Overcoming Key Challenges When Starting Your Own Business

by | Oct 11, 2024 | Newsletter

Listen to the AI host’s version of this article created by Google’s NotebookLM.

The top three challenges new entrepreneurs face—and how to tackle them.

by Ryan Rhoten

Welcome Patrons. 🥃

I’m seeing more and more career professionals leave the corporate world to pursue entrepreneurial dreams. I remember those days. If you think you’re ready to embark on starting your own business, know that it’s both exciting and daunting or, in my case, downright terrifying. I wondered if I was making a mistake. If you’re at the same crossroads—ready to start your own business—then this week’s pour is for you. Based on insights from the personal branding quiz, there are three big concerns you may have about making the transition: clarifying your niche and offer, promoting your business, and finding your message. So, pull up a barstool because I’m gonna break down each challenge and offer some actionable advice on how to overcome them based on my experiences.

1. Clarifying Your Niche and Offer

One of the biggest hurdles in starting a business is identifying exactly what you want to offer and who you want to serve. Without a clear niche or direction, it will be hard for potential clients or customers to understand why they should choose your business over others.

Your niche is your unique space in the market. Your offer is the solution you provide to your target audience within your market. A lack of clarity in either of these areas can lead to confusion and dilute the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

When you’re starting out, it’s tempting to cast a wide net to appeal to as many people as possible, but this often results in a weak and unconvincing value proposition.

Action Steps:

  1. Identify your strengths and passions: Reflect on your skills and experiences to determine how to use your strengths best to help clients. As part of The Brand Messaging System™️, I have clients use the Ikigai exercise described in a previous newsletter to help guide them with this step.
  2. Research your target audience: Understanding the Obstacles, Objectives, and Objections of your potential customers is crucial. What are they struggling with, and how can your offer provide a solution?
  3. Craft your offer: Once you’ve identified your niche, craft a clear and compelling offer. Make sure it addresses a specific problem, follows a defined methodology, and provides a tangible solution for your clients.

2. Find Your Message

The next challenge is articulating your business in a way that’s clear and compelling. If you can’t communicate this concisely, it will be difficult to attract and engage your audience.

Clarity is key. When you have a clear and concise message, it becomes easier for others to understand—and share—what you do. Clarity builds trust and credibility with your audience.

Action Steps:

  1. Create a positioning statement: How to create a positioning statement is beyond the scope of this email, but essentially, you need to create a statement that captures what your business does, who it serves, and the value it provides.
  2. Align your messaging across all platforms: Ensure your website, social media profiles, and any other marketing materials consistently reflect your brand message. This cohesion helps build a strong, recognizable identity.
  3. Refine and test your messaging: Pay attention to how people respond to your message. If your audience seems confused or uninterested, tweak your messaging until it resonates with the right people.

3. Promoting Your Business to Reach a Larger Audience

Promoting your business is the next big challenge. Many aspiring entrepreneurs find it difficult to know where to start when it comes to marketing and spreading the word about their business.

With the overwhelming number of marketing platforms available today—social media, email marketing, SEO, content marketing, and more—it’s easy to feel paralyzed by the options.

Do not try to do everything at once or be everywhere at once. This will dilute your efforts and lead to burnout. The key is to focus on building a consistent presence where your audience spends the most time.

Action Steps:

  1. Focus on one or two platforms: Instead of trying to be everywhere, start with one or two platforms that make the most sense for your business. For example, if you’re a visual brand, Instagram or Pinterest might be your best bet. If you’re a consultant, LinkedIn will be more effective.
  2. Develop a content strategy: Start by defining your content categories and the associated topics. Then, create a plan for the type of content you’ll post and when you’ll post it. Consistency is more important than frequency—post valuable content regularly and engage/interact with your audience to build trust.
  3. Leverage word-of-mouth and referrals: Don’t be afraid to leverage personal connections and ask for referrals in the early stages, as they can go a long way. Reach out to your network and ask for support or referrals. Your job is to find clients.

Starting your own business is an exciting but challenging journey. By clarifying your niche, offer, and messaging and promoting your business strategically, you’ll be well on your way to building a successful business.

These are just a few of the essential steps that can make all the difference in your initial business success. Like any good drink, it’s all about getting the right ingredients in the right mix. If you’re not getting the desired results, you may need to change up the recipe with new ingredients to get things just right.

Last Call: Key Takeaways for Starting Your Business

Clarify your niche and offer: Identify your strengths, research your audience, and refine your offer to solve a specific problem.

Define your message concisely: Create a clear positioning statement and ensure it’s aligned across all your marketing channels.

Promote strategically: Focus on the platforms that matter most to your audience and be consistent with your content.

By following these steps, you can confidently navigate the early stages of building your business, ensuring that your brand stands out in a crowded marketplace.

Have you ever hummed a song you hear often but don’t like? I do this on some of our longer drives in the RV.

The more you hear the song, the more familiar you become with it, and eventually, without a conscious thought, you’ll begin to like the song, “It’s growing on me,” you’ll say.

And that is how the Mere Exposure Effect works.

You hear the song enough, and it burrows a hole right into your brain, and before long, you’re dancing in the driver’s seat.

The good news for you is that brands work the same way.

You can use this sneaky little psychological “trick” to grow your brand and business. If your audience isn’t engaging with your content or converting into customers, it’s likely because they haven’t seen your brand enough to develop a connection yet.

Read the highlighted part of the last sentence again.

Let’s get this out of the way. Many founders, especially those of you running solo businesses and even executives, do not want to “market” themselves because you think it’s being brag-a-docious.

Well, I’ve got a question for you. If you don’t put yourself out there and market your business or brand, who will? Answer: No one. If you’re not marketing your business or brand, your audience will gravitate toward those who advocate for their business or brand.

The Mere Exposure Effect works on a simple principle: the more your audience sees you, the more they’ll trust you.

BTW—if you’re struggling with this, The Brand Messaging System™️ will not only help you clarify your message, but it will help you understand how to repeat your message across the right platforms.

That’s the magic of the Mere Exposure Effect. And it’s available to you.

The Psychology of Familiarity

The Mere Exposure Effect isn’t just a fancy term for “I’ve seen that a lot.” It’s the reason people feel comfortable with things (and brands) they’ve been exposed to repeatedly.

It’s like going to the same bar enough times—the bartender eventually knows your drink, you know the managers, and then “suddenly” it feels like home. Like Norm from Cheers. The brewery we frequent in Golden, New Terrain, feels like to us.

Why This Matters:

Simply put, familiarity builds trust. In a world overflowing with ads, content, pitches, and people, you will gravitate toward what feels familiar. The repeated exposure builds trust. You want your audience to think of you as that bartender who always gets their order right—reliable and just there.

How it Works:

Every little exposure—whether it’s your logo, tagline, or a killer piece of content (even with low or no engagement), slowly chips away at your audience’s uncertainty. They may not notice it immediately, but they start to trust your brand over time.

This is why it takes 5-7 impressions before people remember your brand.

How to Use the Mere Exposure Effect to Your Advantage

First, you don’t need to be a massive brand to use this effect; you can be a very small brand, just getting started. The trick is consistent and strategic repetition, something I work with my clients on in The Brand Messaging System™️, to make your audience familiar with your brand without being overwhelmed.

Here’s how you can start using it today:

1 – Identify Core Messages

You knew this one was coming, so let’s not overcomplicate things. Pick 2-3 core messages that you want your audience to associate with your brand.

For The Distilled Brand, I tend to think about “clarifying messaging,” “distilling complex ideas into memorable messaging,” or “communicating your value online.”

These core messages become your go-to ingredients, like the bourbon in an Old Fashioned—foundational, reliable, and always on hand.

Pro Tip: If you’re thinking, but I’ve said this before, good. That’s the point. The more you say it, the more people believe it.

2 – Repeat Your Core Messages Across Platforms

Start spreading your message without feeling like “that guy” who talks about his cat in every conversation. The trick is to keep it fresh, for example:

On LinkedIn: I might drop some knowledge on the importance of clear brand messaging.

In Email: I might share how a client nailed their offer after simplifying their message (which happens often).

On the Website: I’ll hit readers with the same value prop—again and again.

Consistent Visuals: Repetition isn’t just about words—visuals need to stay on brand too. Keep your color schemes, logos, and fonts consistent across platforms. It’s like wearing your signature style, think Steve Jobs; Jeans, black turtle neck. People will start to associate it with you without even thinking about it.

Pro Tip: If you feel the urge to switch things up just because you’re bored, resist. Consistency breeds familiarity, and that’s what we’re after.

Create a Content Calendar for Repetition

If low engagement or conversions are slowly killing you, don’t worry. You don’t need to do more; you need to show up consistently and stay on message. This is where I see people get in trouble with their content; they get bored and start talking about other things. If that’s you, stop doing that.

Instead, put together a plan for your content so it stays fresh but familiar. Here’s a hyper-critical four-week example calendar for The Distilled Brand®:

Week 1:

LinkedIn: Publish a post about “How simplifying your message can change everything.”

Newsletter: Share a client success story where clarity made all the difference. Basically, it reinforces your post.

Week 2:

Instagram Story: Do a behind-the-scenes look at a workshop or a peek at your process.

Blog Post: Write about the impact of a clear message on sales and engagement.

Week 3:

LinkedIn: Publish another post. Maybe this time, the topic is posed as a question, “Is your message as clear as an Old Fashioned? If not, it’s time to simplify.”

Lead Gen Post: Offer a free resource, like a downloadable guide, to help your audience clarify their messaging. (This is where you build that trust and get some leads.)

Week 4:

Podcast Appearance: Talk about how simplifying messaging has changed your clients’ lives. Don’t be shy—share those wins and repeat your core message again.

Keep in mind this is an example. The platforms and mediums you choose must align with you and your audience.

Track What Works

Like someone keeping track of your drinks at a bar, you need to keep track of what resonates so you can begin to fine-tune your message and keep serving up content your audience loves.

If your posts about clear messaging, for example, are driving conversations—double down on that and weave that same message into your emails and website.

Metrics to Watch:

Engagement: Are your posts getting likes, reactions, comments, and reshares? If not, you may need to tweak your message. Review your post topics are working and double down on those.

Conversions: Track the number of clicks, sign-ups, or sales after implementing the mere exposure effect to see if repeated exposure to your core message is driving conversions.

Brand Sentiment: Are people mentioning you or your brand in their posts (positively, of course). If so, you’re doing your job.

Refine Based on Data: Data not Boredom. The beauty of repetition is you can keep testing. If your message about “clarity” works wonders on LinkedIn but falls flat in emails, tweak the way you present it in different formats.

Don’t overthink this. Repetition works best when you keep it simple, track what’s working, and adjust when necessary. Like Kaizen principles or perfecting a cocktail recipe, it’s all about small tweaks over time.

The Key: Put yourself out there again and again.

Last Call: Your Action Plan for Memorable Messaging

Before we close the tab on this week’s newsletter, here’s a summary of what you need to remember:

Define your core message: What do you want to be known for? Write it down and stick to it.

Be consistent: Repetition is key—whether it’s your message, visuals, or content strategy. Stay the course (as long as you have the right message, which is the topic of next week’s newsletter).

Track and refine: Keep an eye on what’s working and adjust your approach based on engagement and results.

Final note. With The Brand Messaging System™️, I help you craft your core messages, then build a strategy for you to amplify them across all your platforms—making it easier for the Mere Exposure Effect to work its magic.

The right kind of repetition doesn’t just get you noticed; it makes you unforgettable.

Now go out there and start repeating yourself like a pro, and if you need help, schedule a call. Let’s look at how you can leverage the mere exposure principle to maximize its effect on your brand or business.

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help.

The Brand Messaging System™️: For founders and business owners who want to articulate your value so clearly that your audience knows who you are and what you do without guessing. Imagine not worrying about what to say when asked, “What do you do?” Or not worrying about needing to get another job because your leads have dried up. If that sounds like something you need, the BMOS may be for you. Schedule a call, and let’s chat.

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