Are you like-minded?
- By Ysmay -
- Sep 19, 2012
In this week’s third part of the Entrepreneur Networking Essentials series, our guest blog looks at how to answer the question of ‘why?’…
Often when entrepreneurs are asked "Why did you decide to start a business?" it's because someone is trying to figure out if you're like-minded. You may be asked this by a fellow entrepreneur, by someone who is intrigued by the business world, or by someone who is also considering starting a business.
This is a great question to be asked because this is your opportunity to connect emotionally. This soundbite can run as long as 20-30 seconds because the person asking the question is clearly interested in knowing more about you.
To get started writing this soundbite, grab that notebook, and give some thought to what some of the reasons are you started your company.
• Did you see a problem that needed to be solved?
• Did you see a need that wasn't being met?
• Do you really hate working for someone else?
• Were you tired of being underutilized in your former job?
• Did you just want to make a ton of money?
Odds are, there are many reasons you started a business. How you combine these answers will continue to guide the conversation.
Starting a business because you mainly saw the opportunity to make a boat load of money is not necessarily an attractive quality, but if that is the underlying reason, you can spin it without lying. I'll get to that in a minute.
Here are some potential soundbites that continue with the Quambo PR example:
"I started Quambo PR because at my previous corporate job I saw in times of disaster our current PR firm - who was fabulous otherwise - wasn't meeting our needs. After careful research, I discovered corporate communications during a time of duress is a completely different ball of wax. Quambo is here to meet that need."
"Like many others, I was laid off during the recession, and unable to find another job. Corporate communications, and disaster mitigation, are two of my specialties. I started Quambo PR partly to provide a service but mostly to take care of my family."
The former example indicates you can see opportunities in your field, and you continue to think about ways to improve things. The latter example appeals to one's humanity because most people can empathise with taking care of loved ones.
If you really just saw an opportunity to make a lot of money, you can spin it so you can sound money oriented - which can be a plus for your client - without sounding greedy:
"There are plenty of agencies that focus on 'Happy PR,' which is great, but one day I realised mitigating bad PR during times of duress can go a long way to saving a corporation millions. And I don't know about you, but I am all about the bottom line."
Spend some time working on these soundbites. It's not a bad idea to have a number of soundbites for this question prepared that you can whip out based on the situation.
Next week we’ll look at soundbites for "how did you get into...?"
Image by Adam Tinworth on Flickr
By Ysmay. Tweets @TheRealYsmay and blogs at MetroSeeker.com
This guest blog complies to Virgin.com terms & conditions.
