One thing I’ve always enjoyed is working with other people. (Well, not all people…) When I think back to the ‘history test’ exercise I did in Will It Fly, the common theme for every job I’ve had is that I liked my team.
When working for yourself, you’re on your own. (Until/unless you build a team but, for me, that seems a long way off, if it ever happens at all.) At the moment, I work from home when the kids sleep, so I get no human interaction during working time other than if one of them cries. Sometimes that’s ok (unless there’s a dirty nappy involved), but it’s nice to work with and around others, to stay sane and not get bored.
Plus, I know I need to get out there and talk about my business too (have I mentioned that before?!) and it makes sense to me to get help with this where I can.
I’m doing this in a few ways.
I’ve started networking (see previous post), as a way to meet other business owners, share advice and ideas, and perhaps collaborate if there’s an opportunity.
I’ll shortly be launching a competition (watch this space!) with two other local businesses. They’re both mums, with the same target audience as me, but we’re not competing, as we have totally different businesses. This means we can work together, promote each other and all get a bit more recognition (whether that’s Facebook likes, or actual purchases) from helping each other. I think the fancy name for this is cross-networking!
I’m also going to be part of a huge Twitter competition next month, which is very exciting! Again, stay tuned for more news on that closer to the time. There will be some fantastic brands taking part and some amazing prizes.
I’ve been giving out freebies to friends (and friends of friends) to try. The aim of this is to get the swaddles out there and seen by different people, outside of my circle of friends and family. My theory here is, the more people that see them, the more visibility I get and word spreads…
The final thing I’ve done is give them to bloggers to review. I was included in a great ‘hospital bag checklist’ a few weeks ago. There will be more reviews coming up and I’ll share them as they happen.
Hopefully, all of these things will lead to actual sales. But I guess only time will tell. Do you have any other ideas of people / businesses I should be working with?