I arrived in Florida! The trip was amazing and wonderful. It felt like a time out of time. I had the luxury of being able to think for hours on end. I thought about my family, personal growth and my business. Allowing my mind to wander for that long was satisfying because I was able to think things through from beginning to end. My dad always says a good manager should put her feet up on the desk and just think at least 40% of the time, and I can see what he means. On the other hand, when I got to Florida and began talking with my friends Ralinda and Bonnie about their businesses, I realized how important it is to connect with others to get ideas outside of my own head. In one hour, I gathered up a whole head full of new ideas.
Ralinda owns several businesses: She raises Brittany dogs and Friesian horses, manages a plant company and sells a clothing line related to breast cancer. She also runs a pet sitting business where the dogs stay with her, so she can be there to run her other businesses. She says, “You do what you have to do to pay the bills.” I’m also getting to know her well enough to believe she loves the thrill of entrepreneurship.
It’s interesting to me that Ralinda doesn’t have an email list to send out information about her businesses. She is one person trying to run her businesses, and she has to think of ways to get the word out that are not time consuming. She posts local newspaper ads for the dogs and plants (because buyers are mostly local), Web ads for the horses, personal sales on site for the clothing. This makes the point that it’s more important to do what works, rather than feeling we have to jump on the band wagon of new media just because everone’s doing it.
On the other hand, Ralinda is getting ready to purchase a couple of domain names using Packers players’ names in order to sell shirts. When people search for the player name, the idea is that they’ll end up on her site and sell some shirts. I’ll let you know what they are when she gets them, so you can look them up. She chose the new media path that she can handle managing as a solopreneur and that she has reason to believe will be successful based on past experience with her horse site.
My point is that it’s great to have time to think things through thoroughly, so you get a solid idea of what you want to do, but it’s also great to suck ideas from other people. When I get ready to work on my marketing plan, I’m going to take a lead from Ralinda and consider doing a couple of microsites to gather business from companies outside our local area.
For now, though, we are going to get off the computers and go visit tack and feed shops, so Ralinda can sell some clothing. What great way to spend a vacation. (Spoken like a true entrepreneur, huh?)
