If you’re feeling stranded on where to go with your side hustle to make it grow, you’re not alone. The stuck feeling with a small business is very common and has real causes. Top of which is the increased competition around you and an economy that is performing; badly.
When an economy is not doing well it brings in more difficulties and inevitably causes businesses or careers to stall. Opportunities that aren’t already few and far between start getting smaller.
For a small business, customers and profits begin to reduce so before you begin to feel stranded here are some things that can help
Accepting Reality
The start was very good and you were on your way to growing and getting more customers, then things started slowing down. You are suddenly not the success you and others around you thought you were. Swallow your pride and accept reality. Do not cling on to the past successes as it isn’t healthy, for your mental health and your business.
Also, you are not alone; the reality is there are many other people like you with stalled businesses. However you are talented and ambitious that is the reason you took this path. That too is a reality so keep your ambitions burning and keep working.
It may mean doing things on a small scale again and losing some of the status you got used to but, do keep going. Things will pick up.
Attending Events
You already have a Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter X group where you share stories, good and bad experiences-that’s great but, try to meet people away from the internet.
Go to selective selling events, to conferences organized for small businesses or trade shows. Attend as many of these gatherings as you can in real life. You’ll find these venues packed with fresh faces. Some attendees may be decades younger so be ready to swallow your pride and embrace humility.
Being humble is the key because without it, you will not be able to get yourself to attend events where you can learn more about running a business or doing something in whichever industry you belong.
More important when you attend do seek out people that you can make friends with, not followers or connections, contacts or subscribers. Make the goal to forge friendships that do not have to be transactional but based on mutual respect for each other’s work and a desire to help one another succeed.
Spending Money
Be willing to spend money (very cautiously) as gaining access to some of these venues does unfortunately, cost money. The “you need to spend money to make money” rather crass saying does hold here. Which is probably not fair as it privileges people with money. However, just think of this as an investment, which will yield dividends in the future. If your goal is to restart your business or even career, being tight fisted won’t help.
Spend money on hiring a local influencer to talk about and push your product but do be careful of whom you choose. Make sure that they can put your product in front of your target. Sometimes large numbers are just that, numbers. By seeing who follows or reacts to their posts you will have an idea if this is your target or not.
Be careful of those that promise too much. Do your due diligence especially on the motivational speaker coaching types that say will get your career or business to dizzy heights. Take every event or person with a degree of caution.
