What does it mean to consider the Human Factor, for entrepreneurs?
Human is:
Being Real
Being Clear
Not hiding behind jargon and labels
Human is offering a product or service that touches the pain or problem or desires of your audience – and knowing cognitively and emotionally what that is.
The Human Factor for entrepreneurs is what your business is all about, after you scrape away all the stuff they teach you in business school, or online marketing courses. The Human Factor for entrepreneurs is about connecting with that nugget that engaging another person and speaks directly to them authentically and with care.
I’m an entrepreneur business coach focusing on inner game transformation and authentic marketing.
Is that the business I’m really in? Does that descriptive sentence touch your heart or speak to you on an emotional level?
No. I don’t believe it does. That description is the short-hand for what I really do. I’m in the business of helping small business owners to stop tripping on their own toes, and scraping their knees as they fall. I’m in the business of freeing people from their old stories and fears so they can bring their true gifts to the world. I’m in the business of grounding entrepreneurs into a place where their daily activities and tasks joyfully align with their life’s purpose and core values. I’m in the business of guiding people towards freedom, integrity and happiness in their work.
I’m sitting in a coffee shop as I write this article. What business is this place really in?
Is it the Coffee Business?
Is it the Chai Latte with steamed soy milk business?
Yes..and…in reality they are in the business of providing delicious hot beverages in a cozy atmosphere to local people looking for a pleasant place to meet, read, or do some writing. If they were just in the business or coffee or chai, it could be done at a formica covered stand-up only counter-top like you encounter when you are running for a train in Grand Central Station. They would not then require the old brick walls, comfy couches and polished walnut wood bar with swivel stools!
The Human Factor for entrepreneurs is about knowing your customer or clients and THINKING about them as an individual. Many times business owners, when asked about their audience, will talk about a somewhat amorphous group. Yet each of us is not a group. Each of us is a person who has our own unique pains and pleasures. Good marketers are intimate with their avatars. (I’ve had many a client laugh uncomfortably with that concept – to get intimate with your avatar!) Yet the human factor for entrepreneurs is all about exactly that.
Take the time to devise, clarify and then become intimate with the truth of your avatar(s) as a real person. Who is she? In the Avatar Exercise we create her in exquisite detail. How old? Married/Single/Divorced? Kids? Socioeconomic situation? City or Rural? Employee or Independent? Schooling? Interests? Car driven? and on and on and on. We give her name so we can ask ,”Would Sally like these chairs?”” “Would this sentence in our advertising campaign touch Sally’s challenges and compel her to the next action/click?”
This is just one of the tangible ways to bring in the Human Factor for entrepreneurs.
Be Human! Don’t hide what you really bring to the lives of your customers and clients, behind spreadsheets, jargon, metrics and more. Let your humanness shine through your work to touch the very essence of your people! That is the Human Factor for entrepreneurs.
