3 Ways to Use Instagram Stories to Grow Your Business

Instagram is an incredible platform to grow your business, create a community, and gain clients! But one of the best parts about Instagram that many are not using to its full potential is Instagram stories!

Why is it so essential to utilize Instagram stories for your business?

One of the most critical aspects of marketing your business is gaining visibility and creating a know, like, and trust factor with your community! And one of the best ways to do this is through Instagram stories.

Stories are one of the fastest-growing features in terms of social media marketing. 

But how exactly do we utilize them to grow our business?

Here are 3 ways to use Instagram stories to grow your business:

1. Serve your community more effectively, or some may refer to it as market research.  I have used Instagram stories to help me create every single offer in my business. I do this by using the features within Instagram stories, for example, the polling feature. Poll your audience on which product design they prefer, what areas they are struggling with when it comes to your expertise, or what kind of services/product they would like to see from you. This is also how I create my content for social media (asking my community what topics they want to hear about).

2. Build Authority - Use Instagram Stories as another way to show you are the expert within your niche. You have a lot of knowledge and people need your expertise. I do this every week by doing mini-trainings on my Instagram Stories. I poll my audience at the beginning of the week and ask what topic they want the mini-training to be about. Then the mini-training consistent of 2-3 actionable items they can do to overcome their struggle. This gives your community a quick win and really positions you as the go-to person for your niche. 

3. Gain trust- Video allows people to get to know you as a person. Let your beautiful personality show! People buy from people and the best way to build that connection with your community is through video. There are so many people out there that sell your exact same services/product, but none of them have your personality. 

While Instagram Stories are a very powerful tool to utilize when marketing your business - I’m not downplaying the factor that it is scary to start doing if you have never done them before. 

Just know you are not alone and every single person on Instagram stories was nervous and fearful when they started. But it gets easier! You just have to start!

Additional Resources:

How to Gain Confidence on Instagram Stories

Instagram Story Hacks

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Meet Kaila-

Kaila an Air Force veteran, current military spouse, and marketing consultant for service-based entrepreneurs. She helps entrepreneurs clarify their message and gain visibility. Find more from her at www.kailaruan.com. She is stationed in San Antonio, TX, with her husband and three children.

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Why Failure is the best learning tool for business owners

Society has led us to believe that failing is a bad thing. It suggests that we are less of a person if we fail and that we have nothing going for us. Let’s consider that, actually, the opposite is true. 

 If we are failing, it is because we are pushing ourselves far beyond our comfort zone, and we all know that that is where true growth happens.

 As a business owner, one of the best ways to find out your own “secret formula” is trial and error. You are launching new products and services, offering free webinars, providing value to your audience. Testing different marketing strategies, launching campaign ideas, social media posts, and keynote speeches.

The way to find success and grow is to learn from what we did both right AND wrong in each of these situations.

 You see, if we only focus on what we do right, we will only continue to do those things. Yes, you should keep doing more of the things that work but understand that there is more than one way to skin a cat (as they say…!).

However, what if there is something else, something even better that you haven’t discovered yet? 

You have to try; you have to get it wrong to be able to analyze, re-invent and try again until you have absolutely nailed it.

Failing is how we learn! Remember when you were learning to ride a bike? How many times did you fall off? How many times did you get back on and do it slightly differently until you found your balance and pedaled in a straight line for the first time?

Each time you fell, you changed what you did the next time. You worked at it until you found your own “secret formula,” and business is no different.

We can learn from the mistakes of others, but until we feel the pain and the impact that our failure has on us and our business, it does not truly resonate.

Chances are once you’ve made that mistake, you won’t be in a hurry to make it again! 

Failure is a sign of growth, of determination, of wanting to be better for yourself and for your clients.

Understanding that failure is not a bad thing is the first step to success.

Let’s look at Walt Disney, for example. Disney was fired from a newspaper for lacking in ideas, having no imagination…..Disney’s market capitalization (parks, movies, merchandise etc.) is currently valued at around $150 billion (source: fool.com) and I think we can all agree; it’s pretty imaginative!

Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb after over 10,000 attempts! How did he justify the other attempts? That he had found “definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work.” (Source: smallbizsense.com). Now that’s a seriously positive attitude!

 Accepting that you will fail is part of the process, it is how you deal with it that makes the difference. 

Sharing your failures makes you human, it makes you easy to relate to and it makes people trust you. We all know there is no such thing as perfect, that there are no “secret blueprints for success” - being open about your own processes and failures to your audiences makes you more relatable, more human and more trustworthy. 

Choose to learn from your failures. Choose to grow through it and to come out the other side even stronger, even more, successful, and even more impactful.

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Meet Gems-

Gems is a Business Consultant who specializes in the creation of online courses, as well as providing 1-1 business coaching to solo entrepreneurs, focus on business growth by working on mindset strategies and the implementation of additional revenue streams. 

With a Masters in Global Management and a 15-year career in Project Management, Gems started her own business when she married a US serviceman and her career trajectory changed. Now, she is able to combine her love for coaching and online course creation with her expertise in Project Management, to help others grow their

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4 Important Reasons Why You Need a Business BFF

Many of us have heard that close friendships come with health benefits like lowered stress levels and bolstered confidence. But do you know that business BFFs are especially important to military spouse entrepreneurs? 

I’m going on year 20 of being a military spouse and I’ve found that it’s impossible to keep in regular contact with all of the wonderful friends I’ve made. That’s not to say that we’re not able to pick up where we left off when we see each other again, but for the good daily interaction that keeps isolation at bay, that happens with my business BFFs. When I was scared for my parents when they were evacuating the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, I Slacked my team for support because those were the people I was in routine contact with so it felt more natural than dropping a crisis text bomb on somebody out of the blue. 

Business BFFs can be people on your remote teams, or they can be other individuals that you choose to invite to come along with you on the ultimate collaboration-over-competition entrepreneurship journey. Here are four important reasons why you need to have one or more business best friends:

1. That’s a relationship you get to keep when you PCS. Saying goodbye is hard. Making new friends on the other side of a move is hard. Business BFFs help bridge that gap because they’re just a message or a video chat away and you already have routine communication established. These are the friends that send you an invitation to a holiday party in another state, but you actually show up because it’s only a six-hour drive away when you used to be an ocean apart. Besides, the opportunity to talk shop in person is an extra bonus to gathering in person for a social event or conference.  

2. You have an invested sounding board. As an entrepreneur, you’re in the business of new ideas and it’s important to bounce them off of someone that’s more invested than your spouse who doesn’t need to know the nuts and bolts of your daily operations, or your friends with the eyes that glaze over when you’re spilling all of the potential options for your next big thing. Your business BFFs are people who are invested in the idea, either because it’s also part of what they do, or because you’ve established a give-and-take relationship with them, so they’re happy to listen because they know that you will return the favor. 

3. You hold each other accountable to your goals. Entrepreneurs’ brains are always churning, and in the military spouse space, there are numerous opportunities for collaborations. This is fantastic, but it can be easy to lose sight of the big goals when you get stuck in the weeds of fun projects and daily responsibilities. Having a routine time to set goals and review progress is a perfect use of business BFF time. This might look like quarterly meetings with your team or it could be a half-day virtual retreat twice a year that you set up with a friend that also needs to set and track goals to move forward in business. 

4. You have somebody to complement your skills. Editors and graphic designers. Photographers and makeup artists. Dreamers and developers. Introverts and extraverts. Detail people and big-picture people. A business BFF dream come true is somebody who is passionate about the same things you are but approaches the end result in a different way. As an introverted details person, when a new teammate loves to network and tells me she’s a big picture person, I know we’re going to do great things together because we’ll have a lot of, “Oh, I didn’t think of that” moments that will create something more wonderful than we would have come up with on our own. We’ll also have a lot more fun getting the work done because we’ll have the capacity to work within our strengths. 

If you have people in your life that you call business BFFs, hold them close and make it a point to nurture your relationships. If you’re remote, make it a point to meet up in person to deepen your friendship and schedule time to chat about non-work things. If you do not yet have a business BFF, the Association of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs community is the place to be. One really special perk of having a Society Membership is the private Slack channel. There are general spaces for things like accountability partners and mentors needed. And, there are spaces for interest areas like freelance writers, wellness spouses, and nonprofit spouses. It’s set up to help you find your people. Sign up here! 

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Meet Kim:

Kimberly Bacso is an MBA who exchanged an office with a view for a life of adventure when she became a military spouse in 2001. She is the co-founder and operations director of InDependent, a non-profit on a mission to make wellness accessible to all military spouses. She is the managing editor of Legacy Magazine, a print publication celebrating service member families and the communities that support them. Kimberly is an experienced registered yoga teacher and a lifelong vegetarian who can often be found traveling off the beaten path with her husband and teenage daughter.

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Fresh + Relevant Masterclasses at AMSE

Did you know that Assoc. of Military Spouse Entrepreneurs is consistently creating masterclasses with fresh and relevant topics?

That’s right! AMSE Society membership holders have access to new masterclasses all the time.  Every month, a new line-up of classes is listed on the AMSE dashboard!

What is a masterclass anyways? AMSE masterclasses are live courses taught by an expert in their field. There are a ton of categories for masterclasses like marketing, finance, pitching, and many more! The presenters come from diverse backgrounds and very different areas of expertise. Masterclasses are all designed to benefit the military spouse entrepreneurs that attend (and deliver in many ways.)

How can an AMSE masterclass benefit new entrepreneurs? There are a ton of different topics that are incredibly valuable if you’re just starting out.  In fact, there is a section of masterclasses on the dashboard just for getting started!  Some of the masterclass recordings in this section include “Branding Your Company” and “Intention + Foundation Setting,” both taught by Erica McMannes from Instant Teams. 

What can AMSE masterclasses do for the seasoned entrepreneur? Even if you’ve been “in the biz” for a while, AMSE masterclasses can offer a fresh perspective and updated and relevant information. If you’re finally ready to start that YouTube channel, there are a couple of live streaming masterclasses. Want to get the word out about your business?  AMSE’s Moni Jefferson teaches a masterclass called, “Public Relations 101,” which is a treasure trove of useful nuggets.  

The world is always changing and AMSE works hard to keep its members at the forefront of knowledge. Even when COVID hit, AMSE added a lineup of classes specifically to maneuver the pandemic. 

What does an AMSE Masterclass look like? Masterclasses take place over Zoom and are live, but are also recorded which is AWESOME if you’re a new member and want to watch past classes or if you want to rewatch a class that you attended.  Before class begins, attendees are encouraged to introduce themselves.  This is a fantastic opportunity to network. 

The masterclass presenter usually has slides with information and explains the topic thoroughly.  The best part is that there is plenty of time set aside for Q&A!  This is truly valuable because you have the attention of an expert and the chance to ask them that burning question that is related directly to your business!  That’s amazing! One on one access to answer your questions. 

Still on the fence? If your curiosity is piqued but you’re not yet sure if the paid membership and all the amazing masterclasses that come with it is for you, you’re in luck!  AMSE has bonus masterclasses that are open to all members, free or paid.  This is the perfect chance to experience a masterclass for yourself.  I promise you will not be disappointed.

If you’re not a member of AMSE yet click here or visit amse.co/membership to start your free or paid membership.  

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Meet Laura:

Laura is a former airman and elementary school teacher that turned her passion for travel into a business. She lives near Fort Hood, Texas with her spouse and six-year-old son. 

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