How You Can Help Your Entrepreneurial Friends Without Spending One Hot Dollar

Unless you want to, of course.

Nowadays it seems like so many of our friends are breaking out of the corporate droner-y and I am thrilled. 

At the very least, there are lots of side hustles poppin' up since the panini started. 

If you're anything like me, you wish you could financially support each and every one of them, don't you?

But none of us are millionaires. I mean, if you are, let's have a deeper conversation sometime, k? I have a million ideas but definitely not a million dollars. 

I'll give you a little list here, and I will also give you a graphic, because as much I want people to click through and read the blog, I think it's important enough information that I wanted it to be easily sharable. 

Here's my short list of no cost ways you can help your entrepreneurial friends, from the biggest investment of time to the least investment of time.

1. Do you have a platform of your own? Write about what your friend is doing. Talk about why you are into the project they're working on, what it means to and, this part is important, what that friend means to you. People like working with humans, not corporations, so talking about y'all's relationship helps humanize a business. 
2. Recommend your friend's company or service when you hear someone is looking for an item or service they provide! Sometimes I get embarrassed to do this because I feel like I am butting in or that they're thinking "Who does she think she is? Why would I care about her recommendation?!" No one is thinking that and if they are, your friend probably won't wanna work with 'em anyways. Recommend your friend's business, tell the person looking how much you believe in what your friend is doing and how much you are enjoying seeing their successes. A good reco is so much more than just dropping a link in the comments. 
3. Interact with their posts. I cannot say this enough. Even a simple like from everyone who sees the post (even if they don't read it) makes a giant impact in reach. The more people that interact with post (like, comment, share) the more people will see it. 

I'm going hard on item 3 again, because simply liking a post as it flies past your feed is a tiny thing that makes a huge difference.

For example, my Valley of Oh Facebook page has 147 likes. So, let's say Facebook only shows my post to a third of those people and then, of the people that saw the post, half of them like it. 

That's about 20 likes. Right now I feel lucky if I get more than three, lol. 

But the thing is, Facebook and other social media see that people like a post so they think it must be a good post, so they show it to more folks. It's a self-feeding machine, really. 

I felt weird doing this on other's posts, because I was thought they'd think something like, "Ugh, Jacki is liking my posts again." or "She never does anything other than like my posts. Surely they are worth more than that."

But then again, I don't wanna hang with those thoughts or those people. 

So I will make you this promise, I will never think anything but "Thank you" when you like one or more of my posts. I know how busy you must be living through major historical events every day. 

I appreciate your eyes on my words, y'all. You'll never know how much.