How To Change Your Business Direction Anytime

Sometimes, ya gotta be bold. Ya gotta make a change in your business because the way it’s going isn’t really working. You might have had a business for a while and need to change what your business does for a number of reasons.

1. It’s not selling enough
2. It’s complicated and difficult to manage
3. It’s awful, stressful, and down-right crummy.

There are many reasons you might want to change up what your business does. And, honestly, if you are feeling bad...stop. If it’s not working, just change it. Life is too short to hang on to something that’s not working.

And, life is too short to carry any guilt around about your business change with you. Making any sort of big change is going to be hard enough. So let it go! And make the change you need.

CAN I CHANGE WHAT MY BUSINESS DOES?

You know, things don’t always work out, but staying with the old way will just hold you back.

If you decide to change it up that’s a good thing. You are noticing you need to do things in a new way.

For me I am being bold by adjusting my business structure and what I offer.

I worked as a social media manager and content creator for many years. From the management side, my day was often met with fraught and stress. It was a complicated and highly unpredictable field. “I hope the posts I put up made it onto the platform. (the software available would sometimes disconnect from the social media platforms.) I hope the work we do will bring my client traction. (Sometimes the way things are done aren't the things that work anymore.) There was a lotta worry and a lotta hope and a lotta rollercoaster-type days.

I held my breath a lot. Literally. I would catch myself not breathing at my desk.   

So, I went looking for options. 

I finally found it in my wonderful LinkedIn coach. Yes, a coach for a piece of software. An app. A platform. Kinda weird huh? 

I wouldn’t get a coach to teach me how to use Netflix or how to operate my stove. And, once I knew how to drive my car, I didn’t need to re-up every year and learn the new stuff on how it functions. (Though the new cars do require video instruction to learn all the features - for sure!)

I had been asking other people if I should change up my services, but when they would say yes they could never really back up my question with the reason why.

This awesome new coach had the insight from working in the field for a long time and knew I should call it and most importantly why I should. I knew I liked her! She knew the stuff and shared it!

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS TYPE

And, so almost overnight I made the adjustment. I stopped offering social media management and would only provide business writing. Content creation for your blog. Blog articles for other marketing agencies, people in the home trades and real estate agents, and another one of my favorite topics, frugal financial info. 

I quickly adjusted my own content and website materials. The banners and headers needed changing around, my marketing platforms need adjusting. I poured myself into this new business type.
I could change my business! (and you can, too!) 

I was also writing great blog content for many other businesses already. From roofers and real estate agents to cleaning teams, sales pros, and other marketing agencies. It was fantastic. People loved it.

They would sign up and easily have content waiting for them each month… I even find the images to post with the blog article. I make the photos pretty with a text overlay so they can also use it to promote the articles and use it on social media. 

This was the best! It was helpful for other people. It made people happy and I enjoyed it. Plus, I was pretty good at it. I instantly felt relief. 

Now, can I get business for my new direction?


DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED A NEW DIRECTION?
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Remember the coach I mentioned earlier. The program she offered was kinda my last hope. Really, I had been doing Social Media Management and Content Creation for many years, but if I couldn’t find an easier way to find leads for my business I would need to change direction again.

I was going to give this new way a year and see what came of it.

So, I’m in this LinkedIn Intensive hoping it’s not just the same hype. You can make all this blah blah quickly. I had heard how fantastic LinkedIn had become. How it was the new hip place to be for business. Like it’s talked about but still kind of under the radar because it wasn’t really much of anything when it started.

FINDING WORK FORM MY BUSINESS CHANGE

I wanted to learn the awesomeness that everyone is talking about and how it can work for my business. But, I also love to share great business lead ideas with people through my writing. If I could make this work for me I could tell other people I knew what was working. 

I had tried a variety of ways to find leads for my business that didn’t seem to cut it in the past. Most of it exhausted me without a lot of return. I think this has become commonplace. 

1. Facebook free groups - I do get a little work from paid groups. A little.
2. Networking - I do get a little work from this as well. Again, a little. But, it can tire me out quickly. Is the ROI there? 
3. Instagram - Not my clientele. So, again, the ROI wasn’t cutting it.
4. YouTube - I gotta work this longer to see if I can get results. I love it and I get good email sign-ups from it. I wish I could show up every day! 
5. Mailers - Again, a little work came from this. I will continue to pursue it! I think it’s a great way to connect with other local businesses without being pushy. 

I know - there are plenty of people that will disagree with me about some of these options. Which is great - however, you find business more power to you! Work that for sure. But, I wanted more! And, I would love to find it consistently. I mean, don’t we all? And, why can’t we find business online? It’s the modern world! I am determined!

LINKEDIN FOR BUSINESS MARKETING AND LEADS

I have been working the LinkedIn program for about a month and it is already fantastic. The process our coach teaches started working for my business on week 2! Week one I was making the changes to my business by narrowing down my business offering and focus only on writing for other businesses now.

And, while I continue to study social media marketing - I belong to a paid group where I was certified a number of years ago to be a social media marketer and manager. It’s an ever-changing industry - you can not go it alone and no one else can either. We all band together and supply each other with stellar current info in the social media marketing world….every day. There is a lot to know.

Anyway, I continue to work with my social media management clients that I have had for quite a while. I also continue to write social media content - including LinkedIn - content for other businesses, but I do not do any more management. And, it works great for business folk.

This option of written but not scheduled content for their LinkedIn page offers them great content but info they can use wherever they want whenever they want. It’s reusable and it can be combined or trimmed down. Made into other posts. Developed into freebies to offer their clients or prospects. 

I’m very excited and this new business direction has been one of the best things I did for my business.

I'M HAPPY ABOUT THE BUSINESS CHANGES 

As a small business owner, I will have to make a lot of decisions. And, a lot of decisions on my own. Sometimes you will get advice from other people, of course, but that advice might be just fly-by-night comments without a lot to back it up.
 
Finding the right people to guide you and help you make your decisions and thus my business changes weren’t easy for me until this one coach was able to back it up with an example of why it didn’t work for her. Many of the same things that didn’t work for her have also not worked for me. She wanted to show me what worked for her and was working for a lot of people like us.

This was the catalyst for my business change and my new business direction. It was the launching point for my new way to find leads. It was a big change in a short amount of time and it’s already panning out great.

You want to do or make something that people need. If it’s just something you like, that’s a hobby. Fun, but not paying the bills. You can find something that offers both if you make the right changes.

WILL YOU CHANGE YOUR BUSINESS DIRECTION?

I hope you find this helpful if you are thinking about changing up your business. And, if you came here because you wonder if I can help your business with its writing content, I hope you found my story inspiring.
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If I have learned anything in the marketing game it’s to do things, try things, evaluate things, progress or results. And, that is what I did. I made a shift to try something new. Try something that works to help other people, businesses, and myself.