This guest post is by Shelly Cone of beachbettypr.com.
Every business person has those customers that they can’t stand working with but can’t away, because after all, those difficult customers have the duckets. They are offering you their money and you want to accept their money.
Do you realize that there is a very simple way to stop getting those horrible customers? Stop seeking them out. Yes, I said it’s your fault that you get hard-to-work with customers. If you are getting an undue amount of customers you hate it’s probably because you aren’t being true to yourself and your business image.
Why? Because you are listening to everyone’s advice about your business and making changes that appeal to a wide demographic (a wide demographic means a demographic that includes idiots with money to spend) instead of attracting like-minded customers.
Stop appealing to those suckers, be true to your image, and you’ll start attracting clients and customers you actually like. You’ll be happier, they’ll be happier and you’ll find more success.
Here’s how to stand up and let people know the real you.
1. Tell your friends and family to shut their pie holes (respectfully, of course)
When you have a great business idea it’s natural to seek out advice from those closest to you. Those closest to you however, usually don’t have the proper credentials to succeed in business. Even if they do they may not know what’s best for your business.
When I started my site a few years ago, I listened to a lot of people who advised me to tone down my persona to conform. It took me a long time to shake that advice and let my identity shine through.
Friends, family, “gurus,” and even your inner voice will all give you advice. What you really need to do is tell all those voices—the ones outside your head as well as in—to shut up and keep their opinions to themselves. After all, you are the creative genius. It’s your business. Own it.
2. Start believing in what you are doing with your whole creative—if slightly twisted—soul
No one wants to be different, but that’s the only way your blog is going to stand out in the noise of cyberspace. Believe in your unique ideas and put them out there. There are a million, bazillion users on the internet, in every country in every corner of the world. Of those gazillions of people, there is a group that get you, that think the way you do. Focus on them.
Those are the people you want as your customers, and everyone else can go eat pie. But you won’t reach your people if you go about making the changes that everyone else says you should. I mean, certainly, there are people who have been there and done that—those are your mentors and you should listen to them and give them credit in your first best-selling book, but the creative genius needs to be all you.
3. Just do it
I’ll bet there’s something you’ve been wanting to do with your blog that you’ve been afraid to do. Maybe it’s a well-thought out blog post that you think might be too scandalous. Maybe it’s a graphic. Maybe it’s that in-your-face tagline that succinctly sums up what you’re about but you’re afraid of what “they” would think—whoever “they” are.
Just do it.
Pull up that scary-but-probably-brilliant blog post, tagline, anecdote or whatever, take a deep breath, and press publish. Or schedule it to publish and make yourself forget when it’s going to publish. Then send me the link, send it to a friend, send it to the world. Then close your laptop and walk away for the rest of the day.
When you come back I assure you the Internet will still be there. Your shocking idea won’t cause a major disruption on the web, but it may just shake up your mindset and give you the courage to step out there and be the real you.
Don’t doubt what you are doing simply because it hasn’t been done before. Maybe it hasn’t been done before because the universe was waiting for you to do it first. Go ahead, be the first to believe in your idea, and lead the way for others to follow. They will.
Shelly Cone is an award-winning journalist, author and humor columnist. She blogs at Beach Betty Creative, helping creative companies grow and imaginative entrepreneurs design a positive, live-out-loud lifestyle through copywriting and marketing design. Visit her website at http://www.beachbettypr.com.
