S1. E9 - Tips for starting your new business

Starting a new business can be super exciting and downright scary - all at the same time…There are so many things to consider, and so many emotions that you’ll experience. 

You might be starting a new business, as a hobby OR maybe you already have a day job and want to transition to your dream business full time OR maybe you’ve never worked and this will be your first time selling ANYTHING. 

In this weeks episode,  Leeha and Nichol have taken a trip down memory lane to talk about what it was like when launching their respective businesses. 

During this podcast, Nichol and Leeha share some of their insights and experiences, including what has worked well, what didn't go to plan and the various places they have found the necessary support. 

Key highlights include: 

• Week in the life of a solo business owner
• What we wish we had of known or at least been aware of
• Our top 3 tips when launching a new business

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We hope you’ve enjoyed tuning in to this episode. We would love it if you could please take a few minutes to leave a rating and a few words about why you love Real Talk for Women in Business.

If you have any feedback or questions regarding today's podcast or have a specific topic you would like us to cover, email:  realtalk.wib@gmail.com

If you would like to know about how an all-inclusive copywriting and website package can help you find your brand voice and connect you with clients, arrange a discovery call with Leeha from Meridian Digital today: BOOK NOW

If you would like to learn how a Business coach can support your business needs, book a connection call with Nichol from Nichol Stark Coaching today: BOOK YOUR FREE CLARITY CALL  

Visit us at: 

https://meridiandigital.com.au

https://nicholstark.com.au

Transcript

  📍 Starting a new business can be super exciting and downright scary all at the same time, there are so many things to consider and so many emotions that you'll experience, you might be starting a new business as a hobby, or maybe you've already started. You've got a day job and you want to transition to your dream business full-time. Or, maybe you've never worked and this will be your first time selling anything. Well, this is the podcast you have been waiting for.

Hey, there. Welcome to The Real Talk for Women in Business Podcast, a podcast all about helping women entrepreneurs take off in their business. We share real truths, real insights, and really practical tips when it comes to juggling all things life and business. Hi, my name is Nic from equal start coaching. I intuitively coach and empower women in life, business and positions of leadership to connect to all aspects of themselves so they can attract the life and business that they not only desire but deserve and across the Queensland New South Wales border is my dear friend Leeha.

Hi there, My name is Leeha and I'm a coffee-loving copywriter and website designer. My business is Mind Your Words, and that's where I help the owners of growing service-based businesses connect with clients through my all-inclusive copywriting and website packages. 

All right. So you've got an idea, a passion and an absolute need to get your business ideas out of your head and out to the people who really need and want it. But where do you start? Well, that's exactly what we're talking about today. We're going to reflect back on our own days when we first started. Young, enthusiastic, great bodies, less grey hair, and what we wish we had known and put in place before and during starting our businesses.

So we're going to have a real talk around what we wish we had known from the start, the challenges we've experienced and top tips to support you as you make the leap and become a business owner. And, for those wonderful listeners out there, stay until the end, as we've got a  special offer to one of our lucky listeners.

Before we even kick off, I'd love to start with just short, sharp and snappy. What are the three big business tasks you're working on this week?

Yeah, I'm just going to jump back a little bit here, though, where you said good bodies. I'm not sure my body was that good when I started my business. I'm pretty sure it was before my kids. 

Above the desk webcam can see me. They could just see my face. There was a whole lot of happiness down there.

Definitely the grey hairs though right, I've just turned 40 last year. I'm thinking about my birthday in a few weeks. And as soon as I hit 40, I just started getting these grey hairs. And every day I look in the mirror and I just see one or two just shining through and I've got dark hair. So they just kind of just catch the lot, this is so beautiful. 

Yeah, 40 is the age where everything goes to shit, I'm sorry.

Anyway off-topic, but so you've asked me what my three big business tasks are for this week. So I've got a fair amount of admin work at the moment.  It's amazing really, because, you know, there's these ups and downs in business and, as somebody who's relatively new in business, I've done pretty well over the years in terms of having a project to go to every single time or having multiple projects on at once and then for the last month.

I had a bit of a lull, which I used to work on my business with a bit of strategy. And then all of a sudden I've had a shit ton of proposals go out and I'm doing lots of proposals, invoices. And today I had another one and a half hour strategy meeting with a new client, which went really well. So, You know, there's the client work and then there's the shit behind that that supports all that work. So that's been a big chunk of my time this week, lots of meetings and phone calls. 

It's still you isn't it there's no, you don't have a VA or anyone else with you, well, it's just me at the moment, which leads into my next big task, which is my coaching homework for my business coach which is all about that strategy stuff. You should see Nic she's, she's laughing at me, but glaring at the same time. I'm not keeping it a secret. I am changing and stuff is happening, uh, in the new year. And sorry, the strategy work that I'm doing is about expanding the business and looking to bring on people to support me in my role. So at the moment, I'm a one-man-band or one-lady-band. 

One of the items on my coaching list of tasks to do is to book an appointment with my accountant. And, an accountant is kind of a bit of a dirty word for me because I tend to avoid anything financial, but I need to get this done. And I'm going to set up a couple of documents for my standard operating procedures. So, I won't get much done. It really is just about setting the documents up and starting some rough notes on what they need to include. So, that's me. 

And that's really important and I'm actually seeing a number of people at the moment that don't have those things in place. Especially the processes or some sort of standardization and when you're scaling your business, it is so important to have those things in place and then people can onboard and have the information ready to go. So, so that's great that you're doing that in line with your expansion that's happening. 

Well, it's one thing to have your process better down or to have it in your head. And it wasn't, I was doing some stuff in preparation for a phone call that I got this afternoon. And one of the big elements was, have you written the playbook? Do you have SOPs in place to give to another person to tell somebody else how you work? Oh shit. No, I don't. I know it inside out back the front could do it with my eyes closed, but to bring somebody else into the business, no, I don't have any of that. So I'm making a commitment to get started. 

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, for me, a couple of things I'm working on is setting up my backend processes and I've been putting this off probably for the last three years because I've actually, it's been overwhelming. So when you start, I'm going to talk about this later, but when you start, there is so much technology and people out there and systems and processes, and it actually can become really overwhelming. So what I've done is really reflected on the last three years: what's worked and what hasn't worked, and now I'm putting in place my workflow. And the technology to support it. So we've talked about dub cyto as an example, in a couple of episodes before that's one of the new tools that I'm going to use to integrate to some of the other existing tools. So I'm really focusing on those backend processes. So then it's also easier for my clients to interact with me. 

Yeah. And if you are interested in learning more about the technology side of our businesses and the technology that can support you. As you're starting your business or growing your business, check out one of our previous episodes on business tools. It's a long episode, but it's full of useful information and the tools that we use and why we like them. So check it out. 

Yeah, absolutely. And then the other thing I'm looking at the moment, so we're getting into. Ending Q1 in the new financial year. And so at the end of each quarter, I like to do a quarterly review. So for me at the moment and if you could see my whiteboard to the side of me, I've got my annual goals, my quarterly goals, my monthly goals and my weekly goals. And so I'm just doing a review of that at the moment, which is really important because the industry and life and everything that's going on. Up and down and, you know, inside out and having cadences or processes or reviews in place to continually review and refine is so important, especially as a business owner.

Nic are they just financial goals or do they go beyond just financial? 

Not all of them. So I look at risk a little bit financial. I look at so I'm revenue goals. So financially, including revenue, I look at giving back goals. So, one of the things real talkies is giving back. Plus there are charities that I like to support in terms of providing coaching or guidance. So there's impact goals, my products and services go. So I break down all parts of my business. So I look at every aspect of my business. But I also look at. What are my goals, One of my family goals, what's up and coming. So, you know, food on the holiday at the end of this year, this family is going on a fricking holiday because we haven't been on for so long. So I want to put it up there because as, a business owner, it's not just our business. We've got our life, but our health, we've got our family and we've got our business. So when I look at my quarterly goals, I look at everything. Because you finally focus on business and I'm going to get overwhelmed because I'm only looking at that. And then I'll put all my effort into business, and forget about me, or I'll forget about my family. So it needs to be an even spread of working goals. Yeah. And then I'm also decluttering. So I know this doesn't sound like much, but during lockdown, I've looked back to the last 13 years- I mean 13 weeks sorry of lockdown and said, we're at this store.

I bet it feels like 13 years. 

I'm actually, I'm on, I've got to the point now I'm a bit over it. So they got over it in the first two weeks. I'm now 13 weeks in, like, I just want to get over it. But now I'm just spending some time on decluttering the house, but also my office. So we did a big clean out of my office, got a whole heap of crap and that's actually given me space like emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, all the, all the different modalities of space that I can possibly have. And it just,  gives such clarity back in the home and my office. So honouring is another big one for me.

I feel when I'm starting to get overwhelmed with work or I'm starting to feel like that even just clearing off my desk and tidying up some of the bits and pieces around me. And then, you know, you come back in and you're like, oh, there's my work space. It's like a bit of a fresh start. 

Everyone in the house knows that I am great at studying decluttering. Look, I've got the ID, so I may I'll start it. I know what I've got the ID, but finishing it because then I start looking at things going, oh, there's a baby photo of the kids from 15 years ago and stuck in that. So then I get the cleanup crews. So, but Justin and that keeps that coming and they finish it for research it's we will know us box.

I think it's good to just. But as part of these podcasts share with their audience, what we're actually working on it and show that each time we talk there is something so different that we're working on. Like if you had to talk to us two weeks ago, it would have been really, we're just in a shit pile of mess at the moment, trying to get ourselves out of the illnesses and everything. But then, you know, two weeks ago, Right. So, back to business, exactly. So I thought it'd be a good idea to keep this one off because I've got numerous clients at the moment that are starting it fresh. So I just having those initial conversations and they've got no idea where to start. And then others that have ramped up are having to put in some of those foundational and strategy activities that they really need in order to ramp up or some people that are uh, scaling and looking at how to keep that strategy and the sustainability in their business. 

 I remember that moment where I decided I wanted to start a business. So. I've worked in a government role now. For over 14 years. And it was in a role which supported small, medium-sized businesses with grant funding to help them get off the ground and to put some strategies and stuff in place. I loved it and I loved working with the businesses, but I felt like I could do more. And I, I don't know, there's this air about. Starting your own business and you know, wouldn't it be good? I mean, I think a lot of people just go, gee, I wish I'd had that idea. Or gee, I should start a business, but I really did feel it intuitively, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. Like I had no bloody idea what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted a business. So it actually took me, I would say two years just to discover what my superpower was and what my business would be. I actually discovered the superpower and I still had no idea what I wanted to do for my business. And I remember having a conversation with my supervisor at the time, and I said to her, well, what would somebody actually pay me to do? Like, I didn't have any skills. I've just worked in the government for, you know, 10 years what can actually do? And she said, Well, you need to go away and have a really good think about what are people coming to you all the time and asking you to do?

Now, this is from a service-based perspective, obviously not from a product. I don't have a product idea, but it took me those two years to go. You know, holy shit, people are coming to me all the time asking me to do writing. What can I do with writing? And then this opportunity just landed in my lap.

We were building a house at the time and the sales gentlemen was starting his own business on the side and he provided me with some PowerPoint slides that were super shit that had spelling errors in them. They were all over the shop and I offered to fix them and I was like, oh my God, maybe I can be a VA. what started as being a VA transformed then into copywriting, which has now transformed into website design. So, be open to the fact that your business idea might evolve and will probably will evolve and probably will change. But I just remember also feeling when I finally did decide, I felt overwhelmed and unsure as well. 

Yeah. And you said, because it's that, oh, shit how do I even start these? You've got all of these emotions and your heart is pounding with excitement. But then how do you translate that into something tangible and something that someone will actually want? I know we've spoken about this before, but we'll touch on it again.

I left my job called Turkey. So I'd been with the organization for 23 years and I knew I wanted to start my own business, but I also knew that I couldn't do it as a side hustle. I knew that if I was really going to do this. Actually have to go all-in and so I resigned after 23 years and kicked it off. My challenge though, when I first started was the loneliness. I wasn't anticipating the impact of going from having lots of people around me to full walls and I subjected to go into that depressive anxiety cycle. Like it was a downward spiral. Thankfully I, recognize the three years, and I manage that accordingly. But yeah, for me, I knew I wanted to do something and knew I wanted to help people. The coaching itself has definitely evolved.

I’ve gone from coaching predominantly women in technology to women in corporate business now to people that have started their own business, as well as life coaching. One of the big things that we need to always be aware of is that as we're evolving as business owners, the needs of our customers and what clients actually wants are also evolving and being open because through that openness, you'll start to develop and you'll expand as well as you know, more clients coming to you, looking for other alternatives, like other services.

So that's a little bit, I guess, around how we kind of grasp with the idea of starting our business and what we wanted to do, but there are always things that you look back on and go, shit. I wish I had known that when I first started. So these are my, top three things that I wish I'd known when I started my business and that I want to share with you. 

You will spend the first few years of your business, investing your time, your energy, and probably your money in your personal development. So with this, I'm talking courses, training, tools, that kind of thing. It is overwhelming. It is an overload of information. 

Yeah, and I was exactly the same. Because you're going into an environment where you are a new business owner, and you've been in kind of a business for so long. In some instances, you think you need to actually do all the courses you think you need to actually get all the eight books, all the courses, and you think that you will become this massive expert if you do the courses up. My experience from this is that I actually get overwhelmed. I didn't finish a lot of them. I've still got some courses I'm still doing. I got hijacked. Like I just downloaded eight books upon eight books looking at it, going, I've got a dummy sheet. Why am I reviewing this? So yeah, it's we can detract from doing the new business by focusing on things that we actually don't really need to almost.

I think you do need an element. Personal and professional development, I was really good at writing, but I didn't have the copywriting skills. Copywriting is completely different from content writing and when people try to compare what I do to a content writer I do get a little bit upset and frustrated because it is completely different. And you're engaging me because, I know copywriting, I know formulas, I know how to sell without selling, and I know your audience. That's why you hire me. So for me, I'm vested in Belinda Weaver's copywriting masterclass, which took me 12 months to do, and I've invested in things that I wish I hadn't wasted money on. So there is a fine line between choosing the right professional development and the right personal development and then just getting stuff because you're suffering from FOMO and it looks really good and you think you need it. 

Absolutely.

The other thing is there will be times when you just want to give it up, you will just put your hands up in the air and you will be like, what the fuck am I doing? Why am I doing this? And I am, what am I like for four and a half years in? And every now and then I have a moment like that where I’m like, I could be just cruising in my government job, earning really good money, doing pretty mind-numbing work for me now, why am I working late nights? Why am I struggling sometimes in my business to juggle everything? And then it really comes down to the fact that when I am doing this job, when I am working for clients, I don't feel like I'm working. I freaking love what I do and that's why I keep doing it. So, when you have those days where everything has gone to shit, when you've got a crappy client or you got crappy review left, or somebody sent an email to you because, you know, they think your product’s shit, just keep pushing through. Because it happens, I see it all the time. And particularly in my Facebook groups, I see people posting in there about,  a particularly difficult client that's torn their copy to shreds or,  somebody in another group, the other day got a-okay.

This is so strange, it blows my mind, but she sent this product and it comes in this beautiful little box and inside the box, you put a lollipop. She got an email back from the customer who was pissed off that she gave them a lollipop because she would prefer that the cost of that lollipop went towards lowering the cost of the product. I was just like, are you for real? But the thing is, these people exist and you work. I find that you're going to have really shitty frickin days, but pushing through it is what's going to make you stronger and learning from it is going to help you succeed in your business. 

Oh, the good definitely outweighs, you know, those choppy days. Yeah. 

Yeah.

And finally, I think I've mentioned this before, but what I wish I'd known from the start was that that old mentality of competition that everybody's your competition, I remember looking around at other copywriters on the internet in Brisbane and the have switch going, oh my God, they're my competition, you know? It doesn't exist like that anymore. We have evolved and when you’re first starting, like get into Facebook groups, find your tribe of people in the same industry that value collaboration over competition because it exists. And these people support you. You can get great ideas from them, they are willing to help you and when you get to a position where you're more experienced in your business, and you can give back in those communities. It feels amazing. 

I always come back to, there are 7.6 or whatever it is, billion people in the world. So to have,  a thousand copywriters that's okay. Because look at all the paperwork put in the world that now any Mistry we've got, what, two, 2 million startups in this in Australia. So, there are customers out there, you don't need to have a competition. And it's, I think it's only changing. I do believe  that collaboration over competition is slowly changing. 

One of the things you wish you'd known from the start? 

As I mentioned, how lonely it was going to be. That really threw me for a seeks and it still does to a certain extent. But what I've done to counteract that is to support that I should say is look at what I actually need. So I've actually looked at what do I need? What gives me energy? What will help me? So I know that I need to have a group of people that I can just shoot, shoot with.  I know I need someone that I can bounce ideas off with my business. I know that I need different elements for different parts of my life and since having that, and also having someone that you know, If I'm having just a really bad emotionally energetic day, someone that I know will pick me up. So, knowing who your connection points are, how they add value to you and you can add value to them. 

And as you mentioned, knowing your, in terms of knowing your tribe. When it comes to your business, there are so many different elements. So, know who you can speak to about different things. So it doesn't necessarily have to be one person. It could be multiple people. You know, having different opinions or different ideas from different people is always good.

What to focus on and what not to focus on. When I first started, it was. Get a website, Facebook things out there. And I was just trying to just get overwhelmed of Facebook heads, what do I actually want to put out there? And marketing is not my specialty. My background is business strategy, project management. You know, those sorts of things. Marketing and sales never even came into it. You know, there was someone else. They did that. So for me, that was actually really overwhelming. So I did things the wrong way. I paid for a lot of Facebook ads. They got no traction. I didn't understand it. I didn't understand how that will operate. So, knowing what to focus on and what not to focus on.

And you invested quite heavily in your website and SEO and branding specialists. And so you put quite a fair bit of money upfront into your business. 

So it would, I'd say upfront, I probably spend about 20 grand because I didn't know any better. I had no ID. And so I had, yeah, I had a branding coach. I had a website designer, photographer, copyrighted designer, and the thing is, and one of the things I really love about what you're doing layout is that when someone comes to you, it's a one-stop-shop. I come to you. And you look at me, you look at the design brief, you look at all of that. Whereas I was going to different people saying the same thing, not understanding the context, how to use it. And so I do wish, I have known from the start, what it all meant and, how it all worked.

I guess my question on that is if you put yourself in the shoes of one of our listeners who is just starting, who would you turn to, I guess, get that support. Would you turn to somebody who's been in business for a while that might be able to give you some tips on what you do and you don't need, or where is the, I guess the logical and most sensible place to invest any money that you've got. 

So this is, this is really interesting. It really will depend on the individual because it depends on what that individual's experience is and what they've done before and what they haven't done before. I do believe that talking to people and just understanding the experience of individuals is, is really important, different industries, different products versus services. So having that research and development of what actually goes on what's happened, you know, people are, are really want to give that information back to people. So there is definitely not not a shortage out there of people that will give you insights into their experiences. 

And Facebook groups, like when I first started my business, I didn't even know that these groups really existed. Uh, but now, like, I can see if you're a startup or you’re just launching a new product or something like that and you find that group, like, they're the ones you can go in there and say, hey, I'm just starting out.

What courses do you recommend that I take, or does anybody have some advice on X, Y, and Z? And you're going to be tapping into this collective knowledge from this community. So, it's really important to find that tribe, that support network.

Do you think he needs that, that research that you do because you might be someone that suffers terribly, we'd post a syndrome? So, going out and starting to do webinars and Facebook lives might not be what you want to do upfront. Others might need to sit down and be quite methodical. So sit down with a business coach and actually do your business planning, your strategic planning, your risk planning. So, it really comes down to the individual and what they need. Some can be sporadic and just push it together and it just works. So, it really just depends on who it is. 

We've covered off what we'd known from the start. Let's talk a little bit about the challenges that we experienced and throughout the podcast, you've heard some of the challenges already, but my top three challenges was again, not really knowing what I wanted to do and you are wanting to be in business. I knew I wanted to help people or help other business owners, particularly, but I didn't know what to do. Then on top of that, you add that layer of juggling like the, you know, I started my business with a new baby under one arm. I was on maternity leave at the time, but then I had to transition back into a day job, juggling the professional development. So you're trying to keep all those balls in the air and not really having a sense of how long particular projects would take me. So when I first started out, I didn't really have a sense of how long stuff was going to take me. So how many projects. You know, so that I was at a point where I could manage the project, but not over commit myself and deliver shit work. I know how long a project takes me now, I've got better processes in place and a better understanding of what my commitments can be.

And the final one is something that Nic mentioned before, which was imposter syndrome. Now there's one thing to go through a course and come out the other end and go. I've just done a copywriting course. Great. Can I call myself a copywriter? So I struggled with this so much. And in my copywriting community, you know, it was just, you just got to put it out there.

Justbe bold, just put it out there, get your website out, get it on your business cards if you even use business cards these days. But it wasn't even that it was actually calling myself a copywriter when people said to me, oh hey, what do you do? And I couldn't vocalize that I was a copywriter because at that time I'd done the course. I probably had one or two clients, but I still didn't feel confident enough to say that I'm a copywriter. So yeah, it's tough when you first starting out, that imposter syndrome.

So finding. So when I, when I left my corporate gig, I was the same as like, how am I going to coach? Like, I haven't got the certification. I haven't got these qualifications that say I'm a coach, but actually, then someone said to me, okay, I want you now to sit down and go through how many hours have you actually coached people? And that was. It's a nominal amount like 40,000 hours, I thought, oh actually, yeah, I have got the experience and it's actually made in my own way. Like I'm judging the fuck out of myself. No one else is judging me. It's actually myself and it's actually, I've got the experience. Yes, qualifications are great for, you know, to get the theory behind it. But actually, in terms of hours spent with people, we've done a lot of the work. 

When I first started in my corporate gig, I was very hands-on and I love to understand how things work and then I can pull myself back. But, when your career advances in certain directions and you've got a number of people that can do stuff for you. Then you just take advantage of that because you've got other things that you gotta do. So like managing a thousand people. And so I had people that had people that had people to do stuff. So then when I started my, and I know, even as I'm saying it, I sound like absolutely. That's what it was. And so I actually became, ridiculously unable to do the basic stuff that I probably would have done 10 years ago.

So you were the queen of delegation. 

I had to learn how to do it because I used to not do it, but then I learnt how to delegate, but then selling your own business gives you, it doesn't bring you yet. It brings you back down to earth. And so I look, it's taken me three years to do some of the things I probably should've done a year ago, but that's okay.

So, that's certainly been challenging and yeah, as I just mentioned, I think judging the fuck out of me thinking that how can I do these? Who's going to want to come to me, all of these things and also putting things on LinkedIn, going, oh my God, people that I used to work with, they're going to be looking at this stuff and they're going to judge me. But actually, they don’t give a shit by, you know, most of them are actually quite supportive. And what I found is I had to get over my own bullshit. No, I wanted to do this, and I'm only in this life for one time only. So why the fuck am I holding myself back?

Can I share something really funny here? When I first started on launch my Facebook page and I, I don't know, I did a couple of Facebook posts and my partner's best mate’s girlfriend at the time, Discovered a typo, but then told her partner to tell me. So in one of my social posts, there is a typo, God forbid. And I got this message saying, oh, just letting you know that there's a typo. And you know, it's probably not good to have a typo if you're a copywriter. It broke me, It broke me, I tell you, I was just devastated. I'm like, oh, God, how embarrassing. And, uh, she's a teacher, so which is even worse, but yeah, it almost broke me.

But it's true though. The thing is we're human humans are gonna fuck up. Humans are to make mistakes. And I think one of the things that I've really learned is to take accountability for it and get on with it. Like it's just, that's-

Honestly, i'm terrible at proofreading my own shit. I know how to write and i'm a copywriter, so I know the formulas and all that kind of stuff, but I'm terrible. I will write, and they'll be taught by us, which is why outsource to a proofreader. So if you find typos on my social media, I apologize if you're offended by them, but please they do not impact my ability to write amazing copy for your website. 

It's actually a big strength. As a new business owner and even a business owner know your strengths, don't try and do you know if you know that you're not a speller outsource that shit. If you know that you can't do something, then outsource it. Don't try and do, I mean if you don’t have the money then obviously you can't, but, just know your strengths and know it's okay to make mistakes. Well, that's fine.

I tell you I had written some blog posts for a client once and they got loaded onto the website and there was a typo in it and I discovered it, I dunno, like 10:30 at night and I was in tears. I was like, holy shit because that was the one time that I went, you know, I'm not going to outsource to a pre-frame or I can do this. I use you know, Grammarly or whatever. And since that, that moment in my business, which was early on, I will say I have used a proofreader every single freaking time because that it still haunts me.I mean, there's one thing to have a typo in your socials. There was another thing for me to have a typo in the copy that I've handed over to a client. So, I fixed it. And you know, it was all good and I apologized I don't even think this person even noticed it, but I found it and said, you know, there's a typo and I still don't really know if it was me or if it was, you know, you copy and paste the content onto a website. So I don't know if it was me or if it was this client, but it was there and it haunted me. And so, you know, if you are doing service base and you can package it into your pricing, then, then try and do it that way. 

That's a good idea. All right. Let's round this out with our top tips to support starting your new business. So what are your top three?

Don't let fear hold you back. If your intuition is telling you to do this, if you deep down feel like you want to start a business, give it your absolute best shot. Just freaking do it. The next, one's probably a little bit more logical. Do your research know who your ideal client is, what problem your product or service is solving for them and how? So it doesn't matter if you're in if you're selling ponytail, scrunchies or something like that, you know what the problem is, you know, these people, they want beautiful tidy hair, but they want something stylish as well. And, you know, as a service business, it's the same kind of thing. So just do your research, get a document open and.

And this is my audio client. Her name is Jen. These are the problems that she has. This is, this is what motivates her. It goes beyond knowing the demographics of age, sex and location, get inside their heads, because once you do, you're going to know so much more about how your product, can help them and you're going to be able to communicate that more effectively. And that my last one, which is something that I've mentioned before in this episode was Facebook groups with other like-minded people in your industry will be a saviour. So for example, for me, I'm in web design, a bus ladies. It's an amazing community with people from all over the world. And you can just post a question in there and get some pretty much instant feedback and support. And at the moment, as you know, I'm going through a lot of, I'm doing all the strategy work to change my business model. So I've just joined one called digital Mavericks, and it's a community of people that are also transitioning from being a solo entrepreneur to growing and scaling to more of an agency model. 

Awesome. All right, for me get a coach. So, or at least even if it's not a coach, find a group of people that can support you and you can brainstorm with them and have those daily interactions and conversations. What I do know is that I see a lot of new people start their new businesses and is starting with a passion, but they don't actually understand the strategic framework to support that passion. So, so I do get a coach, but if you can't at least have a chat with people in the industry.

Another one is don't think you need to have everything 100% in place before you actually launch. Yes, it's great. Like if you've got everything in place, but actually a small ramp up is probably a good thing, starting to incrementally get a website up or the support work on the strategy. Like just start incrementally. Don't think you need to have a thousand things in place before you actually launch and as your as you're actually ramping up, you'll know if it's right. A right fit for you or not. 

And as I mentioned before, you know, there are a number of people not understanding business strategy. So having a business plan and the strategy as well as a risk assessment is really important and they don't need to be these cumbersome 50-page documents because that can actually be quite overwhelming. Can actually be quite easy just to write things up and just have a starting point. You know, this is what my business is, so just know what their business is and then a plan of what the next few months looks like and any associated risks. So you can, you can tailor it to suit yourself. 

Well, that's pretty much the end of our episode, but as we mentioned, way back at the beginning 44 minutes and 25 seconds ago, roughly if in case we've edited we do have a couple of freebies for our listeners today. So Nic, do you want to tell us a little bit about what that is? 

Absolutely. So for anyone that is listening today, there'll be a link to a 50 point checklist. So this is a checklist that I've accumulated over the last couple of years of things that I found I've needed. Plus clients for starting the business. It is just a checklist to help you along the way.

There's probably other things that you need, but it's a starting point for any business and for the first person that emails realtalk.wib@gmail.com. I am giving away a free strategy session valued at $300, so email me.

Get in there, hurry up. We will be sitting there waiting for your email. All right. Well, thanks so much for joining Nic and I today. We hope you enjoy the podcast and have a fabulous week, Bye. 

Bye.

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