I have one word for you: #Hustle
In April of 2017, I decided to take the leap and become an entrepreneur. That long, sometimes daunting word comes with a series of fears and excitement.
How will I pay rent if I don’t start pulling in income? How many days am I comfortable eating Annie’s Mac and Cheese in a row? It’s pretty delicious.
First things first – make sure you’re 100% behind the WHY of your business and can speak to it confidently.
I’ve always been very clear on my WHY and it’s incredibly important.
I want to help purpose-driven organizations share their most impactful stories using social media and digital platforms to positively effect someone else.
Make sure your WHY is crystal clear before diving into how to start generating an income.
My first year launching Positive Equation was ALL about getting the word out.
I ]worked for about seven years in the corporate world building contacts within the sports, entertainment, and nonprofit industries. I was fortunate to attend a lot of conferences and knew the power of in-person connections.
There’s nothing like it.
I was focused on reaching my target demo: purpose-driven organizations, nonprofits, and foundations. I searched online for conferences that aligned with my target audience, and created a spreadsheet with the top events I thought were the most appealing.
Understanding that I was living in LA and working on a limited budget, some of them had pretty high price tags and were located all over the country. So, I reached out to each one and asked if there was an opportunity to volunteer by helping them manage their social media channels.
Boom. I had FREE entry.
Next step was finding a place to stay…
As a UCF graduate, (GO KNIGHTS!) there’s alumni located all over the country. Use your resources! I looked on Facebook and contacted friends that would let me crash with them for a couple nights. This eliminated the pricey expensive of a hotel room or AirBnB, plus you can catch up/network with friends.
End result?
I attended my first conference and generated three monthly retainer clients! I was able to build a relationship with the conference team + generate income for my business.
People are usually spending time on LinkedIn looking up full-time jobs.
I would search and find jobs that fit the description of my services, send a message introducing myself and ask if they’d be open to a freelance consultant being hired instead of FT. Most of the time, they were open to the conversation.
I’ve worked with multiple clients through this approach.
It’s amazing what happens when you just TALK about what you do.
This is how I’ve worked with American Idol, USTA, Dress for Success, Movember, and many more.
When I was thinking of starting Positive Equation, I reached out to previous clients for their opinion. I scheduled lunches, calls, drinks, and even threw a few launch parties. They were thrilled and excited to hire me when there was an opportunity.
Sure enough, those opportunities came.
It honestly comes down to three things:
Being an entrepreneur is one of the best and scariest feelings – you’re in 100% control of your success.
YOU CAN DO THIS!
If this was helpful, please share! Let me know your thoughts @danabakich / @positivequation.
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I have recently started a site, the info you provide on this website has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work.