Believe it or not I never planned on becoming self-employed, let alone a sales-focused business coach. This is probably something to do with a seeing my Dad deal with the stress of running his 3 very successful hairdressing salons with around 30 employees.

And yes, I can hear you saying, ‘so now I know why she has pink in her hair!’

Anyhow, I found myself out of a job towards the end of 2018 and very quickly realised what I didn’t want to do. I didn’t want to be involved in travelling to Europe, commuting to London (or anywhere too far from home for that matter). I desired a more fulfilling role where I could implement my ideas and be responsible for my own destiny and earnings. Like so many others, I was at a stage of my life where I needed to find more of a purpose.

Incredibly, it’s now two years since setting myself up as a business development consultant and coach. Which felt like enough of a milestone to take stock of the things I’ve learnt in that time.

7 things I’ve learnt since becoming self-employed

1. Determination and focus are crucial

It’s so important to avoid distraction and keep the dreaded ‘Comparisonitus’ at bay. But how?

• Ensure you have a strategy. Without this you will not know what you need to be doing to achieve your desired outcome. Create a plan around what you are looking to achieve, how you will measure success and the tactics required to deliver against your goals. For example, if one of your goals is to achieve a certain amount of money and you are a service-based business, establish what is realistic in line with 50% utilisation.
• Avoid feeling the pressure to be doing things that other people think you should be doing. For example, I didn’t have a website until I had been in business for around 20 months.  I’m pleased I waited this long otherwise I would have ended up creating everything twice because I was still honing my proposition.

2. Acknowledge that your offering may change

Accept that whatever you offer as a service will probably change as you and your business evolve.  It pays to be flexible and open to offers and ideas rather than having set ways of working.  A good example of this is when someone approached me to help them with some business coaching and training. I didn’t offer it at the time, but it’s now one of my main offerings.

Do some work on your value proposition. For me this was invaluable.  This is where you will identify the pain points of your prospects and clients along with how your service solves their problems.

My recommendation? Value Proposition Design.  This book helped me see things from an outside perspective looking in on my business and enabled me to see things from my clients’ and prospects’ view. 

3. Small business owners need to learn to say no

If you don’t respect your time, no one else will either.

Don’t feel bad for not wanting to conduct meetings in the evenings or the weekends. After all, human nature is that we try have meetings at a time convenient to us. There is a reason that you became self-employed and it’s not normally to be working in the hours you’d be spending with your family, children and pets such as evenings and weekends. Disrespect your time and you will start feeling resentful because you did not speak up. And that that is a drain on your energy, motivation and mindset.

4. Network to find your tribe

Not sure about networking? 

Allow me to convince you. 

• Networking gives you an opportunity to grow your business by expanding your reach and forging new connections. 
• It gives you an opportunity to grow your confidence, learn new skills and find mentors or collaborators.
• It helps reduce the isolation you might feel when you go self-employed, especially if you’re used to working in teams.

At the core of networking is the opportunity to build relationships – get to know people at a deeper level and business will follow naturally.

Try different networking groups and focus on the ones that work for you and what you are looking to achieve. For me, networking gives me opportunities to increase my exposure, to speak at events, and to create collaborations or potential trade-offs.  

Remember that networking can give you opportunities to grow your business by agreeing potential part or full trade off of services. 

5. Feel the pain and do it anyway

I like to compare self-employment to exercise.  

The best thing about working for yourself is working for yourself. It can also be your worst enemy… if you allow it to be, and don’t listen to your body.

Hear me out… The area you feel the most discomfort, whether that’s physically, emotionally or mentally, is probably the area you need to work on the most. Sure, those planks are hideous, but you know they’re only terrible because you need to work on your core! 

Discomfort often indicates a development area. Work on that area and you’ll see the best returns. It all comes down to the good old comfort zone. My tip as a business coach? Do your least favourite activities at the beginning of the day. Then they’re done and you can get on with the rest of your day.

6. Source suppliers carefully

The people you work with are as important as the people you work for. A good supplier can set your offering apart. A bad supplier will cost you dearly. For that reason, I’ve learnt to qualify suppliers in the same way as I’d qualify a prospect. 

Here’s a quick rundown:

• Do you gel with the person?
• What is their working style?
• Do they have processes in place?  Are these processes aligned with yours?
• Are their services in line with your expectations?
• Do they detail their service or offering in a proposal?
• Can they provide you with solid references?

If you’re in any doubt speak to their clients. Most importantly ensure you speak to people that have experienced the service you are considering investing in. This way you can understand what they have achieved for others.

7. Get the basics right

Set up your business as you mean to go on and you’ll save untold hours and heartache down the line. Here are the things I learnt:

• Accounting software is a godsend when it comes to saving time. I pay £9 a month to QuickBooks and it saves me more in time that it costs me. It also means life is far easier when the end of the tax year arrives. 
• Make sure your clients know what your cancellation periods are and create your Terms and Conditions accordingly.  Failure to do this could mean you are subject to meetings being cancelled at the last minute and unable to book other clients in at short notice.
• Get organised. I have got used to putting everything in my diary as I did when I was an employee. I have gone one step further and categorise each meeting with a colour for analysis.
• Create structures, disciplines and templates to avoid duplication. Whether that’s a briefing template or a set approach to onboarding new clients, building structure and discipline into your business will make life easier for you. It will also demonstrate to clients that you have your act together. We 100% attract what we radiate. I believe this isn’t just in our demeanour but also in the way we conduct business. 

I’ve learnt so much but with what I have planned I believe my best is still yet to come!

Ultimately, you need to believe in yourself

Believe in your ability. Setting up your own business takes strength, courage and determination. If you want some extra help or simply feel like you could do with a (gentle) push to grow your business, book a free 30-minute discovery call with me to talk things through. I’d love to hear from you.

A final few words…

No-one is an island, and I couldn’t have got this far as a business development consultant and sales coach without the support of other incredible small business owners. 

They are (in alphabetical order!):

Alex Grist of ExceptionalCX for her buyer journey mapping and persona profiles.
Andrea Haas of Inner Strength for her help with EFT hypnotherapy.
Ben Fielding and his team at Blucando IT for their never-failing IT support.
Carol Patterson at Queen Bee in the Woods for her wonderful products.
Charlotte Emery at Arbonne for her almost magical Fizz Sticks.
Claire Francis at Tropic Skincare for the amazing beauty products.
Dawn Gregory, for her help with communication and presentation speaker coaching.
Ema Doherty, The Hair and Beauty Artist for the lovely make-up (a Zoom call essential!).
Gemma Lane of Hidden Gem VA for her VAPA services.
Gill Siemak of Paper Rock her the branding and design work
Ginny Marsh of Gorgeous You Photography for the incredible photography on my website.
Hilary Cryer from House of Colour for her styling session.|
Irina Nailer of Irina Nailer Health Coaching for her health coaching sessions.
Jane Redhead of KallKwik Printing in Farnham for the high-quality printing and design work.
Janet Alkema, The Time Finder Specialist for her support services.
Jason Lawes of Red Sentence for building this website and supporting with graphic design.
Karen Brooks of Pellings Business Support for her support services.
Kerry Ellis, the image consultant and stylist for her so-helpful wardrobe review.
Laura Sands of Laura Sands Copywriting for helping write my website and edit my blogs.
Linda Huckle of Your Key to LinkedIn for the LinkedIn training she gave me in my early days.
Lisa Cooke of Level Three Creative Limited for her design work.
Lisa Sinfield of Captain Tortue for the amazing clothes.
Lisa Vassallo of Onetothree for the social media marketing help.
Mandi Martin for the amazing vouchers you created for me to give James for our 10^th wedding anniversary.
Mandy Dineley of My Beautiful Pen, writing verses and poems for special occasions.
Pru Gayton of PAC Copywriting for writing the case studies on my website.
Rachel Maunder, the Speaker and Speaker Coach who helped me find my stories.
Sarah Lynn-Hodder of Bettering Youth for the PT sessions to strengthen my knees.
Steve Hall at Health at Hart for his Osteopathic skills.
Tania Fraser of TWIG for her spreadsheet and software magic.
Vicki Kleboe for your financial expertise and advice in relation to my dad.
Wendy Moffat of JRA Chauffeur Drive for the impeccable chauffeur car hire. 

It’s hard to believe that we’re at the end of January already. Despite sometimes feeling like the longest month ever, the month has flown since getting back to my desk at the start of January.

James, my husband, and I took the strategic decision to finish work from Friday 18^th December. For me, Christmas is and has always been (depending upon your industry) the only time of year you can take time off and pretty much come back to what you left. 

There’s no need to feel guilty about taking time off; as a small business owner, holiday is important. It means you can come back to work refreshed and reenergised. 

I had a fantastic time off making the most of the weather with country walks, balanced with a few festive drinkies, tasty treats, and workouts in the garage. Not to forget the all-important festive clear out which involves going through every room in the house and segmenting items for charity, eBay and recycling.  I find this very therapeutic indeed!

In my last blog, I talked about the importance of building stronger relationships with your customers and how sales is intrinsically linked to customer services.

Given the start we’ve had to 2021, it feels like a good time to reflect on 2020 and what small business owners can learn from it to help this year.

Five things every small business owner can do this year

These are the five things I would suggest you implement:

1. Create a plan based on objectives, NOT tactics

A new year starts and many small business owners start planning for the year ahead. Many will start thinking about the tactics and activities they would like to put into place. But first, stop!

Before you start planning your tactics and activities, my advice as a business coach would be to implement best practice planning and – as the ever-wise Simon Sinek would say – start with the end in mind.  

Working this way allows you to identify what you would like to achieve in the form of objectives, then decide how you will measure whether you are achieving them or not. Only once you’ve done this, should you outline what your activities and tactics will be.  This need not be complex; a simple spreadsheet will do the job. You just need 3 x headers – Objectives, Measurements, Tactics – use the cells below to show the detail.

Objectives/ Goals	Measurement	Tactics required

Planning this way will ensure your marketing activities are aligned to your sales objectives.

2. Focus on what you can control

Yes, we are in a pandemic, and sadly no single person can change this. Individually we cannot overcome the situation we’ve found ourselves in.

Do what you can about the things you can control within your life. Take a step back and ensure you are looking after yourself. Are you drinking 2 litres of water a day rather than water in the caffeine you are drinking? Are you completing a minimum of 5K steps per day and exercising 3 times a week? And are you prioritising sleep ahead of device time late at night?

3. Know how you compare against your competition

Do you know how your small business fares vs. your competitors? By this I mean, how do you really compare to their offering, prices and more importantly how they differentiate themselves? Knowing all this will help you identify how you may be able to differentiate yourself from them.

Review your packages, pricing and what you include in those prices and packages. If you have seen a decrease in an uptake in a certain product or service, could you offer a scaled down version? It might mean less initial investment but it’s also a way of bringing on new clients, who may continue to work with you on another service in the future.

4. Identify who your best clients really are

Many of us small business owners create an avatar for our ideal clients when we launch a new business, venture or product. But it’s only after having built a history of selling to clients that we are able to work out who our most profitable clients are. Most importantly this is based on logical, pragmatic fact.

There are two ways of looking at this. I’d recommend you analyse what makes someone your ideal client from a revenue and profit perspective. I’d also suggest you identify the trends in who your client is so you can try to replicate more these customers. Doing this exercise will help you work out who your ideal client is and is not.

5. Forget the silver bullet

“Increase your earnings to £10K per month, with little effort”

“Get an abundance of sales-ready leads ready for you to convert!!!”

Sound familiar? 2020 saw many companies increase their online presence. This has meant an abundance of companies selling get rich quick programs like those above.

The reality is that there is no silver bullet.

These types of programs are generally course-based, high level and not tailored to you, your circumstances and your business.  The result? People invest in these programmes and still feel unsure of how to execute against what they need to do in relation to their circumstances and business.

Generally, the common factor on courses that work, and courses that don’t work is the all-important accountability.  What’s more, participants may feel overwhelmed as there is so much for them to do and they’re not sure what to prioritise.

This is the same for companies promoting sales-ready leads, ready for you to convert. THEY DO NOT EXIST.

The truth however, is that there is nothing to make running a small business easy for you other than structure, process, focus and discipline. And that’s where using a sales-focused business coach can help.

Want to know more? Book a free discovery call and let’s talk!

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How can you increase your sales during difficult times? If someone predicted what 2020 would involve, we’d never have believed them. Yet after only a few weeks of slightly relaxed restrictions we find ourselves in lockdown number two. 

Despite this, I strongly believe that whatever industry that you are in, and however your business has been affected by Covid, there are things you can do to reduce the impact of these uncertain times.

Firstly, the obvious solutions being that you can diversify your offering and provide a virtual version of your services. You could start running courses, changing from a 1-to-1 offering to a more profitable 1-to-many offering. You could even create a downloadable course as a form of passive income.

But in this post, I’m focusing on how you can build stronger relationships with your customers and increase your sales. And that’s because sales is intrinsically linked to customer services.

Why are strong client relationships important?

What is really the difference between customer services and sales? 

Many large telecom companies call their customer services department ‘client retention’. Essentially it’s a department focused on increasing the likelihood of you staying with them.

Build a deeper relationship with your clients and ultimately you will be closer to them and create longer term relationships. This comes in the form of repeat business and referrals from those customers. Happy customers become a revenue stream of their own. And that’s without the cost of advertising, cost of sales and the time associated with taking on new clients.

“People will always remember how you made them feel”

Whilst I’m sure Maya Angelou didn’t have business in mind when she said the above quote, it’s something that’s very relevant to selling. How would you feel if a supplier only contacted you over lockdown to try and sell to you? I have actually experienced this and not only did they present me with a service of theirs but one that was not applicable to my business. I was not impressed.

Difficult times are a unique window for you to differentiate yourself with your clients and prospects by building a stronger relationship with them. Regardless of whether or not you do end up working with them, you’ll be remembered for the way you kept a dialogue going.

It can feel a little daunting if speaking to people fills you with nerves and you prefer to communicate by email. Your clients may be a different age, have different interests and may even be in a different country. No matter. These times are challenging for all of us in some shape or form. For instance, I don’t have children to home-school, but my husband and I have elderly parents with varying health issues – and that’s a constant worry for us. Tap into the humanity we share, and you’ll find a common thread on which you can build a relationship.

Pick up the phone

It’s so easy to ping someone an email. But call someone instead and you’ll make a bigger impact – especially if you have a service-based business. So instead of sending emails to check in, give your customers a call. If they can’t speak there and then, just book in a call for a general catch-up. Few people are in business just for the money… connecting on a deeper level is better for our clients and more enjoyable for us as business owners.

Follow up on your enquiries

This sounds so simple, but you’d be amazed at the number of people who don’t follow up on their enquiries, which can help you to increase your sales!

Here’s a real-life example. I wanted to get my garden landscaped and so asked four landscapers to quote for the work.

One didn’t respond and two came back to me with a standard price on an email. But the other called me to arrange a visit so they could better understand my needs.

It turns out that they all quoted a similar price. So who did I choose?

No surprises – I chose the landscaper who visited me. His visit gave me more confidence in his approach and gave me an opportunity to ask questions. He built a rapport with me and a made a fuss about my cats. (Anyone that likes cats is a big tick in my world.) Joking aside, he was also able to reassure me that the work comes with a warranty and tell me that he offers other services (which I end up agreeing to – cleaning my patio and drive). He also partners with a garden designer who can help me choose my plants and teach me how to care for them.

The other two landscapers didn’t even follow up to ask if I had questions about their quotes.

The thing to remember in all this, is that following up on a quote isn’t just about securing a piece of work. It’s also about the impression you give and a chance to be recommended to others. I live in a new build, and several of my neighbours have booked the same landscaper as a result of my recommendation. It’s a goldmine of potential to any landscape gardener!

You attract what you radiate

Positivity is an attractive trait. Along with gratitude and compassion, positivity creates a good energy that others can feel. And if you radiate positivity, you’ll get positivity back. Not convinced? Read more about the principles of attracting good energy  here.

Stay genuine to you and the things you like to do and you’ll emit positivity in abundance. Did you used to meet clients for coffee once a week? You can still do that on Zoom! Did you post social media updates about positive results your clients have seen? Keep at it. People will see your positivity and feel attracted to it. I’ve kept up the things I used to enjoy doing before lockdown such as my Friday G&Ts with clients over Zoom. Not quite the same as meeting in a pub, but something that puts a little more fun into my week and that of my clients.

Want to know more about building relationships with your clients and how to increase your sales? I can help! Book a free discovery call to see how I can help you grow your business.