Happy Birthday, Rise! What we’ve learned as small business owners over the past few years

There’s no wrong way to start a small business, but we definitely didn’t get everything right. We dove in head first, letting excitement guide our decisionmaking. Our systems were lacking, our client communication wasn’t stellar, and we charged less than we were worth. 

Fast forward three years later, and we’ve grown leaps and bounds. We still face challenges, but we overcome them with less effort because of what we’ve learned. Here are some of our major lessons!

Authenticity Over Perfection

When we first started Rise, we thought success would come from perfectly curated content. As two recovering Type As, we spent too much time making everything look polished. The quality of our work is still high–for both our clients and our company–but we quickly learned that authenticity is far more powerful than perfection. Today’s consumers crave real, relatable content–like this! 

Authenticity builds trust, and trust is the foundation of any lasting relationship. People want to engage with the person or story behind the business. By showing up as ourselves, and encouraging our clients to do the same, we found a deeper connection with our audiences, which has translated into more meaningful reach and engagement.

The Power of Systems and Processes

We used to wear all the hats: content creation, social media management, project management, client communication, finances, administration, systems, and team management. We were regularly overwhelmed, and sometimes our work suffered for it. To scale our business effectively, we needed to develop efficient systems and implement new tools to streamline our processes.

Some of our favorite tools: Asana for project management, Quickbooks for finances, Honeybook for client management, Agency Analytics for insights tracking, Loomly for content management, and a well-organized Canva for content creation. And we still use good old Google to organize our documents, chat with our team, and email our clients. We learned to delegate tasks to others and empower our social media team to take on more client liaising. Teaching and mentoring others took time, but it was worth the investment. It’s helped us stay organized and focus more time on the bigger picture, rather than getting bogged down in day-to-day tasks.

Building Relationships

At the core of every successful business is a genuine relationship with our team, clients, and audiences. We think of our team members as humans first, and employees second. We want both our team and clients to feel valued and appreciated, as if their investment is a meaningful one–because to us, it is! As our business grew, we made an intentional effort to nurture these relationships. We engaged with our audiences and clients regularly, listened to their feedback, and always looked for ways to add value to their lives and our partnerships. 

The more we focused on building relationships, the more organic growth we experienced. Word-of-mouth referrals became some of our best marketing tools because people genuinely felt connected to our mission and brand. We also invested time in collaborating with other small businesses and entrepreneurs who aligned with our values. These relationships helped us reach new audiences and create more value for our communities.

Social Media Isn’t a One-Way Street

When we first started using social media, we treated it more like a megaphone: speaking at our audience instead of with them. It didn’t take long to realize that social media is a conversation, not just a broadcasting tool.

Engagement is key. Responding to comments, asking questions, and interacting with followers built a sense of community around our clients’ brands. We started paying attention to what people were saying and using their feedback to shape content and marketing strategies. The best ideas often came from our audiences, not from us. 

Community Is Everything

Over the past three years, we’ve learned that people want to feel like they’re part of something bigger. We’ve positioned social media and marketing as ways to make a positive impact in the world, which has attracted fellow changemakers who want to use media and marketing for good. It’s not always easy to break through the noise, but because we focus our energy on relationship-building, we’ve found likeminded folks who resonate with our content and want to partner on projects that make a difference.

It’s Okay to Pivot

In the early days, we thought we needed to have everything figured out right away. The reality is that things happen unexpectedly, and trends change fast. What works one day may not work the next. Being flexible and open to pivoting has been crucial for long-term success. Since starting Rise, we’ve changed our approach to content, client relations, community management, project and team management, and more. Staying agile and being willing to try something new, mess up, and try again was key to growing and staying relevant. 

Build a Strong Foundation

Let’s be honest: There have been times we’ve wanted to throw in the towel. Growth takes time–on social media and in a business. Organic, sustainable growth is slow and steady. We’ve learned to be patient and trust that the efforts we put in today will pay off tomorrow.

As we continue into our toddler stage, we’ve realized the most important thing we’ve built isn’t just a brand; it’s a strong foundation built on authenticity, consistency, and solid systems and processes. It took us time to get here–we recommend you start doing these things earlier than we did!–but we’re proud of where we are today.

Here’s to another year of Rise!