When people talk to me about business the key thing that comes up every time is how do I stay consistent in my approach. This is an amazing question. It’s one of the things that will make the biggest difference to your business success. If you show consistently it helps people build trust and invest in your brand. And when people buy from you you can add the most value to that customer.
So the question you then ask is how do I create consistency?
When looking at consistency there are few things that we need to focus on:
- Key message you share
- Your social media presence
- Your offers
- How you deliver
- Your routine
Key message you share
You will have heard me talk about thought leadership on a number of different occasions. This is because thought leadership is the most important message that you can share. Your thought leadership is the thing that makes you different from everybody else in your market. It’s your unique take on the world and how things should be done in your industry. By having a really clear thought leadership that is consistently shared, you become more relatable and memorable to your customers.
So what is your thought leadership in your business? If you want some help with this you can check out a previous blog the tells you exactly how you should think about this topic.
Your social media presence
Social media is another area of your business that needs consistency. When you think about social media the main thing that you want to do, as a small business, is pick the platform that’s going to be your main focus and then build your social media strategy for that platform.
You also want to have a plan of attack for how you post and show up on this platform. Download my simple social planner here. By having a planner it can show you the best ways to show up for your own audience. You want to make sure that would ever you choose can be done consistently over a long period of time. I always recommend to clients to start small and grow how much they show up. This is better than over promising and under delivering for your audience.
Research shows that most people need to see an offer up to 7 times before they start to trust or consider buying it. Now, well this won’t be true for everyone. It will be true for a large percentage of your customers. So showing up on social media can give them that reassurance and trust in your brand to help them buy when you make an offer.
Your Offer
Something that nobody tells you when you are starting an online business is that you have to promote the same offer a number of times consistently in order to get the sales. It’s not as easy as just showing up in the world once and suddenly earning 10K overnight. But this is the lie that’s sold by so many online business coaches. When my clients start my program I start by telling them that they are going to have to launch the same thing at least 6 times in order to start getting consistent results.
This is going take a level of consistency and being able to show up and add value over a long period of time. If I think back to my very 1st launch, they were people who weren’t sure about my product because it was new. They then came in and bought it the 2nd time round this meant that I doubled my profits on the 2nd launch. And while this is not an exact science, most people see an increase over their launches because they are building their brand with the consistent offer and message.
How you deliver
Consistency in delivery is a really important factor for small business owners. Thinking about how you can absolutely delight your 1st 100 customers will make such a big difference to how successful your businesses going forward. By having a 100 customers that you have absolutely delighted you are more likely to have a loyal following that will recommend you to other people. They will also share your social media posts your freebies that you put out into the world and make sure the day tell other people when you got something good to offer. But this only comes from consistent delivery.
If you go through the process of growing your business too fast without having a good system of delivery in place you will end up with a trail of customers that don’t recommend you. This can be really damaging to a small business and its growth. So thinking about how you do things like personalised voice notes, handwritten notes or some special that would set you apart from the competition is key.
It’s the small details that you do consistently that really make a difference to the way that you deliver your product or service.
Your Routine
Routines are the building blocks of success. They trigger our brains to go into different mode to suit the time of day if we have a solid routine that we follow. When working with clients I always get them to think about what they do 1st thing in the morning and what they do to close down their day of work and their day in as a whole. These 3 core routines will make a big difference.
Morning Routine
So, a morning routine is about getting yourself settled in for the day. It can help you start the day well or it can set you up for failure really early. One of the morning routines that I absolutely love is from the book the 5:00 a.m. club, it talks about spending 90 minutes doing 3 set activities to boost the start of your day. This activities are exercise, learning and gratitude.
Work ending routine
When you are moving from work mode into family mode, it’s important to help your brain make this shift. I like to do this by completing my bullet journal for the next day, doing a brain dump of tasks but might still be floating around in my head, and then making sure that any urgent or immediate work is done so that I can shut down. This helps me settling to the evening and give my focus to the things in front of me.
Bedtime Routine
Lastly we have the bedtime routine. This is about shifting your brain pattern to a sleep pattern. And helps to get a good night’s sleep before taking on the new day. I like to do this through a set practice. Journalling, when I get into bed, not having my phone on me so I don’t end up in an Instagram scroll, and using my Sun lamp to help, put me to sleep. If for any reason I struggle to sleep, I have box breathing down to a tee to help me drift off.
By having these routines, it becomes easier to be successful. But I want to remind you that my routines change with the seasons. In summer I’m up at 5am, in winter it might be 8am. You have yo understand and listen to your body.
What’s next?
Having consistency is so important that right now you should take a moment to think about where you are lacking it. What is out of align right now and where could you focus your energy to get the best results?
If you want some further reading, check out my 7 secrets to business success eBook. It is all the things I wish I knew while starting and growing my business.