Day 13
Business Counseling With The SBDC
Skip To The Key Takeaways & Action Items
The Mason SBDC (Small Business Development Center) has already been a huge part of my business and this blog for the past 2 weeks. Through classes, I learned how to form my LLC and I learned how to price my services. But the #1 thing that I’ve been looking forward to as a brand new small business is the one on one sessions with a counselor offered for FREE to small business owners like myself.
In order to schedule, it was very easy. Mason SBDC is very responsive via phone or email. I gave them the information about my new business, and they scheduled me with a counselor for a one-on-one to discuss strategy, among other things.
I was paired with the head of the Mason SBDC Timm Johnson, and we had a great 1 hour one on one discussion about my business, potential customers and my web presence.
Here are my key takeaways from our first meeting:
Key Takeaway #1: Give The Business A Presence Everywhere
A few years ago when I started my business as a very very very part-time operation, I created a website, a facebook page, and a youtube page. So my business did have a pretty decent online presence. However, as the counselor pointed out, I needed to be EVERYWHERE, specifically in 2 places.
First, I didn’t have my business listed on Google. I had mistakenly thought that since I don’t have a business address that I want to share with my clients, that I couldn’t have a business profile on Google. Wrong.
Second I needed to have a presence on LinkedIn. And thinking of those 2, I feel like Yelp is another spot.
Thirdly, I need to re-examine and update my website and my Facebook page, which I never updated after going full time.
Action Items:
Create Google Listing
Create LinkedIn Business Page
Create Yelp Page
Look Into Other Places The Competition Is Online At
Review Website
Review Facebook Page
Key Takeaway #2: Know Who You Are And Don’t Think Too Big
One of the issues I’ve had in the area in which I live is that there are so many different markets all jammed together in the DC Metro area. So instead of thinking that my territory is the entire region, I need to narrow my focus, find out truly who I want to help and focus my efforts on them.
Action Items:
Pick my top 5 neighborhoods/areas
Reach out to the 3 top producers
Study the top 10 competitors
There were a lot of other great things and action items I have that I don’t really want to share in this article, but the one hour was a great session. My next one is coming up in a few weeks and I can’t wait to see what I can accomplish in the days leading up to it, and see what that 2nd meeting will inspire.