When starting a new business it’s easy to want to appear that you’re already successful and thriving. The whole make it till you fake it mentality runs rampart in new businesses and too often people get caught up in the lie of being successful that they actually prevent themselves from being successful. Being upfront and honest from the beginning definitely helps in the long run.
There is nothing wrong in wanting to look established when you’re first starting out. The problem is people often take to the extreme to make themselves and their businesses look important. Trying to keep up with the Joneses will ultimately lead your business down the path of failure.
Fake Social Media Followers
People take the high number of followers and assume that they’re an authority figure in their niche or field so they go out and buy thousands of fake followers to inflate their follower count. While a high follower count is impressive, how does it look to have 150k followers, three posts and only 2 likes on each post? Someone looking into that can see that you’re inflating your social media followers with fake users to seem like you’re a bigger deal than you truly are at this point in your business.
The better social media strategy is build your followers organically and scramble in sponsored posts or boosted posts as well. It’s not as sexy as having 150k followers on day 1, but you’re being true and honest with your brand which clients can appreciate.
If you want to quickly gain followers you can always run a contest where you give away a product or a service. And in order to be eligible they have to follow your account and/or reshare your post. Nothing excites people more than something for free.
YOLO
That YOLO lifestyle you see everyone seem to be having on social media will have you feeling left out and wanting more. From spending money on lavish trips or bottles in the club to make your brand seem important will have you going broke in no time. A lot of what is on social media is a false bravado. It’s faked to imply more worth and importance than they truly are. Don’t lose sight of that as a business owner. We want to impress but at what cost? You’ll be spending more money than you have coming in and that is always a recipe for disaster.
Build Your Foundation
When starting a new business, building a strong foundation is imperative. The long hours creating content for only a handful of people to see from the start isn’t as sexy renting a boat in Miami with friends on Instagram and pretending you’re celebrating closing a big deal. The goal of a new business isn’t to be the brightest star at the beginning it’s to be the star that shines the longest.
Developing brand guidelines, digital marketing and SEO strategies as well as content strategies should be the main focus of your business. Those will drive leads to your website and hopefully land you clients and customers. No one wants to see you living it up in Tulum on the business IG and then go to your website to see a generic coming soon message.
There is a quote, “The loudest person in the room is the weakest person in the room.” That resonates because too many new business are trying to be the loudest person in the room.
The loudest person in the room is the weakest person in the room.
Starting a new business is never easy. And odds are you may never be successful; however, going about creating your business the right way is really the only way to give your business a chance to succeed. Block out all the fake noise online and on social media; not everyone is as successful as they appear in the TikTok video or IG story. Build from the bottom up and maybe one day you can be in Tulum on a boat because you’re really celebrating a deal closing worth millions.