Gracie Communications

Last week I was reminded of a valuable lesson about being an entrepreneur.

You don’t always have to do it yourself.

I was helping my youngest daughter, Helen, work her stand at Lemonade Day Indianapolis’ kick-off event. She’s been a part of Lemonade Day from the start and I am wildly proud that she has made all the decisions, secured the venue. picked the charity beneficiary, and designed the booth all by herself.  She was pretty proud too, until she heard that her total revenue was way under the other kick-off event participants.

This wasn’t a case of the other kids having Daddy Did It All Syndrome (for the most part). The real difference was the other kids found locations using the resources of the Lemonade Day organizers. They were inside when we were out in the rain last year. They were working with corporate office support and marketing efforts.

Helen and I talked all the way home about what she was going to do differently at this May’s event. She is still going to raise money for Joy’s House, but she is going to get help from the organizers in picking a higher-traffic location. She is going to go to one of the preparation workshops. And she is going to borrow ideas she learned from the other kids at the event, including adding some entertainment to draw people in.

My 10-year-old’s story reminds me of my own (and many others in business for themselves). Entrepreneurs go into business for themselves to fulfill a lifelong passion or a dream. They’ve always wanted to be their own boss. To make the rules. They are excited every day to get to work. It is their great idea or unique way of providing a service and no one is going to tell them what to do or how to do it.

Here’s the rub. When you do it all yourself, you miss out on others’ great ideas on how to make your great idea even better.

Who should you be partnering with, listening to and emulating in your business?

Written by Jennifer Stringer, who provides content marketing, social media and direct communications management for Gracie Communications’ clients

I believe social media’s power is harnessed mostly for good. Social media brings awareness to a community need, educates people and mobilizes them.

For example, we donated some time to help Lemonade Day better use social media to get kids excited about setting up lemonade stands around Indianapolis, teaching them about entrepreneurship in the process.  I am going to be making a tissue donation to the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank because I heard on Facebook about the need for minority women to provide samples for breast cancer research.

Despite its power to do good, there are still some things I hate about social media. Here’s just a few:

1. Social media has not lived up to the promise of diversifying the voices/ideas that are heard and shared.  As Jay Baer pointed out, the social media profession is not diverse by a long shot. I know this personally from being the only African American woman in the room more times than I want to count.

2. People who use the number of Twitter followers or a Klout score to validate their importance. Take for example, the recent brouhaha over who should be in the #social46 social media crew for Super Bowl 2012. Most of those who felt slighted did come around to realize that it wasn’t about them – it was about promoting all of the fun, wonderful happenings and places in Indianapolis. But I suspect there are still some bruised egos out there.

3. I hate to hear about someone’s death on FB and Twitter, whether it’s someone I know or a famous person. I think of how awful it would be for a friend or family member to find out about someone’s death from a tweet.  My point is: I think social media is not the medium for all messages.

4. The tendency to tweet first, confirm later.  Peyton Manning and Joe Paterno were the most recent victims of this practice. When incorrect information is posted, tweeted, retweeted, the only case it makes is that social media is a vehicle for shoddy citizen journalism.

Love it or hate it? What things about social media would you add to either column?