I had the opportunity to work with Aalap Shah on the board of the 2012 NetIP Conference hosted in Chicago last year. Both us were Social Media Co-chairs and Aalap also spoke on a digital marketing panel with other marketing experts there. It was great working with him and I’m glad he took some time out to share some lessons he’s learned about entrepreneurship while starting his company, SoMe Social Media.
What are the biggest barriers to entry into social media for most companies?
The biggest barrier to entry is the existing competition. Chicago in particular has some pretty awesome social media marketing firms and it takes time to be able to acquire the type of clients and or experience in order to be able to do the work that you want. My best advice (something that I ignored early on) is to pick specific verticals that are of interest to you and focus on delivering high-value products/tools/services to create that expertise in that niche.
What is your favorite aspect of social media marketing?
I’ve grown to love Twitter and the possibilities it provides for digital PR, lead outreach, and general branding and awareness.
Pathik: I agree Twitter is great! One of the greatest features of Twitter is that it gives you direct access to everyone who uses it. You’re not limited to just your friends or connections, so there’s so much data and information available through their search tool.
What are a few of the top skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur?
I would say, patience, passion, and a willingness to constantly (strategically) pivot if need be.
What have you learned from your failures?
One of my biggest failures early on in my entrepreneurial career was to underprice my services relative to the value I was offering. I consistently “gave away” stuff, be it products, or services, without truly knowing what my end goal was. Fast forward to today, where I almost fell in the same trap again. This time though, I used more tools to collect information on our product offerings and services (be it conversations, surveys, polls, existing client research) and created more specific goals for any “free” services we were testing (both tangible & intangible). This way, it created a more dynamic, and value oriented company and kept me motivated to build better solutions based on my tests.
What motivates you?
I’m motivated by my clients – and how I can work with them to digitally market their business for optimal success – be it traffic, revenue, loyalty, engagement or all four (or more). It’s exciting for me to go into our kickoff meeting and outlining all the possibilities and then working towards those metrics over the engagement.
How do you build a strong customer base?
I’m pretty old fashioned about this in the sense that I strongly believe that great service, tied to specific benchmarks and metrics will always underly any efforts for further customer acquisition (and customer retention). It’s not about just offering a “great” service anymore – “great” means different things to everyone. With today’s tools & reporting capabilities, you have to continually also show value for the services & products you provide and deliver on and that’s what will keep your client base satisfied in the long run.
Who has been your greatest inspiration?
My parents are among my biggest source of inspiration in the entrepreneurial space– they’ve created multiple successful businesses and exited them to then re-start and continue the process again. They love being in new markets and learning about new services/products and then creating/building a business around it.
What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
I love the fact that we have a lot of flexibility. I can shape and create the lifestyle that I want and I’m not tied to anyone or anybody specific. I love that my role is not a role that has been defined by someone else, but rather, it’s me that decides what to do everyday. While this life that I just painted doesn’t happen early on, eventually, as your business progresses and grows, you can take the opportunity to mold your business to be the way you want it to be.
What sacrifices have you had to make to be a successful entrepreneur?
One of the biggest sacrifices I’ve made in my journey as an entrepreneur is the amount of time I spend with my family and friends. It’s one of the most hardest sacrifices to make because when you’re in a startup, you live, breath, and pretty much die by the startup. As you move out though of that stage, the light at the end of the tunnel is extremely motivating and being able to have the freedom to spend as much time with your family is there if you can build the right processes and systems in your business.
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Aalap Shah is the co-founder of SoMe, a Chicago social media agency that specializes in creating engaging and viral marketing campaigns and strategies for businesses to drive traffic and revenue to their online and physical sales channels. Throughout his career, he has launched, developed, and sold successful businesses in the online, retail, and service sectors.
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