I said this to my husband the other day, who looked at me blankly while I was posting my 1000000th post. Hes not on social media, not even Facebook, I actually find this so liberating and I’m slightly envious. Not having any social pressures, FOMO, having that dreading feeling of wondering who’s liked my posts. The constant comparisonitus and judgements. His reply was “well just come off it then”, I looked at him with such distaste. Come off social media, “but it’s my business, how am I supposed to promote myself and my business if I don’t have Social Media?” I heard myself say, in actual fact what I really meant was “it’s my life, it’s how I connect with the outside world”, sad but honest especially as I work from home alllll the time!
He then asked me how did I run my business before, how did I promote myself? When I first started PAWtesbery Pets, I have 0 customers but also 0 commitments (no kids, no house, no husband). I started to think about how I went about getting customers pre social media explosion. So I sat and reflected trying to remember how I did it back in 2005, and then I remembered I put a small ad in a local Church Magazine and a local Directory Magazine. From that I then got a call from a lady with a Rescue Greyhound called Silus, my first every customer. I was so excited, and he lived in the most ideal location – the woods were literally a walk from his home, he was also the dream dog. I then put ads in local Vets. But the biggest form of advertising was word of mouth, Silus’s owner told all her neighbours about me, and I was the second dog walker in the area, so the pickings were rich and cute and fluffy!!
Facebook was formed around a year before I set up (2004) PAWtesbery Pets so it wasn’t as big as it is now, and Instagram wasn’t even thought of until 5 years later. I didn’t rely on social media to promote my business and I then started to think “what if Social Media wasn’t a thing now what would I do?”
Then it hit me, there is actually a lot I could do, a blog like this one, blogs were huge back in the early 2000s maybe even earlier, fates and fairs which I did a few of and loved the interaction and atmosphere, leaflet drops, like I said before advertising in local church and local community directory magazines, which were so valuable for me when I set up the dog walking and then later on the Small Pet boarding company. Posters/leaflets in shops that relate to my work, word of mouth, offering an incentive, and business cards.
The majority of these things above cost some amount of investment, and when you don’t earn enough from your fledgling business how do you invest in your future business?
When I opened my shop in 2010 my moto was “you have to spend money to make money” and although I believe this to be true now. I’m often left sitting looking at my bank account asking, “how can I do this when I don’t have any money to spend in the first place?” Also, isn’t it a bit risky to invest in my business when people aren’t buying luxury items? Especially today with the economy crisis??? The circling of conversations I have in my head are actually far worse than this, but I have spared you!
Maybe the question I should be asking myself is how do I get people to buy my work? How do I engage with my audience when there is a screen separating us? When I owned my shop, people would pop in just for a chat, even a cup of tea and I loved this, I loved that even if they didn’t even have pets they felt the comfort and warmth that myself and my shop offered people.
How do I translate this into my online shop? How do I replicate that warmth welcoming feeling? From these back-and-forth internal conversations, I have been having with myself it all comes down to investment – within myself I need to believe in myself and believe that people will buy my offerings.
And that is where I am today, sitting here writing this blog hiding behind a screen still, but pouring my heart out to whoever is reading this. In the hope that maybe you might feel a connection, and this gives you the comfort that no matter how hard things get, you need to keep going because you have so much to offer to the world and yourself.
