Visibility

I was bored at my desk the other day - so I googled my business. Ouch

I was incredibly visible on some media and virtually a stranger on others ......and my look ?

Lets just say its not my best hair day ! If you know me well then you will get the ‘hair’ reference …

So I did a quick assessment of my business and its ‘cloak of invisibility’

1. Where did I want to be seen ?
2. Where were my clients ?
3. Where did I need to hide?

Recently I made the decision to add signage to my car

Here it is

Cute right ? Great marketing idea for sure ….Does this visibility of my business come at a hidden cost?

Don’t get me wrong - I love my little Xero car

It tells anyone who cares to look, that I support this brand - hey I might even be in love with it.

It may just be ‘the one”.

It ‘outs’ me as a proud BAS Agent and bookkeeper. As the Xero Zealot that I am.

I park outside my house so now all my neighbours know what I do.

They no longer see me leaving in the dark and returning in the dark thinking I am some sort of ‘shift worker’ - they know I am a numbers nerd.

I can’t wave quickly and scurry inside - I am the friendly Xero - the bubbly fun loving BAS Agent that tries to make bookkeeping COOL.

Confession - at school I was NOT one of the cool kids - I was the serious, uptight , studious girl who gave the death stare to those who wasted her time - not much has changed although these days this reality is served with a smile and a side of laughter!

Everytime we post on social media or write a blog or indeed sign write a car - we expose our business.

We are visible everywhere - every time I change lanes I now think about the image of my business.

One of the accountants in my life said “watch out now when you drive” - so true !

My P Plater daughter jumped into the Xero car and I had to channel the Frozen theme song and “let it go”.

Our brand is our business and our reputation is EVERYTHING as Steve Jobs pointed out …

“This is a very complicated world, its a very noisy world. And we are not going to get the chance for people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be clear about what we want them to know about us.” Steve Jobs

So all this VISIBILITY got me thinking about other businesses …..and it opened my eyes.

First I looked at my competitors in social media and on google.

What a revelation - go on - do it now - list your 3 top competitors and check them out.. Just maybe check me out when I am NOT having a bad hair day....

Some of my ‘competitors’ were INVISIBLE. Unless I knew their exact business name or location -they were impossible to find.

I am the first to admit that my profile needs some ‘work’. Note to self - I need to ‘pimp my ride’.

SO….

What advice as a potential customer would I give them ?

1. Decide WHERE you want to be seen …

   Having a website with links to contact you - is this enough in your business ?

   Do you need to be on social media ? Is this where your ‘followers’ are ?

 2. Decide HOW you want to be perceived ?

   Does your business have a straight, logical, professional feel ?

              OR is your vibe humorous, funky and relatable ?

              What theme or message is your ‘visibility’ projecting ?

               Does this align with your business ‘personality’?

BUT most importantly….

 3. Decide where you need to HIDE ?

I set up a personal twitter profile until I realised I only looked at twitter for business pages that related to my business - so i deleted it - why bother ? I clearly only used twitter as a business/work tool.

Being VISIBLE as a business gives us incredible power but it also presents us with the ultimate dilemma …

So I'm back to the drawing board - time to finesse the website and perfect my look - and maybe stop the 'bad hair days' in my business.

It's a work in progress....watch this space.