Two months in and we are going strong. We are finally taking a moment to catch our breath and reflect. Before we launched, we decided that having a blog would be a fun and creative outlet to possibly reach potential clients. But it’s also a way to share our adventures of starting a new business with others. For us, Tekla Promotions is personal. It’s ours. This blog is our story.
Over these last two months, many people have asked us how we started growing our business. And what better way to share than with a blog post. Granted, we’ve been a litttle slow getting the blog going, but this is a good way to start and get the momentum rolling.
Our strategy for the first few months was to start small, slow, and steady. Starting a new business is an involved process with a huge learning curve. We had our plan. But as life typically goes, the action doesn’t always follow the plan. We started bigger and faster. No complaints here. Well, there may have been some complaining from our families as they searched for clean socks to wear while the laundry went by the wayside.
We jumped in with both feet and hit the ground running. We worked mornings, evenings, weekends, and any spare time we could find. We were learning, and continue to learn, many lessons along the way. First and foremost may be about timing. Note to self: the best time to start a business may not be the last month of summer vacation with kids at home. Our homes may take a few months to clean and recover from the neglect of starting up our business. Such is life.
The lessons we are learning as new business owners are numerous. Some apply strictly to our type of business, but most are common knowledge that we continue to hone. These lessons we’ve learned are important to our success, and we may need to be reminded of every now and again as we get established.
1. Set goals. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and beyond. As a new company, we developed a plan of action including short and long term goals for the success of our business. It’s also important to recognize that these goals may change over time and adjustments need to be made. It’s been thrilling to reach some of our first goals and equally exciting to make new ones.
2. Social media is crucial. Every chance we get, we post. And many times we share those posts on our personal social media accounts. (Sorry friends. We know we are whipping you with our business.) But it works. It gets people talking. Our friends have asked questions about our business and have shared our information with others.
3. Network whenever you get a chance. We attend networking events whenever we get the chance. We constantly tell people about our business with hopes they will in turn tell others they know about us. Word of mouth is important to driving business. The more people hear our name, the more likely they are to remember us when a need arises.
4. In a business like ours, customer service is key. Our customers are our driving force. Building relationships with our customers is one of our goals that will never change. We established this in the beginning, and outstanding, personalized customer service is a mission that we will continue to uphold.
5. But one thing we know, like with anything else in life, so much of the outcome depends on the effort you put into it. You have to put yourself out there and step out of your comfort zone. As we do this, we like to think it develops character. And if it doesn’t, then we are at least taking risks and trying something new. Our company, as small as it may be, is a reflection of us, and we are proud of what it is becoming.
We’ve been lucky and fortunate, but it hasn’t come without hard work and dedication. We are excited to continue learning new lessons about our business and about ourselves as business women. We are thankful to our friends, family, and clients that have supported us on this new venture. What a crazy, fun, and fabulous first two months it has been, and we are looking forward to many more.
