Introverts: Tips For Business Success

Today, we have a special article written by Patricia Weber, a Business Sales Coach for Introverts and Shy.

I think sometimes, if you are introverted, you may think that you should rule out the idea of running your own business.  Not so!  Read and enjoy the tips that Pat has shared with us.

Home-Based Business Tips for an Introvert to Excel with Authenticity

Whether you have an intentional or unintentional home-based business, if you’re an introvert, you may have an unfair advantage. There may be some specific social skills you’ll need to transform but those will be easier when you decide to be comfortable with how you are already! Consider shifting your possible “cannot do” thinking with the following ideas and how you prefer to act and be.

Select a workspace or room as your office. By creating an environment that is totally for your work, you help create support for yourself to get into that business focus. Being more introverted you will find when you have this space it helps support you for what you want to achieve in your home business. Do you have a spare room? Can you close off an open space in another room? Tap into that thoughtful creativity to find where and how to create your private work area.

Start with basic market research. After you identify your market, you must learn about your market. There’s very little success in marketing – networking, direct mail, advertisements, almost anything – if you don’t know whom you are talking with. You’ll be teaching your market about what you do so it’s important to know who they are so you can speak about how what you have is going to help them. You’ll be taking action on what you find so remember you have a purpose to the research. Just do not use it as an excuse to stay in that mode.

Get a marketing plan and act on it. More planning! Your marketing can include some introverting as well as extroverting activities. Introverting – press releases, business card, getting listed in online industry directories, have wearable marketing like hats or t-shirts, create your elevator pitch, update your email signature, blogging and more. Extroverting – join a professional organization, attend networking meetings, contact associations about filling their weekly speaker need, use your elevator pitch in networking and meet with people one to one. TOP OF MIND: Most of your marketing is leading you to one-to-one conversations where you excel in being curious, listening and building a relationship.

Use the Internet’s social networking. Online social networking is not a fad; it is a trend and trends change things. Remember Star Wars action figures? I do because my son had dozens. That’s an example of a fad. If Twitter goes away, something better will take it place to help people begin to connect. Notice how many more social networking websites are popping onto the scene? Some will last and others won’t but the idea of virtual global networking is here to stay. But this is one of an introvert’s best home-business tools to know how to use.

There are other features of a home based business that could be the delight of anyone more introverted, some being: you get to make your own hours, create the structure of your day, you control meetings, using Virtual Assistants as your business grows can help with tasks you don’t prefer, and you get to decide when to make time for yourself.

Regardless of what got you to either being or thinking about a home-based business owner, as an introvert you have innate strengths to leverage for a good percentage of what must be accomplished. You can act on those strengths while you hone any social skills as well as work to dismiss any negative myths about yourself. When you can work at home knowing that you can be who you are, someone who prefers time alone with your own thoughts, your energy will shift and pull you into making your home-based business the success you want.

And if you are an introvert who wants to learn the truth about introverts and let the negative myths dissolve, grab a free 32-page excerpt of “The Happy and Fulfilled Introvert: I show you how to make this a reality” by Patricia Weber, America’s #1 Business Coach for Introverts and Shy. http://coachingforintroverts.com It’s a start to stop letting yourself be labeled as anti-social, shy, aloof – and even unaccomplished.  Finally, feel good about who you are, rather than trying to learn to become an extrovert.

My thanks to Pat for sharing this great information with us!