5 business lessons learned

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A client, who’s expanding to also include a consulting business, recently asked what I'd do differently if I had to start as a consultant today. It got me thinking about the business lessons learned as an entrepreneur.

The reality is, my business came off the back of starting a personal blog more than 10 years ago. Things are very different to what they were then.
However, five years ago we moved from Devonport, Tasmania to Shellharbour, near Wollongong in New South Wales and, apart from a handful of online clients, I was practically starting my business again.

This time I didn't have the personal blog behind me to gain clients and I really had to look at ways to connect, build relationships and ensure people trusted me enough to want to work with me.

Getting clients online versus getting clients offline is a little different as far as the approach.

In some respects it can be easier to get local clients, because while the audience might be smaller in size, the ability to build trust with someone face to face is higher.

The online space is also much noisier than it was when I started my business 10 years ago. There wasn't the competition or even access to some of the tools we now have that can make marketing easier. The catch of course in marketing becoming easier, is that it's harder to be heard because everyone’s doing it (hence my focus on storytelling to cut through).

Rather than answer her question in a private email, I realised how much the answers might be valuable to many and so I wanted to share it with you too.
I've looked back at the clients I've attracted and what I would do if I had to start again - regardless of whether it's online OR offline.

If I was starting again...

1 Find ways to build genuine relationships

When I started out, I could merely post something on Facebook and I’d attract sales. Forums were also much more popular, so forming deep relationships with people online felt much easier than it is today (despite there being far more opportunities online to connect with people now).

When I had to restart, I made the mistake of thinking I could merely post a few Facebook statuses and people would come flocking. Not so.

I had to look for pockets online - places like niche Facebook groups - to find the right people and start meaningful conversations. The odd "Well done! Looks great" comment wasn't going to cut it.

I was fortunate to already have my own Facebook group, so asked if anyone was local to the area we’d moved to. Two women raised their hand and I organised to meet with them face to face.

This was key.

One of the big challenges I see with new businesses is you want to take the easy road, put out an offer and hope people come flooding to you. But that doesn't happen any more. If you can't have conversations with people face to face, do it via video - webinars, Facebook Lives etc. It's not as powerful as face to face, but it's the next best thing.

One of those women encouraged me to attend a local networking event. As an introvert, I was petrified. I’d never networked before.

But that one connection led me to speaking opportunities that opened me up to an even wider audience who could hear my message. This, being another powerful way to connect with others if you love capturing the attention of a room.

Stepping out of my office and connecting with people has resulted in 30% of my business made up of local service-based businesses. Many of those clients have also become long-time clients where I’m now a permanent part of their team.

When it comes to online, you need to find similar opportunities to truly connect with people.

2 Blend strategy and mindset

You can’t have all the strategy in the world, but then not work on yourself. But, in turn, you can’t spend all your time on mindset, but not be led by a strategy and take action on it.

When it comes to marketing strategy, many clients haven't previously had one. They tend to make things up as they go along and never look at their analytics to see what their next move should be. This isn't uncommon.

In reality, this means you don’t have a clear picture on how your business is doing.
With mindset, many believe it’s too woo-woo, but then

procrastinate because they doubt their abilities,
get overwhelmed because they’re spending so much time comparing themselves to others or
start working for free or at a huge discount because they don’t value their own worth.

Create a practice for yourself to help you keep moving forward so you can actually take action on the strategy you create. The two really do work better together.

3 Don’t do business alone

Don't do business alone.

I actually thought I could do this business thing all by myself when I started. But when it failed to take off, I realised a big part of what was missing was the support.

Mind stories are the greatest barrier to someone being successful in business.

Not the offer, the type of audience you attract or any other "strategy". It's YOU.

Hence the mention of mindset being key.

The reason my personal blog became successful is because I was surrounded by mums who

championed my efforts,
collaborated with me and
encouraged me to keep going when things got tough.

I missed this critical part when I first moved into business and wondered why I wasn’t reaching the same level of success.

As soon as I joined my first mastermind, my business took off because I had mastermind buddies to lean on.

Again, when I moved states as mentioned before, it was my mastermind buddies who helped me to keep going. That's the benefit of a masterminds.

4 Don’t just market when you need clients

I often see people marketing hard when they’re desperate for clients, but end up repelling people. Then, when their roster is finally full, they stop marketing.

If I’ve learned anything about my own business and my clients’ businesses over 10 years, it’s that consistency is key. When you have a smart marketing strategy built around your business, this becomes much easier to achieve.

I’ve never been one to jump on the back of fad marketing trends, but instead focused on foundational marketing that stands the test of time.

OK, I lie. I was previously persuaded to jump into a new tool, only to find it's a hard slog to build it. Then, before you know, it disappears. Often, those new tools only attracted other marketers who were also hoping to be early adopters.

Find out exactly where your ideal client hangs out and only stick to those platforms. If their habit is

researching through Google, then learn about SEO and content marketing.
being on Facebook a lot, create a Facebook content plan.
consumes blogs, magazines, radio, then put together a PR media plan

My core foundational marketing strategies are exactly that - knowing where my ideal client is hanging out and building short-term and long-term strategies.

My only regret and one of my biggest business lessons learned when I started out was I didn’t start building an email list from day one so all the traffic I generated from strategies like those above actually turned into clients. I didn’t realise how powerful this one marketing strategy would be for my business for the long term.

When you have a client join your mastermind who first got to know you 7 years earlier, you realise that it was being part of that email list that ensured you stayed top of mind for all those years until they were ready to commit.

Generally it doesn’t take that long for someone to become a client, obviously.

But when it typically takes someone 90 days to become a coaching or consulting client, then you need a way to stay connected with them, nurture them and invite them to work with you.

5 It’s not about you, it’s about them

Even if you don’t know much about copywriting, when you write, speak or create your offer, always keep in mind that it’s about the client, NOT you.

If you use storytelling and make your potential clients the hero of the story, you’ll find your message resonates much more.

Too many people when marketing talk all about themselves. The reality is your ideal client doesn't actually care about you. All they care about is what's in it for them. So you need to talk about THEM.

I hear clients say "but I'm the one who's lived the story” or “I'm the one who created the offer". It doesn't matter. It’s the old Theordore Roosevelt quote:

“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”.

You need to show people how much you genuinely care about their situation and providing them with a transformation.

And that doesn’t mean talking AT people either. It’s about one of our previous points, which is… building relationships.

When you build genuine relationships, you also uncover exactly what it is people want, which helps you develop an offer that people would be willing to pay money for (rather than a program that's fun for you to create... again, it's not about YOU).

Three ways to really hone in on what your ideal client is willing to pay for, is to ask

what does pain island look like for your ideal client? That is, what are the problems or challenges that are keeping them awake at night that relates to what you do?
what does pleasure island look like? So, what is the outcome or transformation they most want? What will life look like for them AFTER you help them?
how can you be the canoe that takes them from pain island to pleasure island? That is, what's the best way you can help them move from the pain state they're in now to experiencing the outcome they most want? What does that look like?

We can often overcomplicate our businesses and/or get too focused on ourselves, missing the very things that will enable you to easily attract just the right type of people to your business for you to work with.

While I know I have more business lessons learned over the years, these are the things I would focus on if I had to start again.

Not sure where to start? I'd highly recommend a 12-month marketing plan so you understand where you're headed for the coming year. This can then be broken into quarterly marketing plans with specific strategies and actions for you to follow.

Download Your 12-Month Marketing Plan

Download The Plan

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