Small Business Acceleration
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Are you a small business owner, a mompreneur, graduate or retiree who’s not realized the success and opportunities you desire for your small business? You’re good at what you do, yet having a few more key clients is all you need to move you into your financial comfort zone.
The marketing of your business has taken a back seat. It’s not because you don’t value the importance of marketing, it’s probably because you lack the knowledge of what to do, when to do it and more importantly, how to market your business.
Hello! I am Pamela Wigglesworth an International corporate trainer and speaker, that works with businesses across multiple industries to enhance their branding and marketing communication to get big results on a small budget.
I am the author of Small Business Acceleration and the 2011-2012 Vice President for the Asia Professional Speakers ‘” Singapore. I am a frequent speaker at business events and have several articles published in the Straits Times and Singapore Marketer magazine.
It’s truly the best time to be an entrepreneur. I absolutely love being an entrepreneur. In fact, some people might refer to me as a serial entrepreneur because I’ve set up four businesses over the span of 21 years. Yet not all of my businesses have ended in a success story. I’ve even lost money… big time. More than I care to mention, but I will. Let’s just say it was easily close to US$60K. Ouch! It’s a little less painful to think about it now, but I do think about it because it is what drives me today. Back in 1998 I had a successful women’s boutique that focused on catering to the western-size female figure. Translation: a full figure gal with hips and a generous bust. In Asia, that’s just about any woman from the western world. Around that time I moved my business from a small second story shop house into your typical shopping mall. Simultaneously, when I made my move, Asia was experiencing the first Asian financial crisis. By mid-2000 an economic slowdown was upon us and people were not shopping as much. Come February 2001, the mall had become a ghost town and we knew the business was not going to survive. Despite my wishful thinking that I could easily get out of the lease, my requests fell on deaf ears. The landlords could have cared less that we were not making any money. Eventually they knocked off two weeks worth of rent but we were required to pay the remaining balance on the lease. That amounted to about US40,000; equal to seven months rent. In hindsight I realized that I lacked sufficient knowledge in marketing to sustain the business. Had I known a fraction of what I know today, chances are I might have been able to ride out that slow period and save my store. It was tough having to take that amount of money out of my husband’s and my savings. At times, the tension in the house was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Fortunately, we weathered the storm and have become stronger and closer as a result.
After the store closed I allowed myself to have a two month pity party and to reflect on my experience. At the same time, I didn’t want to forget about the $40,000 that was gone. That loss eventually became the fuel that ignited my passion for marketing and working with small businesses today.
I needed to know that the $40,000 loss was not in vain, to make it count for something. This was a great learning experience for me and for others, for that matter, so I made the conscious decision to “Fail Forward.’� I always knew that the day would come when I would start another business. This time I was determined to be better prepared and more knowledgeable about how to market my business to increase the probability of success. So I dug in and spent countless hours learning everything I could about marketing. I listened to anyone and everyone who was willing to share with me about how to create awareness for the business, how to generate traffic and leads to a business, how to brand myself, how to increase sales. My learning was conducted over coffee, in networking sessions, and through seminars and webinars. I researched day and night and was a human sponge. What Happened Next… With the start of my new businesses, I applied what I had learned and saw great results. Most of what I was doing was applying techniques to increase awareness, leads, and sales in my business without the benefit of a huge marketing budget. I moved from being a student and began sharing and teaching others what I knew. The word spread about my marketing workshops and bootcamps. Soon I was being invited to conduct the workshops and boot camps internationally. Sharing what I learned became my way to “Fail Forward.’� It will always be my passion to teach other entrepreneurs how to easily and successfully market their business. My mission is to educate others so that no entrepreneur or small business ever has to experience the financial loss that I did.
So my goal is for you to learn simple and manageable techniques that you can apply to your business today. Keep in mind that you don’t have to do everything. Pick what resonates with you, start with one or two things that you can measure, and then add another tactic. Slowly but surely you will see a change in your results.
Small Business Acceleration was written by me, an entrepreneur, for entrepreneurs. This book offers a practical step-by-step guide for getting started with online marketing in the… Read more…
