alyx.layla: Your Business Depends on 2 Promises, 1 Principle and You

It was an idea worth dreaming. You believed in it enough to put your money and your energy behind it.? You believed in the business, in the needs, in the demand and in the solution. You built an organization and a team around that belief. Now it?s time to do a little more.

promise

2 PROMISES

#1: ?Will you keep your word?

In Make a Promise and Keep It, Diane Helbig says:

?A promise speaks to who we are in our core. A priority framed as a promise is elevated on our commitment spectrum?we feel a stronger sense of obligation to keep it.?

Diane speaks about the promises that we make to ourselves and provides a few solutions to help us be accountable for what we say we will do with our lives and businesses.? But I do wonder why we?ll keep our promises to a boss for a paycheck but struggle to keep our promises to ourselves for a lifestyle change and the freedom that comes with it?

And if promises are as powerful as Diane says, then it?s time to make one about your marketing.

#2: Will you spread the word?

Your business will not market itself. It?s your job, or the job of the team you?ve built,

to tell your story in a way that attracts and retains customers;
to identify the problem and the people, then provide the solution.

Ivana Taylor, in 13 Marketing Activities You Can Do for Less Than $20 A Day, offers a simple marketing promise for you to keep. In fact, it?s the first marketing action that every small business owner should take. Ivana says to ?develop your message and an offering.? You need to ?resist the temptation to get out there and sell without having a clear marketing message and an offer.? She explains that ignoring this step will make you ?look desperate, and people will run away from you instead of running toward you.?

Effective marketing can be a game-changing event for your business.

But the promises you keep to yourself as well as the way you spread the word about your company are not the only things that impact your organization.

1 PRINCIPLE

#1: How will you lead?

Character is what you do when nobody else is looking. It?s the decision to lead with integrity. The ability to make the tough choice. To market the truth instead of a lie, to be direct instead of hiding, to do what needs to be done because it?s right?not because it?s popular.

And as John Mariotti points out in The Struggle of Doing the Right Thing, a leader must choose to handle business with a standard of integrity no matter what.

It puts me in mind of the lessons we were supposed to learn in grade school?to be our own person, to operate above the influence of others, to go it alone. The truth is, if you can?t do those things, you?ll find yourself leading by consensus. But your business needs you to stand for something, to believe in something, and to offer a standard of integrity.

How will you lead?

About the Author

Jamillah Warner (Ms.J), a poet with a passion for business, is a Georgia-based writer and speaker and the Marketing Coordinator at Nobuko Solutions. She also provides marketing and communication quick tips in her getCLEAR! MicroNewsletter.