BENJAMIN BUTTON-ING AS A BUSINESS OWNER SO THAT PEOPLE ALWAYS WANT TO WORK WITH YOU
We all know the story of Benjamin Button … he was born an old man and got younger and younger as he went through life … life in reverse … a great movie with Brad Pitt, so if you haven’t seen it yet and wonder wtf I’m talking about, go rent it ;)
I realized last night while I was busy ‘not falling asleep’ that I’m Benjamin Button-ing as a business owner! In order to stay relevant to my potential clients I had to start ‘older’ when I was first a business owner … and get younger and younger as I get older so I can keep up with the hot young things coming my way! Confused??? Let’s slow it down …
The first business I ever opened was a wedding planning and coordination company in Seattle, WA … I was 25, unmarried, and had that fresh ‘I’m gonna kick ass’ scent … I was hungry and ready to plan weddings and be one of the best in the industry. The clients who were looking into hiring me were usually older then me and so I felt it was very important to appear ‘older and wiser’ than 25 … not in a ‘fake AF’ way, but the pressure pushed me to find my inner professional and impress them with my ways … and it worked! I quickly climbed to the top in under a year and worked as a wedding planner for just under 5 years.
After realizing that working my little bootie off every weekend wasn’t my jam, I hung up my wedding planning boots to sit at a desk and blog … I launched Style Unveiled in 2008 and my goal was to get brides to LOVE LOVE LOVE my wedding website and use it to plan their wedding! Only now, I wasn’t YOUNGER than my potential audience … I was a few years OLDER … but brides didn’t want an old fart showing them all the glitter and glam of weddings … they wanted to feel that the blog they were reading reached their level …. and so, I had to Benjamin Button it again and get ‘younger’ than I was as a wedding planner when I was young but needed to be older … you following???
For 8 years I ran Style Unveiled and reached brides planning their wedding … each year having to stay ‘young at heart’ and each year that ‘age’ became younger and younger … LOL. I stayed hip by keeping up on the latest fashion … going to stores like Nordstrom and Anthropologie to take in all the trends, colors, textures, and styles that the younger crowd was after …
I KEPT MYSELF LOOKING AND FEELING GOOD … WEARING THOSE GOOD ASS JEANS WAS A MUST!
I think it’s important to note that ‘letting yourself go’ is not the Benjamin Button way … he did get younger and younger over the years … keeping up, staying hip, moving with the times is a great way to stay young at heart because you don’t get ‘stuck’ … and thus, you’ll continue to be relevant to a client that will always ‘most likely’ be younger than you … and the age gap will only get WIDER, not closer together …
This is something I struggle with weekly … I think: how can I continue to stay relevant to clients who will continue to be younger than me? Will young, stylish business owners really want an old lady (me … lol) designing their website? Will they be able to trust that an old lady can design a website that is current and beautiful and ‘hip’ to what they crave for their company? Staying young is a state of mind in my opinion … and as long as I focus on ‘not getting stuck’ and Benjamin Button-ing my way through life as a small business owner, I feel like I could be 65 years old and still design websites that are current for whatever day it happens to be and whatever age my client is …
If you are struggling with feeling relevant to your younger potential clients, below are some ways I feel help me stay young:
Dress current and in style … doesn’t need to cost a fortune … Target has lovely options that are on trend and don’t hurt the bank
Keep up with the latest ‘news’ even if it’s not your jam … I’m talking US Weekly news, not CNN ;) lol … if your crowd is YOUNGER than you, they will probably want to feel that you ‘get them’ … so brush up on whatever you feel your potential client is into … even if it hurts your brain to do it ;) LOL
If you are in the wedding and event industry, as so many reading my blog are, keep looking at what’s trending on the most sought after wedding blogs and filling the pages of the best wedding magazines … don’t get stuck in trends ‘you love’ … but focus on trends your potential client or hopeful client is swooning over …
Are there more? Absolutely! If you are hoping to get your website up to snuff and attracting a younger crowd, contact ‘this old fart’ because I make it my business to know these things ;)
XO~ Heather
