends with all those women even though we no longer meet.

Last month I was lucky enough to be a part of a new group that is just starting up. We are 10 women strong and call ourselves the Success Squad. In our first meeting we all shared where we were at with our business, what we hoped to get out of the group, and our big goals for the year. I am not only honored to be included with such an amazing group of women, but am truly impressed by how creative, driven, and successful they all are.

I share all this with you because I firmly believe finding a group like this is one of the most valuable thing you can do for yourself. While The SF Etsy Team provides all sorts of knowledge and support, there is even more value in breaking into a smaller group that meets regularly and really forms a bond. Not only will you benefit from the collective experience and knowledge, it’s extremely rewarding to have a front row seat to witness others taking their business to a new level.

How do you find this group? Start by asking the other creative people you know, connect with and/or admire if they belong to a business group or if they’d like to start one. If you can find just two people you’re off to a good start and most likely those two people can bring one or two more and then you have a group. I would advise you to keep it around 10 people so that there really is a chance to connect with everyone and time for each person to be in the spotlight without a meeting taking more than 2-3 hours.

These people will become your supporters, confidants, cheerleaders and guinea pigs. They will pull you through the lows and toast the successes. They will be your sounding board and most importantly they will help you see your business in a whole new light.

Do you already belong to a group? How has it helped you?

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Genevieve not only writes The Savvy Entrepreneur she is the Co-Founder of Lightbox SF where she empowers creatives to take over the world. Check out the blog or send her a note.

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!

Savvy Entrepreneur: Embracing Failure

Happy New Year!

I love that feeling of turning a corner that the New Year brings. I know it's only psychological, but I truly do feel I have a fresh new outlook and sort of second chance. For me this year will be about facing fears and embracing failure. I am scared and exhilarated and I hope the feeling lasts all year long.

First a confession: I am a perfectionist. While much of the time my attention to detail serves me well it can also hold me back. I want to know everything I can before I jump into any project. I want to fit all pieces into place before I call something done. And most importantly I want to know I'll succeed before I try anything new.

This year will be different. I'm going to try to fail. I am going to fight my tendencies and jump into things without having all the knowledge. Don't worry I have a good reason for this. First it's because I suspect in the long run I'll accomplish more, both good and bad, but will certainly have a sense of forward movement that I feel last year lacked. I also suspect that by embracing failure I'll not only learn more, but might actually fail less. If I get an idea and put it into action without over thinking I'll begin to see results, good or bad much quicker. If I'm not getting the results I want I can tweak my idea and make changes just as quickly. Chances are very few will ever notice that there was a period of time where my idea wasn't working.

However the biggest reason for setting myself on a path to failure, actively trying to make mistakes, big mistakes, is that I'll truly begin to see that it's really not such a bad thing. I will know first hand that I can recover, that most people don't notice, that the world doesn't stop. I'll be less afraid in the future.

So while you may not be ready to actively try to fail I do encourage you to face your fears. Here's a little trick to make it easier. Imagine that thing you're afraid of - launching a new product, cutting your day job down to part-time, approaching retail shops. Imagine the absolute worst case scenario. If every bad thing you can imagine in relation to your fear were to happen what would it look like? I suspect it's really not all that bad. I suspect you could easily get out of the situation with only a few bruises and scrapes. By imagining your worst case fears you take away their power, you see they're not really that bad. You might even be able to see a way to avoid them entirely and still face your fear.

So here's to a year full of cuts, scrapes, bruises and failure! May we all brush ourselves off gracefully and walk away smiling.

What are your biggest fears for the year to come?

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I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve [at] lightboxsf [dot] com

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!

Who's Your True Fan?

I recently read the original article that Seth Godin and Chris Guillebeau have referred to many times, "1000 True Fans" written by Kevin Kelly back in 2008. Since then I haven't really been able to let it go. It brought up two core ideas for me that are extremely powerful when trying to get a perspective on your business model and ideal client. 

Let's start with the business model first. Kelly's premise is that if an artist has 1000 true fans that support him by spending $100 a year, the artist can make a decent living and not have to worry about appealing to the masses. While a valid and interesting argument there are many ways to debate its merit. I won't bother with poking holes, instead I want to focus on the numbers. Ugh I know, I promise to keep them simple.

To me the idea of having 1000 true fans or ideal clients for my business seems like a high number. We're not talking mailing list subscribers or blog readers, we're talking people who buy what you're selling regularly. But I'm also not an individual artist, I'm a consultant. So I played with the numbers a little and thought, what if I had 200 ideal clients that paid me $500/year? Same end number and that seems much more doable for my business model. That's 2 e-courses or only 5 in-person sessions. I can see that happening.

Then I started thinking in terms of clients, what if I'm talking to someone who sells t-shirts at $25 each. They would need 1000 true fans to buy 4 t-shirts a year to make those numbers, is that realistic? I'm thinking that might be a little high, but what if they sold something else at a $50 price point? Do you see where I'm going with this?

Playing with the numbers is this way gives you a whole new perspective on how many people you need to reach and what you need to sell them. Maybe you really only need $50,000 a year or even less, or perhaps your work sells for $100-$500. Play with the numbers the same way to see what that really means in terms of items/services sold and total number of customers. You might even begin to find it fun.

The second idea that stuck with me was the definition of a true fan. Kelly talks about it terms of someone who loves everything you do and buys it all, he was focusing a lot on musicians. But I started to think, who is that person who would be so excited by every course, e-book, and workshop I could think of that they would sign up? What would I have to give in terms of information, support, and/or guidance to keep them coming back? I'm still working on that answer, but I'm pretty sure it'll help me grow the business.

Imagine who that person is that would want to own every piece of jewelry you make or would be so excited by the colors of yarn you dye that they buy some of each. Can you picture who they are? Do you know why they love what you do so much? Do you know how they found you and why they keep coming back? You are certainly on to something if you can answer those questions.

There is no solid right answer to either of these ideas, but I'm sure that if you even attempt to answer them both for yourself you'll gain some serious insight into what structure your business needs to take and who's going to support it.

I'd love to hear some of the answers you come up with.

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I encourage comments directly to this post, but also feel free to email me directly with questions, reactions, struggles, etc. genevieve [at] lightboxsf [dot] com

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!