What do you have to offer people?
One of the hardest parts of starting an online business or changing your life is believing you have something valuable to offer.
What that value actually is or becomes might surprise you.
My experience so far.
Finding my value has been something I’ve struggled with since starting our online business.
I’ve been hesitant in taking action, creating content and putting myself out there.
All vital ingredients in starting an online business.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt it’s that you don’t know what you have to offer until you get out of your comfort zone.
What Value can I offer?
I’m still learning what my value is, still learning to believe in myself.
When we first started I thought my value was my outdoor industry experience.
One of my first blogs and YouTube videos was about camping with a young family. I shared our experience and advised on hints and products that would make the experience safer and more enjoyable.
Within the blog, I had affiliate links to the products I recommended. One of the readers clicked the link and purchased some camping gear. That was the day we made our first bit of money online. It was a grand total of £1.92 but very exciting at the time.
The information was of value to our reader. It helped them to solve the problem.
Understanding my real value
But what I’ve learnt since then is the value in the article wasn’t necessarily the technical tips or the equipment we recommended. I think it was the solace and camaraderie another parent got from the honesty. Camping with young children is hard and doesn’t often go to plan. Rather than try and second guess what people wanted to hear we just wrote what we’d actually learnt and why.
Since starting the business I’ve really enjoyed taking photos for our social media platforms. Photography was something I’ve always wanted to try but could never justify spending the time to improve.
I was nervous that the photos I took wouldn’t be good enough for our website.
What surprised me is the posts that have been engaged with the best haven’t been the ones that are the most technically well shot. It’s the ones that have come with a story that people can relate to. Whether it’s the fact that we all have bad days or inspiring others to get a little more outdoor and take action in their life.
What I’ve learnt
I’m not 100% confident about what my value or purpose is. What I’ve learned is you don’t have to be the best or the most impressive. As long as you’re trying to honestly help people, you will have value. How that value takes shape may not be the way you expect.
I hope that the value you get from this is you don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to put one foot in front of the other and be willing to be vulnerable.
Click the video below to hear Nick and I discuss what we’ve learnt so far and what we help to achieve. Then answer the quiz to get yourself thinking about what you might offer in your business.
Quick Quiz: What’s your value?
- What makes you valuable now? (to employers, family, friends, the world)
- What would you like your value to be?
- Do you think you are as valuable as possible for you?
- What could you do to change that?
