How do you show people that you're open for business?

What do you do for your morning routine? Do you get up early? Go for a walk? Buy coffee or breakfast out?

For me, I shower, get dressed, get ready, and then I go drive around 10 blocks down the road to my favourite local cafe. I order my coffee and do about an hour of work before I start my day.

As I drive along the road to the cafe, I know to always look for the little A-frame sign at the front to make sure they are open.

I know this because there has been occasions like public holidays where I have been heading to the cafe, clueless that it is a public holiday (small business owners can relate), and have been caught out with them being closed. But as long as the little sign is out, they are open for business (remember this for later)

Once upon a time, when we used to be florists only in physical shops, that's how you would start a business.
You wouldn't have a business online or at home or in a warehouse.
If you had a shop, you could be visible to people. You would put your sign out the front so that when customers drive past or walk past they could see that you were open for business.

Nowadays, we don't have that visibility for people to physically see that we exist, that we're open for business. So, we have to create it so people can know they can buy from us.

The way I view social media, I see it as a non negotiable to market myself on there; It's the process of going into your cute little florist shop, unlocking the door and putting the sign out so that people can see that you're open.

Luckily, it's way easier to do a post or jump on stories and even just say hi than it is to go to a physical shop, unlock the doors, set it up and pay the rent.

Posting on social media, showing up on stories, doing anything, even if it's a really simple post, is just like opening your shop and saying “hi, I exist”. With this mindset, I find it so easy to prioritise marketing.

The next time you're in a slump thinking ‘I don't know what to post’, or ‘I haven't got the perfect post to do’ or the perfect caption, don’t worry so much about that.

It's okay to take messy action. It's more important for you to actually show people you exist. As a result, you will get more people who know that you exist, that you are open, more people who can buy from you and more sales.

Do not skip out on the marketing! Put your little sign out the front, show people that you are open for business.