How To Support Your Friend Who Runs Their Own Business
Over the years, I have started multiple businesses in multiple different areas – from sport, to personal development and even a clothing business (RIP Bruzzy Inc). Starting a business is hard, and it takes a lot of courage to take the leap and put yourself out there. As someone who runs a business, I know that the journey can often be difficult, unclear, draining and even scary at times. But, speaking from experience, it can also be the best thing you ever did, and having someone help you along the way can do more than you might think. I often get asked, “How can I support you?”, so I thought I’d write a blog about simple ways you can help your friends or family and get them closer to achieving their business dreams.
Buy their product or service
The most obvious way to support someone is to spend your money to buy their product or service. The biggest thing here is that you should pay full price, don’t ask for a discount, as this devalues what they do. If your friend has a clothing company, buy an item of clothing. If they are a physio, use their service. Small businesses rely a lot on gaining momentum, and it often only takes a few clients to get the wheels spinning.
Give them referrals
This is where you become the biggest cheerleader and if you know someone who could use their product or service, refer them. If your friend runs programs in schools, and you know school teachers, connect them together and advocate for them. Send your family and other friends to use their services.
I have a friend who is a physio, and I’ve recommended six or more family members use his services and are now regular clients. This results in hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars going towards his business.
Give them a great reviews
A simple way to support a business is to give them a great five-star review. Depending on what sort of business they run, a Google review tends to be the most helpful. If they run a restaurant or experience business, platforms like TripAdvisor are also great for reviews. This not only gives people confidence in what they are purchasing, but also helps their business be seen more in online searches.
Sharing, commenting and liking social media posts
This could possibly be the easiest of the lot. Liking a social media post won't do a huge amount, but it will tell the algorithms that it’s good content. Commenting will help share it with more of your network, and sharing a post could be massive for a business because it’s getting it in front of your people. Add a short paragraph and this will help extend its reach even further. Whenever I’ve had people share posts of mine, not only have I seen an increase in traffic to our socials and website, but it also fills me with a feeling that I’m supported and people care about what I am doing.
Collaborate with them
When starting our business, we quickly realised we needed an accountant. I am fortunate that have a friend who is an accountant, so I used (and continue to use) his services. I’ve had other friends with media businesses and have used them for filming and content creation. Another friend used to build websites, so I used their services to build our first website. It cost us money for all these things, but I knew the person who the money was going to, and it was a win-win for both of us. It also doesn’t need to be something paid. You could run cross-promotions on your social media or other clever ways of giving you both greater exposure.
Provide moral support
This way is completely free and easy. Business can be tough and sometimes as an owner you can find yourself getting down or struggling with motivation. Simply having someone send you an encouraging message saying how proud they are of you or be there to celebrate the win, both big and small, can go a long way. Having someone reach out to you shows that they have been paying attention, they care, and they want to support you. Your friend might have a business that doesn’t relate to you or anyone in your life anyway, so it could feel hard to support them. But a few words can give someone the motivation they need.
If you would like to support me and help build this blog, I have started a “Buy Me A Coffee” page where you can donate as little or as much as you feel comfortable. All the funds will go towards creating more content for The Modern Day Man Playbook, with the goal of reaching more men to allow them to show up in all areas of their lives. Link here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/themoderndaymanplaybook