If you are a small business owner in Murfreesboro and don’t know the name Amanda Howell, you soon will. This woman has a business hustle unlike any I have never seen before. I have long appreciated the skill of dropping into a new town and creating a business out of nothing. And that is exactly what she has done! So, I was excited to sit down with her and pick her brain on business development.
Marketing encompasses a lot of facets of business; advertising, sales, promotion, event planning, copywriting and so on. But Amanda moved to Middle Tennessee three years ago, already adept in all things marketing. She devoted her time and skills to a couple of local organizations in typical nine-to-five fashion, though she knew she needed to be somewhere else. For any entrepreneur to venture out on their own is a scary prospect.
Through the advice of other businesspeople and prayer, she realized that leap of faith was exactly what she needed to do. “If I want to make the impact I want to make, I can’t do it while being restricted to an office. I would have to make my own schedule in order to be as effective as I need to be”, Howell said.
The marketer continued, “I like to call it boots-on-the-ground marketing. I help business owners build relationships by getting in front of the right people. Some professionals are just so busy, they don’t have the time to build a name large enough to be top of mind. But if you’re working IN your business, you’re not working ON your business”.
From social marketing, or creating an event to making personal introductions, her focus is on getting her clients noticed. And she’s been rather successful, over a dozen of her clients were nominated for the recent Ruthies Awards with several winners. But she’s very selective about who she takes on as a client. To prevent any conflict of interest, she never represents two businesses from the same industry.
When she started the Amanda Howell Agency (AHA) in March, she had the goal in mind to bring on twenty-five clients by the end of the year. By the end of April, she had twenty-one in her book of business. That’s moving from 0 to 60 faster than a Tesla! So, I had to ask her the secret to her hustle and how she was able to develop her business so quickly.
“My days are long, my nights are long, my weekends are even longer. There is no set time for what I do.” That’s the downside of not working nine-to-five. But she is a firm believer in time blocking. She plans her time by the hour according to what her clients need. She does plan a little time for herself, but even with that, the business owner still works about eighty hours a week. “My business is so young, right now building it is a sacrifice. But by years three or four, those hours will have paid off”.
Amanda admits the fear all proprietors have when it comes to starting an enterprise. Yet she knew it was the Lord who gave her the skills she has and the idea to become a business owner. She gives Him all the credit. It will be exciting to watch how AHA continues to grow over the next few years.
If you would like to grow your business with her, you can find out more at, https://amandahowellagency.net/ Or give her a call at (904) 742-8900 to schedule a one-on-one meeting, which is how she typically grows her business.
Blaine Little is the founder and CEO of Momentum Seminars Training & Coaching, helping companies remain profitable by investing in their people. He is a sales and leadership trainer as well as an author. Learn more at http://MomentumSeminars.com