Practice Patience

For local business owners worldwide and in Southern Oregon, the three keywords for opening or running a business are location, location, and location. In today’s economic and marketing environment, the new three keys to success are patience, patience, and patience. From a financial standpoint, disposable income doesn’t exist like it did a few years ago. From a marketing standpoint, the ROI you could expect from traditional media isn’t producing as it once did. Fragmentation between social media and traditional media has contributed to diminished ROI. (If you missed it, check my post on Fragmentation.) Experts, professionals, MBAs, and many people are more competent than I say. Social media is where you need to be, and they are correct. There are many reasons that local small businesses need to participate in social media, but patience is required. At a time when a lot of local business owners don’t have a lot of patience, it is expected with social media. In some ways, social media is like starting your business all over again. If you have branded yourself correctly through traditional media, you will have an advantage when you jump into the social media pool. You’ll have your brand and awareness within your community that helps you build your base with consumers who know what you do and how you do it. The problem is that many local businesses haven’t branded themselves correctly. Most people in their community don’t know what they stand for if they know them. (Struggling on this, check out this blog, Finding Brand). This makes it harder to build your brand, and it will also take more time to build a relationship with that base. If you’re using social media right now, you’ll be talking to them differently than you have. You’ll be branding, you’ll be communicating, and you’ll be social. You won’t be selling, selling, selling. Diving into social media will take patience, like starting your business all over again. Today, there is no magic wand; there isn’t a magic offer or word that will drive more traffic to your store. Today, more than ever, success will come with hard work and a lot of grassroots marketing. As a business owner, you have to balance today with tomorrow. You must do what it takes to stay open today and build towards tomorrow so that your hard work pays off with more market share. A saying that is used a lot is that if I only knew then what I know now, I would. Here is your chance. As you dive into social media in some ways, it can be a fresh start for you and your business. Take advantage of that fresh start, listen, listen, and listen. I know patience can be challenging right now, but that is one of the most essential traits businesses that perform well tomorrow will have today.