How often, since you started your small business have you talked yourself DOWN to people? Me? I was doing it daily. After almost four years since I started my business, it has only really just started hitting its stride. Why? Two reasons.

1. I have made a HUGE effort in social media marketing this year! I am really good at assisting other people’s businesses with utilising social media but I was neglecting my own! Through a number of facebook campaigns, working my Instagram, creating a Linked In account and ensuring my Google+ page was current I have increased my workload from one or two websites a month to having 6 in to weeks. 6 IN TWO WEEKS!!

What have I been talking about on those social media platforms?! Me.

I have re-introduced myself to my target market. I’ve re-branded and am really proud of the focussed direction I have chosen to go.

I’ve been sharing my work, which I am SO proud of. I started small but I am now aiming big, and to get there I need to have the confidence that I can do it!

People love seeing the little guys (and girls!!) being successful! So as a side note, ensure that you run your social media platforms as you run your business. Show who you truly are. Show them heart, passion, and when you have successes. Make your clients and customers feel as though they are on the journey with you.

2. I have started talking myself up! If someone asked me three months, two months even up to one month ago about my business, I didn’t know what to say. What if they asked me a question relating to the website industry that I didn’t know the answer to! People would think I was a fraud, running around calling myself something that I couldn’t live up to! Up until this year, I was allowing people to view what I do as a hobby.

A hobby that I would spend up to 40 hours week on.

A hobby that I worked on every single night, weekends and often in my lunch breaks from my other job.

A hobby that I did all the accounting work for, that I put a tax return in for, that supplemented our family income substantially. So when people asked me about my business I brushed it off as a hobby because in my own mind that is all I was allowing it to be.

At the start of this year, I made a promise to myself that this year I would be a business, and so far, three months in, I’ve kept my promise and have reaped the rewards. Now if someone asks me what I do for work, I proudly boast that I own my own business. If they ask me a question that I don’t know the answer to, I get back to them when I have found out the answer, or I dig deeper into the question and answer them with a solution they might not have though of. I work more confidently, I approach new business with confidence and I am so proud of the work I am doing! Instead of brushing of my business as a “hobby” it is the forefront of who I am. It’s amazing what a small change can do in such a small amount of time. If you are ready, as I was, to take your “hobby” to the next level (but lets be honest, work the same amount of hours and put in the same amount of effort haha) then try treating it as a business. It’s empowering!