Today I’m excited to join the Jump Blog Tour, hosted by Stephanie Hall and Ashley Wilhite, the co-creators of Jump: Into your business, your life, your dream, a must-have digital guide for new coaches and creatives. They believe in the transformational power of taking the jump and creating a business you love. This all-inclusive eBook will teach you how to start a business, find your niche, brand like a pro, and make the jump with confidence. Find out more here.
When I think about how blogging helped me jump into business, it really comes down to three words: exploration, growth, and sharing. As I’ve mentioned here before, I didn’t start blogging to start a business. I didn’t even really have a purpose — I just figured I should post something to justify the domain and hosting fees. What I didn’t expect is that my blog would become a place where I could explore my interests, grow my talents, and share in a way that allowed me to launch and grow my own business.
Exploration
One of the most common pieces of blogging advice is to focus on the quality of your posts over quantity. And yeah, quality posts will go much further in helping you build a following. But to be honest? I think that’s crap when you’re just starting out. You don’t get quality without first going through a quantity of work.
Up until I actually started a business, I found the whole idea of starting and building a business overwhelming. I wanted everything to be perfect. But I had no idea what I was doing! So I just didn’t do anything. Blogging helped me get over my fear of imperfection and just focus on putting work out there, one day at a time. It gave me the space to just explore my interests and try new things — and then I could look back later and understand what I really enjoyed, what I didn’t, and which work I was most proud of.
Growth
Naturally, the longer you do something, the more you’ll learn about it, and the better you’ll be at it. For me, I used my blog as a place to grow my design skills. In the early days, my post graphics were all over the place — I used every font, color, and filter that struck my fancy, and I experimented with different layouts. I also redesigned my blog every 3 months or so, and probably tweaked it at least every other week in between. Through that, I eventually developed a style that felt truly me and learned how to write more code, and better code.
Blogging also really helped me grow my brand. Everyone talks about how important it is to have a strong brand — but what most people don’t say is that a strong brand is built over time. It’s not just about where you are now, or where you’re going, but also where you’ve been. As long as you just keep doing work, you’re building a brand, and eventually you’ll start to see the common threads that hold everything together to strengthen your brand. There’s a reason I work with so many lifestyle bloggers, and a reason my brand appeals to them — it’s because I spent those first few years focused on lifestyle blogging myself.
Sharing
Y’all. I am so not a salesperson. I was the girl in fundraisers who just wanted to pay the minimum instead of trying to get other people to buy from me. But you know what? I don’t really feel like I have to sell my work in my business, thanks to blogging. By sharing what I know and what I do through my blog, potential clients understand how I think and work before even contacting me. Then when they reach out, it’s just a matter of explaining the process to them and making sure that fits with their goals, budget, and timeline. Technically, yes, I’m still selling my work — but it feels more like just a simple discussion, which helps me feel more confident and less salesy.
So if you want to jump into business but aren’t sure where to start, definitely consider blogging! I think the hardest part of starting a business is actually getting started, and it’s much easier to write one post, then the next, then the next, than to try to figure out all the details at once. Be sure to check out the rest of the Jump Tour to read more about how other business owners have made the jump!