Abigail Tiefenthaler

We are at the end of a five-part series about running a successful business. Over the past four issues, I have given you four practical recommendations to help you build your business: adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, build a strong brand, market smart and cultivate more sales. These will help you because they force you to look at your business as a business and see your business as a part of a bigger picture. You’re not a promotional products distributor—you are a business owner who runs a promotional products business. If you’re a supplier, you’re a business owner who happens to offer items that support the promotional products industry. Think about these descriptions. Do you agree? How do these make you feel?

Are you ready to start selling your products and services? If you’re nodding your head and thinking “Yes!” this means you’ve thought things through and have started by creating your brand. Then, you identified a budget and put together a marketing plan that includes specific strategies and tactics. You’ve prepped the job and now you’re ready to paint, so to speak.

If you didn’t read the article on branding in the December issue, I encourage you to go back and look it over. Good branding is the first step to developing results-oriented marketing. And, every business needs marketing. Why? What makes marketing so important? Marketing starts the conversation! It moves people through their own decision-making process to get to “yes!” It builds visibility, authority and trust. You need marketing to create a thriving business.

The first article in this series spoke to the ways business owners can prepare for success. For example, every morning we must take steps to proactively recommit to our business. Every day we must do things that work on our business, not just in our business. Every day we must focus on moving people along a customer continuum that gets them one step closer to saying, “Yes!” So what happens next?

As a 19-year entrepreneur, I can tell you that creating a business that endures is the hardest thing anyone can do. It’s frustrating. It’s lonely. It’s always on you. It’s about making tough decisions. It has moments of great disappointment. And, did I say it’s lonely? If you’re in this position too, it is possible to create something special and work through whatever limitations and self-doubt you might experience in the process. Here are six simple suggestions to help you prepare your mind for business, and prepare your business for success.