We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicholas Marque a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nicholas, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?
Many entrepreneurs get “hung up” on whether or not their family and friends will support them or not when starting their business. I challenge entrepreneurs to reimagine what support from their “circle of network” looks like.
I created the concept, “circle of network” to help entrepreneurs understand that they already have direct and indirect access to their target audience.
You have ambassadors, who are close relationships that will buy from you if it makes sense or allow you to leverage their “circle of network” if it doesn’t. Then, you have your warm audience who is already familiar with your brand (because EVERYONE has a brand).
For me my family and close friends were my ambassadors. My social media friends/followers, co-workers and social circles (is fraternity, alumni association and civic organizations) were my warm audience.
When I tapped into my circle of network in this way, I was able to achieve my first $10k business launch with my event planning business!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hi! I’m Nicholas Marque, a Business “Coach-sultant” and Launch Strategist. I am the CEO and Founder of CEO Mentality, LLC, a business consulting Group. I’m not new to this, I’m TRUE to this!
I started as an entrepreneur in my first business venture, Marque Signature Events, LLC as an accomplished event planner that has been in the event industry for over 10 years. I went from no clients and no clue on how to run a business to working with big named clients like Coca-Cola, BET, Delta Airlines, Microsoft, and more!
I also found myself working with small business clients that were either launching their brands or growing their businesses. I had a desire to bring the visions of his clients to life through innovation, attention to detail and understanding of purpose. With my business acumen I typically “doubled” as their event planner and business consultant/coach.
Now, I have helped dozens of entrepreneurs launch and growth their ideas into successful businesses through my coaching programs and consulting services.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the pandemic hit us in 2020, I was laid off from my job and my big event planning clients cancelled their contracts due to not knowing how the world would turn out. As I asked God “what am I going to do about my event business?” I was working more and more to help my family and friends start their businesses. It was like a wake up call to everyone. They had watched me grow my business from its inception, then turned to me to guide them in how to do the same in our new normal.
Fast forward a few months later, people began to successfully launch their businesses and thrive while doing it. When I started asking people about the status of their businesses after working together, it was amazing result after amazing result.
Then it hit me. I enjoy doing this. I had always worked with small businesses as an event planner. It primarily was launch events—in which I would often time double as their event planner and business consultant. I could do this full time.
Now, I am operating 100% in my passion helping people unlock freedom through exploring entrepreneurship!
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
The most effective strategy to date has been referrals! Now we have an incentive program for our clients and it has almost doubled my sales!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nicholasmarque.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/nicholasmarque
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/nicholasmarque
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasmarque?trk=contact-info
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@NicholasMarque
- Other: LEARN HOW TO LAUNCH A BIZ IN 90 DAYS OR LESS: go.nicholasmarque.com Ready to get to work on your business? Get started here: https://go.nicholasmarque.com/application-questions-og
Image Credits
Kirk Holder