Guest post by Sam Adeyinka
The subject of clarity is one topic I feel is less discussed, especially as it relates to small businesses and business growth.
Rather than focus their efforts on this very pertinent issue, I find small business owners focusing on other things such as trying to make quick money from their prospects. But when you look at this approach very closely, you find out that it doesn’t lead to nowhere but frustration.
I can still remember very vividly those days when I first launched out to doing business online; it wasn’t because I wanted to help people but rather because I wanted to make a few-quick bucks. Didn’t happen.
In short, I found myself constantly spending – spending on stuff such as renewing my domain and my web hosting plan year-in-year-out. In fact, some of my online business went into extension as a result of blind pursuance of money.
Maybe if I had taking the time and initiative to focus my energy on discovering what it is that makes me tick and that I find utmost joy in doing I would have become enormously successful those years of running round the circle.
I can beat my chest with huge pride to tell you right now that I am happy with myself, I am happy with my business, happy with my cash-outs (even though I feel I could be making more) and everything else in-between but that will be thanks to gaining business clarity along the line.
And I am sure it would have been tough trying to find my way around this had the folks I align myself with were not present or willing to help me.
I am talking about guys like Abraham, Joe, and the many others that took time to show me the magic that has now brought me the life I live.
I am talking about guys like Abraham, Joe, and the many others that took time to show me the magic that has now brought me the life I live.
I will talk about this much later…
…so the question that begs an answer is ‘What is Clarity’?
I mean you have to know what clarity in itself is before gearing yourself towards gaining business clarity.
So what is clarity?
Clarity as defined by Merriam-Webmaster is the quality of being expressed, remembered, and understood in a very exact way.
That said. Clarity is the quality or the process of being clear about yourself, like who you are, who you are meant to serve and serving them well.
Clarity is the distinguishing factor between the fairly successful and the highly successful business man or woman.
What I am saying is, finding a niche is not enough but finding a profitable niche is because it is what makes the money keep flowing towards your direction.
Since we have been able to establish the meaning of clarity, let’s look at why it is important.
Shall we?
Okay, why is gaining business clarity important?
Here’s why:
- Gaining business clarity is important because you don’t want to confuse people as to what your business is about and what it is not.
- It is important that you gain clarity in life and as par your business if you were to achieve specific results or manifest specific things or situations in your life and business.
After all said, it is important that you gain business clarity because it is critical to your success in life and in business.
And hence, in this article, I will share with you 3 simple but effective ways to gain business clarity if you are in business for the long haul.
Three Simple but Effective Ways to Gain Business Clarity
#1. Know Your Niche & Narrow it down.
I love Dayo Samuel’s remark when he said, “Niches are riches”.
That’s pretty much what the whole essence of knowing your niche is about – to help you connect with the people that need you and your services most.
Not knowing your niche makes for speaking to cricket. And if your aim with this business is to make it grow to the extent of taking you to trips at the Grammys’ then you’ve got to critically look into finding and filling a specific niche.
You already know what a niche is about and why it is important. Maybe I should show you examples of those who already are filling their niche well and perfectly too.
So if I mention Dayo Samuel, what perhaps will come to your mind is ‘Podcasting’.
How about when I mention DJ Sobanjo? ‘Teaching mentors and coaches how to run successful consultation businesses’.
You’ve got to find a niche, yes but you also need to make sure to narrow down this niche.
There’s what internet experts call ‘Multi-niche’ and a ‘Niche Market’. The latter focuses more on a specific target audience.
For instance, Abraham teaches focus on how to gain clarity and build platforms. The people that will constantly come Abraham’s way to seek for help will be these set of folks and not folks looking for how to lose weight.
The problem however is the fact that people think they are multi-talented and can talk about different things.
You can go this route if you are in business of fun, but if not, I’d strongly advice that you find a niche and make sure to narrow down on that niche to serve people contents relating to this niche alone and nothing else.
Trust me; the moment you begin to narrow down your niche, opportunities will begin to open up for you.
Why is this so?
That’s because the moment you find your target audience and what their pain-points are and serve them the solution, they begin to conglomerate around you, you become the go to expert in that area and hence, you will start smiling to the bank to cash out on well-earned and deserved cash.
#2. Get crystal clear on what you’re offering and make sure your customers need it.
Getting crystal clear on what you are offering, going to offer and meeting your customers’ overall needs is what keeps your business thriving in the market place.And to be able to get to that point where you understand your customers and be able to give them what they want means to first of all know yourself in-depth, that is, inside-out.
More often than not, bloggers complain and experience burnout because of 1) they don’t like what they do 2) they don’t have a specific niche and a number of other reasons.
Darrell Harris is a blogging friend and he recently published on his blog the 7 causes of blogging burnout and picking the wrong niche tops the chart. You should totally check that post out!
So as business owners, what keeps your drive alive is being clear and what you do and who you serve.
If you cannot tell what you do or who your business seeks to help in just one sentence then you are not yet cleared yet and that will largely affect the way you do business.
So for instance, if you ask me what I do to help people, I will likely tell you that I teach and help people (like you) start, launch, and grow a successful online business.
It took several months to get to this knowledge of why I am in business but it’s thanks to attending seminars and masterclasses such as Abraham’s “Finding Your Unique Selling Point”.
That was the first step I took to get crystal clear on what I am meant to offer and who I should target as my audience (customers).
This process takes more than just thinking or sitting with a mentor to learn how but largely involve you settings some goals and carrying out some kind of research about the market you are trying to get into.
So I had the inclination to write and publish a book and three (3) topics came to mind and each of them makes huge sense but if I was going to go by my own discretion, I probably would have written on the subject of “Traffic Generation”.
But going by the survey I did, I realize people wanted to know some of the mistakes they are making with their blogs or as a blogger – then my job was to write and publish something on that topic, which I did.
I can’t begin to tell you the amount of remarks I’ve gotten about the book in so far.
Can you see why it is important to get crystal clear on what you should be offering and at the same time present to your customers what they need and in what form they need it.
Check this: How to Make Money Online Fast and Free
#3. Get a mentor!
Spending 2-hours with a mentor is worth more than 16-hours of burying your head in research ‘how to gain business clarity’.
"Getting a coach/mentor makes it easy to run your own business successfully". – DJ Sobanjo
DJ is pretty right and I can categorically tell you that getting folks who mentors me on steps to take, whether it is deploying the right business strategies or putting out copies that will not only capture people’s heart but also get them to buy has really made my life much easier.
This is actually a topic on it’s on but instead of blabbing away on why it is important to get a mentor, I’d just share with you how to get people to mentor you to not only gain business clarity but also work you through on how to achieve success with your business.
These are some of the ways I get mentors;
- Social Networking Sites (Facebook and Twitter)
- Email Reach-out
- Cold-calling
Most of the things I know today, I owe to leaning on the experiences of those that have gone ahead of me.
I simply find someone who does what (and does it well and better) and I either reach out to them on Facebook or via email.
The secret is not to sound overly intruding, boring, or making it look like you are connecting with them to just steal the ideas and run off.
That means you would have taking your time to research about these persons by reading their blogs, commenting on their posts, actively follow them on their social accounts and share their works consistently.
If you follow the above process religiously and then message your prospective mentor, you are sure to get them to respond to you and be really interested in you as to help you in whatever you ask of them.
This is how I got Jeet Banerjee, Neil Patel, Harleena Singh, Ryan Biddulph, Ramsay of BlogTyrant, and many others to respond to my mails and help me achieve the level of success I have enjoyed as a blogger.
See that?
Wrapping Up
Hey friend, if you ever desire humongous success in business then you should starting mapping out time as from today to gain clarity as a person and as a business entity.
This is the only thing that will distinguish you from the blogger, online entrepreneur, and the make-up artist next door.
Thanks for listening to me all this while and please do not hesitate to air your opinion on this subject by making use of the comment box below.
About Author: Sam Adeyinka is a seasoned blogger, a passionate podcaster, a creative writer and a digital marketing strategist who loves teaching young minds how to start, launch, and grow a successful online business. You can download his 0.99cents handbook on Amazon titled 101 Common Blogging Mistakes: And Smart Fixes.
