No One Owes You a Business So Get Over It

  • 1 min read

I’ve noticed this meme floating around my Facebook circles this past month or so:

meme

I chuckled the first time I saw it posted. It was from someone who was essentially working a pyramid scheme. I wouldn’t call that a business, but to each his own. Then I saw it again. It was from someone who was selling real estate. A few days later, one of my restaurateur friends was posting it. One of my freelance design friends even posted it. And that’s when I got annoyed. Why did so many small business owners think that selling to their family and friends was so important?

Does your business plan say, “Get everybody I go to Zumba with to buy this product?” Remember back when your business was just a twinkle in your eye and you were putting together your business plan? When you got to the part where you had to work out who was the ideal customer for your business, did you put down: “That girl in my high school French class who sometimes sends me extra lives in Candy Crush?” Did your analysis lead you to believe that anyone who liked your last status about your movie plan would also sign up for your service?

That’s not a sustainable business plan. If you want to grow your small business, you must target potential customers who align with your unique selling proposition. Even if you get a few sales thrown your way out of kindness and loyalty, you can’t expect them to sustain your business out of a sense of loyalty.

Earn your business. No one owes you a business. You are not entitled to other’s people’s money just because you are Facebook friends. That attitude is going to get you nowhere. Your friends and family work hard to earn their money and you’re going to have to work just as hard to earn it from them.

In a market where there is intense competition in nearly every industry, no one gets a free pass. Instead of posting memes and being salty, here are some things you can do to actually earn the business of your friends and family:

  • Be the best solution to a problem
  • Be the most convenient option
  • Be the most cost effective option
  • Be the solution that most aligns with their core values

If these things sound familiar to you, it’s because this is how you earn anyone’s business. And that’s the secret to building a long lasting, sustainable business. Not sulking. Not entitlement. Not Facebook memes.

Picture of Chaz Michaels

Chaz Michaels

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Someone who lets a frazzled stranger go ahead of them in line isn’t necessarily being generous — they’re picking up on small shifts in tone and posture that most people only catch when told to look for them

Someone who lets a frazzled stranger go ahead of them in line isn’t necessarily being generous — they’re picking up on small shifts in tone and posture that most people only catch when told to look for them

Global English Editing
The difference between the words you recognize and the words you actually use — and what that gap says about how you learned them

The difference between the words you recognize and the words you actually use — and what that gap says about how you learned them

Global English Editing
Psychology says older adults who scroll the most in the evening usually aren’t the loneliest people in the house. They’re often the ones who found it, quietly, the safest substitute they have left for calling someone directly.

Psychology says older adults who scroll the most in the evening usually aren’t the loneliest people in the house. They’re often the ones who found it, quietly, the safest substitute they have left for calling someone directly.

The Blog Herald
Keeping the counter clear while cooking is partly a private habit and partly a quiet form of consideration — a way of leaving the kitchen usable for whoever moves through it next, without needing to say so out loud

Keeping the counter clear while cooking is partly a private habit and partly a quiet form of consideration — a way of leaving the kitchen usable for whoever moves through it next, without needing to say so out loud

Global English Editing
People who check their phone hardest during a stressful week aren’t the most addicted, they’re the ones who never learned another way to regulate what they’re feeling

People who check their phone hardest during a stressful week aren’t the most addicted, they’re the ones who never learned another way to regulate what they’re feeling

The Blog Herald
What the questions someone asks in a conversation reveal about whether they’re actually listening

What the questions someone asks in a conversation reveal about whether they’re actually listening

Global English Editing
Load more

Subscribe to receive our latest articles!

Get updates on the latest posts and more from Small Business Bonfire straight to your inbox.