It’s pretty safe to say that Taylor Swift is today's reigning queen of pop. Between bringing in an estimated $57 million last year and releasing a brand new (amazing!) album this week, things are going pretty well for Tay.

taylorswift

Behind the curtain of success, Taylor is doing a lot of things right from a business perspective, making her a great role model for small business owners. From wowing fans on stage to posting cat pictures on Instagram, we’ve pulled together five big lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from Her Greatness, Taylor Swift.

1. Over-Promise and Over-Deliver

Anyone who doesn’t crawl under a rock while Taylor is touring knows that she’s infamous for surprising and delighting fans anew every night. With such rave reviews resulting from every concert, it’s safe to say that fans’ expectations are super high for every show.

Such inflated promises can sometimes outshine the actual experience and lead to ultimately disappointed fans. So what does Taylor do about these crazy high expectations? She exceeds them.

Taylor makes sure to bring her A game to every single performance, and she incorporates different elements so no two cities see exactly the same show.

How You Can Do It:

2. Mix Your Energy With Commitment

Taylor has delighted fans with her music and work from the very beginning of her career. She’s always showed a lot of energy and passion for what she does.

Unlike many musicians and artists, Taylor has channeled this energy into commitment to her craft. Over the years and spanning all of her albums, she’s stayed dedicated to writing her own music and pleasing her fans.

The difference between music’s short-lived “one-hit wonders” and megastars like Taylor is the ability to continue producing quality, popular music despite one’s success and fame.

How You Can Do It:

3. Be Open, Real, and Flawed

“Authentic” and “genuine” are two huge marketing buzzwords right now and few brands can master them the way Taylor Swift has.

As one of the few celebrities who manages her own social media accounts, Tay runs them in very human way. To read her Twitter, you would scarcely even know that she’s a celeb worth many millions of dollars.

My phone photo library is SO STALKERY. #TS1989 #taylurking pic.twitter.com/1v3N1ZvBVG

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 29, 2014

The key to this impression is that Taylor is willing to share parts of her life with her fans, and she isn’t afraid to be vulnerable and expose her flaws.

How You Can Do It:

4. Care About The Little Things

As a small business owner, it’s sometimes good to sweat the small stuff. Between Twitter and Instagram, Taylor has over 45 millions followers, so when she takes the time to share or reply to a fan’s photo or Tweet, it’s a huge deal. She’s renowned for commenting on fans’ Instagram pictures and replying to fan Tweets on a pretty regular basis, but she’s also known for being meticulously involved with every decision.

GUYS. I want to meet as many of you as I can, and I’ve been trying to think of new ways to make that possible. When you buy 1989 this week, you’ll get a code for a chance to win tickets/meet and greets on tour. 
> I’m giving out 1000 tickets and 500 meet and greets. You can enter as many times as you want, but you HAVE to enter this week. 
> 7 hours.

A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on

When it comes to planning concerts and tours, Taylor is involved in everything from the set list to the number of steps on the stairs.

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5. Stand Out and Find Your Niche

Any business is hard to break into when there are a hundred people doing the same thing. When Taylor was first starting out, her style was a mix of country and pop genres. At the time, she was one of the only person occupying this space.

Tay was writing songs, playing guitar, and singing, as well, which was rare. She recognized what made her unique, and she leveraged it to become the phenomenon she is today.

Everything that made Taylor different is what got her noticed and allowed her to become as successful as she is. But even though Taylor has some key differences, essentially she's creating music, something that has been done for centuries.

How You Can Do It:

How You Get the Customer

There’s a lot you can learn from Taylor Swift and her meteoric rise to fame. She’s done a lot of things right and handed down lessons for the rest of us. So if you go take the whole afternoon to listen to 1989, remember, it’s for your business!

Your Turn: Are you a Taylor Swift fan? What have you learned from her journey?

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