It is quite exciting with a hint of nervousness as I go through the exercise. The list keeps on getting longer everyday. Last night I was deep in conversation with a friend and prospective new member of our Advisory Board sharing my vision on how we can strengthen our business services, while expanding into low-barrier to entry and highly scalable digital products. A few minutes ago I gave my associate a huge research task. On the same track, brand visuals are being designed while conversations on UX, tech specs and creative are happening. Oh yeah, and there is the legal and corporate structure to attend to…

In my journey as a local lone ranger entrepreneur, I have discovered that to have a bigger impact and ability to scale quickly you need a team who can react fast and are available locally. A strong team behind you who believes in your passions, are willing to take the ride and support your vision. I’ve carefully handpicked the team. Currently the Mavin Digital tribe is comprised of a local Technical Director (hooray!), an Associate and four members on the Advisory Board (may turn into five). Am also looking into a virtual business development resource to add.

Having a local team and Advisory Board opens doors to opportunities, ideas and more amazing people. While we’re making headway into new verticals and clients as a digital business services firm, we’re building new web properties and digital products that are highly scalable. In short, the journey so far is a whole lot of awesomeness!!!

My advise to fellow entrepreneurs, take a look at your business whether its a product or service and ask yourself how can I make this better for the market it is intended for? What are the comparable businesses and competitors doing to differentiate themselves? What can you apply to your business? What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? It is like writing up your SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). The  SWOT exercise is something which every entrepreneur should do in the very early stages of their business and throughout its life cycle for checks and balances. In today’s overly communicated society, real contributions and impact can be easily diluted by a lot of talk and no action – don’t be that entrepreneur.

The seven myths about creating a brand community are:

1. It is a marketing strategy.
2. It exists to serve the business
3. Build it and they will come
4. Communities “should be love-fests for faithful brand advocates.”
5. “Opinion leaders build strong communities.”
6. “Online social networks are the key to a community strategy”
7. The best communities are restricted and overseen

The seven realities about creating a brand community are:

1. It is a business strategy
2. It exist to serve the people in it
3. If you build it and the brand will be solid
4. Communities have disputes among users..deal with it
5. The best communities encourages everyone to participate
6. They are only part of the pie not the whole pie
7. Communities are inherently hard to control

If you are considering creating a community for your website consider the above realities carefully before you proceed. Once a community is released it’s an organic creation that you can’t take back.

Don’t create a community just because everyone else seems to be doing it.

Shelley-Ann West, Guest Blogger
Download the mindmap of myths and realities: Does Your Website Really Need A Community?