Why Won’t My Family and Friends Do More to Help My Business?

So often this is the question I get from so many business owners I speak to. They say they expect so much more is from the people that are closer to them. They see strangers or new acquaintances doing so much more to help them build their business than people they have known for years. Though I truly understand the thinking behind this I believe sometimes it is not as accurate as we think. Let me explain....

As a business owner myself I can relate somewhat to these concerns but I cannot agree totally. I have several family members and friends that are EXTREMELY helpful to my business ideas. They go out of their way to assist in different ways and then you have some people that couldn’t care less. I believe it varies depending on the individual. However the frustration from the people I speak to comes from having expectations that to them seem simple. They wonder why is it so hard for a long time family member or friend to simply LIKE a Facebook post, SHARE a Facebook post, RETWEET a tweet. Or come to one event they have, buy their product, or patronize their business.

Some people become really upset and take it very personal when they pour their heart out into a well thought out FB post or tweet and no one shares it or RT’s it, not even their “people.” And then 15 minutes later they see those same friends who didn’t share their post, share an irrelevant post about a WorldStar Hip hop fight, or a video about dogs doing silly tricks. They know you sell shoes but they always buy their shoes from someone else because they FORGOT about you. Lastly they know you just opened a hair salon but they always think of a reason not to go to your shop. To add to this people they have never met are sharing, tweeting, buying and promoting them extremely hard. They post “Hello” and 5 people they couldn’t pick out of a hat have forwarded it through all of their social media outlets.

I have found out a few reasons why this happens.

1) Sometimes people honestly do not realize how important their support is to you. They don’t realize that their tweets, shares, likes and business is extremely important and EXPECTED by you. As hard as that is to believe it is true. It may take having that conversation and asking them why they don’t support you in those ways. It may be awkward at first but it is better than being secretly upset with people because of their apparent lack of support.

2) Some people feel very selective about their social media and decide I will share only what I decide to and nothing else. If I don’t want to share your information I won’t do it. They feel I am connected to a variety of people and I don’t want to offend anyone or promote in particular business on my pages

3) Some people are not as aware of your post, tweets, business as you think. You would be surprised how many people are not as familiar with what you are up to. That is why it is critical to continually promote your business.

4) Lastly some people really don’t want you to succeed. I put this last because I believe we think this group is larger than it is. While this group does exist I believe it is a small percentage compared to the other groups. They purposely WILL NOT do anything to help you advance. Get over your feelings about them, cease and desist any efforts to convince them. Forget and forgive. Stop spending precious time trying to figure our why they won’t support. Thinking that you went to 3 of their events so they can at least support you once. You always like and share their post so they should at least do the same. Stop it, stop it now and move past that. Also continue to support them regardless if they ever do anything for you.

So despite these 4 groups, I believe if we really think about it, our supporters by far out number our non supporters. Listen, let’s not focus on the non supporters this year but let’s celebrate the people who cheer us on, the people who go above and beyond what we expect. Whether they are DAY 1 people or DAY 4589, It doesn’t really matter, and lets do the same for them.