Some of us are born with an entrepreneurial spirit. The idea of toiling away at a 9-5 with a boss looking over your shoulder is simply not appealing.
Rather than join in and fall in line, entrepreneurs set out on their own journey. A journey full of ups and downs, peril and celebration. The entrepreneurial life is stressful, no doubt, but for someone with the spirit, entrepreneurship is also freeing and rewarding.
Our recent #AGMarketingChats guest, Brett Longtin, is one such person. Longtin launched a successful payroll business, Payroll Professionals, Inc. several years back, and recently founded At The Cabin Coffee, an online coffee subscription company.
During the Twitter chat, Longtin offered inspiration and tips to help fuel and encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to continue driving toward success, no matter what obstacles they face.
Within this recap of the chat, you’ll find the following takeaways:
- Finding what drives you to motivate your success
- How to choose the right business for you
- Ways to minimize stress to succeed
- Using digital marketing to creatively promote your brand
- The skills you need as an entrepreneur
- Knowing when it’s time to expand your resources
We kicked off the conversation by talking about motivation and drive for entrepreneurs. Let’s jump in with question number one.
Q1: You just launched your second business, At The Cabin Coffee. What’s been the driving motivation in your entrepreneurial journey?
Every entrepreneur has something that motivates them and keeps them going during the good times and the bad. Without this drive, it’s easy to walk away at the first sign of danger. Often, the difference between success and failure as an entrepreneur is simply the will to move forward when times get tough.
When you launch your own business, you accept responsibility for the livelihoods and the success of any team member you bring on. You’re the king of the hill and everyone on your team relies on you to lift them up and guide them. If the company fails, it’s not just you who suffers. As such, there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders as a entrepreneur. While that may be a bit scary, on the flip side of the coin, when you win, the whole team wins. That excitement can give you a serious lift.
Q2: Your two businesses focus on completely different offerings (human resources support vs. coffee subscriptions). How did you choose what type of businesses you wanted to launch?
When you launch a business, one of the key factors in your success will undoubtedly be choosing the right niche. Rather than choosing a niche because you think there’s a lot of money in it, choose your niche based on your knowledge of the subject matter, your experience in the niche, and your passion for that niche. You’ll make a lot more money in a less-lucrative niche that you’re passionate about than you will in a niche with tons of available revenue that lulls you to sleep.
Finding the right niche and being passionate about what you do will keep you going, no matter what challenges you run into. Make sure you select a niche that you love and that you know a ton about.
Q3: Running a business isn’t easy. What’s your secret to maintaining and lowering your stress levels when the workload piles up or things get challenging?
As an entrepreneur, especially in the early stages, you find yourself wearing a lot of hats. You take on a ton of responsibility, and success or failure largely rides on your shoulders. The stress can build up, but fortunately, there are a number of ways business owners and entrepreneurs can manage stress and thrive.
Finding work/life balance is such an important component of entrepreneurial success. Many entrepreneurs fail because they burn the candle at both ends so to say and never take time to unwind. Successful entrepreneurs find ways to balance work with spending time with friends and family and enjoying the things they love to do, like hobbies or trips to a favorite vacation spot.
Q4: At the Cabin Coffee is doing some fun things with content and social media. What role do you think digital marketing will play in the future success of entrepreneurs?
Digital marketing offers a ton of value for entrepreneurs looking to find ways to grow their business. Longtin’s brand, At The Cabin Coffee, has been leveraging the power of tools like social media, SEO, content marketing, and digital campaigns to grow its following and boost the business.
Digital marketing is the great equalizer. When a business is just starting out, a strong digital marketing strategy with a focus on content, social media, SEO, and a powerful online presence can help the business catch up to the competition quickly. At The Cabin Coffee recently ran a contest giving away six months of free coffee and some tumblers. As a result, the branded hashtag #MyCabinMoment spread, and the brand’s presence began to grow. Here are a few social media posts from the campaign, both user-generated content and content about the contest posted by the brand.
Running contests and asking users to post content related to your brand can have a majorly positive impact on your growth. The social proof that’s generated through campaigns like these works wonders for both new and established brands.
Q5: What’s the most important skill someone should look to develop if they want to be successful as an entrepreneur?
As mentioned earlier, entrepreneurs need to get comfortable wearing multiple hats. It’s important to be able to move quickly and develop new skills along the way. Some skills, however, are more important than others to entrepreneurial success.
Every entrepreneur goes through ups and downs. While it may seem like some entrepreneurs roll through life, everything they touch turning to gold, that appearance is often just smoke and mirrors. Don’t get discouraged. Keep pushing forward. Take the the good times and roll forward. Take the bad times and learn from them. Focus on continued growth, and you will win as an entrepreneur.
Q6: As you grow your business, how do you know when it’s the right time to hire more support to boost your resources?
As your business grows, you can’t expect to keep handling every aspect. The time comes when every entrepreneur needs to think about hiring the right people to help the business thrive. Going it alone is not wise. While you may need to operate in a lean way and keep staff light to begin, eventually, as success comes along, it’s essential to bring in key team members to help out in specific areas.
You can’t be a master at every aspect of the business world. The best entrepreneurs understand their strengths and weaknesses. They know when it’s time to pass off certain responsibliities to other team members who are better-suited to handle the work. Learning to delegate is an essential skill in entrepreneurial success.
Never micro-manage your team. You hire people because they bring certain talent to the team that you don’t have. Trust them to execute and leverage that talent to help you grow your business. Constantly looking over the shoulders of your team builds a lack of trust and sends team members running to find a new employer.
Q7: What’s next for At the Cabin Coffee? The #MyCabinMoment campaign was great. Any secrets on the horizon you can let us in on?
Successful businesses are always planning the next big thing. Standing still isn’t an option if you truly want to succeed as an entrepeneur.
Expanding your product line or service offerings is a great way to generate new business, as well as boost business from your current customers. It shows that you are focused, as a brand, on looking for new ways to serve your customers better.
Q8: What’s the single best piece of advice you can give to aspiring entrepreneurs to help them grow?
Thanks for dropping by to check out this recap of one of our recent #AGMarketingChats. If you loved this one, join us most Thursdays at 2 pm EST on Twitter for chats with top marketing pros from across the world. Find the full schedule here, along with recaps of archived chats.
Related posts:
- Consulting for Change: How Change Management Experts Drive Growth and Innovation - September 8, 2023
- ChatGPT Prompts – 4 Sources of Inspiration - April 7, 2023
- The Savvy Marketing Agency Guide to Wild Growth in 2023 - January 23, 2023
Good job by Brett. He really loves what he does; this shines through his work. The coffee is also sensational. I plowed through that bag like it was a few ounces LOL. Business has to be a passion or else you are toast. This is THE lesson I learned after being in blogging business for 15 years.
Ryan
Brett is an excellent example for entrepreneurs to follow. And yes, At The Cabin Coffee is excellent! Definitely a solid product to go along with solid branding!