5 Things to Know About Your First Year as an Entrepreneur

5 Things to Know About Your First Year
as an Entrepreneur

BY MICHELLE KNIGHT

Look, I’m going to go against the grain here and say starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur takes work.

Insert Rihana singing “work work work work work”

The reality is this is not for the faint of heart, which is ironic because what you need to make this thing work is a whole lot of heart.

In addition to having the belief, mindset and deep desire to make this thing work there are 5 things you need to know in your first year as an entrepreneur.

The first year of my business it took months, I’m talking 8 months for me to truly figure out what I was doing.

I took action, continuous action and was busy working on building this dream, but I had little to show for it.

So, I consider myself a freaking expert in helping women who struggle to get going because I’ve lived through it.

After 8 months of pushing uphill things started to shift for me and within three months I was making enough monthly income to replace my 9 to 5 and in a year I had made 6-figures cash in my business.

Do I think I could have hit those goals faster if I’d had known these things? YES

But, then I wouldn’t be able to share this with you today #lessons.

So here we go - 5 Things to Know About Your First Year as an Entrepreneur (what I wish I’d known).

1. YOUR WEBSITE

How do I say this in a way that doesn’t come across as a total butthead - no one is searching for your website.

Oh, I know you want it to be the case, but in the beginning, people don’t know you, yet so many entrepreneurs spend so much time on building their website right out of the gate when they should be focused on building brand awareness.

Your website is needed and will be one of the most valuable tools in your business, but spending months and months and sometimes thousands of dollars to build your website is a waste at the beginning.

Take the time to identify your niche, who you want to attract and your brand messages BEFORE building your website and be sure to have a marketing plan to actually drum up enough interest that has people visiting your website.

2. YOUR BRAND

Another one that takes so much time and so much money - yep, it’s branding.

I love branding, it is my jam, but so many entrepreneurs do it wrong the first year. They jump right into finding their colors, fonts and designing their logo BEFORE understanding their brand foundations. Yep, you guessed it - your niche, your audience and your brand messages.

PLUS, they overlook the power of emotional branding (more on that here) which at its core is WHY people buy. So rather than diving right into the visual branding what we should be focused on is what branding truly is - the deeper connection to your audience.

One of the best things you can do is create content for your audience to build brand awareness (yes, this is part of branding) and watch as your visuals fall into place.

3. POWER OF STORY

You’ve got one thing when you start and that’s your story! It’s also the one thing you have that will help you stand out from the crowd and competition.

You need to spend time uncovering your story and setting a strong foundation for story in your business.

Your audience is 22x more likely to remember story, which means it goes beyond just your brand story and also includes authentically tying story into every piece of content and marketing material you make.

4. SOCIAL MEDIA I CONFUSING

Yep, that’s right social media is a lot of information. It can be one of the coolest tools you use in the online space OR it can literally drive you crazy.

In the beginning, you want to be everywhere because that’s what you’re told right? Well, not really the best move when you’re just starting out.

Instead, I suggest you focus on one social media platform to start and get really good at that. In order to do this think of two things. #1 Where do you like to hang out and #2 Where is your audience spending time.

Boom - start there and stop overwhelming yourself trying to be everywhere!

5. MESSAGING IS MAGIC

If there is one thing I’ve learned as an entrepreneur and especially my first year in business is that messaging can make or break your success.

This goes back decades and is the foundation of successful advertising. You need to be crystal clear, do everything in your power to not confuse your audience and clearly communicate how it benefits your audience.

If there is one thing you set up at the start of your business it should be your brand messaging. What do you provide and how does it benefit your audience?

That’s the secret - making sure you’re clearly sharing how it benefits your audience.

If you’re always focused on this, it’s freaking magic.

I hope you take these five essential pieces and put them into action.

They can completely change the course of your business and your ability to reach profitability faster.

If you need support along the way, that’s where I come in.

My program Roadmap to Freedom is opening soon and it’s better than ever. This live 90-day program is for the new and aspiring female entrepreneur ready to simplify the process of building an online business that allows her to make money on her terms and create a life of abundant experiences and impact.

You can learn more at brandmerry.com/freedom.

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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MEET MICHELLE

Hey there, I'm Michelle Knight and I an online branding and marketing consultant for female entrepreneurs.

I believe in the power of storytelling and using that superpower to brand and market yourself online...oh and to set yourself free.

I'm obsessed with living a life of freedom, so much so, that my family and I now travel full-time while running my business from the road.

This blog serves as a home base for all things branding, marketing, content creation and more.

Why perfectionism is bad for business (entrepreneur edition)

Why perfectionism is bad for business (entrepreneur edition)

April 25, 2019

PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO. SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH A QUICK 6 MINUTE VIDEO!

It's a trap. I'm talking about perfectionism, more specifically, perfectionism in business.

I know it's really easy when you dive into this whole entrepreneur thing that you want every single thing to be perfect.

So I have to know, do you struggle with perfectionism and more specifically, did you feel that heightened when you became an entrepreneur when you started diving into the world of entrepreneurism?

I know I did, and you and I are not alone. There are so many women who struggle with this. Today, I want to talk to you about what perfectionism means for your business and how you can start to escape it.

Real talk. I have struggled with perfectionism my entire life, and I'm not talking about that one time in college when that one paper had to be perfect.

I'm talking about perfectionism on an emotional, mental, and physical level really impacting me for years and years. And so when I tell you I get you, I am not freaking lying.

That feeling of almost being paralyzed to do anything in your business, redoing and redoing an email and a website, trying to get it absolutely perfect to the point that you feel exhausted and slightly overwhelmed and comparing yourself to other people in the online space because let's just admit it right now, comparisonitis plagues perfectionists so much.

I get it - all right. Maybe you're not that far gone, and to that, I say bless you, but perhaps you are, and you need to hear exactly what I'm telling you today.

Throughout my entrepreneur journey, I had to come face to face with my struggle around perfectionism. And today I have some harsh truths for you; perfectionism is keeping you stuck. I know, I get it.

When I first heard it, I was like, who do you think you are? But it's true and after three years of really making this a focus, to dive into how perfectionism was keeping me stuck, how it was keeping me in a safe space, I have come to learn that it is an excuse that so many entrepreneurs use, and it's probably an excuse that you're using today.

It's a belief that you have held onto for so long that it's ultimately keeping you stuck.

It is keeping you in a safe bubble where you are not taking risks and big, bold chances. And I have to tell you; it is those risks and big, bold chances that make you a better entrepreneur and more importantly, a better version of yourself.

And so with everything, I genuinely believe that you have a choice and you might be thinking to yourself, I know that and I believe that, and maybe you know that on a surface level, but have you actually thought about that today?

Have you thought about the fact that you can live with something forever and ever and you can wake up one day and have a choice to no longer let that be your truth?

You have a choice right now.

You can choose to stay safe in this perfectionist bubble, redoing things over and over again, not putting your voice out into the world, or you can choose to take action, and you can choose to get super uncomfortable, and I have to tell you, that's where growth comes from. It comes from doing uncomfortable things.

Also, side note, if the fear of failure is like going off in your head right now, watch my video from last week because we talked about the fear of failure and what it truly means.

But I have a question for you. Does everyone who struggles with perfectionism stay hidden? The answer is no. Obviously, because there are big important people in this world who are out there sharing their message that struggle with this same thing that you and I struggle with and I know that was a huge part for me.

When I realized that these people out there every single day are doing it even though they might be a little fearful that they might fail or that it won't be perfect. They're still doing it. I'm standing in front of you today to tell you that you have a choice.

You deserve to show up, and you deserve to be seen just as you are in this moment, even if it doesn't feel perfect, it's your job to decide not to let this label keep you from achieving greatness.

My first live stream was horrible. My first webinar blew up in my face, my first launch. It did not go as planned, and the only way that I grew was by putting it out there and continuing to take action over and over again.

So how can you ever perfect something if you're not willing to put it out into the world? If you are afraid of what people are going to say, I have to tell you there will always be people who love you and there will always be people who want to bring you down.

You have to focus on the people who love you, and you have to put your stuff out there and to be your true authentic self anyway.

So how are you going to show up and take action and take risks even though it is scary, even though you want it to be perfect and it's not there yet because I am telling you your business, your life of freedom, it all comes back to you and the choices that you will make today.

If for you, that action means finally getting started, your thriving online business. If that means for you saying yes to the dream that you've had forever playing over and over in your head, but you're afraid to do it because guess what? It's not perfect yet.

I want to invite you to my upcoming masterclass where you'll hear from someone who has been where you are struggling with perfectionism, and we're going to talk about exactly what you need to create a thriving online business that doesn't waste time, energy, or resources, and get you to profitability faster. You can go to brandmerry.com/masterclass.

Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!

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P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure as a Female Entrepreneur

How to Overcome Your Fear of Failure
as a Female Entrepreneur

April 18, 2019

PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO. SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH A QUICK 10 minute video!

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Fear of failure as an entrepreneur is a real freakin’ thing.

Maybe right now you are afraid of failing in the moment because you're doing something and all of those fears keep popping up for you that this might not work out.  

Maybe you're thinking of taking the leap, thinking of taking action and the fear of failure is playing over and over in your head.

Today I want to talk to you about the fear of failure and how it doesn't have to be your story and I'm going to give you the number one question to ask yourself if you are ready to face your fears.

I've been an entrepreneur for three years now and when I tell you that fear of failure is something that I have seriously struggled with, I am not lying

In the beginning, I was almost paralyzed by my fear of failure. I almost did not start this business because I was really scared of what it could ultimately mean for my family. What people would think about me? What would people think about my decision to leave a nine to five to pursue this dream when I had a brand new baby?Would just think I was absolutely insane if it didn't work out?

I put a lot of time and energy into this business and I'm so lucky that it did work out, but don't think for a second that those fears of failure, or any fears for that matter, are not constantly coming up.

You've probably heard of the saying new level new devil - It doesn't go away, but I've learned a couple of strategies that help me move through that fear faster and that's what I want to talk to you about today.

The fear of failure is ultimately keeping you stuck. It's keeping you stuck in this cycle, in this comfortable space. Think about it, fears pop up when we're questioning something.

When we're taking a leap of faith, when we're thinking about taking action towards our dreams, that's when fears come up.

And so I like to believe that fear is your heart's way of telling you that you are ready and it's up to you to listen to that fear and believe that fear.

You can then choose to stay comfortable or to face that fear and see what amazing, beautiful things that you can create in this one life that you have.

When you start looking at the fear of failure as your heart being like, “Whoa, let's do this dang thing,” It shifts everything for you.

Now, let’s talk about how to deal with fears that are coming up for you at this moment. You know all of those dark hole things that are playing over and over in your head and they're keeping you up at night.

TRY THIS EXERCISE

1. Take a moment, get a piece of paper, get your phone out and I want you to write down all of those worst case scenarios. No, seriously do that like right now, like write out your worst case scenarios.

2. Now I want you to look at that list you've just created and I want you to ask yourself, truly, is this really possible? Am I really going to let it get to this place?

We make up all these worst case scenarios in our head and we never actually look at them and bring attention to them, but the second that we do, sometimes were like, wow, that's a little ridiculous.

That's the power of the mind, man. It could take us into some dark, dark places, but now you have an opportunity, you have a choice. You've seen what is playing over in your mind and you have a choice to say, no, I'm not going to let that happen.

I'm not going to let these dark black hole thoughts keep me in my comfort zone and keep me safe because this place of safety of comfort is where so many entrepreneurs either plateau or never get enough momentum to get started and I don't want you to stay there now.

Ok, let’s get into the number one question to ask yourself if the fear of failure is something that is truly affecting you.

BEST QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF

I want you to think of someone that you absolutely admire. Maybe it's somebody in the online space, maybe it's somebody in your personal life. I know for me, Oprah, she basically always comes to mind. I remember being that girl running home from school at 4:30 watching Oprah on TV.

Fill in the blank with your person & ask yourself the following:

• Where would you be if Oprah or that person, let fear lead the way?

• Where would you be if that person didn't take action?

• Where would you be if that person allowed fear to keep them safe?

My guess is that you'd be in a completely different life or situation than you are now and that is exactly my point.

It has to be about more than just you running this business. Being an entrepreneur isn't really about you. At the end of the day, it's about the people who need to hear from you.

It's about the people who will be impacted by your work. They need you to show up. They need you to get your voice out there. They need you to take action.

So think about it. Who is that person who needs you? Even if one person is affected by you, you have made a difference and that creates a ripple effect that then affects somebody else and someone else and someone else.

If you start taking action, think about all of the people that will then be affected by that.

Anytime that fear comes up, I think about the people I'm able to impact. So where would you be if so and so didn't show up and who are you meant to impact?

It's a ripple effect and it starts with you right now at this moment.

I know that those fears that are coming up for me are not true, that I can rewrite my story and that so many people need to hear my message.

Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

Blog Resources

brandmerrry.com/masterclass

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New Entrepreneur Shopping List

New Entrepreneur Shopping List

April 12, 2019

Starting a business can be super overwhelming. You can go from “Wohoooo, this is happening!” to “Holy Sh*t! Where do I even start!”

There are countless options on the internet that you can use for list building, sending emails, collecting leads, housing your course, accepting payments, designing, etc….

Seriously, that list goes on and on and on.

When I started my business not one single person told me what I should be investing in for my business. I was bootstrapping my buns off so I did a lot of research to find the right platforms that worked for me and my clients. Now three years later I’ve come to love a few specific platforms and tools and recommend them to all my clients.

So I thought why keep them to myself - so many of you need this information in your back pocket.

If you’re a new or aspiring entrepreneur read on for my Ultimate New Entrepreneur Shopping List!

1. Kajabi

If I had known about Kajabi from the beginning of my business it would have saved me so many freaking headaches. Now, we are working on moving all my stuff to Kajabi because it can do #allthethings. Kajabi is an amazing platform that allows you to house your website, grow your email list, house your courses and accept payments.

Some of my favorite features in Kajabi are:

• Course Creation

• Membership Sites

• Email Marketing

• Lead Generation (including landing pages)

• Automation (i.e. sales funnels)

• Webinars

• Accepting payments

It’s now my #1 suggestion for entrepreneurs because it’s that good. The best part is even if you don’t have a course or membership site now you can grow into it. Now, I know it might seem like a scary investment right out of the gate, but when you add up all the individual platforms trust me you’ll spend just as much and end up switching later. You can test out Kajabi with their 30-day money-back guarantee!

2. Email Marketing

If you’re really bootstrapping or currently loving your website provider, you still need a strong email marketing platform. A community is everything when you are starting out and you NEED to be connecting with them beyond social media.

Creating an email list allows you to stay in contact with your audience, build trust with them through consistency and ultimately sell your offers and products, so this is an area you can’t skimp. I love Convertkit because it gives me the high-level segmenting (like Kajabi) without a major price tag.

If you’re looking for an email platform that can grow with you, I highly recommend. Get a free trial here.

3. Roadmap to Freedom

Shameless plug? I think so. Look, I’ve been doing this business thing for a few years now and if there is one thing I see so many entrepreneurs missing it is a step-by-step plan that supports them from start to finish.

I know if I had this at the beginning of my business I could have grown even faster. And this step-by-step plan does not mean starting on social media - that’s a big fat NO!

It’s following the 5-step roadmap to build a solid foundation, community and so much more. I’m sharing this exact roadmap in my upcoming masterclass, sign up here.

Want to learn more about the Roadmap to Freedom program that has helped so many women creating a thriving online business that allows them to make money on their terms and create a life bigger than their dreams? Head here: brandmerry.com/freedom

4. SmarterQueue

It’s no secret that social media is one of the best free tools for growing your business. It’s important when utilizing these platforms (think Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Facebook Groups and more) that you are consistent.

If you’re currently flying by the seat of your pants and coming up with content every day you’re going to get overwhelmed super quick AND if you’re posting your content once and then letting it drift away into the social media black hole you’re wasting time.

Enter SmarterQueue! SmarterQueue allows you to pre-schedule your content across multiple platforms and evergreen your content, meaning you can recycle your posts every few weeks so your great content is actually seen.

You need a social media scheduler for your business and your sanity and SmarterQueue is my favorite. Test out SmarterQueue for 30 days

5. Trello

And finally we get to my favorite topic...organization! Remember when I talked about flying by the seat of your pants and how that just doesn’t work?! Well, there is an easy and free fix to this and it’s Trello.

Trello allows you to create boards for your business, organize tasks, evergreen recurring tasks, communicate with team and so much more.

I don’t go a freaking day without utilizing my weekly Trello board and have boards for all areas of my life, including our full-time travel schedule. Read more about how I use Trello in my business.

And did I mention it’s free? There is literally no reason for you to NOT sign up. Sign up for Trello

There’s a lot of information, tools, resources, etc in the online space (mine included), but it really comes down to finding something that works well for someone else, testing it for 30 days and making modifications.

Trust me when I tell you I’ve done the testing and these are my top recommendations and shopping list for new and aspiring online biz owners.

Reminder: If you’re just getting started I highly recommend Kajabi so you don’t have to piece it all together and can create a platform that grows WITH YOU!

Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

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How to Gain Confidence in Selling Your Services

How to Gain Confidence in Selling Your Services

April 4, 2019

PREFER TO WATCH, INSTEAD OF READ? I’VE GOT YOU BOO. SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH A QUICK 9 minute video!

Do you currently feel super sleazy when it comes to selling? I see you over there not wanting to share your offers with the world.

You know you need to get on the phone with people, but then getting on the phone with people and then like freezing because selling has gotten a really bad rap.

We all think of the encyclopedia salesman who came door to door or the car salesman who has given us a really bad rap in movies.

We think of aunt Susie who is even worse trying to push her product to us through Facebook messenger or through text messenger and it's become a bit overwhelming. I'm telling you though, selling is essential if you want to create a profitable brand.

In today's post, I want to share with you how you can gain the confidence to sell your programs and your offers, to the people who need them most

Selling is super important if you want to create a profitable brand and as a branding and business mentor to female entrepreneurs, selling comes up a lot, especially because my audience really wants to create an authentic brand so they don't want to use silly, you know, sleazy sales tactics.

I want to share with you my favorite ways to boost your confidence because that's where it really, really lies. It lies in you knowing from the get-go that you have what they need and you feel really confident sharing that with them.

1. Build a Relationship

At the end of the day, selling comes down to the relationship. Creating truly authentic sales comes from understanding that your audience is human. They are a person and we need to remember that at the end of the day, we are seeing Facebook ads and we are seeing promotions galore and we are seeing popups on youtube or on websites that are all trying to sell us something.

Our audience is dealing with the same exact thing and so we really have to be different and that comes down to building trust with your audience.

There are so many different ways that you can build trust with your audience. My top way is creating high-quality content, (if you need some inspiration for creating content, you can go ahead and watch some of them on my Youtube channel or see the Blog Resources at the bottom of this blog).

Another way of showing up for them is answering questions and inviting them into your world, but at the end of the day, people buy because they trust you.

Selling will become easier when you know more about your audience and they know more about you. Think of it as a friendship. If I am your girlfriend and I am telling you about this brand new product that I tried, you're probably going to go to the website and buy the product because you trust me as your friend.

The same goes for our audience. When we can approach the relationship as if they are our friend, they're more likely to trust us. They are more likely to buy from us. You're literally showing up genuinely online having conversations with people.

It's a lost art that so many entrepreneurs miss, but that is how I have signed every single one of my clients through the power of trust and focusing on the relationship.

2. Believe in Your Offer

If you are creating some sort of program or an offer that doesn't feel true and authentic to you and you don't feel confident and actually delivering that value, it's going to be really hard to sell.

That's why one of the things that I work on in my signature program Roadmap to Freedom is all about creating an offer that feels good to you at that moment.

Focusing on teaching things or guiding or helping people transform their lives based on what you know right now, not where you want to be in 10 years.

If you feel confident in the transformation that you are providing, you are going to want to shout that from the rooftops and that's when those conversations become that much easier.

It becomes less about, let me tell you about all this cool stuff about my program and more about let me tell you about what I offer. “I think this is going to be really valuable for you. This is why I think it's going to support you. What do you think?”

You have more of a take it or leave it approach to selling, which doesn't come off gross, it comes off confident and has your audience feeling like you're not constantly pressuring them.

So again, feeling grounded in your offer and what you provide gives you the confidence to share it with ease.

3. Listen

One of the easiest ways to make a sale is to actually listen to the human on the other end of the phone, the chat box or the zoom call, by listening to someone and truly understanding where they're coming from and where they want to be, you can more successfully position your offer as the solution.

That's ultimately what it is selling is just offering up a solution to the problem. It's offering up the next step. It's removing the pressure of...you have to do this on this day and if you don't do this, all hell's gonna break loose.

I have conversations with mentors who do this and feel disgusting when they get off the phone with people. I want my conversations to be genuine and nothing is more genuine than asking someone where they're at and where they want to be and truly listening to what they have to say and then with full confidence knowing you can support them at the end of the day.

It really comes down to having a strong relationship with your community, feeling super grounded in your offer and listening to what the person on the other end really has to say because when you can do that, you're setting yourself up for major success, not just in your business but also with the clients you work with and the results that they will get.

If you are a coach, a consultant or a mentor and you want to learn my four proven ways to sign your next high level one on one client than I made you a free video training sharing the exact four steps that I used in my business in the very beginning to sign my first four clients and celebrate 15k cash in my business with a list under 100 people.

Real quick before you go, I have to share some exciting news with you. My signature program, Roadmap to Freedom is back and it is better than ever. We have made it more accessible to new and aspiring female entrepreneurs by adjusting the price point of the program because it is my personal goal to help more female entrepreneurs create their dream business so that they can experience true time, financial and location freedom.

At the beginning of my business, I remember what it was like feeling super overwhelmed, not sure exactly where to start, not sure what to work on next that what would lead me to profitability.

So I created a program that would do just that. Roadmap to Freedom is a step-by-step program that walks you through everything that you need to create a profitable brand and make money on your terms.

You can learn more about the program, read amazing case studies and testimonials at brandmerry.com/freedom.

Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!

P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.

Blog Resources

How to Create Consistent Content for Your Brand
How to Improve Your Content Creation
4 Ways to Sign Your First 1:1 Clients

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