166. Baking it Down - Ask and Ye Shall Receive

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 🙏 Ask and Ye Shall Receive - Because if you don't ask, the answer's no.

In this week's Baking it Down Podcast - Episode 166 - Ask and Ye Shall Receive, we covered the unfortunate necessity to ask for what you want in business. For those of us who d-r-e-a-d rejection, not asking for what we need to get our business up and runnin' like a well-oiled machine is a "coping" strategy to avoid the word defeating word "no."

But per Corrie's experience in car sales - ABC, always be closing. Always be asking for the sale. Always be asking for that review, always be asking for the next step needed to close the deal on that cookie class space. 

Ask and ye shall receive an answer. Whether that answer is yes or no doesn't matter - the answer, regardless of what it is, gives you the next step in your business. If the answer is, "No, we don't want to host your cookie class in our cafe," guess what? You now have the opportunity to ask some place else instead of always wondering what the answer could have been had you just stuck out your neck a lil' bit. 

"So, what do you think we need to ask for?" Look at you - already asking questions. We're off to a great start, and of course, we gotta list.

👉 1. Ask for reviews.

Ask for those reviews. In a podcast poll taken in the Sugar Cookie Marketing group this week, over 55% of bakers NEVER ask for reviews. Talk about a SWOT analysis pointing a bright shiny arrow at "getting more reviews will increase your leads," right? Would you hire a remodeling company without checking their reviews first? No? So why do you think your clients are any different?

👉 2. Ask for social shares + likes (engagement).

Treat this like a content bucket you only dip into every other quarter or so - but asking for support from your audience (what I like to call "pity party posts") works because it appeals to the emotional needs of the small business owner. Posts like, "If you can't order from me, you can still support me by liking and commenting" or those posts that open yourself up to your audience explaining how hard it is to fight the big corporations when we're all boot-strapping our businesses can really boost the likes and thus the algo-reach.

👉 3. Ask for email signups.

Just like the Onesday Wednesday newsletter - I don't get signups from you guys unless I ask. Like - I have to make a post every week asking folks to sign up for the free transfer sheet in the newsletter otherwise our email list grows by a whoppin' 0. The fastest way to grow an email list? Ask for people to sign up for it.

👉 4. Ask for understanding from family.

Hey - running a business ain't for the faint of heart - and running a business and a family at the same time is an Olympic sport. Asking for understanding, space, and time from the family to run your business can go a long way. It'll help you set better expectations with them and allow you to work sans the guilty feeling we get when we're buried in our phones during a family event. As always - keep a healthy balance between work and home life. Business will eat up everything you give and leave no crumbs.

👉 5. Ask for grace from customers.

I don't think we give customers enough credit for being understand, imperfect humans just like us. We're so busy strapping on our boxing gloves to realize that if we just ask for understanding when we make mistakes, our clients are often happy to give us some elbow room to fix our "oopsies."