Not receiving support from your family and friends? Say whaaatttt?! You’re pissed and low-key resent them? Come on in, sis, let me tell you how to fix that.
When Family and Friends Don’t Support Your Business
Most of us have been there: starting a business and promoting the heck out of it only to realize the people you care about don’t care about your business like you do. I’m here to let you know that it’s completely fine. So what if they don’t repost your blog, makeup look, outfit of the day, products, or services? Are you paying them? Did you hire them as your virtual assistant or marketing manager? If not, then why do you feel they’re obligated to support or promote you?
Ladies (and gents), your family and/or friends are not obligated to support your business endeavors. In a perfect world, our family would be our number one supporters and promote the hell out of our work and sing our praises, but we don’t live in a perfect world. Just like you’re busy getting and keeping your life together, so are they. And just like you have your interests, so do they.
Do you really think your 45-year-old aunt with a husband and 3-4 kids has time to promote your business on all her social media channels? With this economy, do you really want to force your 18-year-old sister to purchase your “Twerkin’ for Jesus” t-shirt? Come on, that’s not how this works.
Instead of low-key disliking your family and friends for their lack of support, focus on getting support from…I dunno…your target audience?
Defining your target audience should be one of your first steps towards building your business.
News flash – your target audience should never include your family and friends. It should be generic yet specific. I have a 30-year-old sister but that doesn’t mean I am targeting her specifically when I define my target audience as “Single females living in the United States between the ages of 30 and 35.” Though she may (which she doesn’t in real life) fall into these specific requirements doesn’t mean I am targeting her. Who am I targeting? Women outside of my reach who don’t know me but should know me. I want to target women who I don’t interact with on a day to day basis because I want my business to grow and have an amazing reach across social media. If a married 32-year-old woman living in Canada places an order or attends my event, then even better.
This goes for those who rack their brains over unfollows and unsubscribes. Hell, my social media numbers fluctuate so much, and people unsubscribe from my email list when I send out newsletters, but I don’t worry about those people. Why? Because they probably weren’t planning on purchasing, sharing or engaging in any way, shape, or form anyway. Why cry over spilled milk? Focus on the people who are here to stay and strategize on reaching 10 – 10,000 more people with each post or product. Focus on convincing others that you’re the sh sh sh sh Sugar Honey Iced Tea and they need to get on your winning team.
So, before you comment below click the X, let go of the “they don’t support me, so I’m salty about it” attitude and start strategizing on receiving more engagement from the people who already support you. People are weird. You’re weird. I’m not weird. It’s a numbers game. When you reach superstar status, THEY will come around, and you can flex on them if you want to
or you can embrace their “back then you didn’t want me now I’m hot, you all on me” support.
This used to be me when family would share posts from other blogs but skipped over my share button when I posted about the same thing
This is me now at family get-togethers
Why? Again for the folks in the back:
- I know who my target audience is and they don’t fall into it.
- I know it will take months – heck, even years – to build a legit following.
- I am actively building my tribe (supporters, repeat customers, etc) through trial and error and I am looking to get my google reviews building up from my existing clients to help me increase my sales.
- I know they will never love what I do as much as I do.
- While it would be nice, they’re not obligated to do it.
- I’m doing what I love while they complain about the sh*t show of a job they have.
So, next time, before you get all worked up over unsupportive family and friends, refocus that energy into creating engaging content or honing your skills.
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