In order to avoid being criticised you just have to do nothing....

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was once quote as saying “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing”

Occasionally, I'll hear from people in business who aren't comfortable with my style of self-promotion. Sometimes it's from customers or prospects, but more often than not, it's actually from one of my so called "competitors"

It used to really get to me, but now I don't pay them any attention whatsoever.

I've got nothing against them as people - It's just that I know what they feel or think about me, has more to do with them than it does with anything else.

What they're really saying is that they're uncomfortable with promoting themselves in the way I do.

If you're one of those people that's fine - but I feel like I'd be doing you a disservice if I didn't tell you the harsh reality;  People who are uncomfortable with, or don't like self promotion usually have to pay consequences - and those consequences usually come in the form of low sales or not enough money.

Does this sound familiar or ring any bells with you?

When you own your own business, like it or not you have to be the number one salesperson.

Even if you have a team of highly skilled, highly trained sales people - You still have to be number one!

No one is going to have as much passion and as much knowledge about your service as you do.

So it's your job to promote it in every way you can.

I'll take that one step further and say not only is it your job to promote it in every way you can -  It's also your duty!

Think about it - assuming your service actually gets the results your clients are looking for, not promoting it to it's full potential is actually doing them a disservice.

If there's something out there that can solve all their problems, they need to know about it!

And you have to tell them!

A word of warning though – you are going to be hated for it -  People aren't going to like it and you're bound to face criticism from all angles (I'm speaking from experience here).

So how do you avoid it?

You do nothing

Simple right?

Don’t share any opinions on anything, don’t do anything significant, don’t be say or do anything!

People won't even know you exist, so how can they criticise you?

You'll become invisible.

You won't make any impact on the world - you won't make any impact on your market.

You'll be nothing!

If that is the path you choose then best of luck to you.

But for me and the Managing Directors and Business owners and Search Firm owners that I work with, we want the opposite -  We want to have some significance to our clients, We want to help them solve their problems, We want to make a difference.

For us, receiving criticism is an unpleasant experience, but it is also inevitable.

If your actions in the world and in this market are significant then you will draw detractors.

A word of warning though - If you start working with us your competitors probably aren't going to like it - in fact, they're probably going to start making a lot of noise about how they don't like the way you do things - don’t worry, the extra business that you’ll be getting and the extra money you’ll be making as a result will soon drown out the sound - but you’ve got to know what you’re letting yourself in for

If you want to learn how to be better than your competitors (and make them hate you in the process) then contact us now either by email (enquiries@blueboxconsultancy.com or hello@blueboxrecruitment.com) or by telephone (084 3289 3288 for Blue Box Consultancy or 08456 894 894 for Blue Box Recruitment).  We look forward to hearing from you soon

Until the next time, take care, be bold and do good business