One of our Directors, Ellen, talks about reviving your passion for your business, finding the fun, living your values and how you can get going on your marketing strategy in light of all of this.
We got accepted onto the Natwest Accelerator programme in April which means we’ve been doing a whole lot of thinking, plotting and planning for the future of Vida Creative. Because of this, I’ve (Ellen – hi there!) had a lot of stuff whirling around in my head for a while and wanted to share it with people going through similar business growth processes to us.
Our experience on the programme has been invaluable and super exciting so far. And it’s also made us focus and think more about our own marketing.
Because just focusing on the day to day and ‘doing the work’ isn’t the best way to scale and grow a business, is it. You need to think about the future and how you’re going to get to where you want to be.
A huge part of making that happen is obviously marketing. And we’ve gone through a bit of a weird process recently, in that it’s normally the process we take with our clients. Talking about our goals, who our target customers are, what our key messages are and the values that help us to understand why on earth we’re doing what we do.
What I’ve found through the process of pulling together our own marketing plan is that it’s actually pretty damn motivating.
Thinking about our values has been especially poignant. It’s really helped us to plan where we’re going to focus our efforts and why. We’ve already started testing different ways of spreading our messages, we’re living our values, and we’ve found it fun!
But why am I going on about all of this?
Because I understand that when you’re trying to do it for yourself it can all get a little overwhelming. I felt it too.
It’s not that you don’t know what to do, it’s that you’re so ‘in’ your business that it can be tough to step outside of it and make some sort of coherent plan. And sometimes it’s purely that you don’t have the luxury of time to devote to planning your marketing. And then actually getting on with it is a whole other thing… I feel you!
But if you boil it down to why you started your business and remind yourself of why you love it, then it all becomes a little bit clearer. Well it did for me anyway. It can also make it easier for you to ‘find the fun’, and you might even want to make the time to focus on marketing that amazing thing you’re doing every day.
So, my advice?
Get your ideas down on paper! Whether you pick up a physical pen and paper or type your thoughts in the notes on your phone, just start writing.
If you’ve been carrying all of your ideas around in your head you might actually feel a bit lighter afterwards. You can then start to turn what is probably going to be a chaotic set of notes into some sort of strategy for conquering the world with some inspiring marketing! Or at least the start of something exciting anyway…