Stop expecting friends and family to support your business
Anaita shares that when she started her businesses she didn't tell friends or family, and only earned their attention after being featured in publications like Entrepreneur and Smart Company. Her advice is to drop expectations of friends, family, or launch-day sales and instead focus energy on building loyal customer relationships.
The lessons
Don't expect friends and family to buy from you or be excited for you, let your actions speak instead
Don't expect a big launch day, manage your own expectations to avoid disappointment
Focus your energy on building loyal customer relationships rather than validation from people close to you
Questions people ask
Should I tell my friends and family when I start a business
Anaita says she didn't tell her friends or family when she started her businesses or even when she wrote her book, preferring her actions to speak louder than her words. They only started taking her seriously once she appeared in media publications like Entrepreneur and Smart Company. Her advice is to stop expecting friends and family to buy from you or celebrate you, and instead focus on your customers.
Transcript
Here's a piece of advice that I want to tell you when you start a business. Stop expecting anything. You expect your friends to buy from you, you will be disappointed. In fact, if you expect people to be really happy for you, you're going to be disappointed.
If you expect to sell a lot on your launch day, you're going to be disappointed. Stop expecting things. When I started my businesses, I didn't even tell my friends or family that I was starting. In fact, the book that I've just written, you guys know about it, but my friends and family don't.
I would rather that my actions speak louder than my words. When I started to show up in publications like Entrepreneur, Smart Company, Dynamic Business, Broadsheet, and other media articles, that's when my friends and family actually started to take me seriously. They were like, oh my God, are you, oh, you own Hero Packaging. I was like, yeah, that's me.
Forget about friends and family buying from you. Just focus on customer relationships. Make sure that they're loyal to you. If you really need to tell someone that you're excited about your business, just comment and I'll be.
