I started a business from scratch as a single mum in debt and have made over £2.5m in revenue in 5 years AMA

[Whitecup24]

Hello

I was asked to do a AMA on another thread and have a day off today so thought it would be a good time to do it.

I’ve started various businesses some worked some didn’t but then I started teaching what had worked for me (using LinkedIn to get clients) and it just took off in 2017/18.

I’m now a business coach and help other people to start and grow businesses online very often mums especially those who don’t want to return to work (why I started my business) or want to make additional money usually from what they already know and without spending lots of money on retraining or expensive set up costs.

if I can answer any questions or help anyone with their businesses I’m around all day

I sense you’re sneering but actually you’d be surprised. LinkedIn is full of millions of people and some of them like max welts and would buy them off you!

Thank you!!!!

This is so, so helpful! Thank you! It’s actually really helpful to know a) it takes a while and b) there is a consistent formula. We are in a non-tech industry so don’t even use computers much for our work so learning these basics is absolutely invaluable!

I will absolutely DM you! Thank you again and sorry for the cynicism you’re getting here. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for this post OP.
I have an idea for a consultancy role for big business.
How do I go about deciding an hourly rate or initial assessment fee?

God people are sneery bastards sometimes.

Well done OP. I've seen and known many people similar making a good living from doing similar to yourself. I use LinkedIn a lot for work and there are a lot of people out there that do need help for their businesses.

But if you had to "spend a tonne" on FB ads to make your business a success, how can your clients succeed just using LinkedIn? You are contradicting your own advice.😯

I take a mix of PAYE and dividends and have multiple companies so have a great financial team who manage it all for me. It’s all a bit complicated for me. Actually that’s the hardest thing, worrying about that all being right and above board and making sure everything is paid correctly. So I definitely rely on my team for that.

I’m pretty much unemployable now but I can’t even imagine having a £95k salary - my highest ever wage was £20k! I can’t imagine what I would have to do for that I guess now I could get a Marketing Director role on about that with my experience but I’d have to work full time and report to people and request holidays or sick leave and I just can’t imagine that either. I would feel trapped and worried about getting sacked I think.

I recently got married so not single parent any more but being a single mum was a massive driver in my ambition for growth. I’ve got 2 teenage girls and they both are self employed and work for my clients doing admin for extra cash . One wants to be a lawyer which leads to the next question which is yes we have legal people we can access and I have all the insurances etc but honestly we don’t need to use them. We sort things out as best we can and if we can’t we refund or stop payments if they’re paying a payment plan. With my stuff it’s really clear if they’ve done the work as it’s public, so we can just check and say you’ve not done this thing why is that and work out how we can help them get back to it.

Hello OP,

Congrats on your success. I'm a freelance digital dogsbody. I'm good at my job and have had some quie lucrative contracts drop into my lap so far. But I'm always worried that it's going to dry up. I post once in a blue moon but LinkedIn seems SO fake and wanky with people just banging on about bollocks all the time.

Any tips for not dropping off the radar without becoming one of those self-aggrandizing twats?

Me too, OP feigning financial know-how to make her relatable, claiming she’s unemployable, could never earn the salary she has now, dropped out of uni, works from home, ‘sneery naysayers’, 7 figure business, ‘opportunity’, only ever imagined an average life.

LOL

I’d say mine is more training than coaching but it’s an easier catch all.

I gave had multiple businesses before I set this one up.

a reflexology business that went well but when me and my husband split up I couldn’t get childcare in the evenings etc plus I was swapping time for money so it came to an end

A social media marketing agency that I set up as a freelancer locally. This is the first business I used LinkedIn to get leads on using my method (that I now teach) and I got 10 clients paying my £250 a month really quick and had a nice lifestyle business for a while so I could be home and get to all the kids stuff like assemblies etc and still full the car up and get to Haven once a year.

Once the kids got older I got into Employer Branding and social media as I had a recruitment background, using LinkedIn again I got clients for that paying me £3k a month and grew a team to 11 employees with an office and working with big branded clients. I was making money but I hated having the office and the team and I was miserable.

I wanted an online business so I started teaching my LinkedIn methods for free for the testimonials (hence why I have so many) and then charging £99 for a 121 session, then over time created a group programme so I could scale past time for money.

I also did corporate training but didn’t like the travelling and standing in boring offices with bored people who didn’t want to be there. Money was good but I was miserable.

So I went all in on teaching it online and I’m really happy to say that scaled well and made a lot of money has impacted a lot of people positively.

So whatever you think of me or my business model, I’m happy

Might sound like it to you but it’s definitely not because no one except me gets paid when people join my programme to learn something to help their business. So it’s definitely, absolutely not a MLM by definition.

I mean I’ve had someone join who didn’t have a business but got excited and wanted to join out of FOMO. They got a refund!

I’m super spiritual so would never turn someone down on woo alone, I’ve seen spiritual businesses do well on LinkedIn. Or saturated market because what I teach shows them how to attract clients to them not a mass market thing. I show them how to create a niche for themselves so they standout so we help but we don’t turn away no

its for B2B or B2C and my advice is the same - be yourself, don’t worry ‘what people think’ post a mix of business and personal and don’t forget to sell!

Op where did you get the expertise to advise others?

No marketing qualifications no, well a Media Studies GNVQ from 1997. We made magazines with cutting out pictures and sticking them on.

I outsource everything I can. That’s why my profit is lower. I didn’t want to learn any of that stuff so as soon as I could I paid someone to do it.

Yep. Social media is awash with “coaches”, usually ex network marketing, who know network marketing is a scam (99.6% of all participants lose money) but see what looks like a more lucrative seam in that world - coaching the misled to bury themselves further in the sunk cost fallacy. “Keep going, using my method you will be successful and don’t listen to the people who question it, they are envious/failures/9-5 drones”.

Most people do or have life experience they can help others with but if you really don’t but want to start a business i would look at what you’ve done in jobs etc and see if there’s a need for that. For sample if you’re good at admin become a VA, if you managed a team look at how you could help new managers, if you organised all the events maybe doing event planning. People really are searching for people to DO stuff for them. Even organising life admin for other mums is a niche. The stuff you do for free for your own life someone will pay you to help them. For example my friend house was always immaculate, a place for everything, systems for things, no clutter, matching towels and bath mat etc. I asked if she would do the same for me and she does. It’s a massive win win. There’s loads of things if you think about it.

Sorry I mean we as in my team - I have a community manager and a few VAs that help me so the ‘we’ is my team behind the scenes.

This is what I'd like to know......

I have had someone come with a business I didn’t agree with and said it wasn’t a good fit. Very rare though

This is great congratulations!!

It would up your exposure especially locally. You can search by your home town on LinkedIn and add local people and the people who have influence locally like journalists, newspapers, business parks, events etc.

You’d get more clients but also you’d be around other like minded people who are running businesses and want a space they can share their success and challenges without being judged and get support. That’s what most people say about the investment past the getting clients but.

Sorry I mean we as in my team - I have a community manager

So it's not technically your business if you have a manager..?

Happy to leave the thread here. It’s been a lot less fun than I thought and no matter what I say people think I’m a MLM it’s weird

There is a massive huge market for coaches yes.

People have coaches for all kinds of things - at work for leadership and careers and personally for a whole host of things - heath, nutrition, weight loss are massive but things like sex, divorce, relationships, parenting, confidence, spirituality, just loads and that’s before the business coaches, marketing coaches, launch coaches etc.

I attract a lot of coaches because I am sort of in that space online however my clients aren’t all coaches by any stretch. They’re freelancers, consultants, brick and mortar businesses, dog trainers, happiness experts, mental health first aiders, literally a massive mix. Just people who want to get more clients. And I help them do that

i don’t have a MLM or have ever been part of an MLM. I’d unlikely make £2.5m from one if I was.