5 Phases of Entrepreneurship Series: Phase 2, The Emerging Entrepreneur

We're diving back into our series all about the phases in our entrepreneurial journey. Today is all about phase two of entrepreneurial journey, which is all about the emerging entrepreneur.

The Emerging Entrepreneur

Every creative entrepreneur goes through a journey in their business, there are phases of growth, and in each phase, there are problems that exist. And those problems could happen in any one of the six main activities that we have to deal with in our business, things like sales, business development, personal development, marketing, product, or service fulfilment, operations, and our team, which, or it could be lack thereof, right?

Most creatives get into business because they enjoy doing something, and they think that they can make a living out of it. What they don't realise is that they aren't often prepared for what happens as they start to grow. There are a lot of invisible things, as well as the tangible things that have to happen in order to succeed.

And it's not just as simple as showing up and going through the motions.

Phase two is what I like to call the emerging entrepreneur. Phase One was the budding entrepreneur. At phase one, you were just getting started. And no one really knows who you are. In phase two, you're getting seen, and you're starting to see that consistent revenue come in. And at this point, you're most likely getting ready to do this full time if you aren't already.

When it comes to your brand, you've got it dialled in, and you know, that distinctive specialty that you offer, meaning you've gone from your overall grand specialty of being a florist or a wedding planner, a makeup artist or photographer to digging down to the distinctive part of that Grand Arena. Okay, you've become a special event florist, a high end wedding specialist, a makeup artist that specialises in costume or drama in the way that they do their makeup, or you are a brand photographer. You've started to carve out that special space into a place that you  have in your market that is unique to your creative juices. And this is where you get to shine.

Phase two is also a lot about getting your systems into place.

Perhaps you have streamlined how to accept payments to your contracts and agreements. And they're in place and you're getting your core product and service offerings in place. When it comes to the admin side of your operations you're feeling fairly on top of things.However, you still got some bumps in the road to iron out. Because in this phase, one of the number one things that happens to you is that you're getting business but most often, you're just not getting the right clients.

Yep, you've had enough clients coming to you that you've been able to recognise what you love to do, and build your brand. Now it's time to focus on marketing it.

So this is for sure the time of your business that you need to be focusing on marketing 30 to 50% of the time. But how, how do you do that? Because you're probably busy in the fulfilment stage, right? There are several ways to grow to the next level during this phase of your business.

Getting the right eyeballs on you 

One of the biggest things you have got to do at this phase is to get the right eyeballs on you. Yes, before as the budding entrepreneur, you were just concerned about getting anyone to notice you, right? Well, now as the emerging entrepreneur, it's exciting that you're getting noticed. However, even though you're not getting completely unnoticed. It's definitely not time to celebrate, you know more about your brand, and you've developed it, you just need to have the right audience interacting with you. And once you've gotten the right ones watching you, you want to keep them watching you.

And you know that email list, the one that's been sitting there, perhaps getting dust on it, since they haven't heard from you and ages. Well, this is the time to grow it. And to be consistent with talking to them. Your list is your biggest asset when it comes to marketing.

And when it comes to your social media, it's it's about really having a strategy for it. If you're just putting out content, and you know, it's really good, but it's just not getting traction, more than likely you're seeing views coming in. So you can get some upward momentum, right. And the views you're getting might even be the wrong people.

More than likely, you haven't quite figured out how you want to communicate your brand. And when that happens, you get the wrong clientele coming to you. You're getting ghosted, when you send out your proposals or offers, you're being questioned about pricing all the time, and mostly finding that those potential clients have no idea of the pricing that it takes to do what they want. And I get it. This is one of the most frustrating parts of being in this phase of your business, figuring out how to bring in the right audience and then getting them to buy from you.

You're excellent at what you do. And you know your worth and, and your pricing for that. I mean, you get the inquiries, right, and you're getting leads. And they're all coming in but, but half the time, they aren't asking for what they can afford, or what you want to offer to them. This is where creating demand comes into play. You want to build out your brand story and be able to communicate who you are and what you do, so that they will be coming to you ready to purchase. Selling comes from what you communicate, then when you make your offers, they're ready to buy from you.

When you're waiting until your offer to sell to them, they're already gone.

Why? Because at that point, most often it comes down to price. This is when you know it's about your marketing and communication. That's where you know you need to buckle down and work on this part of your business. Because when you're waiting until the offer to actually sell to them, they've already left you. That's not where the selling happens. Selling happens in your marketing, in your communication to them your messaging in your audience in your ecosystem already. It's what creates the rapport and authority of what you do. It's what creates the know like and trust factor of your business. These are the things that happen in their subconscious as they interact with you.

You may be asking yourself, What am I doing wrong? Why do I keep attracting the wrong people? I know what I'm offering is amazing. And the pricing is awesome, too. Why won't they buy from me?Honestly, if you're just keeping it surface level, you're going to be experiencing this issue. Mastering the art of subconscious communication is the key at this point. And when you do, you'll move out of phase two, and go into phase three.

But if you haven't, you're going to stay stuck there for a while. So the cause of this is that you're likely playing around with different types of content, and you're not communicating your brand in a way that's attracting the right audience. So when again, they may be consuming your content, but they aren't buying it yet. So think about when you go into a restaurant, and you love their food. You probably know what you want to buy from the menu, in fact you often just go for your favourite from there. However, when the server is suggesting the specials of for the day, you're nodding, and you say that they sound good, right. And he's talking about what they have, but you're just unsure. So you stick with what you know. And you just don't decide on the specials. You know, in your head, you know that what the chef has prepared is most likely amazing, because you like all of the other entrees they have to offer. But it's just now not really what you want. Now the need to eat is there. But the choices are vast. And even though they're putting out an enticing special of the evening, you choose another option.

So if you don't create enough demand, you're not going to get taken up on your offer. Plain and simple.

There are enough people out there doing what you do that you have to stand out and show your uniqueness. Just like the special that the chef does. You get to drive the sales and create the demand and get the long term eyes on you. So they keep coming back and wanting more. And if you don't do this, well, you can only go so far. And you'll be in this stage for a very long time.

That internal feeling of being unsure. And comparisonitis can keep you from growing. Then you feel stuck, which is a crippling place to be at this point, you're going to have to work on getting past what others think of you, and move into that phase of confidence in who you are and what you have to offer. start communicating that in a way that gets your potential clients sticky.

You're proud of where you've come, but realise that there's still something that seems to be off, you're doing what you know. And that's just not enough for you to get to the next phase. And this is usually a result of not really sitting in silence, not remembering who you are not doing the invisible work of mastering your craft and mastering your business.

There could be a certain part of you that your message that you're just holding back due to fear. Like you might be leaning a little bit more into what you want to say. And you might be a little more courageous in what you're saying. But you haven't fully embraced the full authentic you fully embraced your full purpose or alignment. And so the journey that you're at, you're still actually in the nervous, scared or learning stage or you're implementing slowly as you study things.

If you're at the emerging entrepreneur phase, it's time to move out. It's time to start focusing on those invisible things. When it's time to start focusing on the silence, it's time to start focus on remembering who you are. You get to gain momentum and power, because powerful people create powerful messages.

It's time to start testing a little bit more. And it's actually time to start mastering the art of the subconscious communication in your marketing. Start looking at a little bit more patterns and uncovering more about yourself.

One of the biggest things that I tell people is that you should not be guessing whether or not your clients will book with you, when you put out your offer, you should know because you've tested your communication, and been able to see when you're talking to them, that it's resonating with them, so that they're ready to buy from you. They're just waiting for that offer to come to them so that they can go ahead and take it. It's a vital ingredient to moving up.

Not sure what phase of business you're in? Click here to take my FREE quiz and find out.