More and more people are leaving their jobs and starting a business!

The pandemic has had an impact on the job market that many didn’t predict. As lockdown is easing, employers are finding it harder to recruit and keep great staff. There are obviously a few reasons for this, but what I’m hearing from a lot of people is that they want more balance and freedom. They’ve experienced a life they’ve grown to like thanks to lockdown and the thought of being stuck in an office all day no longer has the appeal it once did. So they’re going it alone and starting their own businesses!

If you’re considering doing the same thing, or perhaps you’ve handed in your notice and you’re starting to put plans in place, read on!

People (Traffic, Audience, Leads)

The first thing you’ll need is a steady stream of people coming in to your sphere of influence. This is the place where you’re showing up and making an impact, it’s the place where you have an opportunity to influence your audience, Your sphere of influence includes your Facebook page (business PAGE, not personal profile!), your Twitter feed, LinkedIn profile, Instagram and networking events in fact anywhere and everywhere that you meet people (on and offline). The tech term for this is TRAFFIC, but in simple terms it’s just a flow of people that find you on social media, or through networking, and from your blog etc. These are the people you want to ‘funnel’ into your sales process with the intention of talking to them and helping them to buy what you have to sell. This is YOU solving THEIR problem!

Systems

Now that you’ve got all that lovely traffic (see above) you need a way to move the traffic through to a lead after which you’ll get the chance to turn them into a client. This is your system. It’s called a funnel too. Essentially, it’s a hands-off system that you use to guide people from your capture point to the ultimate goal of becoming a client or customer. This will include an email system so that you can capture their email address and name. You’ll need this if you want to comply with GDPR! That way you can send them your best content, along with information about the products and services that you offer. Don’t be tempted to just add people to your contact list and then start sending them emails pitching your services. 

A great FREE option to get started with email is Mailchimp. This will be more than enough to get you going. Get Trello to manage your workflows and track your leads (free version is perfect). Sign up for Canva (paid is great, but the free version will do just fine). Open a Paypal account and a business bank account (Starling are great) and basically that’ll be everything you need.

Clients

Your system will flag certain individuals as potential clients or customers. They’re the people who opened and read your emails, who downloaded your opt in gift, who likely also bought your lowest priced offering.

Potential clients will also find you through your sphere of influence (see People, above), and they may bypass your system altogether by coming directly to you. When you meet potential clients (on or off-line) it’s your opportunity to share how you can help them eradicate their problems. Spend time getting to know them, ask questions, give them something for free that will give them an immediate win or solve one of their smaller, more immediate problems.

If these three things are what you DO need, then what DON’T you need in the early stages of your new business?

What you DON’T NEED:

• A shiny, fully branded website
• An expensive photo-shoot
• A shopping cart
• Credit card processing
• Fully functioning CRM
• Membership site
• Specialist software to create landing pages / opt-in pages etc.

There’ll be a huge temptation in the early stages of your business to rush out and buy all sorts of Bright Shiny Objects. Please, resist those temptations. Your most important task with a new business is to start making money. Then you need to make more money than you spend! Once you have that underway, then you can start to spend money investing in more complex systems and software to help you run your empire efficiently.

I know lots of people who’ve started out with just a social media profile and a PayPal link. They didn’t add expensive ‘nice to have’ stuff until they were making money.

How can I help you?

I’m a business and personal coach, with a passion for helping women create financial freedom. Without financial freedom women will continue to lack the ability to make empowered choices. It’s my dream to change the world by empowering women so that together we really can make a difference.

If you’d like a FREE strategy call, please click this link – BOOK YOUR CALL.