Latest / Work It Like A Mum / Dream to Reality: What It Really Takes to Start Your Own Business

Transcript

Dream to Reality: What It Really Takes to Start Your Own Business · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm a working mom with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women job board and community.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: In this show, I'm honored to be chatting with remarkable women redefining our working world across all areas of business.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: They'll share their secrets on how they've achieved extraordinary success after children, set boundaries and balance, the challenges they faced and how they've overcome them to define their own versions of success.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Shy away from the real talk?
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: No way.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Money struggles, growth, loss, boundaries and balance.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: We cover it all.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Think of this as coffee with your mates, mixed with an inspiring TED Talk sprinkled with the career advice you wish you'd really had at school.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: So grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, make sure you're cosy and get ready to get inspired and chase your boldest dreams, or just survive Mondays.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: This is the Work it Like A Mum podcast.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Investing in Women.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Investing in Women is a job board and recruitment agency helping you find your dream part-time or flexible job with the UK's most family-friendly and forward-thinking employers.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Their site can help you find a professional and rewarding job that works for you.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: They're proud to partner with the UK's most family-friendly employers across a range of professional industries, ready to find your perfect job?
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Search their website at investinginwomencouk to find your next part-time or flexible job opportunity.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Now back to the show.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Hi Rachel, thank you so much for chatting with me today.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited to learn more about you and your career.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: It's so nice nice to meet you.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I was looking at your background and I love chatting to people that run their own businesses and are in marketing, because marketing is just something I'm so passionate about as well and, you know, I think if I was doing my career again, I may have done marketing yeah, it's the fun bit.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Definitely, I think doing my own business now as well.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Obviously I see all different sides and marketing is still the bit I love.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: You can get me away from the sales and the accounting.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I just hate that, but the marketing is so fun how did you, come it, fall into marketing then?
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: because you hadn't university yeah, university I did my undergrad degree in journalism and English language, so I kind of learned some transferable skills there.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: I then did my master's in forensic linguistics, thinking I wanted to go do something really logical when I'd been working with the police and I realized that was just not for me and I am a creative person, yeah.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So I really thrive off being able to put like my thoughts onto paper and like designing and strategizing.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: So I was like marketing is a really nice little segue using all the skills I have.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: And yeah, so I just took jobs in marketing, realized I really love it and now I just is.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I could not imagine a life where I'm not marketing.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: That's nice, you know, because obviously I speak to a lot of people that have got into a job and then they don't like it and want to leave.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that feel like that and I think it's lucky, so lucky when you sort of fall into something young and you've got then your whole career and then to build on skills and progress.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: And I think there's so many different areas of marketing as well.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: You've got your social media, you've got your copywriting, you've got the like top high-end, like strategizing.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So there's all these different areas where you're learning different skills.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: So, like I don't like social media marketing.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: I don't think.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: What's your favorite marketing then?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: mine's definitely this strategizing.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: I really like that high level, like how can we actually dive into the business and really work out your values, your missions, missions, what you actually want to achieve, because that's like the long term plan.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: So I love that kind of stuff.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Whereas, yeah, there's like social media.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: I think I started my career with social media marketing, so I always had this like little.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I just it's like oh, it takes me back to when I was really young and didn't know what I was doing.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite accessible, I suppose, just to put a post on, isn't it?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm the worst as well, I always forget to do my own social media marketing.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: So it's quite embarrassing.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: I always tell my clients you need to do social, and then I'm forgetting yeah, I think that is it.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Isn't it because I've got somebody that does my marketing and she doesn't post that much on her own stuff?
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Because I guess when you've been doing it all day for other people, that's the last thing you want to do is go back and post something for yourself.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of ideas.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I'm like, does anyone really want to hear what I'm doing?
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: It's like I'm fishing out for clients, but when it's me I'm like I don't actually know what to say anymore yeah, so then, what brought?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: so?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: You've obviously had a marketing career.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: You've been in you know for a long time now, since 2018.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: What led you to setting up a marketing agency?
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: So I got made redundant in July of last year and it was one of those moments where I needed a job really quickly because I didn't want my son to lose his nursery place.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: We have quite a hefty mortgage.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: It was like I just need money and income coming in and I kind of got to the point where I don't want to be applying for jobs, having, like you get like sometimes three rounds of interviews, tasks, and it can take months to secure a job.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've always wanted to run my own like agency.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So I was like do you know what?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Now is the time?
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: If you never, if you what I've wanted to do for this my whole life?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: it was like if you can't take the jump now, then you're never going to yeah so I was like just do it see how it goes, like if it all fails, you can go get a job.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: It's fine, yeah.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I was like take the jump, just give it a shot.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know how many months we're in now.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: It will be a year in July and it's going really well.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: So it's really.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad I took that jump.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Absolutely so.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Why did you want to run your own business?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Why Was that something you know when you were a child, did you?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: element where you know I'd love to be my own boss and I'd love to.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I think I'm a natural leader.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I grew up with siblings and I was always the one kind of you know lead in the pack.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: So I think there was always that in me where I've got that really good, strong personality to kind of be able to just do it.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: But when I obviously started my career in marketing, I was very much like there's it's lovely doing marketing for one company, but why can't I do it for several companies all at once?
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I really expand my skills, expand my knowledge of specific industries, and I think that's what I love now is that I am working with so many different clients and so many different business types and it's just it's really fun diving into all the different like areas and how one company does something is completely different to another, and being able to like switch my brain.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I just find it really interesting how, yeah, it just uses your brain in such different ways.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: So what's been the most challenging thing, going from being employed to self-employed?
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I'd probably say the lack of guaranteed income, especially like when you know you're working with a company, you know you're going to get your salary at the end of the month.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And when I started my company, we had a really good start.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: We ended up with three clients pretty much straight away, which was lovely, the bills coming in.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: And then in October the contracts all ran out and I had no money coming in and I was kind of at that point of I don't know what I'm gonna.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: I'm literally gonna have to go get a job.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Like it's failed.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: I've got to go get a job.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: This is not fun and it's just.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: I think that's the hard bit.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: You're not guaranteed any income.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: No, and there were months when, even now, because the cash flow wasn't good, I still haven't paid myself a salary.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I've been taking like little bits out as and when I need it, but I haven't been able to pay myself a salary for a few months while I've been settling and sorting all that.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: So that's really hard.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: It's just yeah, that lack of hard, isn't it?
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I remember my first year of business, not paying myself for ages, and then, even like going into the second year, there was a couple of months where I couldn't afford to pay myself because I at that point had, like you had freelancers and obviously you need to pay them, yeah, and you're like the last person, aren't you?
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Then?
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: And you're like what is left?
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: oh no, not a lot yeah, but we hit a really so last month.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: We hit a really good flow in January and I suddenly had four clients all sign on at once.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: So once we sorted out the cash flow, like this month or end of February, we finally did our first billing month of 10k, which is just incredible.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Like I never thought I would make a business where we're actually turning over a decent amount and that's just given me the ability to now be like right, we've got a steady income for now six months because they're all long-term clients now, so I know that I can pay my freelancers and by the end of this month I can actually pay myself a salary.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: It's always a thing, isn't it?
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know when you first started, but you know it's the thing, like that, all the business coaches, when you're all scrolling on Instagram, they'll go, you know, get you to six figure and it is that 10k months, isn't it?
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: yeah, yeah.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: And you're there like oh my gosh, I did that, like I did all my hard work, which is how are you finding clients then?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: initially, how did you get your first few clients?
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: so I did a lot of outreach at the start and I got a couple from sales outreach so what was that?
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: Cold calling?
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Or on LinkedIn I use a software called Apollo, so email outreach, which is really it's a really good software tool and I've got quite a few clients from there.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: So I started that straight away off the bat, did a really embarrassing intro video because I was like, right, everyone always gets these emails.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: I need to like stand out from that crowd.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: So I did this awful video.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: I watch it back now and I cringe.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my gosh, like who do?
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: I think I was, but it did stand out.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: It got me three clients straight away.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: So I did a lot of that.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: And then recently a lot of my clients have come from just referrals and word of mouth, which is really nice because you know then that at that point people are actually recommending you.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's really powerful, builds a lot of self-confidence in yourself, like I'm actually quite good at what I do yeah, so what sort of clients do you have then?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: what sort of industries are they in?
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: so at the moment we are focused quite a lot on the education industry.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: So ed tech and we were working with nurseries.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: We have expanded out to charities and not-for-profits.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: So I have one client who's a not-for-profit at the moment but I think because I've been in the education industry for so long, it did feel like a natural path to go down.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: We have kind of stuck to like education itself.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, the majority of my clients are edtech clients and what marketing services do you offer?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: so we do everything, from social media all the way through to strategy, and for one of my clients, I am their marketing team, so it's almost like a consultant marketing manager role.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, we kind of do everything and my I work with a VA, so that's a really helpful way of working with the majority of the clients, because she is very good at social, whereas I hate the social, so I almost pass that to her and then I can focus on more the strategy.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: But yeah, we cover everything, which is quite nice, and it's nice dipping in and out of different clients and their different needs, and and how did you?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: because that's obviously a big step, isn't it?
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Hiring somebody, whether they're freelance or not?
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: And you're thinking can I afford to pay them?
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: And what gave you the confidence to take that step?
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: I used to work with her and she was made redundant from the same company.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I was, yeah, and I think there was that trust element there where I said to her look, at the moment I can only afford you for about 20 hours a month.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: I'm like I'm so sorry, it's not more, but as the clients have come in and the money's come in, I've been able to.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: I think because she trusts me so much, because I have made sure she's always paid first, yeah, that element where, like I can now increase your hours, you can now come on a lot more.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: We're putting our hours up again next month because I've then got the money to be able to do that.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, so I think it's that trust element from her, from my business.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: It's like I will pay you, I'll make sure you're always paid.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: I don't care about myself, but you know I wouldn't be able to function without her.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: I always say that to her.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: I'm like this would not be working.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it was a big step because I was like, am I actually ready?
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Like I don't want to take her on how soon, was it when you brought her on?
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: So she only started with me in January, so it's been quite recent.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I did a lot of months just by myself, yeah, which was exhausting.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I burnt myself out massively just before Christmas.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: That was me.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I don't actually look back very fondly on that time.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I look back I don't know if you feel like that.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: I look back and sometimes I feel physically sick and I think how did I do that work so many hours that's literally it.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: And I remember getting to Christmas and obviously Christmas you're supposed to be relaxing.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was just like I still got so much to do, like I don't know if I can actually physically take a week off, like I need to get more clients.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: If I don't, the business dies.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: I was like I was exhausted.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I look back and I'm like, yeah, don't let yourself get like that again no, yeah, it's tough, isn't it really is.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: How did you?
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Because you have a little boy, didn't you, don't you?
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: So how did you balance that at that point?
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: How did it all work around him?
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: so I think I've got a very supportive husband and I think about him like the business just would not work.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: So he's really good at picking up like he'll pick up your child from nursery when I'm rammed and I just can't.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: He's really good at picking up like he'll pick up the child from nursery when I'm rammed and I just can't.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: He's really good at noticing in me, before I notice it, that I'm burning out.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: So really good at being like go get some a bit of like a self-care day, go and treat yourself, just make sure you're focusing on you.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: So I think that's really good.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Like he is pretty much the support network I need and yeah, I think without him it just would not work.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And how often is your little boy?
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Is he in nursery full-time or?
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: yeah, so he is in nursery full-time now.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: He started in February full-time.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: He was four days a week and then we put him up to five because I realized I can't do four days a week running your own business.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: So he's now there every day it's difficult because I was a bit like I don't know.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I started my business because I couldn't get flexibility and that's what I wanted and I thought I want a flexible job that I can do around the kids, so it was quite a selfish reason.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: I've ended up working more hours than I ever would have done in a job and it's actually very, very hard to switch off.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know, and I do feel that I maybe, being a business owner, it's hard not to do the five days when you're getting requests that on a come, on a Friday afternoon, for example yeah.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I think what's good, though, is I've kind of got to the point with clients where I did have one client who I dropped because our values just did not align, yeah, and he wanted me to drop everything all the time, and I was like I have a kid and, quite frankly, he's the most important thing in my life if you don't understand that I'm not working with you and he'd like literally call me mid-bedtime, being like I need this done, and I was like no, I've had enough.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Like this is not, I work for myself.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: I don't actually work for you, I'm working with you.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: So I was like you're not allowing me the flexibility I need in my job to be able to look after my child.
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: You expect me to drop stuff and I'm not.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I'm not doing it.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: So I just walked away from that.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: It takes a lot.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: That's quite brave, yeah, it is so brave because I was like that's money and I've just walked away from a fair bit of money.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: I was like my child.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: For me, he's always going to come first, and what I really respect for my clients now is that they respect that from me and they understand that.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: You know, I have a kid, and between the hours of about 5 to 8 pm.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: They're not getting anything because I'm with my child.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: I don't mind jumping on my laptop at 8 pm to answer a few emails, that's absolutely, but it's like during that time.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: I see my son now in evenings in a week because he is full-time at nursery and it's really important to me that I have no distractions when I'm with him yeah and I really like that.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: My clients respect that yeah that's nice, I mean, I'm like, I mean it's busy, isn't it at that point in time?
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Because you, you know, dinner, bath, bed, and it can't just take the three hours, doesn't it?
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: like a full-on job, isn't it that bedtime routine, oh my gosh, it really is.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: We were talking, weren't we, before we jumped on, about AI tools, and you and me are both fans of AI.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: So what are your favorite tools?
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: yeah, so I use chat to EPT a lot and I literally I don't think I'd be able to do half of my job without chat to EPT now.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I've literally done so much since chat to EPT it has like did my productivity and the amount I'm able to do in the same amount of time yeah, it's literally that I feel like content and writing blogs is such a good starting point, because sometimes I'll sit there and it'll be like can you write me a blog about mental health and the impact it has on secondary school children?
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: And I'm like I literally my brain does not even know where to start, so I'll be like chat to EPT.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Can you write me a blog about?
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, really helpful.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: But I do find with chat to EPT, you can tell the people who haven't edited it and the people who have.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: And I think it's really important that, if you are using AI tools like that, that you reflect and look back on your work and actually see is it saying chat GPT phrases like every blog will start with in this diverse landscape.
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: It's like if you add that to your blog, everyone knows that it's chat dpt, so make sure you're editing your work and getting rid of those really annoying phrases.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I'm also a huge fan of Canva and they have a lot of AI tools now built into Canva, so a lot of like the image generation and it's just amazing, like I find obviously you've got Adobe Suite and then you've got Canva.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: I wrote a good blog article a few months back actually about this, about how what are actually good for?
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Canva is just so good at time-saving and I think without it it would take me hours because, like your Adobe suite always crashes.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: It's just takes up so much time and you've really got to know how to use it.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: I kind of self-taught myself it and then had a few mentors who helped me expand on my skills, but it takes a lot to learn something like the Adobe suite, whereas with Canva it is just drag and drop and takes yeah, I think anyone can probably use Canva.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: What is Adobe good for, then?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Who is it good for?
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: it's really good for I say like print media.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: So if you're trying to do a booklet, like a 40 page booklet, I always do it on illustrator or using in design, just because I do find the quality is a lot better.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: You can do a lot more in it using the Adobe, and it's really good for video editing.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: I still use that for my video editing over the Canva video software, just because I do think it's a bit more intuitive.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: You could do a lot more with it.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: But I think if canva keep developing, I think adobe's gonna kind of die out and get phased out.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Competition yeah, they finally do, because they.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: They are expensive as well, whereas canva is not that expensive for a year, whereas adobe.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: I mean it's obviously the free version and the pro, I think it's still like 10 pounds.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: It's not, it's nothing.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: You don't notice it going out yeah, that's literally it, and it's kind of one of those where I'm like it's a really cheap investment, whereas I think I pay about 45 pound a month for the Adobe suite and I'm like I rarely use it.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: It's just the best investment in your business.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Do you think the best investment?
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I'm trying to think.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Do you know what?
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: I would probably say it's my VA.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, Because I've got all these amazing software tools and I love using them, but without her I just would not be able to do the job.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think you hired her at the right time?
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I think the work really increased and it was at that point of I really need the help now and I can't let myself burn out again.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: So she came in at the right time, definitely how has it transformed your life having her?
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: it's just she's amazing at organizing and I am rubbish at it, so she is just the best person in terms of.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: This is actually your to-do list, this is what you need to do, so that's been really helpful in kind of organising my very chaotic brain.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I think she's taught me a lot about myself, and I think because I'm quite early on in my career, whereas she is older, so she comes with a lot more experience of the working world, and just being able to learn from her still is really helpful.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: You mentioned as well in your form that you had your prices were too high initially yes, yeah, so we.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: I remember speaking to a previous mentor about pricing at the start and, oh, this is what we charge, and blah blah.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: So I was like, okay, so I'll go with probably about half of that, because I'm not a full agency, it is just me and I was just getting feedback like we're not paying this, like that's just too expensive.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: And I went through that moment of okay, if I'm like I really need clients, so I really need to look at my pricing itself, completely reduced it and then obviously got the clients coming in, and now, because I think I've got more of a portfolio, I've been able to increase the pricing ever so much again, just because I've now got the like.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: It'll be like well, I worked with this company and we achieved these results and you can see the impact that we're having, and I now have a team that is expanding, so my pricing does have to increase to cover all of that, but it's now reflective, I think, of the work I'm actually doing rather than me just going okay, that looks like a good price that's what I did, because you're looking at what your competitors are charging but actually at that point you have no track record and there is all.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: This isn't there.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: You go on Instagram, see the business gurus and they're like charge what you're worth, raise your prices.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: But actually you've got to be realistic depending upon what stage of business you're at, and obviously there is there is people under charge and you know.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: But also you know as a business, as a small business, I'm like that is a big consideration for me when I'm choosing suppliers is how much is it going to?
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: cost and I think I I tried to put my hat on again when, you know, I did work for marketing team and needed to reach out to agencies and I was like I wouldn't pay what I was my original pricing was.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: So I think that's a moment of realization like you're not going to pay it, others wouldn't, so just sort that out.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it obviously depends as well what clients you're dealing with.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: But yeah, there is that I think you've got as well what clients you're dealing with.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: But yeah, there is that I think you've got to know, haven't you your business?
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: And you do learn so much at the start about all the things you've done wrong.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: And what's been your biggest regrets.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Do you think If you could go back and check a few things?
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: I'd probably say I was very, very focused on just getting clients straight off the bat and I didn't really do proper discovery calls with a few of them at the start.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: And there was one client where I was doing loads of work for them.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: They just weren't paying invoices and it worked up a huge debt which I just can't afford.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: So it worked out it's just over 20k still not got the money, and it's just.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: You know, I kind of look back and I'm like I let myself get into that position by working basically for free.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: So that is probably my biggest learning is really fact check Make sure that the funds are actually there.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: Don't listen to almost like I don't think they lied to me.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: They said funding was coming.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: But I think when companies now say to me, oh yeah, funding's coming, I'm like no, let me know when your funding's dropped.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like I'm not falling for that again.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: So that's definitely taught me a lot.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: But I also think, yeah, just, I was jumping in and start trying to take every client that I possibly could and I need to make sure that their values align with mine as well, otherwise the business, like is not going to work.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: So yeah, like I explained, I worked with that person who just he expected way too much like you.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Firstly, you're not paying me enough for me to do this much work, but also our values as people don't align and we clash and that's not a relationship.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, definitely learning a lot.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: I learn a lot about myself as well and how um feisty I think I need to be in business oh sure you do especially those unpaid.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: They're my like the bane of my life.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I just feel this a lot of my hair chasing invoices, yeah, and.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: I remember after that I had a client who literally paid me the same day.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: I sent an invoice and I was like what?
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Like people do this, they're your favorites, aren't they?
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you'll go the extra mile for them.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's difficult, isn't it?
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: yeah and it's.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: And I think it puts such a negative it can paint negative experiences.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: But I'm trying to look at it as, yeah, that happened, but what did it teach me and what were my learnings from it?
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: And I think I'm trying to look at it as, yeah, that happened, but what did it teach me and what were my learnings from it?
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: And I think I'm trying to train this pessimistic brain I have into being way more optimistic, I mean like everything happens for a reason and you've learned something yeah, basically you could think of it twisted.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Think well, because this happened, you know, and this, these invoices weren't paid, it means I'll never do do it again.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: I won't rack up a 60K you know bill.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: You know someone won't rack up a 60K bill with me that's not paid.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: So what do you think is next for marketing?
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: What's the future of marketing?
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: For marketing.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: I think, well, ai is going to just take over.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: I think ChatGPT were bringing out that new video software.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: I didn't know that.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Really, it was amazing.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: It was like such realistic videos that you could start making.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: And I'm a bit worried for marketers in general because I'm gonna say you're worried about your job.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I do think that there's an element where I don't think I'm worried about the people who are higher up in marketing, like your head of marketing, your marketing managers, because we're always going to be needed to kind of report and reflect and strategize.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: Like chat tpt, it can't do that stuff.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: I am worried for the people starting out in their marketing careers, like your social media execs and your marketing execs and copywriters, because chat tpt can do it and it's free.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: So that is a huge concern, I think.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: But I think it's just going to change the way that marketing itself is seen.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: I think there will be skills that are way more valuable, such as your graphic designers and the people who can report and analyze and the web analytic side of it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: That will become way more important.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: But I do think, yeah, I'm a bit worried for junior marketers, um, and how that's gonna go, which is worrying when you're starting out in a career like that's how you start your marketing roles it's difficult, isn't it?
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: because it's the future and I can see you know?
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of roles, but it's definitely the ones that I can see being impacted are, like the copywriters yeah, the one that writes as part of the job and they are the fun bits as well it's like, yeah, I know, but actually I'll be honest, I've used ChattyP to write a lot of my sales pages.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I think and you know and this is me as a small business owner I think, yeah, do you know what?
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: They're good enough?
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: would I then pay some 30,000, potentially thousands of pounds to do, yes, it might be better, but it might only be slightly better and that is it, isn't it it's if it's going to save me money in the long term, especially for a small business, you have to take that like you've got to save money.
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah what do you think?
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: makes think is next for your business?
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: I think it's.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I really want to expand the team.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: It's more I need to expand the team and there is a point where I just can't do everything and it is just growing with trying to get more long-term clients signed on, more projects and just keep expanding really.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: We're in a very exciting phase where once we can hire, we can get more clients and then we can just start doing a lot more work.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Be nice as well to kind of expand out more into the not-for-profit side, because I am really passionate about charities and really passionate about the work they do, so it'd be really nice to work with some more of them.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: But yeah, it's definitely hiring which needs to happen soon.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, good, well, you know where I am, if you need to, you know.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: And if someone's listening to this and you know has an inkling for setting up their own business, what would you say to them?
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I would say take the jump, because you can fail and that's absolutely fine, but you've tried and I think that's really important is that ensuring that you actually just take the jump.
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: Really make sure that you actually try something in life and it might pay off.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: It might not, but then try again.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: And yeah, I think it gives you that inner confidence as well.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: You know that, you know you've given something a shot and that can give you a little boost.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: It's like I actually do that.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: I'm really so couple the proud moments as well, because, yeah, you can get so caught up in the negatives but actually like, what have you achieved?
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: What have you learned?
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: How has this helped you?
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I always say take the jump.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I think so I think you haven't really.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: You know, particularly if you're going to something, you've got skills and you haven't really got anything to lose, you'll be able to easily like you say, if it doesn't work out find jobs.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Though you never know unless you try yeah, that's literally it.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: I live by that now yeah absolutely so.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Where can people find you, connect with you, remind people what your company's called?
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: yeah, so we're called convert marketing, but with a three.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: That's the e, because we like to be confusing.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: We're mostly on linkedin, so you can go to convert marketing on linkedin, or you can look for me as rachel coles on linkedin, which I am a bit more active than my own page, which is really bad, um, but yeah, we're on linkedin or you can find us using convertcouk brilliant.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Well, lovely.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: We'll put all the links in the show notes.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, rachel, for joining me today.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: That's all right, Thank you.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Work it Like A Mum podcast.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: You can also follow my recruitment site Investing in Women on LinkedIn.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: You can also follow my recruitment site Investing in Women on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.