4 Unexpected Keys to a Successful Small Business
When I decided to start my woodworking business I never knew I’d have to expand into so many complimentary fields.
Of course there’s the normal businessy things like accounting, doing administrative paperwork, keeping track of orders, and communicating with clients. What I didn’t think about were the internet essential skills I didn’t have.
Social Media
Photography and Photo Editing
Videography
Writing, Editing, Publishing
Social Media
Word of mouth, billboards, business cards, flyers, networking, local sponsorships, TV and radio ads. Traditional, small business marketing relies on getting your name and brand out to a wide audience to generate orders. Social media is not that different. It’s an online advertising tool to build your brand and reach a wide audience. The difference between the two is the method.
Traditional advertising delivers a single concise, controlled message. Social media only works when you put many high quality photos and videos out consistently. The investment in money is smaller but it takes time, both to create stories, posts, videos, and so on, but also to build a profile that receives attention. Attention from individuals to tell the algorithm to show your content to more people.
I’m no expert on social media but I’ve learned through experimentation what works for me. There is no silver bullet, there is trial and error to slowly build an online presence. The key is consistency. Keep on posting and keep making better content. Don’t get discouraged when a video you spent hours on gets 100 views and 2 likes, just keep trying and it will eventually take off.
Photography and Photo Editing
Your website will only be successful if you have good pictures. You don’t have to be a photographer, but you do need to know how to take a picture others want to see. Here are some tips I learned
Lighting matters.
Too much light is bad. Too little is bad too. Another time for experimentation, find what works for you. Maybe you need all the light you can get in your shop to work, but for pictures you have to turn off half of them. What I’ve found is, the sun is your friend and your enemy. If your house is dark like mine, try taking pictures outside in the late afternoon and evening when the sun is softer. It makes a world of difference.
Pay attention to the surroundings.
This one is obvious. A high quality photo of a beautifully crafted table will look terrible with trashcans in the background. Pay attention to that stuff. Clear out a space. Stage your items to make it seem real, in use.
Edit.
I do everything on my phone. I take pictures on it and I use Snapseed to edit photos. It’s an easy to use tool and it allows you to fix things you didn’t realize you needed to fix. If your photos are washed out with bad color, touch them up. I’m no expert and my photos aren’t great so I need all the help I can get. The point is to make the photo look like it does in real life. Sometimes the camera alone can’t capture it, especially a cell phone camera, so help it out with some editing.
Pre-business I barely took pictures. The only editing I knew how to do was to crop. Now it’s one of my most important skill.
Unedited original photo.
Edited.
Videography
Videos are huge online. Short content is currently king. That may change, but for now, if you want to grow a presence online you have to know how to shoot video and, more importantly, edit that video. Editing is simple, I cut videos down and speed up sections to make them quick and easy to view. If you want followers you have to do video. I use an app on my phone called YouCut. Super simple to use. I like that I can do everything right on my phone from the shooting to editing to posting.
My tripod. I’ve used it for 8 months and all the adjustments still work great.
My number one tip for shooting video, get a tripod. I use a UBeesize 60” with a built in cell phone holder. It was inexpensive and works great. The best part is the wide base allowing for a stable camera at full height. This style base is essential for outdoor work as opposed to the type with a small base and long extension pole. The only problem I find is using it in small spaces because the base is wide when fully extended, but for someone wanting to experiment with video I think this is a good first tripod purchase.
The hardest part about video is getting comfortable. It will feel awkward. You’ll listen to yourself and think, “Do I really sound like that?” The good news is, the more you do it the easier it gets. You get used to the way you sound and open up. The best videos come from people who act natural on camera, no need for silly antics, just be you. Which brings me to the second thing you have to learn to be comfortable with. Criticism. The internet can be a hurtful place where people hide behind user names so they can be mean. They will call you names. They will attack what you are doing and you personally. Don’t let it bother you.
Recently, I put out a video a little while ago on Reddit which received 500,000 views, 2,900 “likes”, and 330+ comments (I also put it on my Instagram and Youtube but my reach was lower so the results weren’t there). Half of the comments were negative, half were positive. Those comments were a fraction of the people who liked the video, in Reddit it’s actually an upvote or a downvote so there could have been more upvotes and downvotes too but I don’t know how to check that statistic. The people who liked the video were a fraction of the people who viewed the video and I have to believe people didn’t sit through one of my videos if they absolutely hated it.
If I do the math, say there were 165 negative comments out of 500,000 views. That means 0.03% of the viewers of my video disliked it enough to leave a comment telling me that. Don’t let that small percentage discourage, those people would have left a negative comment even if they liked it because that’s what they do. And don’t forget, an equal 0.03% commented that they liked the video. So, just make videos if that’s what you want to do and trust me, it will help you grow your social media greater than any other type of content.
Writing, Editing, Publishing
I recently wrote an article about my passions, one of which is writing. I did not initially set out to start a blog as part of this business. I set out to make furniture with the ultimate goal to leave behind tangible representations of my skill for future generations to remember me by. Well, I also enjoy writing so my blog started 6 months into my business and I haven’t looked back. I love it.
But I did not anticipate the amount of writing and editing I have to do. Even if you have a business and don’t have a blog but you do post on social media you know you have to write a message for every post and edit that message to meet your audience’s needs. It takes time and energy.
When I write a blog I spend more time editing and than I do writing. Publishing also takes work. I self publish this blog on my website. That means I have to spend time organizing my blog and website. I have to take pictures to go along with the words and fit them on the screen. I have to check to ensure the photos and words mesh together on a mobile device as seamlessly as they do on a computer.
As with everything, there is always more work than meets the eye.
So there they are. The four unexpected things I had to learn as part of my small business. If you are considering starting your own business, especially if that business will contain a blog, I recommend you start learning these four things now. Go out and take pictures so you can practice editing. Download YouCut or another app and start splicing videos together. Learn how to modify volume from clips and songs to make them sound good together. Start writing every day, even if it’s in a journal for your own eyes only (and if you need tips on how to start, here’s a blog I wrote about how you can start writing). The more you practice the better you will become.