Why are you doing this?
Through this course I don’t want to just improve the marketing and promotion of your business – I want to also improve your passion and motivation. Remember how you felt when you first launched your business or came up with the idea? You need to keep returning to that feeling. What you are doing is exciting! You need to do a little dance around your kitchen or office every time you get a win. You need to be doing something that brings you joy, and if you’ve lost that joy then you need to do something else or find a way to bring that joy back into your business.
Having your own business can be a real slog. Even when successful it can still be stressful. But if you have a vegan business then you have something that other businesses simply do not have. You have a burning desire to make the world better. The fact that you are vegan is awesome enough in itself, but the fact that you want to go further than just being vegan and move us towards a vegan world takes your awesomeness off the chart. You need to remember this. You are not just running a business, you are on a mission. The animals and the chance of a cruelty-free world depend on you succeeding in that mission. That is something few other businesses owners have and it is why you are more likely to succeed. Running a vegan business allows you to align your passion, your very core belief, with how you make a living – and that’s when the magic happens.
It is also fair to say that ‘Vegan’ is the friendliest sector you will ever work in; if you already have a vegan business then you will know this. There is always a moment when you’re on the phone or meeting someone face-to-face and you realise that you’re both vegan. It doesn’t matter what else divides you in the world; you are instantly best friends. Again, this gives you an advantage in business – you have this huge thing in common with your target market. Now, you should never assume that just because you are vegan and your target market are vegan that you know what they want. However, if you are a vegan business selling to other vegans then you do have a core belief that binds you together. How many other businesses can claim that they have the same ethics as their customers?
In the vegan sector even your competitors can be your best friends because we’ve all got the same goal. Rather than being in competition you should view your vegan competitors as other people who are also helping to bring around a vegan world. Best of all, you no longer have to hide or apologise for being vegan. If you wear your veganism on your chest then your customers will love you even more for doing so. Even if your company does not lead with veganism, or you are ‘vegan by stealth’ and engaging with non-vegan customers to lead them to buy cruelty-free without even knowing it, you can still be motivated by the fact that you are on the right side of history. You are a pioneer. How many company owners can say that with such certainty?
