Risks of becoming your own boss

One of the risks of being your own boss is not answering some fundamental questions:

• Who are your customers? 
• Are they companies?
  • If so, what:
    • industry,
    • size,
    • location?
• Are they individuals? If so, what gender, what age, what type of issues?  

You should be able to clearly identify them in one or two sentences.

Know who & what you are dealing with

Most businesses fail due to a failure to clearly understand:

Ineffective sales and marketing

Sadly, setting yourself up in business, getting a website and getting some business cards is not enough to get potential clients beating a path to your door. 

The 30 Second Elevator Pitch

Imagine you have someone’s attention for 30 seconds (like going up in a lift with them) and you have this opportunity to tell them about you and your business. 

Maybe they may be a potential new client, or at the very least they are someone who knows someone who may be a new client.  

Consider how you would use those 30 seconds using these four headings:

• Your Name and your role in the business.

• Your Business (a name or a few words that tell them what your business does)

• Your service/product (what specifically do you do/sell that they may be interested in)

• Your added value (what makes you stand out, what would they value that you can offer)

An Example of the 30 Second ‘Elevator pitch’:

‘Hello, my name is John Davies and I own a business call Quantum Services, which is a startup IT consultancy in the North town area.  We specialise in (service A and B) with a great track record in delivering bespoke small business solutions to a broad range of sectors.  In fact, we have recently delivered a (insert short example job) and the Managing Director estimated that this saved (will save) them £60k in the financial year in increased workforce capacity’. We are really please with we did such a great job.