What would I focus on if I were just starting out again?

Where I would focus my energy, my time, my attention, my money, if I were to start out in business from day zero?

If all the stuff that I've just been working on for the last five years didn't exist, where would I start again? Or if I knew what I knew now, what would I do differently?

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5 things I would focus on if I were starting from scratch

I often get asked this question in podcasts interviews. And my answer is usually, I wouldn't change anything about how I started my business, about the first four or five years of my business. I'm now nearly five years in. How crazy is that? But I say I wouldn't change any of it because every mistake I made, everything that went wrong, everything that I did that was a waste of time, all of those things brought me to where I am now, and I wouldn't change any of that.

But having learned a few things along the way, hopefully these five areas that I would focus on if I was starting a business from scratch, will help you to find a little bit of direction if you're still in the early days of business. Or even if you're like me and you're already a few years down the track, these are some pretty powerful places to focus.

 

I would pick a narrow niche I could own

So firstly, I would pick a narrow niche that I could own. So when I first started in the marketing world,  I was the generalist marketing chick, right? Everyone came to me for the free content, but when it came to paying for products, they went to the specialists.

So they came to me to learn about Facebook ads and Instagram marketing and email marketing for free, but when they wanted to actually learn deeper about how to run Instagram ads and Facebook ads and all of the little bits and pieces, they went and paid the Facebook ads expert, or the email marketing expert, or the Instagram expert. They didn't pay me.

Since I niched down into digital product launches, launch marketing and launch strategy, it's been really smooth sailing because there's been very little competition. Obviously, it's increasing a lot lately. You guys might've noticed a few other people popping up in the space. But it's still relatively little competition, compared with just being the generalist marketer.

When you are in a narrow niche, it is much, much easier to become known as the go-to person, than when you pick a broad niche. You might think, “Oh, if I'm the generalist marketer, I can help so many more people because there are so many more people who want to learn about Facebook ads, Instagram and email marketing, compared with just the number of people who want to learn about just Facebook ads.” It may sound counter-intuitive, but you actually end up helping more people, reaching more people by narrowing down your niche, because you are the go-to person so people come to you.

And just another little side note, I did talk about this in an blog a little while ago, about how you can actually niche without niching your whole business. You can niche by product. So you can niche and say, you want to own the space about Instagram marketing. You can then have one product that's Instagram marketing for real estate agents, one product that is Instagram marketing for health and wellness businesses. I don't know. You can niche it down by product. You don't have to just niche your entire business and be like, “Well, I'm just going to do Instagram marketing for real estate agents.” You don't have to do it like that.

 

I would focus on building my authority in the niche

The second area I would focus on would be building my authority in my niche. I would start to build up some intellectual property. I would create some of my own signature frameworks, signature systems. Whatever processes I have or models that I have that help people to understand a concept or help them to get a win, I would document all of that and I would own it.

And then, I would get in front of other people's audiences and I would teach those pieces of IP to them. And I would really focus on delivering real value to these people. So I would get on other people's podcasts. I would teach this to their memberships, their online courses, their community, all of those places. I would get in front of those people.

 

I would launch a podcast early on

I launched my podcast nearly three years ago. And honestly, it was a game-changer. I wish I'd done it years earlier. Even if when you're launching your podcast, you only have 10 listeners at the start and one of those listeners is your mom, it's still a big credibility booster. Nobody else knows that you only have 10 listeners, but the fact that you have a podcast, shows people that you are serious about your area of expertise, that you're serious about your niche. And you're not just somebody who's set up another Instagram account and posted a few blogs to their website, because a podcast still has a slight barrier to entry. It's not as easy to start as a blog. So it's that little bit of like a, “Ooh, okay, this person is a podcaster.” It's a credibility thing. It makes you look like more of an authority in other people's eyes.

It also gives you somewhere to send people to learn more about you after you've been on a podcast or talked to someone's community. And it also gives you a really good way to get in front of people who you wouldn't otherwise have a foot in the door with this early on in your business. So you would be able to get them onto your podcast for an interview. Generally, people are pretty receptive to podcast interviews. They want to be on podcasts, even really big names. So getting them onto your podcast is a way to get onto a Zoom call or however you're recording the interview with this person who you wouldn't otherwise get to talk to. And that then allows you to start to build a relationship with people who you wouldn't otherwise be able to build relationships with.

 

I would spend less time on Instagram

The fourth area that I would focus on if I was starting out, well, this is kind of a negative focus, but I would focus less on Instagram. So in my first business, which was an e-commerce business, I spent probably one or two hours on Instagram every day, engaging with people, commenting, following people, just trying to build up an engaged audience before I launched the business.

And on the day that I launched, I think I had around maybe 15,000 followers and I thought, “Okay, cool. This is great. This is my ticket to the big time. I'm going to make lots of money on launch day.” I launched and I made $300. So Instagram can look great. And you think, “Oh, that business with all of the thousands of followers is going to be so successful,” but generally, it's not the best use of your time and energy.

Even these days, and I have 26,000 followers on my current business account, my personal brand account. Even these days, people still don't really buy from me from Instagram. My email list are the people who buy from me. I use Instagram to try and motivate them to join my email list from there, and that's then where I nurture them and sell to them. And also even my podcast converts better than Instagram.

 

I would start building my email list intentionally from day 1

Honestly, I wish I had spent more time building my email list at the start, because this is where the money is. If I need to bring in some cash into my business really quickly, I know all I need to do is write a really compelling email, add a bonus in, send it to my email list and boom, that's a few sales.

It's so powerful to have a strong email list and to consistently email them as well. So don't just build your list and then leave them there, but focus on nurturing them. Thinking, “Okay, how can I get these people to the point where they need to be, to be ready to buy from me the next time I launch something to them?”

So those are five areas that I would focus out on if I was just starting my business from the beginning again.

 

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