Come and join me for a Small Business Owner’s Rant

I really love being a small business owner. That’s genuinely true. I’m not just saying that because you’re reading this on the blog on my business website and so I feel I have to say it, I really do. There are things I love more in the world such as my children, Chris (although he’s half of the business), other family and friends and probably some of my hobbies. But one of the things I love about being a small business owner is that my time is mine and so it allows me to create time for all those things.

What I don’t love are some of the things I come across in business and sometimes it’s good to acknowledge those things. Share them with a friend who gets it, have a little rant or maybe write a blog post to show others feeling the same way that they aren’t alone. So, what has got so under my skin that I felt the need to have a little rant in this week’s blog post. Well, here are my top three.

In at number 3 – DIY “logos” created in Canva.

There are so many reasons why I feel that this is a problem. (Please feel free to imagine me counting these off on my fingers as you read.)

Firstly, they all look the same and bring nothing to a brand’s identity.

Secondly, they aren’t fit for purpose. Any text on them tends to be illegible when they’re reduced in size to fit a website header. They don’t convert well to black and white or grayscale for printing. And people tend not to download them in the right format for the situation they want to use it in (we have a handy free download to help with this bit).

Thirdly, I never know how to react when someone asks for feedback on their “gorgeous new logo they created themselves” in a Facebook group when all they really want is a list of people commenting with “Awww it looks fab, hun”.

Canva has its place for quick social graphics but it’s not a replacement for a graphic designer and a proper branding process.

In at number 2 – Misleading marketing tactics.

I despise marketing that is misleading and, in some cases, just lying. I despise it in all areas of business but it particularly infuriates me when people are marketing website and tech related packages, platforms or services. This is because people know how confusing tech is for a lot of small business owners and so they’re playing on this to sell their platform or product. They’re telling people they need more than they do. They’re comparing one product to another when actually they don’t quite do the same thing and those nuances are important when choosing the right tech. It’s very hard to make tech do what it’s not quite designed to do.

At the moment there’s also a trend of more and more business coach type people white labelling a certain platform, putting it out there as their own “all in one” solution and telling everyone it’s cheaper than the other options out there and that it can do everything just as well. The real problem here is that the people marketing this really don’t understand what they’re selling and many of them aren’t using it themselves. I think the drive behind it comes from a good place but what they’re comparing the product too isn’t comparable yet.

The system they have white labelled might get there one day but until then we’ll still be having calls with frustrated people who have switched to the new system in all good faith because they liked the sales pitch but now don’t know what to do because their website doesn’t look as good as it did on WordPress or Kajabi, is missing functionality they just assumed would be there, they can’t work out how to link things up and the support isn’t as quick at responding as they had hoped it would be.

If you’re trying to make a decision about a platform, please do your research, compare what it does to your actual needs and ask for guidance from genuine experts in the field.

In at number 1 – People who say they haven’t got time to create or work on their website!

Firstly, (and yes I’m counting these off on my fingers again) that means they’re saying they haven’t got time to market their business. Now they may be in a really fortunate position where they have so much work they’re never likely to need any more again. If that’s the case then fair play to them!

Secondly, they are probably working too hard to bring in leads from other avenues when their website could have been doing it for them (genuinely we took our foot off the pedal on all marketing for three months this year and completely for one month and the leads and sales kept coming through our website and our email list continued to grow).

Thirdly, they aren’t looking as professional they could be because I know a majority of people who hear about a business will check out their website before anything else and if it’s not there or it’s obviously out of date that doesn’t look good.

We want to help everyone have a website that does what ours does for us which is why we are running our next workshop, Turn Website Visitors into Paying Clients (without the tech headache!) on Tuesday 22nd November 2022 1pm GMT on Zoom. There will be a replay if you sign up but can’t attend live.

Small Business Owner Rant Over!

So, now I’ve finished my little rant, which has been very cathartic, thank you for listening, I’d love to hear what’s annoying you in business at the moment.

Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash