Rent or Own: The Risks of Relying on Other Platforms to Build Your Creative Business

an illustration of a victorian house with text overlayed reading "rent or own? the risks of relying on other platforms to build your business"

This image was generated with the assistance of DALL-E, a generative AI image generating tool with prompting done by Melissa (this is the first AI generated image she has ever created - it took her nearly 25 minutes to get the images she wanted :D)

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No this is not a real estate episode! Today we're talking about the dangers of building your business on the backs of other businesses - namely social media platforms and marketplaces - like Etsy. 

These are platforms where the customers and users are not yours, where you can be removed at any time and where algorithms are created to support the platform's goals - not yours.

So what can you do to build your business on solid footing? It's time to take ownership of your business and build assets that are yours.  Here's how!

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This Episode Is For…

This episode is for creatives who...

  • are struggling with social media algorithms

  • are worried about losing their accounts or shops

  • doesn't know how to diversify or build an audience that's theirs

  • wants more control over their business and their sales data

  • want to be able to connect directly with their audience and customers

If you just want the links to the resources mentioned in this episode, scroll down to the bottom.

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Transcript & Chapter Markers

You can find a full transcript and chapter markers here. Just click on the episode title for all the juicy details!

don’t build your business on social media

In this episode we discuss:

  • building your business entirely on platforms you don’t own like social media or marketplaces like Etsy

  • renting and owning both come with risks and benefits - understand the risks of social media, marketplaces and your own business assets and then make decisions for how to build your business

  • understanding when a customer or user is yours and when they are somebody else’s customer first and your customer second

  • understanding that social media platforms and marketplaces are their own businesses with their own goals and priorities - their self-interests will always trump your business’s interests

  • the importance of making sure you can communicate with your customers and followers outside of these platforms (and how to do that)

  • why having access to your customer data is so important

  • the potential loss of TikTok

  • alogrithms will always change and adapt to serve the business that runs them - not you or your business

  • be realistic about where you fit in the current ecosystem - and build your business accordingly or create your own ecosystem!

  • you don’t need a website to build an email list!!

  • be honest and remind yourself that you are using social media as a free marketing platform - it doesn’t owe you anything

  • the basics of setting up your own website

  • additional pros to building your business on land you own!

Mentioned In This Episode:

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Podcast Episode, ResourcesMelissa HartfielS5, community building, marketingComment