A very dear friend of mine, Virginia, has kindly given me the opportunity to do what I love doing - implementing structure, procedures & plans for business growth & development. The tools & platforms we have already gained exposure to in this course have sent my brain into over drive & I am working on a strategy to use these tools to favourably assist in the development & growth of her business.
By trade she is a gifted, talented & brillant holistic healer & beauty therapist. She has owned & run her single room salon, located within a hair salon, for the last 5 years. She loves having her own business & providing her customers with exceptional care but she, like many other individuals who own & solely operate their businesses, discovered that she
actually dislikes the actual ‘running’ of the business.
Her future goals & dreams for her
business are to take her holistic beauty center to a greater level, achievable
yes, with the right strategies & structures in place!
Her business needs to expand & grow for
her dreams to become a reality, that is a fact.
For this to be possible she needs to have strategies in place that
removes the banner of ‘one man show’ & instead create her ‘small business’
stand out.
Social media platforms are a very effective
tool to utilize in so many ways. They
are cost effective; they can hot large numbers of people instantly & assist
in the branding process.
Having gained valuable experience in the development & growth over the last 10 or so years I felt confident that I could help Virginia increase her profitability & set in place structures & plans for the continued growth & development. Together we have been working on re-wording & optimising her website, adding ‘widgets’
of the social media tools to raise awareness & increase followers. These social media tools are there but are
yet to be capitalized on. Until now I
didn’t realize the importance of having a strategy & plan in place for
these tools. I knew they needed to be
managed but I didn’t really think about it much further than that.
I hope to be able to assist in further developing her website through knowledge gained from this course. I must say that the free web building sites are fabulous as they allow people who could not otherwise afford to have a presence in the big wide web the opportunity to get themselves out there. Plus they are relatively user friendly, I would not have even considered trying to build a site but my brave friend Virginia started from scratch with a template & made a site!
The only downfall of these sites is that you are quite limited when it comes to the look & feel of your page, which makes it hard to represent your 'branding' - by teaming a website up with some other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc you can still bring back your branding until such time that you can budget in a custom built site.
The last time I saw her I was overloaded
& overwhelmed with starting the Grad
Cert & freaking out about if I should continue with the MICW unit after chatting with +Lyndsey Vardy & +Melinda Brain (thanks again girls for your sound advise!!)
It's exciting to have the opportunity to start using some of these new tools & ideas while my brain is overflowing with them!
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear that you are implementing what you have been learning from the Grad Cert into your real life. Sometimes people undertake University studies and never have the need for them, but you are beating everyone by using it before you even graduate! It looks like you will be a valuable teammate for our Group assignment, seeing that you are already working on a website. Looking forward to working with you over the semester.
Thanks Melinda, I do still feel a little out of my league, knowing what I now know after the tools we have been using & learning this week I feel that I may have been running blind with some of my social media platforms! Its like sometimes I read the 1st page of a book then skipped the actual content of the book (which ultimately sets your plans up for long term sustainability & success) & jumped straight to the last page!
DeleteI'm glad I picked this elective, it's really helping to clarify & make sense of the things I've tried to practice in developing business growth
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteThat is quite an impressive introduction. It sounds like you already have quite a sound business mind, and are well on the way to having the skills to assist your friend with her business.
I look forward to reading the progress on your blog.
Cheers, Suzie
Thanks for the feedback Suzie! I love being able to put into practice the skills I have gained through my working life, being able to help a friend is a bonus (and the fact that she gives me a massage in return for my efforts is even better!)
DeleteGaining a better understanding of why we do/use these tools is awesome!